Rams Blood, Goats Milk & My Big Toe

The Law, Old Testament & The Covenant

Ram's blood on the right big toe of a priest?

Do not Cook a Young Goat in its mother's milk?

What is the Law and how does it apply to me?

The Law of Israel like the Constitution of the US was the constituting documents formed within the forming events of a nation.

The Law was the instruction book for living in community and for giving devotion to Yahweh.

The meaning of the word “Law” has at least 5 connotations:

1. Plural: “Laws” 600+ commandments the Israelites were commanded to keep
2. Singular: Taking all of these laws collectively
3. Singular: The Pentateuch Most of Israel’s laws do appear in Exo, Lev., Numb., & Deut …but are embedded in narrative contexts. That’s because the law cannot be understood apart from the living out of that story.
4. Singular in NT: Complete OT religious system
5. Singular in NT: As interpreted by the Rabbis, Jews today would largely agree with.

Christians are not expected to express their loyalty to God by keeping the Old Testament law. This is somewhat self-evident in so far as we do not do animal sacrifices and if we did, we’d get arrested for animal cruelty but then again, it is not so self-evident in other ways

6 Guidelines to Understand

1) The Old Testament is a Covenant a binding contract between 2 parties

6 parts of The Covenant

1. Preamble – Defined parties of the covenant: “I am the Lord your God’ (Ex 20:2)
   
2. Prologue – History of how the parties came together “I brought you out of Egypt” (Ex 20:2)
   
3. Stipulations - The laws (Ex 20 - Duet 33)
   
4. Witnesses – Who will enforce the covenant, God himself, or “heaven and earth” (Duet 4:26, 30:19)
   
5. Sanctions – Blessings and curses: incentives for keeping covenant (Lev 26 & Duet 28-33)
   
6. Document clause – provision for regular review of the covenant, so it won’t be forgotten (Duet 17:18-19)
   

2) The Old Testament is not our Testament
None of the Laws are binding on us unless they are renewed in the New Testament.

3) 2 kinds of Old Covenant stipulations clearly have not been renewed in the New Covenant

1. Israelite Civil laws = penalties for particular crimes
2. Israelite Ritual laws = huge body of laws, re., how they worshiped, shedding of blood. Jesus was the final sacrifice.

So what about Jesus saying, “not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished?”

“What [Jesus] said was that the Law cannot be changed. Jesus came to establish a new covenant, and in so doing ‘fulfilled’ the purpose of the old, thus bringing its time to an end.”~Stuart (p. 168)

Analogy: renegotiated labor contract: salaries change, changes in working conditions, some things stay the same, seniority but loyalty and service are still promised by labor and employment is still promised by management.

4) Part of the Old Covenant is renewed in the New Covenant
OT ethical laws are largely renewed

5) All of the OT law is still the Word of God for us even though it is not still the command of God to us. It shows us aspects of God’s character we better understand by reading it. It shows us aspects of living as God’s people we better understand by reading it.

6) Only that which is explicitly reaffirmed from the Old Testament law can be considered to be part of the New Testament “law of Christ.”
For Israel, the Law was never the means of Salvation. It always was a gift from God to help the people live out their loyalty to God. And the problem of Israel’s obedience was not their lack of ability to obey but their unwillingness to do so.

2 kinds of Laws

1. Direct commands “do this” or “don’t do that”. The laws were not always exhaustive if it said, “Don’t harvest your land to the edge of the fields so the poor and strangers may be fed by harvesting the edges” …also carried over to similar applications for shepherds, carpenters, etc.
2. Conditional laws, can be lived out in various ways more situational laws, and require a lot of interpretation by the courts. These laws clearly are not binding upon us, but they may still grant us insight into God’s character, and God’s ways with humans

Israel was not the first people to have laws but Israel’s law represented a huge leap forward in matters of equality and mutual respect across class lines
The Law did bring great practical benefits to the people of Israel, food laws, shedding of blood, forbidden cult practices, kept them healthy

Dos and Don’ts p. 180