Confusion about the Old Testament Law

There is a lot of confusion about the Old Testament Law (for example, Exodus 20-23) and how to apply it today. Atheists love to poke fun at it. One mockingly asked, ‘How much should I charge for my daughter if I want to sell her into slavery?’ How does one answer that?

The Old Testament Law was a special ‘deal,’ or covenant, that God made with the Israelites, to which they agreed. So the question is, why are these ‘obsolete’ laws in the Bible if they don’t apply to us? The reasons are:

• The history of the Israelites in the Old Testament shows that they couldn’t keep God’s covenant. God proved that people are unable to please Him with laws. Scripture says, ‘Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law…’ ¹ [this is very important – see the following point].
• People could not keep the Law, so God gave His ‘solution,’ namely His Son. Jesus changes people’s hearts, and the Holy Spirit gives the power to live in a relationship with God. ²
• Thus the function of the Old Testament Law is to show how important Jesus is, ’…No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ³

Despite that, the Old Testament Law remains controversial. How do we answer the criticisms of God’s enemies, like the stoning of a Sabbath breaker? ⁴  The answer is to look at the New Testament. If a law is found in both Testaments, we can regard it as binding on Christians today. For example:

• We are told to love God in Deuteronomy 6:4.  Jesus repeats it: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ⁵  So Christians are to keep that law today.
• The Old Testament forbids eating pork.⁶ The New Testament declares all food clean in the vision that Peter saw.⁷  To make the message clear, it is repeated three times. So pork is not forbidden today.
• Both the Old and New Testaments forbid adultery.⁸  The Old Testament command remains binding.
• The Old Testament forbids working on the Sabbath.⁹ In Colossians 2:16-17 the Sabbath is seen as a shadow of the things to come. The reality is found in Jesus. In addition, the Jerusalem Council did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentiles.¹⁰ Today we will not kill a person who works on the Sabbath (Saturday).
• Slavery is a special case. Both Testaments have instructions about it, but common sense will help. Contrary to the times when the Bible was written, slavery has largely disappeared.  The commands about slaves are not applicable.¹¹

Conclusion

When you investigate both Testaments, it is clear which laws still stand. That might help to answer atheists and skeptics who claim every Old Testament law is binding today.

References

1. Romans 3:20a
2. Jeremiah 31:31
3. John 14:6b
4. Numbers 15:32-36
5. Mark 12:30
6. Leviticus 11:7
7. Acts 10:10-16
8. Exodus 20:14: Galatians 5:19
9. Exodus 20:8-11
10. Acts 15:19-20; see also Romans 14:5
11. Colossians 3:22-25; 4:1

Exodus, Gods and Kings – a review

Enjoy the film, but if you want the real facts about Moses and the Exodus, go to Scripture. The film does include Biblical names like Moses, Israelites, Egypt and Pharaoh; it has the Israelites as slaves in ancient Egypt with the pyramids and temples, the plagues, the Passover and the passage through the Red Sea. That is the only way it resembles the Bible. There is nothing about Moses’ close relationship with God and the glorious work of the Almighty on behalf of His people.

The producer

According to Wikipedia, the producer, Scott Ridley, said in 2013 that he was an atheist. So he does not believe in the Bible or the God of the Bible. One would hardly expect a true ‘Biblical epic’ from him. Why would he glorify God who through the Exodus fulfilled His promise made hundreds of years earlier to Abraham? God said to Moses, ‘I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians….’ ¹  The leading and power of God would rescue them, not a little boy.

What was the Moses of the Bible like?

• He was a man of faith.²
• He had intimate contact with God.³
• He was a humble man.⁴
• He was a type of Jesus who would free people from slavery to sin.⁵ This is repeated in the New Testament, since it is so important, “For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything He tells you.'” ⁶   

By depicting Moses different from his Bible character, Mr Ridley subtly insults Jesus. This can be expected from his non-belief in the Bible.

• In the film Moses, as the leader, teaches the slaves to use weapons against the Egyptians. In the Bible God saved them miraculously.
• In the Bible Moses and Aaron visit Pharaoh repeatedly in the name of the Lord, to demand the release of God’s people.  In the film Aaron scarcely features.
• God is depicted as a boy with queer mannerism and saying, ‘I am.’ What an insult to the Almighty!
• The reason for the very important Passover is never explained.  The significance is that Jesus would be our Passover Lamb (His Blood on the doorposts of our hearts will save us from eternal judgement). ⁷

What does one learn from the film? Acts 7:38 gives the answer, ‘He (Moses) was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.’  Those ‘living words,’ the Bible, are still a terror to the devil. He still does everything he can to indoctrinate the world that they are just idle words, not powerful and life changing.

Scott Ridley gave us a good film, but nothing that has to do with God’s glory and brilliance as depicted in the Bible.

References

1. Exodus 3:8a
2. Hebrews 11:24-28
3. Numbers 12:7-8
4. Numbers 12:3
5. Deuteronomy 18:18
6. Acts 3:22
7. 1 Corinthians 5:7b

Has Exodus exited the Bible?

Many Biblical scholars agree that the narrative of the Exodus of the Israelite slaves out of Egypt is nonsense. There is no archaeological evidence for it. There are no artefacts of it in Egypt, no dates that agree, and nothing in the desert that gives the idea that such a large group of people moved around in it for forty years. So it is just another of the fairy tales in the Bible. On the other hand there are many reputable scholars and archaeologists who contend that the Exodus is fact.

 

How are we to resolve the issue? In the light of such a division, let us go to the Bible itself to see what it teaches about the Exodus:

 

# 1. God’s promise to Abraham. Abraham was the progenitor of the Jewish nation and God promised him that his descendants will live in Canaan. Before that would happen, they will be enslaved in Egypt, and after 400 years come out with God’s help.¹ At the time of the promise, Abraham had no children yet.

 

# 2. The Passover. It was instituted by God when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses.² It was to be a lasting ordinance.³ At the time of Jesus and until the present, the Jews celebrate the Passover. It was so important that Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was crucified on the day of Preparation of Passover Week.⁴  Jesus would lead out the greatest Exodus (out of the kingdom of darkness) of all time.

 

# 3. The Pharaohs recorded only their greatness. People think the Pharaohs would have erected monuments to let the world know that some invisible God decimated their country with plagues, lead their slaves out and drowned their army in the Red Sea. The problem is that the kings of antiquity wanted to leave a memory of their greatness, not of their losses.

 

# 4. The Ten Commandments. God reminded the Israelites in the Ten Commandments that one of the reasons they have to keep the Sabbath is because He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.⁵ 

 

# 5. The domino effect. If the Exodus never happened, who says that Abraham was real, or Moses, or for that matter, anybody in the Old Testament? Who says that the land of Canaan was real, and that the Jews live in it now that it is called Israel?  The moment one begins to delete one part of the Bible, the dominoes (other parts and books of the Bible), begin to fall. Either Scripture is true, or it is not.

 

# 6. The prince of this world is behind Bible Bashing. The Bible is true, because God cannot lie.⁶  If He does lie, obviously the whole Bible crumbles, since liars are excluded from the renewed planet earth.⁷  If the Bible is not true, why does it not crumble; why is it not ignored; why does the world not leave it alone? It is because the prince of this world, ⁸  Satan, is behind the Bible Bashing. The attacks are proof that the Bible is true and the Exodus took place.

 

Conclusion: The logic of the Bible tells us that the Exodus was a very important event that shaped history up until the present.

 

References

1. Genesis 15:12-16
2. Exodus 12:14-17
3. Exodus 12:17b
4. John 19:14
5. Deuteronomy 5:15
6. Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2
7. Revelation 21:8
8. 1 John 5:19