Knowing God Through the Law of Moses

[jeremiah1five]

The Law of Moses, also known as Mosaic Law or the Torah (in its narrower sense), refers to the body of laws and commandments that, according to religious tradition, were revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and are primarily contained within the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).

This comprehensive code served as the foundation of the covenant between God and the ancient Israelites, outlining their responsibilities and guiding every aspect of their lives. The Law of Moses encompasses a wide range of directives, typically categorized into three main areas:

• Moral Laws: These reflect God's unchanging character and establish fundamental principles of righteousness and ethical conduct. The Ten Commandments are the most well-known example of the moral law, covering duties towards God and fellow human beings.
• Civil Laws: These regulated the daily life of the Israelite nation, addressing issues such as property rights, family matters, justice, and penalties for various offenses. These laws provided a framework for a just and orderly society.
• Ceremonial Laws: These pertained to worship, religious rituals, sacrifices, festivals, the priesthood, and the operation of the Tabernacle and later the Temple. These laws were intended to facilitate the Israelites' relationship with God, emphasize holiness, and, from a theological perspective, often served as symbolic foreshadowing of future spiritual realities, particularly in Christian interpretations.

The purpose of the Law of Moses was multifaceted. It served to reveal God's holiness and will, set the Israelites apart as a distinct people, and demonstrate the standard of righteousness that humanity could not perfectly meet on its own. While establishing a legal framework, it also pointed to the need for atonement and, in many interpretations, served as a preparatory step leading to the coming of a Messiah. The Law provided instructions for living in covenant with God and aimed to guide the Israelites toward a life of obedience and holiness.

 

[Soyeong]

The Hebrew word "yada" refers to intimate relationships/knowledge gained through experience, such as sin Genesis 4:1, Adam knew (yada) Eve, she conceived, and gave brith to Cain. God's way is the way to know (yada) Him and Jesus by being in His likeness through experiencing being a doer of His character traits, which is the way to eternal life (John 17:3). For example, in Genesis 18:19, God knew (yada) Abraham that he would teach his children and those of His household to walk in His way by being doers of righteousness and justice that the Lord might bring to him all that He has promised. In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he and Israel might know (yada) Him, in 1 Kings 2:1-3, God taught how to walk in His way through the Mosaic Law, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so the goal of the Mosaic Law is to teach us how to know God and Jesus by walking in His way, which is His gift of eternal life.

All of God's laws teach us how to be a doer of His unchanging character traits, so all of them are inherently moral laws. Holiness is one of God's unchanging character traits, and in 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to be holy for God is holy, which is quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to do that, so these laws reflect God's unchanging character, yet you consider some of them to instead be ceremonial laws, which you have no justification for doing. If a group of people were to create lists of which laws they thought were part of the moral, civil, and ceremonial law, then they would end up with a wide variety of lists and none of those people should interpret the authors of the Bible as referring to lists of laws that they just created, especially when there is no way to even establish that they considered those to be categories of law.

 

[jeremiah1five]

THE NEW COVENANT:

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
That I will make a new covenant
With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
In the day that I took them by the hand
To bring them out of the land of Egypt;
Which my covenant they brake,
Although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel;
After those days, saith the LORD,
I will put my law in their inward parts,
And write it in their hearts;
And will be their God,
And they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the LORD:
For they shall all know me,
From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:
For I will forgive their iniquity,
And I will remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:31–34.

Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant at His last Passover, and the New Covenant era began with the advent of the Holy Spirit of Promise PROMISED TO ISRAEL (Joel.)