Then the LORD appeared to [Isaac] and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Gen 26:2-5 NKJV
the Jewish Talmud
The Law. Orthodox Jews honor it above all but God Himself. Many Christians believe that they are exempt. Many other religions have no knowledge of it. But what is it? What exactly is the Law? Is it a pair of stone tablets written by the finger of God? Is it the first five books of the Jewish Scriptures? Does it include the rabbinic traditions as set forth in the Jewish Mishna (oral Law) and Gemara (discussion) as recorded in the Talmud? On the other end of the spectrum, is it simply a philosophy and concept to guide us in how to live? Is it black and white, or drawn out in shades of gray? And most importantly, what role should it play in my life?
Let’s explore some of these thoughts and see where they lead.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
Ex 24:12 NKJV
In my last blog, I briefly described how Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. You likely know the story of how the Israelites left the border of Egypt, walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, and found themselves in a desert wilderness. Maybe you recall that they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. It was in this very wilderness that the fiery serpents attacked and killed many of the people. And it was in this same desert that they got their first glimpse of ultimate redemption (the bronze serpent). And possibly you will remember the story of how Moses was called up to the top of the sacred mountain to receive the two tablets mentioned in the passage above. So what were these tablets, and what were recorded upon them?
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Ex 31:18 NKJV …
And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
Ex 32:15-16 NKJV …
…And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Ex 34:28(b) NKJV
Later on, these tablets were called the “Tablets of the Testimony”, or “Tablets of Witness”. These were the formalization of an essential set of ten rules (commandments) dear to the heart of God, and codified by God Himself. Let’s briefly touch on them:
…And God spoke all these words, saying:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Ex 20:1-17 NKJV
Notice that the first four commandments deal with our relationship with God, while the last six deal with our relationships with those around us. Notice that there are only ten. They seem straightforward and relatively easy to keep. So these must be God’s commandments, and if we keep them, we should be in good standing with God, right?
Well, not really. In fact, God never really called these ten the “Ten Commandments”. This was man’s title. In the original language, the word that we’ve translated as “commandment” in Ex 34:28 is “dªbaariym”, which is the plural of “dªbaar”, meaning “word” or “matter”. In essence, these were ten “matters” that God handed down. We call them commandments, because they are given as requirements. And truly they are commandments. However, the Scripture gives yet another definition of commandment. The most prevalent Hebrew word for “commandment” is “mitzvah”, and it is the word used in the first passage:
Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.
This word, mitzvah actually appears over 180 times in the Old Testament scriptures. For example; it is used in the following verses:
These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
Lev 27:34 NKJV
And:
These are the commandments and the judgments which the LORD commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
Num 36:13 NKJV
These seem to be obscure verses simply capping off a list of God’s commandments. And such they are. Why call attention to verses such as these? They seem fairly insignificant. That is, until one realizes that each of these passages is the final verse in its respective book. That is, Leviticus 27:34 is the final verse in Leviticus. By implication, the verse point backwards, saying that these (the writing in Leviticus) are the commandments of the LORD. Similarly, Numbers 36:13 also points backwards, claiming that the instructions found in the book of Numbers must be considered commandments of the LORD. In fact, without getting into too much detail, a careful study of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy will show that they are each significantly devoted to various aspects of God’s commandments.
A careful catalog of these commands (laws) shows that there are 613 of them, ranging from criminal law to civil law to laws of political/national governance and laws governing religion and worship. These 613 laws were an expansion of the ten “matters” that God recorded on the stone tablets. And it is fair to say that keeping all 613 commands would be an arduous task, indeed. An insurmountable task. So whereas one might be inclined to believe he or she could “keep” the ten initial rules, only a fool could claim to be faultless in all of the expanded law.
As if this were not bleak enough, it is important to listen to Jesus’ commentary on the commandments. Much of this commentary was given his disciples in what we call the “Sermon on the mount”. Let’s take a look at a couple of small excerpts:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
Matt 5:21-23 NKJV
And:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matt 5:27-29 NKJV
These are only two of the many times that our Savior expanded on the formal, physical Law, transitioning it to a Law of the heart. And Laws of the heart are infinitely more difficult to keep! The weeping prophet, Jeremiah prophecies, telling us:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
Jer 17:9-10 NKJV
So when Christ expanded the law into the realm of the heart, He effectively destroyed all hope of our being able to keep it. But He didn’t stop there. When asked to pinpoint the “greatest” law in the Scripture, He responded with the following quote from the book of Deuteronomy:
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matt 22:37-40 NKJV
This is indeed a crowning blow to our self-righteous belief in our ability to keep the Law. How is it possible to love the LORD our God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, and ALL of our mind? Any truthful introspection will clearly show the impossibility of this task. Similarly, it is not much easier for us to love others quite as much as we love ourselves.
Do you recall the earlier point that the first four of the ten “commandments” were focused on our relationship with God, while the latter six were focused on our relationships with others? Jesus’ answer gets straight to the heart of this. At its heart, the Law is really about two things: loving God, and loving man. A philosophy for living our lives. But from experience, we know this to be impossible. This is why the great teacher and evangelist, the Apostle Paul wrote:
For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
Rom 7:15(b) NKJV
So how do we deal with this discrepancy between Law and action? God’s requirement and our own inability? Where does the Law, itself, allow us an out? And if keeping the Law is impossible, how can God say: “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”? These will be the ultimate focus of this series of blogs. But before going there, we will examine the origin of the Law and of Human sin.
By the way – if God gave the Law to Moses on the top of sacred Mount Sinai, how is it that He credited Abraham with keeping His commandments and laws hundreds of years earlier than Moses (the Law-Giver) was even born? Think about this for next time! Selah…
May God bless your continued study of the Word!
YouJi