63. Purpose Of The Mosaic Law Series

IN GOD'S IMAGE 63 - PURPOSE OF THE MOSAIC LAW

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

Last time we looked at the purpose of the law in its broader sense.

• Because man’s sin was an affront to the holiness of God, it necessitated a change in the way God and mankind were to relate to one another.

• Sin made it impossible for a holy God to relate personally to sinful mankind, as they would simply be consumed by His divine holiness.

• If God was to continue to relate to mankind without consuming them, the relationship had to be established on a totally different basis.

• The divine solution to resolve this problem was the introduction of “the law.”

• The law not only revealed the vast gulf between a holy God and sinful mankind, but it also provided the means by which the parties would eventually be reconciled.

• But until then, the relationship between the parties would have to be conducted purely on a legal basis.

• So when we speak of the “law” we need to regard it as this legal system or structure God introduced to govern the relationship between a holy God and His rebellious children.

Today we are going to look at the purpose of the Mosaic Law.

• God began His plan of salvation and reconciliation with the father of the faithful, Abraham.

• We will come back to Abraham and this subject of faith later.

• But for now we are going to jump past Abraham and look at God’s dealing with the Israelite nation who had descended from Abraham but were now in slavery to the powerful nation of Egypt.

• It was to Abraham that God had made the promise, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3) speaking of the redeeming work the future Messiah would perform on behalf of all people.

• However, much was to transpire before that blessing would be fulfilled.

• After a series of mighty miracles including the passing over of the death angel where all the Egyptian firstborn were killed, while the Israelites were spared if they sacrificed a lamb and spread its shed blood over their doorways, God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian captivity.

• Moses, God’s appointed leader led them off into the wilderness on their 40-year trek to the Promised Land.

• Moses was instructed by God to ensure many of the events surrounding the Israelite’s deliverance from Egypt would be adopted into their culture.

• Words like exodus, Egypt, unleavened bread, Passover lamb, etc.

• It was a pattern that was further reinforced when God delivered the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

• This law not only contained the Ten Commandments but a host of other worship, sacrificial, civil and ceremonial laws that were to govern the nation of Israel under God.

• It was a covenant relationship solely between God and the nation of Israel, no one else.

God delivered the law or Torah to Israel with the hope the people would respond positively and comply with His mission of creating a holy people for His name (Leviticus 26:12).

• Much of the emphasis placed on the Mosaic Law tends to focuses on the Ten Commandments, but this over emphasis would miss other vital aspects of the Mosaic Law.

• While the Ten Commandments were to govern the ethical behaviour of the Israelites, it, of and by itself, would not create God’s holy people.

• We have over 1000 years of recorded Israelite history that testify to this fact ending with the confrontation Jesus had with the religious leaders.

• This was not the fault of the law; the problem was there simply was not a heart in the people to obey (Deuteronomy 5:29; Hebrews 8:7-8).

This is why the Mosaic Law also contained aspects that pointed forward to future events from whence true deliverance would come and from this deliverance would arise a holy people who did have a heart to obey.