The relationship humanity has with rules, is I think one which generally wants to buck them. The speed limit is to be nudged according to need, bedtime to be feigned as forgotten, ‘no’ taken as a maybe and ‘yes’ as a ‘what else is there?’
When we come to the books of the Law in the Old Testament, we’re already biased to see them as overwhelming, irrelevant, unfair or over the top. And in some measure, they are – at least overwhelming, and many in current application – impossible.
So why are they there?
Well, just backing up a second. I’m assuming most reading this will be parents. Can you think of a time one of your kids displayed that they understood, accepted and maybe even welcomed a rule or boundary you put in place for them? More than just being accepting/obedient to it, not just using it in a victory lap around a sibling, but showed gratitude for a limit you had?
I can think of several… and so many more as the crew got older and saw with perspective some of the limits put in place for their behalves.
There is a deep deep joy that comes from seeing a child understand their limits come from your love and desire for their safety and good – which is I believe a picture of God’s delight when we come to a place in faith where we accept that His rules, even those which are culturally and practically irrelevant to our times (take sacrificing and stoning for example), as not being excercises in frustration – but of having deep purpose as part of a flow through time, and relevant still for our learning of Who He is, and the unveiling of His kindness and heart.
Think of a rule you had for a toddler. Where did it come from? Why did you have it?
We had a slow combustion fire set on tiles in our carpeted lounge, and the rule was “no stepping onto the tiles” This rule clearly came from the desire that a wobbly toddler or a not-very-spacially-aware-preschooler would not fall and be burned by being in body length of the fireplace. Not all of the rules in the Old Testament are that clearly understood, but they do all come from the God of love which, if was our starting point as we read, can help us see different things that they hold.
I no longer read these books as lists of baffling rules, but more like clues to treasures… as thumbnail images of Art by a Master Painter… blueprints or technical drawings to the most immense and beautifully designed city… or ingredients to wonderful dishes being prepared.
Of course there were rules which had functional purpose – sometimes many layers of functional purpose. Some which are still needful to live by (‘do not murder’ is a pretty good rule) and others that were for a specific people group, in a specific time, building to a specific set of purposes.
Imagine if Jesus, the Messiah had been born in China? Or Australia? How would He have been recognised?
The rules in the books of law gave context to the hundreds of prophecies provided for His recognition.
Israel has always been an exceptionally unique group of people and it is these rules which have set them apart and made them so distinct. At the widest level, these rules created a nation unlike any other. To the point that, for 2000 years without a land to belong to, they remained a people. How could they have done this without a core way of being to adhere to. No other people group has survived for anything close to this length of time without a land to be their own.
The Sabbath laws alone – maintained no matter where they’ve found themselves in the world across all of time – created a core that by which they stood – till one day in 1948 they again had a land to return to. A land to which still yet future prophecy is tied, and without which could not be recognised.
The rule of Sabbath had a functional purpose of rest.
It had a functional purpose which contributed to the making of a nation by which we recognise the prophecies of Jesus.
It also had the functional purpose which contributed to the retaining of a people group without a land for two millenia, being able to return to their land and to which we look for Gods yet future prophetic Word to be seen.
This is one example of what I meant above when I wrote ‘many layers of functional purpose’.
Absolutely everything that God created, exists as a physical object lesson to illustrate a spiritual reality. And this includes the rules He set out.
Plants need sunlight to grow – to show us we need Jesus the Light of Life.
Plants need regular water – to show use we need Jesus the Water of Life.
Some of the laws gave the Israelites health and hygiene practices that were unknown in their day. Functional purpose. The laws around sexuality were a part of this, as well as then being moral laws which ultimately are a picture of Gods heart for His bride. Layered. But so much more than practical function alone.
God spoke the physical into being from the spiritual. Spiritual was first. Physical second. The physical points to the spiritual.
The seen illustrates the unseen.
The entire Bible is to point us to Jesus. Whe we read the Old Testament we can look for ways the words we read point toward Him – like His ancestry that draws a blood red line from the beginning to His birth.
When we read the OT, we can look for ways the stories seem to hold pictures or similarities to things Jesus said or did, and lights begin to twinke both inside the Word as we read, and in our hearts as we receive it, recognise Him and are changed in the core of our beings. Even in those strange, sometimes baffling rules and events.
When Jesus walked the road to Emmaus – the men He walked with didn’t
a) have expectation of seeing Him or
b) recognise Him
– but when we come to the Scriptures with expectation of finding Him there, He will reveal Himself just as He did with those men.
Luke 24: 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…
And all afternoon as they walked and ate together – He’d been explaining how the Scriptures – our Old Testament – had always always been pointing the way, though they had not seen beyond waiting and wanting for Israel to be redeemed. How small was their sight.
Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Does every rule, or every law suddenly become illuminated? No. But they do, as we get to know Him more and more, light up the pages.
Jesus is the key to their revealing.
Chuck Missler says of the two Bible Testaments:
“The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed”.
It is One book, with One purpose.
Reading with Jesus as the key – is the key.
The story of Joseph is stunning… and loaded with examples of Gods fingerprints – not just over the story that plays out, but of how the parts thereof point to him.
In Genesis 40 there is the account of the two men in prison with Joseph who had dreams which he interpreted, and which did take place.
The cupbearer took care of the wine.
The baker took care of the bread.
Right there – two images of Jesus. The two He left us as His emblems for communion.
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:19-20
But not only that – the baker was put to death. The cupbearer was given back his life.
How can resurrection be illustrated except by two separate images?
Jesus body was put to death on the cross, and His sinless blood brought about His resurrection.
Baker and cupbearer.
A death. And a life restored.
Bread and wine.
Pictures of Jesus.
This morning I read a portion in Leviticus which lays out some of the sacrifices. On every level the sacrifices point to what Jesus did, how He has provided for us, why it was necessary – and so many facets within. In these instructions, time after time the one who sinned was to lay their hands on the head of the animal while it was slaughtered.
This stopped me in my tracks when a light went on in the words a few years ago.
I was that sinner.
He was sacrificed for me.
I was ‘there’.
My hands were on Him as He was slaughtered.
His blood is on my hands.
I was ‘there‘.
But even more than that – His blood paid for everything.
It was spilled for me, because of me, to purchase me.
Am I guilty? I was. But no more. I’ve been redeemed.
It is done.
It is finished.
Ask for His Light as you read. Go to it and expect Him to be there.
He’s all over it. 🙂