ENGAGE
One of the common objections that we hear as Christians is that we claim to take the Bible literally yet we follow some of the rules in the Bible meticulously while we seem to ignore others. The challenge might sound something like this: “You are quick to quote the Bible when it comes to certain sexual behaviors, but what about the commands about not eating shellfish or pork, or the ones about not wearing clothing made from two different kinds of fabric? Looks to me like your clothes are a blend of polyester and cotton and didn’t I just see you chowing down on a slab of baby back pork ribs?
TENSION
I think that most of us have a hard time answering those objections and so deep down inside we pray that the questions will never come up. And my experience has shown me that that many of us also struggle with that apparent contradiction personally, too. We often wonder whether some of the Old Testament commands have any relevance at all in our lives and if they do, how we are supposed to apply them. My goal this morning is to help all of us be able to deal with those objections more effectively, both in our own life lives in our interactions with others and to develop some practical guidelines to help us apply these strange commands in our daily lives.
TRUTH
So far in our journey through the Old Testament, we’ve been looking at significant events in the lives of significant Old Testament figures as our means of moving the story along. And we’ll return to that approach again in a couple of weeks. But today and next week, I’m going to take a different approach and look at two significant elements in the life of Israel that are established by God after the people have been delivered from slavery in Egypt. Today we’re going to look at the Law and next week, we’ll focus on the tabernacle.
As I found out at our Monday morning Bible study this week, probably like many of you, my understanding of the giving of the law has been more impacted by movies like this than by the Scriptures.
[Show scene from History of the World – Part 1]
I think we all know that’s not exactly how it went, but my guess is that most of us think that the giving of the law was a pretty simple, straightforward event. Moses goes up on the mountain, God gives him the law. He brings the tablets down from the mountain to find the people making a golden calf and he throws the tablets down in anger so he has to go back up the mountain to get a new set of tablets.
But did you realize that the account of that process begins in Exodus chapter 19 and doesn’t conclude until chapter 34. Don’t worry, I’m not going to read that entire section of Scripture this morning. So let me just give you the Reader’s Digest version of what occurs and then we’ll going to focus our attention on Exodus chapter 24. You’re certainly welcome to take out your Bibles and follow along as I relate the story.
In Exodus 19, the people of Israel come to Mt. Sinai, the very same place where Moses had earlier met God in the burning bush. God tells Moses that if the people will obey His voice and keep His covenant, they will be His reassured possession. And the people all respond and promise to do what God has spoken. After three days of preparation, God comes down on Mt. Sinai in a way that all the people could see His presence there.
Then God called Moses to come up the mountain alone. There He gave Moses the Ten Commandments as well as a number of other detailed laws about things like altars, slaves, restitution, the Sabbath and Feasts, and about life within the community. God also repeats the promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring His people into the Promised Land.
That brings us to chapter 24.
[Read Exodus 24:1-2]
God invites Moses, Aaron and his two sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel to come before Him to worship. But only Moses could come near to God. Moses now leads the people in worship.
[Read Exodus 24:3-8]
Moses begins the worship service by orally reciting the commandments that God had given to him. And as soon as he is finished, the people respond and promise to do all that God had spoken. Just as an aside, this reaffirms the model of Biblical worship that we often talk about. Worship is a matter of revelation and response. Moses shares God’s revelation of the law and the people respond by promising to obey it.
It is only after the people promise to obey the law that Moses then writes it down. And then Moses and the people ratify that covenant that God had made with them by building an altar and making sacrifices. We’ve talked before about the manner in which ancient covenants were ratified by cutting animals in half and having both parties walk between the halves of those animals. After sacrificing the animals, Moses now reads the Book of the Covenant – the commands of God that he has written down. And for the third time, the people promise to keep their part of the covenant by being obedient to the commands. And then Moses ratifies the covenant on their behalf by throwing blood on the people.
I’m going to come back to this covenant in a moment because I believe it is the key to understanding the purpose of the Law and understanding that will in turn help us to answer the kinds of questions that we posed earlier about what parts of the Law we are to obey. But before we do that, let’s finish the rest of chapter 24.
[Read Exodus 24:9-18]
We could easily spend all our remaining time trying to figure out exactly what it was that Moses and those with him saw in verse 10. If you’d like to study that some more on your own, I’ll give you a clue: There are similar descriptions in both Ezekiel and Revelation. But whatever it was that they saw, we see that afterwards the people sit down to eat a meal.
We certainly can’t read this section without thinking of the Passover meal that Jesus ate with His disciples in which he told them that the wine was a symbol of a New Covenant that would be instituted not by the blood of sacrificed animals, but rather by His own blood.
It is not until after the people have three times promised to obey God’s commands and the covenant has been ratified by the people being sprinkled with blood, that Moses is commanded to ascend the mountain one more time to receive the tablets on which God would inscribe the commandments.
But God doesn’t inscribe those tablet immediately. In the 40 days that Moses remains on the mountain, God give Moses even more commandments. He gives him instructions about the construction of the tabernacle and all its furnishings. He also gave detailed instructions about the making of the priests’ garments and how the priests were to be consecrated for their service to God.
Finally, after all that, God inscribed the stone tablets and Moses headed back down the mountain, only to find that the people had gotten impatient while waiting for him to return and had made a golden calf, which they were now worshiping.
After God commands the Levites to kill 3,000 men in response to their sin, Moses intercedes for the people and God withholds further wrath against the people. But He does command them to leave Sinai. But before they leave. God commands Moses to cut two new tablets, which he brings up the mountain one last time and God writes the Ten Commandments on the tablets.
Now do you see why I said earlier that this whole process was not quite as simple as we tend to think it was? With the overall picture in mind, I want to return to the concept of covenant, because I am convinced that is the key to accomplishing what we’ve set out to do this morning and help us answer the question about how the Old Testament Law applies to us as New Testament believers.
As we saw earlier, before God even writes the commandments on the tablets, He reminds the people of the covenant He had made earlier to make Israel into a nation through whom all the rest of the nations of the world would be blessed and to bring them into the land that He had promised to them.
But the land that the people is about to enter is full of ungodly pagans who serve other gods. And because God wants his people to be a positive influence on the culture around them rather than be influenced negatively by that culture, He gives them these commands. As I’ll touch on a bit more later, there is no doubt that these laws were for the good of the people. But the fact that the Law is given in connection with God’s covenant leads me to conclude that the primary purpose of the Law was to guide God’s people to lead a unique life that would set them apart from the culture around them. So here’s the general principle that we can take away from the giving of the law.
God wants His people to live a unique life
that sets them apart from the surrounding culture
And that is just as true for us today as it was for the people of Israel thousands of years ago. And, I’m going to suggest to you this morning, knowing that is the key to how we handle the Old Testament commands in Tucson, Arizona in the year 2017. If we’ll keep in mind that God wants us to live a unique life that sets us apart from the surrounding culture, then the question won’t be “Why should I follow these Old Testament commandments?”, but rather “How can I use these commandments as a tool to help me live a unique life in which I’m set apart from the world around me?” Or as Jesus put it “How can these commandments help me be in the world, but not of the world?”
In developing that mindset, it is helpful to identify…
Three categories of the Law
• The moral law – this is the part of the law that deals with moral behavior and the penalties for violating those standards of conduct. This part of the law is summed up in the Ten Commandments and then further detailed in other related commandments. This part of the law is applicable to all men.
• The civil law – this part of the law was only intended to apply to Israel as they live as a people in the land that God was giving to them. So it was for a particular people at a particular time in history.
• The ceremonial law – this is the part of the law that applied to Israel’s worship. It includes the sacrificial system.
These distinctions can be somewhat helpful to us in determining how to apply the Old Testament to our lives as long as we recognize the limitations of this approach. Not all the law fits neatly into one of these three categories and there is often some overlap. But keeping this structure in mind will help us as we develop some practical principles.
APPLICATION
Now we’re ready to develop three principles that will help us answer one of the questions we posed earlier:
HOW DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW APPLY TO A DISCIPLE OF JESUS?
1. If there is an Old Testament Law that is restated in the New Testament, then it is still binding and valid
Most of the moral law fits in this category. Jesus reaffirmed every single one of the Ten Commandments at some point in His ministry and in most cases He actually expanded the limited way the Jews regarded those laws. We see this especially in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus repeatedly said. “You have heard that it was said…But I say to you…”
There was a time not too long ago, where even most non-Christians would have no problem with this principle. Most cultures throughout history have recognized that it is wrong to commit murder, or to steal. But unfortunately much of the culture has come to reject a good portion of this moral law. But I don’t know of any Christians who would argue with this first principle. So let’s move on.
2. If there is an Old Testament Law that is set aside in the New Testament, it is no longer binding
This principle is best demonstrated by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Some in the church were teaching that a person could not become a disciple of Jesus unless they first became a Jew and obeyed the command to be circumcised. At the leading of Peter, Barnabas, Paul and James – all of them Jews – the decision that was reached is that it was not necessary to follow the Biblical command to be circumcised. However, the council did not completely dismiss the need to follow other Old Testament laws that dealt with idols, sexual immorality and eating the blood of animals.
Most of the ceremonial law fits into this category. That makes sense since Jesus completely fulfilled that aspect of the law through His sacrificial death on the cross.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near…When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:1, 8-10 (ESV)
When the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, it is as if God further emphasized the fact that Jesus completely fulfilled these ceremonial laws since it is no longer possible for the people to make sacrifices.
Another area where this principle applies is most of the dietary laws that were set aside by both the words of Jesus as well as by the word of God in Acts and in other New Testament writings.
Again, not too many people would argue with this principle at all. In fact, those who want to ignore the Old Testament really like this one. But that leaves us with the most difficult task of all – how do we deal with those parts of the Law that aren’t specifically mentioned in the New Testament. And there are obviously a lot of them, including most of the ones that seem really weird to us.
3. If there is an Old Testament Law that is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, then apply this process:
• Identify general principles
God gave the Old Testament Law to His people for their own good. For instance, the dietary laws were intended to prevent them from becoming sick from food-borne illnesses. Many of the social laws were designed to protect people’s dignity – especially women, the poor, slaves, widows and others who were often in positions where they were unable to protect themselves. The ceremonial laws were given as a way for the people to deal with their sin before God.
So as we look at those laws, we need to determine the underlying principle that gives rise to that command.
• See if the principles are confirmed in the New Testament
Once we’ve identified the principles behind the specific law, we can then go to the New Testament and see if those same principles are given to us there. Since the entire Bible is consistent from cover to cover, we’re going to find that in almost every case, even if the specific Old Testament Law is not addressed in the New Testament, the underlying principles behind the law will be confirmed in some way there.
• Apply the principles to the specific situation
Having identified the underlying principles, we can now take those principles, rather than the specific law itself, and apply them to whatever situation we might be dealing with in our lives.
Let’s work through an example of how this process can be used. We’ll use this command from the Book of Deuteronomy:
“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.
Deuteronomy 22:8 (ESV)
I checked it out very carefully and I am confident that this commandment is not addressed anywhere in the New Testament. Since it doesn’t fit either of the first two criteria we need to apply this process.
The first thing we have to do is to identify the general principle, which is pretty easy to do in this case because God gives us the reason for the command. Since people often used the rooftops as living space in that culture, building a parapet was a prudent step to take to prevent someone from falling off the roof and being injured. So the general principle is that I should take prudent steps to protect others from injury.
The next step is to see if I can find this general principle in the New Testament. I suppose I could start with the command to love my neighbor. If I really love my neighbor, then I will do my best to make sure that there aren’t hazards on my property that might harm someone who would come into my house.
As I share that principle, I can’t help but think of the time that I visited a church member when I was at another church. This lady was a hoarder and lived in a very cluttered mobile home. So as she sat there smoking while hooked up to her oxygen tank, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going to get out of there alive. So I’m not sure she really got this love your neighbor idea really well.
We could even take this a step further, couldn’t we? If I really love my neighbor, then I’ll also take care not to harm him or her emotionally either with words that hurt unnecessarily.
When I apply the Old Testament Law in my life according to these principles, the result is that I end up fulfilling the overall purpose of the Law - living a life that is unique and that sets me apart from the culture around me.
INSPIRATION
I’m going to be honest with you this morning. There are some people out there who are so set on trying to discredit Christians that the things we’ve learned this morning aren’t going to change their minds or keep them from making the kinds of claims that they make about Christians “cherry-picking” some commands while ignoring others.
But at the same time, I’m confident that what we’ve learned together this morning does give us some tools to more effectively answer our critics. And even more importantly, it gives us a framework to help us answer those questions and doubts in our own minds and provide a way to use some of those strange Old Testament laws in a practical way to help us live unique lives that set us apart from our culture.
ACTION
What I’ve shared with you this morning has been largely theoretical and my fear is that if we don’t all make this concrete in some way, there is a danger that we’re going to just forget everything we’ve learned this morning. So I’m going to give all of us this morning some homework this week. What I want you to do is to take find One Old Testament command that fits each of the three categories we’ve discussed this morning:
• One that is specifically confirmed in the New Testament. For that one, then I want you to identify a specific way that you can apply that command in your life. For example, let’s suppose you pick the 8th commandment – You shall not steal. One place that law is confirmed in the New Testament is in Ephesians 4:28, which says that we are not to steal, but to do honest work so that we may something to share with those in need. So maybe your application from that is that you are going to help out someone in need with the material resources you earned in your job.
• One that is specifically set aside in the New Testament. You don’t really need to do anything further with this one since it is no longer binding, but I just want you to go through the exercise of identifying it. Likely this will be a sacrificial law or a dietary law.
• One that is not addressed specifically in the New Testament. Pick out one of those weird Old Testament laws, like the one about not planting two kinds of seed together or wearing clothes made out of two kinds of material, or if you’re really adventurous, the one dealing with tattoos. Apply the principles we developed today and make some kind of concrete application in your own life.
If you’ll take the time to do that this week, I can promise it will be time well spent. Not only will you reinforce the principles that we’ve learned today, but you’ll also take a huge step toward fulfilling the purpose of the law by living a unique life that is set apart from our culture.
