You
saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire.
Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt
and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a
man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,
or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters
below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the
stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and
worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under
heaven. Deu 4:15-19
Have
you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who
sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to
live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth
as nothing. Isa 40:21-23
…the
LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his
wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his
indignation. Thus shall you say to them: The gods who did not make the
heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the
heavens. It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the
world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the
heavens. Jer 10:10-12
The
tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring
their god in their hands. 'But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth,
and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who
among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In
his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human
being. Job 12:6-10
The
heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day
after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes
out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psa 19:1-4
In
the past, he (God) let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left
himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven
and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your
hearts with joy." Act 14:16-17
The
God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and
earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by
human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
mortals life and breath and all things. Act 17:24-25
For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness
of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since
the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though
they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they
are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honour him as
God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their
senseless minds were darkened. Rom 1:18-21
All
who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin
under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law
who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be
declared righteous. (Indeed, when
Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law,
they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they
show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their
consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even
defending them.) Rom 2:12-15
“Long
ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the
prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He
is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and
he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become
as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than
theirs.” Heb 1:1-4
Moses, Job, the psalmist, the
prophets, and hundreds of years later Paul, all refer to creation as evidence
of God’s existence.
In Lystra Paul protested the
people treating him and Barnabas as gods saying; “God let all nations go their own way. Yet he
has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you
rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of
food and fills your hearts with joy.” The literal Greek translation is
not describing a generic human condition – it is making a historical covenantal
claim: the nations were distinct from Israel in a period of divine permission
rather than direct communication, a period which ended with the gospel’s
proclamation.
In a conversation with Jews Paul
said “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown
it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and
divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through
the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew
God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him.”
The Psalmist wrote “The heavens declare the glory of
God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth
speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the
earth, their words to the ends of the world.” The principle offered in Psalm is
very simple, when you look at a machine, a vehicle or building you know it was
designed by human intellect applying the laws of nature.
Against this backdrop we look at
what Paul told Jews, “All
who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin
under the law will be judged by the law …
it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed,
when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the
law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since
they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts…”
This raised a question for Jews
“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of
circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, Israel was entrusted
with the oracles of God.” Gentiles who did not have the word of God, who saw
the grandeur of the universe and precision of seasons through their own
conscience recognized the Creator God they could not see. The rhetorical question Paul asked and answered was: “is God
the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since
God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the
uncircumcised through that same faith.”
Paul asked if Abraham received the promise before or after
circumcision:
“Not
while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;” Abraham “received the sign of
circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while
uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being
circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father
of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also
follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while
uncircumcised.”
God
said that he would make a new covenant with the people who were given the Sinai
covenant:
“The
days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Not like the covenant that I made with
their ancestors… This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days – I will put my law within them, I will write it on their
hearts, I will be their God, they shall be my people, No longer shall they
teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD', for they shall all
know me, from the least of them to the greatest, I will forgive their iniquity, and remember
their sin no more.
God did not make a new covenant with Gentiles.
The Sinai covenant and the new covenant were made specifically with Israel.
Collectively Gentiles were never part of God’s covenant. God promised Abraham
to bring universal blessings through his seed. The seed line was through Isaac
the father of Jacob – Israel. The first covenant was earthly the new covenant
is spiritual. The new covenant would not be of full effect until full
abrogation of the Sinai covenant.
God’s statement “I will put my law
within them, I will write it on their hearts,” needs to be understood by the
Hebrew word Torah which does not mean “law” it means to teach or point the way,
not legislation. In Exodus 4:12, God said to Moses I will “teach” you
what to say." Same root, "instruct," with no legal content at
all. The statement “I will
put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts,” As
literally translated “I will put my instruction within them, and upon their
heart I will write it.” The emphatic statement employed “Not like the covenant
that I cut with their fathers.” John offers the base of difference saying that
the law came through Moses. Grace and truth through Jesus.
The “not like” is elevated
looking at the statement “No
longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the LORD,’ for
they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” The
reason for no longer teaching people to ‘Know God,’ is all of them will know
me… The clause marks the collapse of the mediated covenant as institutional. In
the old order, knowledge of God was something a father instructed a son, a
priest instructed people, a prophet relayed what others could not access
directly. The verb "teach" (לַמֵּד) presupposes exactly that
structure: someone possesses the knowledge, someone else lacks it, and an act
of teaching bridges the gap. The clause “for all of them will know me” removes
that gap since all will know “me.” It identifies a move from external
expression and performance to a heart centered commitment.
God saying to Israel that “you shall be my treasured
possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but
you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” was preceded by a
caveat – “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant,” Exo 19:5, 6
Peter’s statement is without caveat, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Pe
2:9
The phases of man’s relationship with God are
not linear as I was taught; Patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian. Israel was a
parenthetic nation, set apart but within the global population as God said, “the whole earth is mine, but
you shall be for me a priestly kingdom…”
Abraham who lived four hundred
and thirty years before the first covenant was not part of the covenant made
with his descendants. Moses spoke to the people telling them that the covenant
at Sinai was made with those who were assembled at that time.
Humans have two responses to
what they see; acknowledge that creation is evidence of God, or dismiss the
evidence, typically by deciding that man’s superior knowledge provides the
explanation how the universe began.
The new covenant offered all
nations a grace relationship with God. The creative evidence remains but the
focus is on Jesus of Nazareth – the Messiah. The new covenant established a
non-institutional non-human mediated covenant. The new covenant replaced the
Sinai covenant. Gentiles were not included in the covenant made with Abraham’s
heirs. However, the promise to Abraham was universal, “all nations would be
blessed.” Jesus before ascending told his disciples “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The
envy of the Jewish leadership led to the death of Jesus on the cross. According
to the Greek translation Jesus told the Pharisees that when they crucify him
“you will realize that “I am!” the same term he later used causing people to
want to stone him because “I Am” in their minds was a name reserved for God.
Chapter
11 sets the household's basic food boundaries; a few related rules elsewhere
govern blood and newly planted fruit trees.
•
Land animals may be eaten only if they both have
a split hoof and chew the cud (e.g., cattle, sheep, goats); animals meeting
just one criterion, such as the pig or the camel, are excluded.
•
Water creatures may be eaten only if they have
fins and scales; this excludes shellfish and similar creatures.
•
A specific list of birds — including eagles,
vultures, owls, storks, and bats — is designated unfit to eat.
•
Most winged insects are unclean, with an
exception for certain locusts and related species.
•
Small land creatures such as rats, lizards, and
similar "swarming things" are unclean; touching their carcasses, or
letting one fall into food, water, or a household vessel, spreads that
uncleanness to it.
•
Touching the carcass of an animal that died
naturally (even a normally clean one) makes a person unclean until evening, and
eating it requires washing.
•
Eating blood, of animal or fowl, is forbidden;
the blood of a slaughtered animal is to be drained and covered with earth
rather than consumed.
•
Eating meat with the blood still in it is
prohibited.
•
Fruit from a newly planted tree may not be eaten
for its first three years; the fourth year's fruit is set apart as an offering,
and only from the fifth year may the household eat the fruit itself.
2.
Marriage Laws
Concentrated
in chapters 18 and 20, this is the largest single block of domestic
legislation: it defines who may not marry or have sexual relations with whom
and sets the penalties for violations.
Forbidden
relations (ch. 18)
•
A man may not have sexual relations with a close
relative: mother, stepmother, sister or half-sister, granddaughter, aunt (by
blood or by marriage to an uncle), daughter-in-law, or brother's wife.
•
A man may not marry or have relations with both
a woman and her daughter or granddaughter, nor take a woman's sister as a rival
wife while the first wife is living.
•
A man may not have sexual relations with a woman
during her menstrual impurity.
•
Adultery — sexual relations with a neighbor's
wife — is forbidden.
•
Sexual relations between men, and sexual
relations with animals, are forbidden to both men and women.
Corresponding
penalties (ch. 20)
•
Adultery is punishable by death for both
parties.
•
Incestuous relations matching the ch. 18 list
carry penalties ranging from death to childlessness or public disgrace,
depending on the relationship.
•
Sexual relations between men carry the death
penalty in this text.
•
Marrying both a woman and her mother is
punishable by burning.
•
Sexual relations with an animal are punishable
by death, for the human party and the animal.
•
Sexual relations during a woman's menstrual
period result in both parties being "cut off" from the community.
Related
family provisions
•
A father may not profane his daughter by turning
her into a prostitute.
•
Special marriage restrictions apply to priests:
a priest may not marry a prostitute or divorced woman, and the high priest may
marry only a virgin from his own people.
3.
Social Laws
A
wider set of everyday rules governs family authority, household labor, ritual
purity inside the home, dealings with neighbors, and property and debt. These
are grouped into sub-areas below.
Parents,
elders, and family authority
•
Every person is to revere their mother and
father, paired directly with keeping the sabbath — treating filial respect as a
core religious duty.
•
Cursing one's father or mother is a capital
offense.
•
One is to rise in the presence of the aged and
show honor to the elderly.
Servants
and hired household labor
•
An Israelite who becomes impoverished and sells
himself into service is not to be treated as a slave but as a hired worker or
resident laborer and is not to be ruled over harshly.
•
Servants may be acquired from neighboring
nations or resident foreigners and held as inheritable property — a status
distinguished in the text from that of an Israelite bondservant.
•
An Israelite who sells himself into service to a
resident foreigner retains a right of redemption by a relative, and in any case
goes free at the Jubilee.
•
An employer may not withhold a hired worker's
wages overnight; payment is due before morning.
Ritual
purity inside the household
•
After childbirth a mother is ritually unclean
and then in a period of purification — seven days unclean plus 33 days
purifying for a son; double that (14 and 66 days) for a daughter.
•
An offering completes the mother's purification,
with a reduced offering permitted for those who cannot afford the standard one.
•
Skin conditions in a household member
("leprosy," a broader category than modern leprosy) are examined by a
priest, who determines whether the person is clean, unclean, or to be
quarantined.
•
Mildew-like conditions in a garment or cloth are
likewise inspected by a priest, and affected material may need to be burned.
•
A house showing a spreading mildew-like
condition is examined by a priest; contaminated stones or plaster are removed,
and if the problem persists the entire house is torn down.
•
Male bodily and sexual discharges render a man
unclean and defile bedding, seating, and anyone who touches him, until evening
and after washing.
•
A woman's monthly period renders her and
anything she touches unclean for seven days; abnormal or prolonged bleeding
extends this and requires an offering afterward.
Neighbors,
honesty, and everyday ethics
•
Landowners must leave the edges of their fields
and the gleanings of their harvest and vineyard unharvested, for the poor and
the resident foreigner.
•
Household and community members are not to
steal, deal falsely, or lie to one another.
•
False oaths sworn in God's name are forbidden.
•
One may not curse a deaf person or place an
obstacle in front of a blind person.
•
Judgment must be impartial, favoring neither the
poor nor the powerful unfairly.
•
Spreading slander and endangering a neighbor's
life through false testimony are forbidden.
•
Hatred and grudge-holding toward a fellow
community member are forbidden, replaced by open rebuke where needed and by
loving one's neighbor as oneself.
•
A resident foreigner is to be treated as a
native-born member of the community and loved as oneself, recalling Israel's
own experience as foreigners in Egypt.
•
Honest weights, measures, and scales are
required in household and market transactions.
Property,
debt, and the household's economic security
•
Every seventh year the land lies fallow (a
sabbath for the land); whatever grows on its own may be eaten by the household,
its servants, and livestock, but not formally harvested.
•
Every fiftieth year, the Jubilee, is proclaimed
as a time of liberty: land returns to its original family, and debt-servants
are released.
•
Sale prices for land are calculated fairly based
on the years remaining until the next Jubilee, so buyer and seller do not
defraud one another.
•
Land may not be sold permanently, since it
belongs ultimately to God; a relative has the right to redeem land a family
member was forced to sell, and unredeemed land reverts at the Jubilee.
•
Houses in walled cities may be redeemed only
within one year of sale, while houses in unwalled villages are treated like
farmland — redeemable anytime and reverting at the Jubilee.
•
A community member who falls into poverty is to
be supported as a resident dependent rather than left to fail; charging
interest or profit on food lent to them is forbidden.
The
Decalogue:
Duties
toward God
1.
No other gods before the Lord. (Exodus 20:3)
2.
No graven images or idols, and no bowing down to
them. (Exodus 20:4–6)
3.
Not taking the name of the Lord in vain. (Exodus
20:7)
4.
Remembering the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
(Exodus 20:8–11)
Duties toward neighbor
1.
Honor thy father and thy mother. (Exodus 20:12)
2.
Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13)
3.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
4.
Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
5.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour. (Exodus 20:16)
6.
Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy
neighbour's. (Exodus 20:17)
Jesus
said that loving God and loving your neighbour fulfills the entire law.
Temple attendance under the Law:
1. The Three Pilgrimage
Festivals. A standing command required every Israelite male to appear in person
at the sanctuary three times a year and forbade coming empty-handed.
·
Passover and Unleavened Bread
·
Feast of Weeks (Harvest / Pentecost)
·
Feast of Tabernacles (Ingathering / Sukkot)
2. Other Annual Sacred Occasions
at the Sanctuary. Two further fixed days in the seventh month required rest and
sanctuary offerings, though they fall outside the three pilgrimage feasts
proper.
·
The Feast of Trumpets
·
The Day of Atonement
·
Specifies the burnt, sin, and grain offerings
required from the community in addition to the high priest's own atonement
offerings that day.
3. Regular Offerings on a Fixed
Cycle. Beyond the annual calendar, the sanctuary maintained a continuous rhythm
of offerings that structured every day, week, and month.
·
A daily burnt offering (the tamid) of one lamb
each morning and evening, with accompanying grain and drink offerings,
maintained without interruption.
·
An additional doubled burnt offering every
sabbath, on top of the daily offering.
·
A further set of offerings at the start of every
month (the new moon), including bulls, rams, lambs, and a goat for a sin
offering.
4. Offerings Triggered by
Individual Life Events. Separate from the fixed calendar, ordinary life events
created their own individual obligation to travel to the sanctuary with an
offering.
·
A mother completing her purification after
childbirth brings a lamb (or, if she cannot afford one, two birds) to the
entrance of the tabernacle.
·
A person cleansed of a skin disease brings a
graduated set of offerings, birds, and later lambs or, for the poor, birds
again — over an eight-day process culminating at the sanctuary.
·
A person cleansed of an irregular bodily
discharge brings two birds to the tabernacle on the eighth day, one as a sin
offering and one as a burnt offering.
·
A Nazirite completing a vow brings a lamb, a
ewe, a ram, and grain and drink offerings to the tabernacle entrance to
formally end the vow, along with shaving the head.
·
Every firstborn son is redeemed with a payment
at one month old, and every firstborn of a clean animal is offered, while
unclean animals (such as a donkey) are redeemed or killed.
·
Unintentional sins by a priest, the whole
community, a leader, or an individual each require a specified sin offering
brought to the sanctuary, graduated by the offender's status and ability to
pay.
·
Certain trespasses, including some against
another person's property, require a guilt offering plus restitution of the
value wronged plus a fifth.
·
Peace offerings — brought in thanksgiving, to
fulfill a vow, or as a freewill gift — are voluntary in occasion but tightly
regulated in how and when they must be eaten once offered.
5. Firstfruits and Tithes
Brought to the Sanctuary. A further set of obligations required a portion of
the harvest itself to be carried to the sanctuary each year.
·
The first sheaf of the harvest, and the choicest
firstfruits of the land, belong to the LORD and are to be brought to the priest
before any of the new crop may be eaten.
·
Sets out a fixed liturgy: the worshiper brings a
basket of firstfruits to the sanctuary and recites a set declaration recounting
Israel's history from Jacob's descent into Egypt to the gift of the land.
·
The annual tithe of grain, wine, and oil, and
the firstborn of the herd and flock, is to be eaten in a sacred meal before the
LORD at the central sanctuary; if the distance makes carrying the produce
impractical, it may be converted to money and food purchased there instead.
·
Every third year, the tithe is stored locally
rather than carried to the sanctuary, to support the Levite, the resident
foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Taken together with the domestic
laws, this sanctuary calendar produces the picture of what Peter called "a
yoke": not only did the Law reach into diet, sexuality, purity, labor, and
property inside the household, it also bound every household to a repeating
cycle of travel, offerings, and costs. Daily and weekly at the local level in
spirit, and at minimum three times a year in person at the central sanctuary
for the whole of a person's life. This information catalogues the weight of the
Sinai system – household case law and the sanctuary calendar. When God said the
new covenant would not be like the one given at Sinai these laws and ceremonies
are included in that.
The author of Hebrews names what
replaces the first covenant. Hebrews 12:22–24 answers, point by point, the
description of Sinai just before it in 12:18–21 (the mountain that could be
touched, fire, darkness, tempest, the unbearable voice — Exodus 19:12–19;
Deuteronomy 4:11–12; 5:22–27; 9:19). Each element the passage lists has both a
root in Hebrew prophecy and a further development elsewhere in the New
Testament, most often in Revelation.
Hebrews describes Israel at the foot of Sinai as a
terrified assembly, awed by God’s display of power never before witnessed.
People were forbidden to touch the mountain on pain of death, a thick cloud,
fire, smoke, and a trumpet growing louder. Then the author provides the
antithesis of that scene by portraying a thrilling reception to Mount Zion, the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable angels in jubilant assembly,
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to the
spirits of the righteous made perfect.
Note what is not in the glorious
picture of the new covenant relationship – the institutional Church, which is
more like Israel under the first covenant. Church is similar to the synagogue
of Judaism – an organization with rules of membership, human doctrines, and a
concept of institutional salvation. Jesus set the tone of new covenant life by
saying that the whole law is superseded by the essence of the Decalogue – Love
God and love your neighbour.