Living by Every Word of God...How?
Part One
by
KEITH HUNT
It is written that Jesus said: "man shall not live by bread alone but BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD" (Mat.4:4). Jesus was not uttering something brand new, for He was quoting what the books of Moses had said, namely the book of Deuteronomy, and specifically chapter 8 and verse 3. Those words by Jesus as pretty plain and easy to understand. No theology degree from some school of learning needed to interpret those words. They mean what they say and say what they mean. Christ was saying that men/women who are called to serve the Eternal God, are to conduct their lives in all its various forms of thoughts, actions, and deeds, the way of life, by letting the WHOLE of God's word teach and guide them as they live. They are to walk the walk of the word of the Lord. Jesus expects His followers to read and study ALL of God's word, and let that whole word mould and shape their speech, conduct and thoughts. What an undertaking! Pretty serious stuff Jesus was talking about. He was saying that the children of the heavenly Father were to read every book of the Bible to LEARN and be INSTRUCTED in HOW TO LIVE in all aspects of life here and now. The Old Testament is not just a collection of different historical events, songs, and psalms, poetry, and old laws, written down just to entertain us when we feel we need to be entertained. What Jesus said led to the apostle Paul saying these words: " For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written FOR OUR LEARNING......Now these things were OUR EXAMPLES.......Now all these things happened unto them for types(marg. of KJV) and they are written for OUR ADMONITION, upon whom the ends of the world are come......All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness " (Rom.15:4; 1 Cor.10:6,11; 2 Tim.3:16). So the Christian desires to do as Jesus taught, to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The Christian starts to read the Bible, beginning with the first book - Genesis. But soon he is into the books of Moses such as Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, that contain ALL THOSE MANY LAWS, STATUES, PRECEPTS, and JUDGMENTS. Some are to the modern space age mind, VERY STRANGE, OUT OF DATE in many respects, NOT really applicable in our culture and society and context of living. And there are SOME MANY. Then we have the New Testament, with OTHER laws, some of which seem to alter the old laws found in the books of Moses. A little confusing to the average Christian's mind. How can you apply the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:4 and clear away the smoke, the haze, the WONDERING about WHICH laws, statutes, precepts, judgments, ARE FOR US TODAY TO FOLLOW AND LIVE BY? I hope this article will serve you and many others in answering and helping you find the correct way as to HOW indeed to live by every word of God. A FOUNDATIONAL KEY We need to keep in mind at all times that this study of living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, is JUST THAT. It entails EVERY WORD OF GOD! It may be that the answers to some of our questions are found WAY OUT in another part of the word of God. In fact we shall see that is the case for some of our answers. So, this HOW TO LIVE, WHAT LAWS TO FOLLOW, is a study of the WHOLE word of God, from Genesis to Revelation. We must read and meditate, study and search, ALL the words that proceed from the Lord, as given to us and as found in the Bible. TEN BASIC CATEGORIES TO HELP YOU KNOW HOW TO LIVE BY EVERY WORD OF GOD Some laws, commandments and the like, may fall under one or more of the following basic categories. One or more should be used to answer your questions on any given law, commandment, statute, or precept in the Bible, and how, if in any way it should be applied today for the Christian. The list is NOT in the order of importance. 1. MORAL LAWS (i.e."You shall not murder" - "Honor your father and mother.") 2. SACRIFICE LAW (i.e.The physical rites for the Priesthood, Tabernacle, and Sacrifices). 3. NATIONAL LAWS (i.e. The 50th year of Jubilee for the nation). 4. HISTORICAL/NATIONAL/CULTURE LAW (i.e. Man dies and his brother marries his wife to raise up children). 5. CULTURAL CARNALITY LAW (i.e.Laws regulating more than one wife - Polygamy). 6. PHYSICAL LAWS (i.e.Clean and Unclean foods; Plague in the physical building). 7. NEW TESTAMENT DIRECT ALTERATION (i.e. Physical circumcision). 8. EXAMPLES AND/OR COMMANDS OF THE NT (i.e. Cannot lust after the opposite sex in the mind). 9. THE SPIRIT OF THE NT (i.e. Spirit leading the Church to ordain 7 as deacons in Acts 6). 10.NOT EFFECTED BY ANY OF THE ABOVE (i.e.The weekly 7 day cycle). ONE MORE IMPORTANT POINT With all the above, and I shall expound each quite thoroughly presently, we need to remember the VERY IMPORTANT section of scripture as found in Deut.17 and verses eight through thirteen. Please read those verses carefully. The point to see for our study is that the word of the Lord is NOT all encompassing. The Bible is not a text book that covers EVERY situation in life, every circumstance that may arise, every problematic disputation that many need to be solved from time to time, through the course of life within the community of God. Within that body of people, we today call the Church of God, there will need to be JUDGMENTS made by the leaders of that community, based upon the laws and principles, examples, and whatever else can be gleaned from God's word in order to arrive at the correct sentence of judgment. You will notice this is not some high handed, authoritarian mind set that is here being talked about, where leaders rule with a pompous, self-righteous, vain ego of dictatorial cult leadership. The sentence of the law is to be taught to the enquirer, and to those who are coming for help because the matter is too HARD for them. You will notice in 1 Timothy 3 the qualifications for those who will oversee the church of God is very demanding. They are to guide and teach, to take care of the church of God. They are to fulfil the role of what you are reading about in Deut.17 at times. They are to judge HARD matters and bring the sentence of the law, when there is possibly no SPECIFIC law stated in the word of God concerning the matter. EACH OF THE TEN POINT It's time to move down each of the above ten points I've given you. We need to expound and amplify each one so you will be able to use them as tools whereby you can read the Bible, all of it, in order to do as Jesus said - live by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 1. MORAL LAW This is perhaps the least difficult category for most people to deal with, the one that gives, on the whole, the least amount of trouble for Christians to understand in the light of having to live by every word of God. Most can see that the Lord instituted MARRIAGE, for an example, at the BEGINNING, with Adam and Eve, the Lord Himself bringing them together as husband and wife. Then reading on in the book of Genesis, it is clear from examples given that taking another man's wife in sexual union, adultery, was WRONG, that is was displeasing to the Lord and even sin. Coming to Exodus and the other books of Moses, it is pretty simple to see the command that "you shall not commit adultery" and "you shall not covet your neighbors wife" law . Reading on through all the Bible to the end of the book of Revelation, it is clear that the law of adultery continues, never being "done away" or allowed to be practiced in the Christian's life without it being a sin against God, and earning the death penalty. Most Christians will see that laws and commandments such as ones called "moral" laws, are in effect, and remain in effect to the end, while there are flesh and blood people on this earth. Even the unconverted world, the majority at least, can see that it is not good for their society if people murder each other, steal from each other and the corner store, and practice many other morally wrong ways of life, that unchecked and wilfully allowed would soon have our nations in utter degradation and moral free for all, to the point that our society would totally break down and collapse. 2. SACRIFICE LAWS Again in the main, most can understand the obvious implications here with the laws governing sacrificing and the system of ancient Israel that went along with it, namely the Priesthood and the Temple. As the Temple and Levitical priesthood came to an official and literal end in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Roman armies, the Christian has generally no problem realizing physical sacrificing in a central location through a literal priesthood in a literal Temple, has no importance or bearing on living today by every word of God. The book of Hebrews portrays to us in plain words that these physical sacrifices and the priesthood/temple that went along with them, was to COME TO AN END, TO PASS AWAY, for this present age. That side of the sacrificial laws gives no trouble, and Christians think little about them in any physical living way of life. Even the Jews(except possibly for a minority sect) realize those physical laws are not for today. Many Christians do no know, for they have never heard, that the strict Orthodox Jews believe another Temple in Jerusalem cannot, should not, will not, be built unto the MESSIAH comes in glory. It is He they say who will again build the Temple. And without a Temple, there can be no sacrificing by a priesthood. Exodus 35 to 40 and Leviticus 1 to 10 were for the Old Covenant. They are not for us today in this present age. There are of course many other such passages as those in other parts of the OT. Yet what is not often understood are some of the laws that were also part of the sacrificing system, needing that system to complete the law. For us to live by every word of God we need to see how this interlocking law worked, then we shall understand how some laws in the OT are not for us to observe today. Examples are often the best way to teach and make the point stated easy and clear to comprehend. Hence I will use many examples from here on out. THE NAZARITE VOW Numbers chapter 6. Please read from verse one to verse twenty one. The first number of verses tell you what the man or woman putting themselves under a Nazarite vow could NOT do. The duration of this vow was voluntary. The individual set the length of time. Now notice what is written starting with verse thirteen. When the days were FULFILLED, the length of time the individual had allotted themselves to be under this vow was now at an end. Did they just say, "O, well time is up, it's over, back to normal again" and proceed to "get back to the norm"? No, it was not to be done that way. It was not at all to be that simple. It was quite an elaborate ceremony that the person had to go through, and notice what and who it involved. It involved, set in stone, no buts or maybe or perhaps about it. To sign off from this vow involved physical sacrifices, the priesthood and the temple! This law of the Nazarite was absolutely TWO FOLD - a beginning part with of course its duration to the end and the rules for that part of the vow, and an ending part with the rules for that section of the vow. BOTH parts were a MUST! That was the law of the Nazarite vow. It took both parts to make the law. Now AFTER 70 A.D. with the end of the Temple, the Levite priesthood, and physical sacrificing, the Nazarite vow - that law - ALSO CAME TO AN END! It is today IMPOSSIBLE to observe that law, as there is no Temple in Jerusalem with a priesthood performing animal sacrifices. Today, at this present time, you cannot observe the nazarite vow even if you wanted to! Oh, you could take the principles I guess of the vow, and dedicate yourself for a time to serving the Lord in some special way, but the specific law of the Nazarite vow as laid out in the book of Moses IS NOT FOR US TODAY! So living by every word of God for the Christian during this present age DOES NOT include the Nazarite vow. TEMPLE PURIFICATION SACRIFICE LAWS Lev.12. As we read through the whole Bible it becomes very plain that God is PERFECTLY PURE HOLINESS - RIGHTEOUS AND SINLESS. With ancient Israel the Eternal was dealing with a people that were in the main, CARNAL, without the Spirit of God leading, guiding and helping them. The Lord had not chosen to give them all, His Spirit(see Numbers 11). He did decide to have them build a Tabernacle, as the book of Hebrews tells us, like as to the one in heaven. God would come and live among Israel WITHIN that Temple or Tabernacle of congregation. There are certain functions of the human body that although created by the Eternal, and so in that sense perfect and holy on a physical level, are regarded even by humans as physically unclean to be openly displaying them in a public manner to all and everyone around us. The process of human elimination is such that we keep those functions private in the main. A woman flowing during her monthly period is another bodily function that is kept private as much as possible from others. It is natural, it was created by God, it is pure in that sense but it is unclean and impure from a certain physical point of view. When our pet dog is in heat, it is natural, it is the way the Lord made dogs, it is pure from that point, but nevertheless when our dog is in heat we do not want it jumping up on to our lovely new chesterfield, for it is unclean from a certain physical viewpoint. The Lord in dealing with a majority of carnal people in Israel, within the context of a Tabernacle that He would dwell within, and that they as a physical sinfilled people would come before to worship Him, took some physical functions of the body to teach them PURITY AND HOLINESS from IMPURITY. Leviticus 12 is one example - the purification of the woman after childbirth. Such a function by the body was created by God, so perfectly pure from that view, but from a human perspective, such cleansing is impure and must be looked after with care and privacy. I think we all understand there are certain things of the human body we do not want deposited just anywhere. Such a law as Lev.12 was to teach a carnal people lessons of holiness by using physical carnal functions of the body. Certain laws like this kept people(and there were ones for men also) from entering the Tabernacle of Holiness, where the Holy perfect God was dwelling at times. Such laws were very much tied up with the physical Tabernacle, and with physical sacrifices, for after the fulfilment of the required stipulations of the law, there was the required animal sacrifice. These kind of laws were great teaching tools for holiness, no uncleanness(from a human perspective) was allowed in the presence of a Holy God. For a carnal minded people these laws would constantly remind them that they could not approach the Eternal while unclean, even while physically unclean. It would serve a purpose in also teaching a deeper lesson, namely, that they should be mentally and of heart, humble and clean of attitude when approaching the throne of God. As the Temple, Levite priesthood and animal sacrifices are no longer, together with the New Covenant fact that God today lives within each member of the body of Christ via the Holy Spirit, the Christian is not under obligation to live by these particular laws in this age. 3. NATIONAL LAWS CITIES OF REFUGE Numbers 35:9-28. Six cities were chosen for the administration of the law of MANSLAUGHTER in Israel of old. This law shows us the importance that the Eternal places upon human life. We may think it rather severe, but it certainly taught Israel the value of human life and the value of being VERY CAREFUL at all times, so we are responsible persons in how we live in relation to the lives of others. This law was a NATIONAL law. It was part of the written constitution of the government of the nation of Israel. One of the laws of the land. A part of the court system of the land. Now stop and think! Putting this kind of a law into the context of an individual Christian living today, what are you going to come up with, for obeying it? Why, for an individual Christian, even for a local church congregation, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO OBSERVE THIS LAW!! Try, next time you see someone in a car kill another person on the road, going over to them, or meeting them in court, and telling them to go live in a certain town until the President dies. Try telling the relatives of the one who died that if the person responsible for the death of their loved one steps out of the city limits, they can kill them, and see what the courts and police of our land have to say to you. I think you get the point. A single Christian or church organization CANNOT put this law into effect. It is a NATIONAL LAW! Only the NATION can establish and enforce such a law today, or any day. This kind of law in the word of God cannot be established or obeyed by the individual child of God. Not even the church of God can establish and obey such a law as this one. It was given by God to a NATION, to be part of its constitution and laws of the supreme court of the land. LAND SABBATH LAWS Lev.25. This was also given to Israel as to be part of their NATIONAL constitutional laws. They were laws that ALL had to obey. Everyone in the agriculture business was obligated to observe these laws. Such laws were tied up with other laws of the nation, note verse 10. God would bless the nation in a miraculous way, see verses 20,21. The individual Christian today could not possibly enforce these laws upon the nation they live under. Certain principles can be taken from these laws and applied by the farming Christian in our lands. Resting the land is good farming practice. Many farmers out west still rest a section of their land each year, one section one year, another section another year, and so on till all land has had a rest. But the specific land rest laws as written in the books of Moses, were for the NATION of Israel. They were national laws, and not intended to be applied today by individual NT Christians. 4. HISTORICAL/NATIONAL/CULTURAL LAWS MARRIAGE TO BROTHER'S WIFE UPON HIS DEATH This is somewhat like the above law but with some differences. Please turn to Deut.25 and read verses five to ten. A man dies without leaving any children. His wife is now a widow. The dead man has a brother who under this law was to marry his brother's wife and raise up children, the firstborn taking the name of the dead brother, so this brother's name would continue in Israel(verses 5,6). There was a provision by which the brother could refuse to take this widow to be his wife(verses 7-10). Probably the most famous example of this taking place is in the book of RUTH, and how Boaz married Ruth. This was a NATIONAL law of the land, a part of the constitution. It was on the books of the land for all people who found themselves in that particular situation. If you today as an individual Christian would try to enforce that law, even in your own family, well I think you know how far you would get. Most of the time not very far at all, unless the other parties were all in agreement. It is not a law that individual Christians need concern themselves with. It was for a nation who had that law as part of their national court statutes. It was probably a law that back in that HISTORICAL period, and that CULTURE of time, was not unusual, certainly not thought about as unusual as we in our culture of North America think it is today. The whole culture of marriage back in that period of history was in many way quite different than our culture of marriage. Parents were much more involved in arranging marriages for their children. You had the "dowry" practice in marriage and many other customs that we today in Britain and the USA think rather strange and even odd. But for them at that time and in their culture, such practices were thought of as quite normal. So this law instituted by the Lord in Israel was probably accepted without a second thought. Israel was a young nation. People were much more conscious about family trees and continuing family names back then, than we are today. It would seem that at this time in history even God was more concerned with this fact than He is today for the nations of Israel. It was a way of preserving the people of Israel, and inheritances in families. A way of keeping certain things moulded together in a close knit nation with many laws that jig- sawed together to produce the whole under God. Today such laws are not needed in our nations as they were under the economy of ancient Israel. Then again, it is a law for the nation, NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS to enforce or try to obey. CORNERS OF THE HARVEST FOR THE POOR You can read about another law that would fall under this category in Leviticus 19:9,10; Deut.24:19-22. God instituted in Israel under the OC a law for the POOR of the land. It was then an HISTORICAL NATIONAL law. It was part of their constitutional laws of the whole land. When they harvested they were to leave SOME for the poor to gather and eat thereof. They were not to pick every single grape on the vine, or every fig on the tree. It was a CULTURAL law also, because they were a farming community in the main. So it was to be a part of their work-a-world culture. It was to be national culture practice, as a way of life in Israel. Everyone would be raised with this law, it was known by all in the nation, it was a national way of life. Now you put yourself as an individual Christian today, doing the same thing. The grain farmer leaves the corners of his field unharvested for the poor to glean. Well first of all, the poor would not know about what they could come and glean unless a sign was posted. And some have indeed done that very thing. But today when it comes to GRAIN, say wheat, most poor would not bother to go to all the trouble of gleaning and grinding and baking, as they can obtain welfare and buy their baked products from the supermarket. Some poor may come to pick fruit left on the trees, but by and large, it just is not the cultural thing to do anymore for most people in our modern city life. This particular law as outlined in the above verses, would at best be a judgment call on the part of the individual Christian produce farmer, to obey in the letter or not. Certainly it could be obeyed, and would not be wrong to obey by such a Christian, if he thought he could make it work as it was intended to work for the culture of ancient Israel. In some areas of some countries it could well work just fine. The other way is to take the PRINCIPLE of this national culture law and apply the spirit of it, which says, the POOR of the land should be helped if you are in the position of being able to help them. This was certainly upheld by the church of God in the days of the apostles - see Gal.2:9,10. TITHE FOR THE POOR Deuteronomy 14:28,29. Whatever you want to say about this tithe, one thing is clear, we are talking about a tithe and it was for certain people WHO NEEDED some extra help, and it was EATING. So it would correspond today to our FOOD STAMPS or FOOD BANKS for the needy and the poor. It was ancient Israel's WELFARE PROGRAM in the main. It was a NATIONAL CULTURAL law of the land. Yes, certainly individual Christians could follow this law if they so chose. There is nothing preventing them to so learn how the Jews understood and practiced this law and observe it themselves, giving help in a physical way to the needy. But the main point I want you to see is that this was a national historic law that was given to Israel in the time of Moses to be the basic welfare law of the land. It was part of the constitutional laws of the country. Today our nations of the West have taken the spirit of that law and are fulfilling it through the welfare programs we have established as our national laws. We all through our taxes help fund this poor tithe law. Some have estimated that the tax payers contribute more than a tenth or tithe to maintain this help to the needy and poor. Certainly the Church of God should not be trying to impose this law upon its members for the law is already in place as instituted by our governments. On the other hand the NT does tell Christians to serve and help their brothers and sisters in Christ in literal and practical ways as needed. 5. CULTURAL CARNALITY LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN FOR TWO WIVES Deut.21:15-17. Here we see a law regarding a man with more than one wife, commonly called Polygamy. It is not the place or the time to discuss the subject of Polygamy. I do have an article covering that subject for those interested in the topic as to what the word of the Lord teaches on the matter. But I will say that from the BEGINNING(as Jesus often said) it is clear that God intended a ONE man ONE wife at ONE time marriage bond. That was God's IDEAL for men and women. The Lord could have created a few women out of a few ribs from Adam if He thought the ideal for marriage was a man with more than one wife. But that was NOT the case. The ideal for the King over Israel was that he should not multiply wives to himself (Deut.17:17). The fact is that the Eternal was dealing mainly with a CARNAL group of people. A nation of persons that for the MAJORITY, DID NOT HAVE the Spirit of God with them. Only a selected few were given the Spirit, see Numbers 11, and especially verse 29. You will remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 19 concerning DIVORCE, and as to why Moses allowed it for many reasons. Jesus said that from the BEGINNING it was not so, but because of the carnality of the heart, divorce for just about any reason was allowed. It was not God's IDEAL, it was ALLOWED because of the hardness of their hearts. So with having more than one wife. It was not so from the beginning, it was not God's ideal, it was because of their carnal heart, ALLOWED! By this time in history, way before for that matter, many people of the earth, without the Spirit of the Lord, wanted more than one wife. There is something in the carnal heart of the male that for many, desires the beauty of more than one woman. Under these circumstances God would allow the Israelite men to have more than one wife. He would allow them to be like many other cultural carnal people around them, at least in this respect. BUT in allowing this cultural carnality of more than one wife, He would set down certain laws to regulate certain aspect of this practice. God knew that under this marriage there would be other aspects of carnality also shown, one being the fact that favoritism to one wife above another wife would manifest itself in various ways. The carnal mind in such a situation probably would love one wife more than another wife, and the children of the one loved the most would get special favors, and treatments. The firstborn son was to be acknowledged as the firstborn for inheritance purposes, even if he was born of the wife that was not loved as much as another wife. Under the Old Covenant DIVORCE for all kinds of reasons was ALLOWED. Under the Old, more than one wife at one time was ALLOWED. It was never God's IDEAL, it was not so from the beginning. The New Covenant, the Spirit poured out into all true Christians, such allowances and liberties are brought back to a more original ideal. Jesus did give some circumstances for divorce, but having more than one wife at one time, is not allowed under the NT church age. PLEDGE TAKING Deut.24:10-13. Reading this in the KJV may seem hard to understand. You take a pledge from someone, out of his house. Something that is your pledge that what you have lent to him will be returned. But you are not to keep his pledge overnight. You are to deliver this pledge back to him for the night, so he can sleep in his own raiment. The Bible Commentaries will explain all this. It was the CULTURAL practice back in those days, that if you were to borrow something from your neighbor, for two or more days, you would give them something important to your comfort, as a pledge that what you were borrowing would be returned to them. Something like what we call a SECURITY DEPOSIT today in our culture. I am a landlord, and when a tenant moves in to one of our apartments we take a security deposit of a certain amount of money that they get back when they move out and have left the apartment in as good a shape as when they moved in. Back in the days of ancient Israel, it was a cultural practice that if you borrowed something from a neighbor, and you were poor, the most important thing you could give him for a pledge was your BED ROLE, what you slept in. The carnal mind was such that the lender would probably say: "you'll get this back when you return to me what you have borrowed." God knowing the workings of the carnal mind, said it would not be so, but the lender would each night return the bed clothes to the borrower. This would be the righteous way to transact such lending/borrowing arrangements. This cultural practice is pretty well none existent in North America today. So this specific law in the book of Moses, Christians would not be under as expected to obey. Now our culture may employ other types of practices for lending and borrowing, but this one here in Deuteronomy may never be applied at any time in the Christians life. If our culture never uses this specific pledge law then God does not expect the Christian to observe it. MARRIAGE - DIVORCE Deut.24:1-5. I have already alluded to the subject of divorce under the Old Covenant. Because of the hardness of the hearts of the carnal people of Israel, God ALLOWED under the laws of Moses, for divorce on a wide and broad spectrum. In so doing though, not to make marriage a travesty and a laugh, as it would ultimately become through cultural carnality taking its course, God did set a few laws within that law, as can be seen from this passage before us. When a man took a wife he was not to go out to war nor enter any business, but to have a whole year with his wife at home. Wow! A year long honey-moon ! Well the culture of the day could allow for such things back then. And as carnal people who did not have the Spirit of God, it was probably needed if the marriage was to last, for God had already allowed for divorce on a wider scale than before because of their hard heartedness. So having a year long honey-moon may have strengthened the marriage so cultural carnality of divorce would be less prominent. Not only do we live in a culture and society today that makes it just about impossible for the average man to take a year off work to be with his new wife, but under the New Covenant Spirit this section of scripture is NOT to be applied by the Christian. Jesus made it clear in Matthew 19 and other passages that what was ALLOWED under Moses, is not allowed under the New Covenant, but only in certain exceptions. Many of the old cultural carnality laws in the books of Moses the Christian today will not live by. They were for THAT culture which was basically carnal, unconverted, and devoid of the Spirit of the Lord in their minds and hearts. SLAVERY LAWS - THE BUYING AND SELLING OF PERSONS There is not one scripture in the word of God that tells us the Eternal called such practices as RIGHTEOUS, HOLINESS, or JUST. The practice of slavery probably goes back not far from the beginning of the human race. Certainly when some of the large empires came on the scene after the scattering of the people from the tower of Babel, slavery and the buying and selling of persons was not far behind. In the books of Moses we find God simply addresses this issue with certain laws to regulate, and give some kind of human benevolence to what is really a cultural carnal practice. He never states He approves of it. Obviously He ALLOWED it in Israel just as He allowed many other things because of the hardness of their hearts. If I may be allowed to indulge in some paraphrasing of what God was saying to Israel, I think it was something like: "I realize you are a people that are carnally minded, that I have not given My Spirit to except for a few. I realize you will WANT to, and WILL practice in your life some of the ways of the nations around you. One of those ways will be the practice of slavery and the buying and selling of persons. I shall ALLOW you to be so carnally minded and to practice this cultural way of life, but in ALLOWING it, I will impose certain rules and regulations that will give this practice at least some compassion and benignity." The laws God gave to Israel regulating the buying and selling of persons, were instituted for a people that wanted to practice this cultural carnality way of life. Certainly the individual Christian or the Christian community today is under no obligation to practice and live by these laws. In fact the NT Christian community will not live by such laws, for they were only ALLOWED to be practiced by God, by a carnal people, because of the hardness of their hearts. The Christian has a new heart, moulded and shaped by the Holy Spirit, and wherein such cultural carnal laws cannot be rooted or formed. To be continued |
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