The Law is Holy but We're not

Have you ever wondered why the Old Testament laws were so strict? To modern ears, they sound barbaric. But God meant those laws to be a blessing and a lesson to the Israelites.

First of all, God is the one who made us so his word is law. In Ezekiel 18:4 (BBE), God spoke, "See, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine: death will be the fate of the sinner's soul."

God shows his justness in Ezekiel 18:20 (BBE) when he instructed that only those who commit sin will die for it. "The soul which does sin will be put to death: the son will not be made responsible for the evil-doing of the father, or the father for the evil-doing of the son; the righteousness of the upright will be on himself, and the evil-doing of the evil-doer on himself."

But this lets nobody off the hook since we're all destined to perish. In Genesis 2:17 (BBE) God gave Adam and Eve one simple command. "But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you." They didn't fall down dead, thanks to God's mercy, but all Adam's descendents owe God their forfeited lives.

How then can we say that we'll have eternal life when we have the sentence of death in our DNA? Jesus gave Martha the answer. John 11:25 (BBE) reads, "Jesus said to her, 'I am myself that day and that life; he who has faith in me will have life even if he is dead;'"

Many of the Old Testament commandments were prophetic illustrations of Christ's work on the cross. As I've pointed out before, the Passover is symbolic of Christ dying so that spiritual death won't come upon us. The blood of the Passover lamb was put on the doorposts to show the death angel that God's people were within the house.

Another seemingly trivial point was that none of the Passover lamb's bones were to be broken. Exodus 12:46 (BBE)  says, "It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken."

And as we read in John 19:36 (BBE),after roman soldiers broke the legs of the other two crucified men, "These things came about so that the Writings might be true, 'No bone of his body will be broken.'"

I'll be writing more about the crucifixion of Christ and it's eternal ramifications in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? There are some people who see Christ's death on the cross as his ministry going wrong. But we who know our scriptures realize that it was planned long before the first atom was created.

On Thursday, I'll post about why Christ hasn't returned yet. He actually has a great reason for waiting so seemingly long to come back to us.

Understanding Biblical Customs

As with context, we need to know about the law and why Israelites were told to observe various sacrifices and holy days. Otherwise, the New Testament makes little sense.

Animals were sacrificed for forgiveness in place of us because they can't sin. Right from the start, God killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve with its skin to cover their nakedness.

One important custom is the slaughter of the Passover lamb. The Passover is symbolic of God's grace covering his people, protecting them from death. Exodus 12:12 and 13(BBE) reads, "For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt."

This is why John the Baptist said what he said in John 1:29 (BBE). "John sees Jesus coming to him and says, See, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Christ was that pure and unspotted lamb who was sacrificed for all."

We also see that none of his bones were broken. John 19:36 (BBE) says, "36   These things came about so that the Writings might be true, No bone of his body will be broken.

Why was that detail important? John referred to Exodus 12:46 (BBE) which instructed Israelites about the Passover lamb, "It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken."

In fact, the entire worship process pointed to Christ who was the reality of these types and shadows. Hebrews 8:5 says of the priesthood, "Being servants of that which is a copy and an image of the things in heaven, as Moses, when he was about to make the Tent, had special orders from God: 'for, See,' he said, 'that you make everything like the design which you saw in the mountain.'"

And as Hebrews 10:1 (BBE) explains, "For the law, being only a poor copy of the future good things, and not the true image of those things, is never able to make the people who come to the altar every year with the same offerings completely clean." Only Christ could do that.

This is a large topic and I'm sure it could make a whole book's worth of commentary. I'll add just a small portion of it to my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? The Old Testament pointed to Christ and understanding that truth is crucial to our growth in faith.

Saturday's song will be about a band's call for us all to work together.