Seeing God in the Mosaic Law
A brief history of the Old Testament eras
Genesis 1-11 spans
prehistory from about the Age of Copper to the Bronze Age when most writing was
in cuneiform script on clay tablets. As we learned in school, Sumer was the “cradle
of civilization,” meaning cities, inventions, governments, and law codes. Each
Mesopotamian city had a king. In the fairly flat plains of the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers, kings built ziggurats to reach the heavens. The family line
from Adam to Abraham is recorded.
The book of Genesis
tells the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three patriarchs of the
Jewish race. In that book, there is no Jewish state. The growing clan moves to
Egypt to escape famine. At first, the clan gets good Delta land and begin to
thrive and multiply.
Eventually, they
are conscripted to build palaces and temples. Exodus through Deuteronomy is the
story of Moses, the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Law, and the
wilderness wanderings.
Joshua and Judges
describes the assignment of territories to the 12 tribes of Israel and the wars
they fought as they took over the land from the Canaanites. Judges shows what
life was like without being an official nation with a king, a capitol, temple, or
army. “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
The next era is
that of the United Kingdom. Saul of the tribe of Benjamin was their first
actual king, followed by David and his son Solomon. King David collected all
the materials for building a temple on Mount Zion and Solomon did the building.
Unfortunately, Solomon overtaxed the people, conscripted too many of them for
his building projects, lost his faith, and worshiped foreign gods. When he
died, his spoiled young son Rehoboam began so badly that the kingdom split. Ten
tribes went off to their assigned territories and chose another king. Judah and
Benjamin remained faithful to the ancient prophecy that Israel’s kings should
come from the line of the patriarch Judah.
In Samuel and
Chronicles we read parallel accounts of the history of the Divided Kingdom.
There were good kings and bad and many prophets to advise or warn them. The
major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and several minor prophets (including
books such as Daniel, Amos, Michah, etc.) track the history of both the United
and Divided Kingdom history. The northern kingdom, often called Jacob or Ephraim
by the prophets, went into captivity to Assyria in 721 BC. Judah was captured
by Babylon in 586 BC. The people were dragged off to Babylon while Jerusalem
and its temple lay in ruins for several decades.
The books of Ezra
and Nehemiah and a couple of prophetic books deal with the return of Judah from
Babylon. King Cyrus of Persia sent many captives home, not just Israel. He gave
them money to rebuild their temples and walls. A new temple was built, so this
era is called The Second Temple era. The world was being Hellenized by the
Greeks. Greece used to be called Hellas, so Hellenizing refers to the spread of
Greek language and culture.
The last writing
prophet was Malachi, who predicted that before Messiah came Elijah would return
to prepare the people. Jesus told his followers that John the Baptist fulfilled
that scripture. John was not literally Elijah, but he wore the manel of the
ancient prophet. The era between Malachi, who wrote around 400 BC, and Jesus is
called The Intertestamental era, or the Second Temple era.
How was the Law similar to other religions?
I had already been
a Christian for decades before I learned that Moses didn’t write Genesis. The
book tells us clearly that it was written in an era after the Israelites
took the land from the Canaanites and after Israel acquired its
own monarchy. (Gen. 12:6; 13:7, 36:31, etc.) The same with Joshua and Judges. So we
shouldn’t be surprised to see Cain and Abel offering familiar animal and
harvest sacrifices in the post-Garden narrative. The brothers’ sacrifices are
echoes of offerings required in the Mosaic Law. The Cain and Abel story is not
meant to be perfect history, but perfect theology. The lesson, in order to
stand, must be recognizable to the Israelite people.
Moses didn’t invent
animal sacrifice. Such offerings to gods were old when Abraham was born. My
personal opinion, and I’m glad I don’t have to face a panel of conservative
scholars over this idea, is that Moses spent forty years worshiping Egyptian
gods and forty more worshiping Midianite gods, at least until he was waylaid by
a deity called I AM. He was given two great tasks: he had to lead the
Israelites out of Egypt and he had to establish a written civic and
ecclesiastical law. Either Yahweh dictated a lot of very old-fashioned laws, or
Moses drew from laws that were established in Mesopotamia and also perhaps from
his life in Midian.
When Moses started
his desert wanderings he invited his Midianite in-laws to be their guide. Although
we read the phrase, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them…” over and over in
the Torah (Exodus through Deuteronomy), God is alleged to have said things that
leave us baffled, things that Jesus later repudiated. Many a time I have asked
the Lord why? The answer that seems right to me today is that we humans are sociologically wired to need continuity. Too much change too fast is psychologically
damaging. Think of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30),
"Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
God allowed Moses to craft a law that would comfort the people,
give them a sense of being able to approach a frightening new deity without
fear of being struck dead. Yet this new law was a step forward in civic order
and decency.
The wheat is the
new revelation. The tares are the old cultural ideas and practices. The new law
code upheld a common belief in the power of ritual. Rituals had power to create
or affect reality, so they had to be done correctly or the sanctuary where
Moses met with a holy God would be defiled. That must be avoided at all costs,
or the community might incur the wrath of their new divine Lord. The people of
Moses’ era understood gods like that. There were priests, holy incense, a Tent
of Meeting, and a portable ark that was too sacred for just anyone to touch.
The status of women didn’t change much, nor was slavery banished. The community
had a finite means to demonstrate their devotion to God, and they felt secure.
What was unique about the Mosaic Law?
The biggest
difference between the Mosaic Law and other religions is monotheism. It was so
counter-cultural at the time that maintaining it was a constant challenge in
Israel’s history. Furthermore, this One God, who claimed to be the biggest and
baddest of them all, had no image. No temple built by a pious king, no statues
to clothe, feed, and rescue from foreign captivity? Ludicrous!
This deity with no pronounceable
name made improbable promises, like, I’m going to kick the Canaanites out of
the land and give it to the Israelites…assuming that they acknowledge that it
was I AM that helped them take it.
The Mosaic Law
limited access to the ubiquitous practices of divination. The people had two
channels for esoteric knowledge: one was the ark of the covenant where God
would speak through a proper priest, and the other was a prophet called and
sent by God. By cutting off occult practices, the door was closed to demon
spirits that would lead the people back into idolatry.
The food laws didn’t
really make the people more pleasing to God, but they had two benefits: the
first is that the Israelites weren’t allowed to eat or touch things that might
carry diseases. If you did touch a menstruating woman or a bleeding man, you
had to avoid the sanctuary, whatever or wherever it was, until you had ritually
bathed and changed your clothes. In a world where bathing and clean clothes
were inconvenient, Israelites were the masters of the old adage “cleanliness is
close to godliness.”
During Israel’s
monarchy, every nation had their own patron God. Yahweh was seen as favoring and
loving the offspring of Jacob. They were the chosen people. One thing in the
prophetic writings that the Israelites kept missing is that the Promise of
eternal salvation, blessing, and acceptance from God was not just to the Jews.
The Gentiles would not only be welcome, but there would be a span of time when
God would punish the stiff necks of erring Israelites by favoring the Gentiles.
Messiah would come to shed light on all nations and all races (Isa. 9).
Ancient thinking
would require that a real Messiah be a conquering warrior who would crush the
nation’s enemies and bring freedom and justice to the favored nation. How could
he possibly be otherwise? But according to the prophets, the Israelite Messiah
would be rejected by his people and would die a horrible death. He would not
bring an army and overturn the government. Yet, by his death and suffering, he
will cleanse many nations (Isa. 52:13-15 and Isa. 53). Human contrivance would
not invent such a Savior.
What did the Hebrew prophets say about the Law?
In the Psalm 51:10-17,
David the king and prophet sings,
Create
in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do
not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and contrite heart--
These, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 50:13-15, attributed to the prophet Asaph, nails it down firmly. The whole psalm repudiates animal sacrifice, but this statement summarizes God’s desire:
Will I eat
the flesh of bulls,
Or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Isaiah has a harsh
rebuke in chapter 1:10-15,
Hear the
word of the Lord,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah:
“To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample my courts?
Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies--
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to me,
I am weary of them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood."
Jeremiah warns in 3:16 that the ark of the covenant will disappear and won’t be missed. In 7:21-23 God rejects Israel’s sacrifices and claims he never required them in the wilderness. Modern translators weakened the verse with the word “just,” but the Hebrew lacks it. In Jer. 31:31-34, Yahweh predicts that there is a new covenant in their future that will not be like the one given in the desert. God will put his law in the hearts of the people, and with only sacrifices of praise and thanks he will forgive all their sins.
What did Jesus say about the Law?
Jesus had
great respect for the Mosaic Law. That doesn’t mean that he thought every word
came from God, but some of it did, and Jesus treated it all as if it did. When the
devil quoted Psalm 91 to Jesus in the wilderness before his anointing, Jesus
spit back three passages from Deuteronomy (Matt. 4:1-11). Although there were
no arrows or blows, the devil left defeated, because Jesus wasn’t leaning on
human strengths and contrivances, but the power of God within us as revealed in
his word.
Conclusion
A funny meme about
getting older says, “It used to be wine, women, and song, but now it’s Metrecal,
same old gal, and sing along with Mitch.” Yes, it’s still the same old
religion, laden with all the human barnacles and dry rot and mice in the flour
barrels. The wars, theological disputes, prejudices, abuse, and hypocrisy have
not been a good optic for the church. But somewhere in the mess is a golden
pathway, a highway of holiness where we see the footsteps of Jesus who went
before us to show us the way. One of our best weapons against the darkness
around us is the Bible…not holding or displaying it, but reading it, studying
it, and living it.
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