God's laws are not "because I said so".
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Exodus 20
This week's passage is our first lesson about how God turned His people from a group of slaves into a holy nation. It begins with what we call "The Ten Commandments", which are actually the ten foundational principles for how God wants His people to live. Note that Jesus takes them to the next level in the Sermon on the Mount.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (Ex 20:2)
We Did This Exact Lesson in 2017
This week's lesson is a duplicate of the last time we went through Exodus. And that's fine -- the Ten Commandments are foundational knowledge! But that means I have already put a lot of work into notes on this passage.
Here are the things I cover in that post:
Why we need laws
Where is Mt. Sinai?
Christians and the law
"The Decalogue"
Memory device for the Ten Commandments
I strongly encourage you to skim that post. I will intentionally take a different approach this week simply because I already have that post to lean on.
This Post Looks Really Long
Just a warning that this post looks really, really long. And it is! But know that half of it is an article I attached to the bottom which you don't have to read if you're not interested!
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Constitution Quiz!
It has long been the joke that immigrants who become American citizens know more about being an American than natural-born citizens. Why is that?
If you're feeling feisty, put your group to the test! There are several online quizzes, like
Or you can go straight to the big one: "Can you pass the U.S. Citizenship test?"
I would suggest just writing a few of those questions on your board. It's a long quiz. But then transition with a question like this: should American citizens know the laws and expectations for being an American?
(And if someone says something like "I don't know every single law", tell them to keep that in mind for when we start talking about "the law" in today's lesson. It might help them understand how Christians can relate to the Old Testament laws.)
Warning Labels and Safety Instructions
Bring in a few pictures of warnings, or maybe some safety instructions you have.
Warnings like those in the pictures are great -- I don't have to be able to read those languages at all to understand what I am being warned about. What's the purpose of a warning sign/label? What's a story of when such a warning really helped you or a family member?
You can do the same thing with a safety instruction manual. What's a time that the safety instructions really saved your day?
And then you would transition with something like this: how can our appreciation of a warning label help us appreciate the Ten Commandments?
If You Were King for a Day
(Or use whatever position you want.) If you were "in charge", what are some rules you would immediately put in place and why? Yes, this can quickly get political (term limits for congress, anyone?), so be cautious. But this is a fun and interesting way to help people see that everybody likes certain rules, and everybody likely disagrees on what those rules are. Even the people who say things like "I would have no rules" are in fact enacting rules!
In this week's lesson, we are introducing the Ten Commandments, the basic "rules" for living as God's people. If your group has realized how much they disagree about rules for society, that should help them realize what an incredible thing God has done with these commandments.
[Current Events: The California Wildfires
My newsfeed is flooded with reports about the fire around Los Angeles. I have no smooth connection between that and this week's lesson. Just pray for the people of that region.]
Where We Are in Exodus
We have crossed the major transition in the book of Exodus. Chapters 1-18 are the story of how God brought His people out of Egypt. Then chapters 19-40 are the story of God's people at Mount Sinai learning what it means to be God's people.
Chapter 19: the people get to Mt. Sinai
Chapters 20-23: the basic laws for living
Chapter 24: the covenant ratified
Chapters 25-31: the laws for worship
Chapters 32-34: the golden calf and the aftermath
Chapters 35-40: the tabernacle built
Of course, the best resource I can recommend is the Bible Project videos:
I know I said I would talk about the location of Mt. Sinai this week, and you can read my 2017 post for more about that. But I've done a lot of thinking about "the law" in the years since, so I would rather focus on that. We're going to be talking about God's laws for 4 or 5 of these upcoming lessons, so I think this topic would be more fruitful.
This Week's Big Idea: Should Christians Care about the Law?
Because I already have a "traditional" post on this week's passage, I'm going to devote way more space than usual to a "Big Idea". But don't worry -- I know that all of you don't want to dive deep into this, so I'm going to keep things more summarized up here and give you a lot more at the bottom of the post.
Here are some things I learned in two wonderful resources:
an older book called The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology and
a newer book by Kevin Vanhoozer called Mere Christian Hermeneutics.
(I recommend them both to your library.)
Let's start here: what is the Bible for? Well, God gave it to us so we could know who He is, who He created us to be, how we can be made right with Him, and how He wants us to live in right relationship with Him.
Here's how Vanhoozer says it:
The Bible is 'holy' Scripture because God has set it apart for divine purpose. God's 'ten words' or commandments (Exod. 20:1-17) are set-apart words that regulate the life of a set-apart people (Exod. 19:6). Indeed, at many times and in many ways, God gave all the books of the Bible to establish and preserve his covenant people as his treasured possession (Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6). (12)
This is his wonderful conclusion: the ultimate purpose of the Bible is to generate and govern a covenant people.
It's easy for us to look at the law in the context of ancient Israel. In order to turn this rag-tag group of former slaves into a "holy nation" (Ex 19:6), they needed an identity. They needed boundaries and guidelines and a history, and God gave them all of these things in these chapters we are studying for the next few weeks.
And here's where many Christians get confused: we are not under law now but under grace (Rom 6:14), so what are we supposed to think about the law? We know that the law cannot save us or make us right with God, so why do we care about it at all?
Vanhoozer sends us to Augustine for that answer. "Scripture is fundamentally about the love of God poured out in Christ." (69) So, when we're trying to understand what a scripture means, and we have a lot of options, we should "prefer the reading that best fosters love of God and neighbor." After all, that's what Jesus said!
Matt 22:36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
And that's what "The Law" does -- it gives us pictures and examples of what it is to love God and to love our neighbor. Excitingly, that's the exact structure of the Ten Commandment, which we are studying today!
Christians probably have a negative attitude toward the law because Jesus had such a bad time with the Pharisees, who were "experts in the law". BUT Jesus was so upset with them because they had ruined the law -- they had added their own laws, they had made observing those laws a matter of pride and show, and they had associated God's favor with obedience to their version of the law.
But Jesus had willingly lived under the law (Matt 5:17) and actually made the law more comprehensive (Matt 5-7). Paul called the law holy, righteous, and good (Rom 7:12). The problem was not with the law but with the Pharisees.
Even before "The Law" was given, God gave laws (instructions) to the people for their own good. Why? Because the world operates according to divine laws (we call them the laws of physics and the laws of nature) -- when people live in obedience to God's commands, they can thrive and prosper in God's world.
But we need help with that. People need guidelines and direction. Left to our own designs, we tend to make a mess of things. And so, God gave us His laws. Here's a great passage from the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology:
Humankind is the living, personal image of God; the law is the written, perceptual image of God. The intention of Leviticus 19 is declared at the outset: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (v. 2). The Lord longs for his people to live in his image, and to that end he has given them his law. (675)
But to appreciate the law rightly, we have to remember one critical thing: grace precedes law. God had already saved the Israelites from bondage before He gave them "The Law". Mount Sinai was a stop along their journey to the Promised Land. Here's how the Dictionary puts it:
To keep the law is not a new bondage but a proof that the old bondage was past (Exod. 20:2)
We don't "need" the law to be made right with God -- salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But we do "need" the law to better understand what a life lived in right relationship with God looks like.
As we study various laws these next few weeks, read them through that lens -- what do these laws say about the kind of people God wants us to be? What does that look like in our world and our society today?
Scroll to the very bottom of this post for an entire article on this topic.
Quick addition: I was just reminded that Bible Project has a video related to this topic. They have a few videos in this series on the Sermon on the Mount.
Part 1: The Basis of God's Law (Exodus 20:1-2)
Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
God had already warned them what this exchange is all about:
19:5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.
The people had two days to think about and prepare themselves for this moment. God was going to "formally" take them to be His people! The solemnity of the moment was hammered home by lightning and thunder and thick clouds -- and the very strict warning not to set foot on the mountain. But, God spoke these words loud enough for the people to hear them.
The key word is "covenant" -- here in Exodus 20, God enters into a formal covenant with the Hebrews, explaining what it means that "I will be your God, and you will be My people".
And who is God? Yes, God is the true God of the whole earth, but He particularly brought the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. He is the God who rescued them because He is the God who keeps the promises He made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
Importantly, this is also how we are reminded that grace comes before law. God rescued these people -- not because they faithfully kept some law but solely out of grace and promise. But because they have been saved to be God's people, they need to know what it means to be God's people.
You might spark discussion like this: how do you think you would do if you came up with the rules for being a Christian?
The phrase "these words" is intentional. The Hebrew word is literally "word". We call them the Ten Commandments, but they are actually the "Ten Words" (or "Decalogue"). They were worded as commandments to help the people remember them, but they are actually the ten foundational principles for being the people of God.
The Ten Commandments as a Bill of Rights
I've always liked this exercise: if we think of the Ten Commandments as a Bill of Rights, this is what they might sound like:
God has the right to exclusive allegiance.
God has the right to define His position.
God has the right to proper representation from His people.
God has the right to His people’s time (and—a household has the right to proper rest).
Parents have the right to respect.
Neighbors have the right to life.
Neighbors have the right to a secure marriage.
Neighbors have the right to personal property.
Neighbors have the right to an honest hearing.
Neighbors have the right to a secure existence.
Saying them in this different format helps me see them not as "commands" but as "principles".
Part 2: How People Must Relate to God (Exodus 20:3-11)
3 Do not have other gods besides me.
4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, 6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.
7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
People have rightly observed that the Ten Commandments come in two groups -- the first group tells us how to relate to God, and the second tells us how to relate to one another.
Commandment 1 is simple -- there are no other gods, so don't follow them! (Other gods are human creations.)
Commandment 2 builds on the first -- God (the true God) cannot be turned into an image, so any image (like a golden calf) intended to represent God would inherently lead the people to worship a false god. And, more importantly, that idol would be the creation of a human artist. But God defines Himself. That was a much bigger deal in the ancient world in which people literally worshipped idols, and the consequences of that failure were generational.
Note: don't we have a picture of Jesus in the stained-glass window of our sanctuary? Yes, but we don't worship it.
Commandment 3 is today reduced to using God's name in a swear word or expletive, but it's much more than that. People will invoke God's name to justify an action or strengthen an oath ("so help me God" "I swear in the name of God"!), but God might not have anything to do with it! The person thus drags God into a problem of the person's creation. That's why Jesus says not to "swear" at all.
Commandment 4 (and 5) is worded positively -- the Sabbath is God's blessing to His people, and so they keep it for their own good. But the Sabbath (one day out of 7) is also a lesson about holiness (about being set apart). The people would keep one day set apart for God, and by doing so would be set apart from the rest of the world.
I keep this in perspective with Deuteronomy 4:
When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him? 8 And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
God has given these commandments so that God's people can remain near to Him, and in doing so can attract the rest of the world to Him. (And their failure to do so pointed out our need for a Savior.)
Part 3: How People Must Relate to One Another (Exodus 20:12-17)
12 Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 Do not murder.
14 Do not commit adultery.
15 Do not steal.
16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
These are a lot shorted, partially because there will be many more laws explaining them, but mostly because relating rightly to God is foundational.
Commandment 5: "Honoring" your parents is about respect (Lev 19:3), obedience (Deut 21:18), and acting positively (Lev 20:9). Remember -- the parents' "job" was to teach these commands to their children (per Deuteronomy 6)
4 Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
(Recognize this from David's sermon? We'll be reading it again in this Sunday's service.)
The fact that parents may have failed to do this is not the law's fault, and it points us to our need for a Savior.
Commandment 6: "Murder" is a different word than "kill". In other laws, we see capital punishment, killing in war, and slaughtering animals. So, this word for "murder" would be along the lines of what we think of with "first-degree murder" or "involuntary manslaughter". I go into much greater detail in
Commandment 7: this is specifically sex outside of marriage or betrothal. In today's world, we have to equally identify sex before marriage, but that wasn't a thing in the ancient world. Marriage -- a covenant relationship that God would delineate throughout the laws -- was a picture of the covenant between God and His people (see Ephesians 6), so a person who could not keep a marriage covenant had already broken God's divine covenant.
Commandment 8: this is as broad and simple as it sounds. If it's not yours, don't take it. Doing so (1) interferes with what God is doing in that person's life and (2) tells God that you don't trust what He is doing in your life.
Commandment 9: "false testimony" does have a specific legal connotation, but the phrase can also be used more generally of any dishonest or deceptive language (see 23:1).
Commandment 10: this goes beyond action to intention (or just thoughts and desires). This is about desire motivated greed or selfishness -- and the clear indication is that "coveting" will always lead to another sin if left unchecked (see James 1).
Group Exercise: how would you "reword" the Ten Commandments? The idea would be to make it easier for you to understand and live by them.
And my Serendipity Bible offers these two excellent questions: "Of all the Ten Commandments, which does our society most need to hear? Which do you most need to hear?"
Finally, realize that Jesus also went up on a mount and gave the law -- we call it the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). I want you to read (preferably as a group) Matthew 5:17-37 and discuss
How did Jesus expand on the Ten Commandments?
How did Jesus take the Ten Commandments up a notch?
How does this help us understand the Ten Commandments?
The rest of this post is an article that I found very helpful to understand this week's passage.
Closing Thought: The Biblical Concept of Law
This is from the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd ed., pp. 674-76. I have highlighted a few passages that heavily informed my summary of this article.
Law, Biblical Concept of.
The truest window we possess into the mind and life of the OT believer is the Book of Psalms. Here we meet the saints of the old covenant in their joys and sorrows; we feel the weight of their problems and covet the richness of their spirituality. At the center lies the law of the Lord. Taking verses at random from Psalm 119, we find God's law is a delight (v. 92), an object of love (v. 97), venerated as truth (v. 142), a means of peace (v. 165) and liberty
(v. 45), and a treasure above all earthly wealth (v. 72). To say that we do not customarily think of OT law in these terms is to admit that we have fallen into the error of identifying the Pharisees of the NT with the saints of the OT, forgetful that to the Lord Jesus, Pharisaic Judaism was a plant his heavenly Father had not planted (Matt. 15:13) and that he himself was the perfect example of life under the law.
God's Law in God's World. From the beginning God's law lay at the center of his dealings with humankind. The major focus of Genesis 2 -- the Creator's benevolence and bounty toward his chief creature -- does not obscure the fact that humankind in the garden was under law and that it was through obedience that they entered into life. The balance of things is seen in the contrast between "every tree" that is there for our enjoyment and the single tree that is forbidden. Yet in that single tree was enshrined the principle of law. Thus, at the outset the Bible joins together that enduring partnership, obedience and life.
Obedience safeguarded the enjoyment of the life that was life indeed; disobedience not only forfeited that life but replaced it by a death-bearing opposite. In Genesis 3, with disobedience came the birth of a bad conscience (v. 8), the replacement of love by resentment (v. 12), the corruption of marriage (v. 16), and, most notably from our present point or view, the dislocation of man from his environment (vv. 17-19), which tums to fight against him and only grudgingly and at great cost furnishes a sufficiency for life.
The rest of the OT perpetuates this view of people in their environment: only by obedience to God's law can we prosper and live successfully in God's world. The very environment itself turns against the disobedient. The earth is defiled by lawbreakers (Lev. 18:24-30) and "vomits out" those who fail to keep the law (Lev. 20:22). Behind this concept of the moral vitality of the environment lies one aspect of the OT theology of the Spirit of the Lord: he was operative in creation (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6), and his activity is seen in both the renewal and decay of plants (Ps. 104:30; Isa. 40:7). The life that vitalizes the environment is God's life, full of his holiness.
Thus, the OT has a distinct environmentalism to share with us, and at its center lies the law of God the Creator.
The Two Images of God.
Humankind in the Image of God. Humankind is the crown of the creativity of God. The threefold use of the verb "to create" in Genesis 1:27 marks humankind as both the creature par excellence and the perfect creative act. This human uniqueness is summed up in the description "in our image, in our likeness," words that are used uniformly throughout the OT of outward form or shape, and this must be their leading idea here too. This does not mean that visibility, form, and shape are part of the divine essence, for God is Spirit. Nonetheless, the OT reveals (e.g., Judg. 13:3, 6, 10, 15) that there is an outward shape uniquely suited io (though not essential to) the divine perfection, and in that image (selem) and likeness (demut) we were created. But every other aspect also of our nature is related, directly or indirectly in the Genesis narrative, to the image of God: matrimonial (1:26-27; 5:1-2), governmental (1:28), spiritual (subject to personal address by God: 1:25, contrast the bare fiat of 1:22), moral (2:15-17), and rational (2:19-20). The uniqueness of the divine image permeates human nature and constitutes a definition of what humankind truly is.
Law in the Image of God. Turning now to a very different genre of Scripture, we find in Leviticus 19 that God has provided another image of himself on earth. Every aspect of human experience is gathered into this rich review of life under God's law: filial duty (v. 3), religious commitment (v. 4), ritual exactness (v. 5), care of the needy (v. 9), honesty in deed and word (vv. 11-12), and many more, touching on relationships and even on dress, hygiene, and horticulture. Yet all this variety suspends from one central truth: "I am the LORD." Lord is the divine name, the "I AM WHO I AM" (Exod. 3:14), so that the significance of the recurring claim is not "You must do what I tell you (i.e., "lord" as an authority word) but "You must do this or that because I AM WHO I AM"; every precept of the law is a reflection of "WHO I AM." Humankind is the living, personal image of God; the law is the written, perceptual image of God. The intention of Leviticus 19 is declared at the outset: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (v. 2). The Lord longs for his people to live in his image, and to that end he has given them his law.
A Truly Human Life. The nature of humankind is the image of God, and the law is given both to activate and to direct that nature into a truly human life; any other life is subhuman. Of course, it is true that in a world of sinners the law, regrettably, has to give itself to the task of curbing and rebuking antisocial and degrading practices, but OT law has, to a far greater extent, the function of liberating humans to live according to their true nature. For it is only when people find the law of liberty that they become free. For this reason the OT asserts that the law has been given for our good, to bring us to a hitherto unrealized fullness of life (Deut. 4:1; 5:33; 8:1).
The Pillars of True Religion. The full flowering of the law of God in the OT came through the ministry of Moses and in the context of that foundational series of events that began with the exodus and climaxed at Mount Sinai.
Grace and Law. A major truth emerges simply in the way in which the Exodus story is told.
Egypt was the scene of a twofold act of God: liberation and redemption. The former was achieved by the tenth plague (Exod. 11:1) and actually brought to Israel all they had sought in crying to the Lord (Exod. 2:23). But the Lord himself had something further in mind: he promised also redemption (Exod. 6:6) as a distinct exercise on his part and, to accomplish it, added the Passover: In this way Israel became the people who took shelter beneath the blood of the lamb (Exod. 12:13, 22-23) and who, by sheltering, were saved from the wrath of God (Exod. 12:12) and were initialed into a life of pilgrimage (Exod. 12:11). Pharaoh would have made them outcasts (Exod. 11:1); the blood and the flesh of the lamb made them the Lord's redeemed pilgrims. It was this people -- the people liberated and redeemed by grace -- who came to Mount Sinai.
Sinai was not a chance stopping place on the journey but an intended, primary destination (Exod. 3:12), and thither they were led by the pillar of cloud and fire (Exod. 13:21-22). The people redeemed by blood were brought by their Redeemer to the place of lawgiving (Exod. 20:2). Grace precedes law; the law of God is not a system of merit whereby the unsaved seek to earn divine favor but a pattern of life given by the Redeemer to the redeemed so that they might know how to live for his good pleasure. Such is the biblical understanding of the place and function of law.
The Way of Holiness by Obedience. The law that God gave through Moses had many aspects -- e.g., civil, dealing with the legal system of the people of God considered as a state, with courts and penalties; moral, the law of holy living; and religious, the law of the ceremonies and sacrifices. It is the latter two that concern us here.
The first desire of the redeemer God is that his redeemed should be obedient. To keep the law is not a new bondage but a proof that the old bondage was past (Exod. 20:2). The lawgiving led up to a pledge of obedience (Exod. 24:7) that matched the longing of the Lord (Deut. 5:29).
With the law so central to life, it is understandable that the OT should develop a rich legal vocabulary. In logical order, the first word descriptive of God's law is "testimonies" (éda, e.g., Ps. 119:2 KJV). In his law the Lord has "testified" regarding himself and his requirements. This self-revelation was given in "teaching" (tôrâ, e.g., Ps. 119:1), such as a loving parent would impart (cf., e.g., Prov. 3:1; 6:20). Once given, the teaching is a
"word" (dabar, e.g., Ps. 119:28) to live by, an intelligible body of truth to be pondered and ap-plied. But the Lord's testimony is also imperative, taking the form of "statute" (hoq, a permanent enactment, e.g., Ps. 119:5 KJV), "judgment" (mispat, authoritative decision, e.g., Ps. 119:7), "precept" (piqqûd, e.g., Ps. 119:4), and "commandment" (miswâ, e.g., Ps. 119:10), applying the law to the details of life. As a whole, God's law is a "way" (derek, e.g., Ps. 119:37 KJV) or characteristic lifestyle.
In the OT as in the NT (e.g., Acts 5:32) obedience is a means of grace. The narrative of Genesis 2-3 provides a historical visual aid: obedience gave access to the tree of life; disobedience promised self-enhancement (Gen. 3:5) but brought death. Throughout the OT this remains the mirror of the true. A life based on the law of the Lord is constantly nourished by secret springs and is consistently fruitful (Ps. 1:2-3); it is under the blessing of God (Ps. 1:1), for by his law the Lord has made his people secure from bondage (Exod.
20:2). The psalmist speaks for every true believer when he testifies that the way of obedience is the way of true liberty (Ps. 119:45).
The Way of Fellowship. In the covenant ceremony of Exodus 24:4-8 the ritual of the blood matches the two focal points of the Passover: the people sheltering beneath the blood both enjoy peace with God and also are committed to pilgrimage. Thus it is that Moses first sprinkles the blood on the altar — a Godward movement reflecting the central Passover theology of propitiation. But next, as soon as the people have committed themselves to the way of obedience, the rest of the blood is sprinkled over them; the blood covers the needs of the redeemed throughout their walk of pilgrim obedience.
In the covenant ceremony it is also to be noted that the presence of the Lord in the midst of his people is symbolized by an altar, for it is the blood of sacrifice that alone secures and maintains fellowship between Redeemer and redeemed. The permanence of the people in the divine presence is symbolized by stone pillars -- stone for durability -- but, while thus in his presence, their activity is to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Blood had brought them into peace with God, and blood would maintain his fellowship by means of the appointed offerings.
The other side of the same reality is seen in Leviticus 9. The Aaronic priesthood has just been introduced into its sacred function (Lev. 8) and now for the first time celebrates the full round of sacrifices: the sin offering (9:8), the burnt offering (v. 12), and the fellowship offering
(v. 18). The climax follows: "The glory of the LORD appeared to all the people" (v. 23), this being the foretold purpose of the sacrifices (v. 6). The sacrifices are thus designed for the expression, enjoyment, and maintenance of fellowship with God.
Three main sacrifices were enjoined: the burnt offering, the fellowship offering, and the sin offering. The burnt offering expressed the double idea of acceptance before God and dedication to God. Its aroma is sweet to the Lord (Lev. 1:9), indicating his delight to accept it and the one who offers it (cf. Gen. 8:20-21). The truth of acceptance is underlined when the burnt offering reappears in token form in the fellowship offering; the fat of the offering (Lev. 3:3-5, 9-11, 14-16) is regarded as a burnt offering in miniature and is called "the food of the offering" (Lev. 3:11 KJV; cf. 21:8). This means that the Lord, accepting the offering and the offerer, is delighted to sit at table with him, condescending to participate in the feast of reconciliation. But the burnt offering also expresses dedication. In Genesis 22 the Lord exercised his right to claim all, and in responding with a burnt offering, Abraham was holding nothing back (v. 12). The story of the offering of Isaac, ruling out forever the admissibility of human sacrifice, established at the same time the heart-searching standard of devotion the burnt offering expressed.
The fellowship offering looked toward both God and humanity. Godward, it expressed thanksgiving and personal love (Lev. 7:12, 16) but it was commanded that this joyous response to God's goodness should be marked also by fellowship with others: the priest has his share (Lev. 7:31-34), and we find the command of Leviticus 7:16 fulfilled in the family celebration of Deuteronomy 12:7.
The object of the sin offering was forgiveness. Awareness of a particular fault brought the individual sinner with his offering (Lev. 4:23), and the result was divine forgiveness (Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35).
Two acts are common to all three main categories of sacrifice: the laying on of hands (Lev.
1:4; 3:2; 4:4) and the ritual of the blood (Lev. 1:5; 3:2; 4:5-6). In connection with burnt offerings and sin offerings these acts are explicitly linked with making atonement (Lev. 1:4; 4:20, 26), and the sacrifices thus find their focus in the price-paying concepts of a substitution-based theology.
That the OT concept of law is, in fact, the biblical concept of law is nowhere seen more clearly than in the continuance throughout the Bible of the same pillars of true religion: grace and law. For the purpose of God remains the same, the obedience of his people, and it remains true that those who thus walk in the light find that the blood of Jesus Christ keeps cleansing them from all their sin. (J. A. Motyer)
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Now -- a few comments of my own (me, the post author, Matt Ward). That article has a whole lot of really nice things to say about the law. Is it too positive?
I recommend some Bible reading -- specifically Galatians 3-5 and Romans 6-7. Paul, a man who knew the law intimately, gives us the Christian perspective we need.
Let me cite Paul's most familiar passage on the subject in Romans 7:
7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
It's about understanding the purpose of the law. Not to save us, but to preserve us and bring us to an awareness of our need for salvation.
The law instructs us -- tells us the path God wants us to follow. But it is also our custodian (Gal 3:24) -- if we try to observe it, it will accomplish two things:
preserve us until we can be saved;
show us that we need a Savior.
Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit (who wrote the law) comes into our lives to empower us to live the life God wants us to live. We technically no longer "need" the law because we have the Spirit. BUT the Spirit uses the law to help us understand the right decisions to make. Does that make sense? There's no way God could write laws in a single book that could apply to all people in all places in all of human history, so He wrote the laws that would specifically apply to the nation of Israel in ancient times, and now those laws can help us understand how the Spirit is nudging us to live.
So, no, we don't need the law, but that doesn't mean we no longer care about it. The law (like everything else in the Bible) helps us learn more about God and how God wants His people to live.