Adam and Eve, at their creation, had a knowledge of the law of God; they were acquainted with its claims upon them; its precepts were written upon their hearts. When man fell by transgression the law was not changed, but a remedial system was established to bring him back to obedience. The promise of a Saviour was given, and sacrificial offerings pointing forward to the death of Christ as the great sin offering were established. But had the law of God never been transgressed, there would have been no death, and no need of a Saviour; consequently there would have been no need of sacrifices.
Adam taught his descendants
the law of God, and it was handed down from father to son through
successive generations. But notwithstanding the gracious provision
for man's redemption, there were few who accepted it and rendered
obedience. By transgression the world became so vile that it was
necessary to cleanse it by the Flood from its corruption. The
law was preserved by Noah and his family, and Noah taught his
descendants the Ten Commandments. As men again departed from God,
the Lord chose Abraham, of whom He declared, "Abraham obeyed
My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and
My laws." Genesis 26:5. To him was given the rite of circumcision,
which was a sign that those who received it were devoted to the
service of God--a pledge that they would remain separate from
idolatry, and would obey the law of God. The failure of Abraham's
descendants to keep this pledge, as shown in their disposition
to form alliances with the heathen and adopt their practices,
was the cause of their sojourn and bondage in Egypt. But in their
intercourse with idolaters, and their forced submission to the
Egyptians, the divine precepts became still further corrupted
with the vile and cruel teachings of heathenism. Therefore when
the Lord brought them forth from Egypt, He came down upon Sinai,
enshrouded in glory and surrounded by His angels, and in awful
majesty spoke His law in the hearing of all the people.
He did not even then trust His precepts to the memory of a people who were prone to forget His requirements, but wrote them upon tables of stone. He would remove from Israel all possibility of mingling heathen traditions with His holy precepts, or of confounding His requirements with human ordinances or customs. But He did not stop with giving them the precepts of the Decalogue. The people had shown themselves so easily led astray that He would leave no door of temptation unguarded. Moses was commanded to write, as God should bid him, judgments and laws giving minute instruction as to what was required. These directions relating to the duty of the people to God, to one another, and to the stranger were only the principles of the Ten Commandments amplified and given in a specific manner, that none need err. They were designed to guard the sacredness of the ten precepts engraved on the tables of stone.
If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt; they would have kept God's law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon the tables of stone. And had the people practiced the principles of the Ten Commandments, there would have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses.
The sacrificial system,
committed to Adam, was also perverted by his descendants. Superstition,
idolatry, cruelty, and licentiousness corrupted the simple and
significant service that God had appointed. Through long intercourse
with idolaters the people of Israel had mingled many heathen customs
with their worship; therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite
instruction concerning the sacrificial service. After the completion
of the tabernacle He communicated with Moses from the cloud of
glory above the mercy seat, and gave him full directions concerning
the system of offerings and the forms of worship to be maintained
in the sanctuary. The ceremonial law was thus given to Moses,
and by him written in a book. But the law of Ten Commandments
spoken from Sinai had been written by God Himself on the tables
of stone, and was sacredly preserved in the ark.
There are many who try to blend these two systems, using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to prove that the moral law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then all the sacrificial offerings were to cease. It is this law that Christ "took . . . out of the way, nailing it to His cross." Colossians 2:14. But concerning the law of Ten Commandments the psalmist declares, "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89. And Christ Himself says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law. . . . Verily I say unto you"--making the assertion as emphatic as possible--"Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17, 18. Here He teaches, not merely what the claims of God's law had been, and were then, but that these claims should hold as long as the heavens and the earth remain. The law of God is as immutable as His throne. It will maintain its claims upon mankind in all ages.
Concerning the law proclaimed from Sinai, Nehemiah says, "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments." Nehemiah 9:13. And Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles," declares, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12. This can be no other than the Decalogue; for it is the law that says, "Thou shalt not covet." Verse 7.
While the Saviour's death brought to an end the law of types and shadows, it did not in the least detract from the obligation of the moral law. On the contrary, the very fact that it was necessary for Christ to die in order to atone for the transgression of that law, proves it to be immutable.
Those who claim that Christ
came to abrogate the law of God and to do away with the Old Testament,
speak of the Jewish age as one of darkness, and represent the
religion of the Hebrews as consisting of mere forms and ceremonies.
But this is an error. All through the pages of scared history,
where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded,
there are burning traces of the great I Am. Never has He given
to the sons of men more open manifestations of His power and glory
than when He alone was acknowledged as Israel's ruler, and gave
the law to His people. Here was a scepter swayed by no human hand;
and the stately goings forth of Israel's invisible King were unspeakably
grand and awful.
In all these revelations of
the divine presence the glory of God was manifested through Christ.
Not alone at the Saviour's advent, but through all the ages after
the Fall and the promise of redemption, "God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19.
Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system
in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our
first parents there has been no direct communication between God
and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ,
that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate
the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion
between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It
was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise
of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs.
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel.
They looked for salvation through man's Substitute and Surety.
These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was
to come to our world in human flesh; and some of them talked with
Christ and heavenly angels face to face.
Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness--the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host--but it was He who gave the law to Israel. [*See Appendix, Note 7.] Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father's law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone.
It was Christ that spoke
to His people through the prophets. The apostle Peter, writing
to the Christian church, says that the prophets "prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow." 1 Peter 1:10, 11. It is the voice
of Christ that speaks to us through the Old Testament. "The
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Revelation
19:10.
In His teachings while personally among men Jesus directed the minds of the people to the Old Testament. He said to the Jews, "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me." John 5:39, R.V. At this time the books of the Old Testament were the only part of the Bible in existence. Again the Son of God declared, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." And He added, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Luke 16:29, 31.
The ceremonial law was given by Christ. Even after it was no longer to be observed, Paul presented it before the Jews in its true position and value, showing its place in the plan of redemption and its relation to the work of Christ; and the great apostle pronounces this law glorious, worthy of its divine Originator. The solemn service of the sanctuary typified the grand truths that were to be revealed through successive generations. The cloud of incense ascending with the prayers of Israel represents His righteousness that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God; the bleeding victim on the altar of sacrifice testified of a Redeemer to come; and from the holy of holies the visible token of the divine Presence shone forth. Thus through age after age of darkness and apostasy faith was kept alive in the hearts of men until the time came for the advent of the promised Messiah.
Jesus was the light of His people--the Light of the world--before He came to earth in the form of humanity. The first gleam of light that pierced the gloom in which sin had wrapped the world, came from Christ. And from Him has come every ray of heaven's brightness that has fallen upon the inhabitants of the earth. In the plan of redemption Christ is the Alpha and the Omega--the First and the Last.
Since the Saviour shed His
blood for the remission of sins, and ascended to heaven "to
appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24), light
has been streaming from the cross of Calvary and from the holy
places of the sanctuary above. But the clearer light granted us
should not cause us to despise that which in earlier times was
received through the types pointing to the coming Saviour. The
gospel of Christ sheds light upon the Jewish economy and gives
significance to the ceremonial law. As new truths are revealed,
and that which has been known from the beginning is brought into
clearer light, the character and purposes of God are made manifest
in His dealings with His chosen people. Every additional ray of
light that we receive gives us a clearer understanding of the
plan of redemption, which is the working out of the divine will
in the salvation of man. We see new beauty and force in the inspired
word, and we study its pages with a deeper and more absorbing
interest.
The opinion is held by many that God placed a separating wall between the Hebrews and the outside world; that His care and love, withdrawn to a great extent from the rest of mankind, were centered upon Israel. But God did not design that His people should build up a wall of partition between themselves and their fellow men. The heart of Infinite Love was reaching out toward all the inhabitants of the earth. Though they had rejected Him, He was constantly seeking to reveal Himself to them and make them partakers of His love and grace. His blessing was granted to the chosen people, that they might bless others.
God called Abraham, and prospered and honored him; and the patriarch's fidelity was a light to the people in all the countries of his sojourn. Abraham did not shut himself away from the people around him. He maintained friendly relations with the kings of the surrounding nations, by some of whom he was treated with great respect; and his integrity and unselfishness, his valor and benevolence, were representing the character of God. In Mesopotamia, in Canaan, in Egypt, and even to the inhabitants of Sodom, the God of heaven was revealed through His representative.
So to the people of Egypt
and of all the nations connected with that powerful kingdom, God
manifested Himself through Joseph. Why did the Lord choose to
exalt Joseph so highly among the Egyptians? He might have provided
some other way for the accomplishment of His purposes toward the
children of Jacob; but He desired to make Joseph a light, and
He placed him in the palace of the king, that the heavenly illumination
might extend far and near. By his wisdom and justice, by the purity
and benevolence of his daily life, by his devotion to the interests
of the people--and that people a nation of idolaters--Joseph was
a representative of Christ. In their benefactor, to whom all Egypt
turned with gratitude and praise, that heathen people were to
behold the love of their Creator and Redeemer. So in Moses also
God placed a light beside the throne of the earth's greatest kingdom,
that all who would, might learn of the true and living God. And
all this light was given to the Egyptians before the hand of God
was stretched out over them in judgments.
In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt a knowledge of the power of God spread far and wide. The warlike people of the stronghold of Jericho trembled. "As soon as we had heard these things," said Rahab, "our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for Jehovah your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." Joshua 2:11. Centuries after the exodus the priests of the Philistines reminded their people of the plagues of Egypt, and warned them against resisting the God of Israel.
God called Israel, and blessed and exalted them, not that by obedience to His law they alone might receive His favor and become the exclusive recipients of His blessings, but in order to reveal Himself through them to all the inhabitants of the earth. It was for the accomplishment of this very purpose that He commanded them to keep themselves distinct from the idolatrous nations around them.
Idolatry and all the sins that followed in its train were abhorrent to God, and He commanded His people not to mingle with other nations, to "do after their works," and forget God. He forbade their marriage with idolaters, lest their hearts should be led away from Him. It was just as necessary then as it is now that God's people should be pure, "unspotted from the world." They must keep themselves free from its spirit, because it is opposed to truth and righteousness. But God did not intend that His people, in self-righteous exclusiveness, should shut themselves away from the world, so that they could have no influence upon it.
Like their Master, the followers
of Christ in every age were to be the light of the world. The
Saviour said, "A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but
on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the
house"--that is, in the world. And He adds, "Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16.
This is just what Enoch, and Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses
did. It is just what God designed that His people Israel should
do.
It was their own evil heart of unbelief, controlled by Satan, that led them to hide their light, instead of shedding it upon surrounding peoples; it was that same bigoted spirit that caused them either to follow the iniquitous practices of the heathen or to shut themselves away in proud exclusiveness, as if God's love and care were over them alone.
As the Bible presents two laws, one changeless and eternal, the other provisional and temporary, so there are two covenants. The covenant of grace was first made with man in Eden, when after the Fall there was given a divine promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. To all men this covenant offered pardon and the assisting grace of God for future obedience through faith in Christ. It also promised them eternal life on condition of fidelity to God's law. Thus the patriarchs received the hope of salvation.
This same covenant was renewed to Abraham in the promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Genesis 22:18. This promise pointed to Christ. So Abraham understood it (see Galatians 3:8, 16), and he trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. It was this faith that was accounted unto him for righteousness. The covenant with Abraham also maintained the authority of God's law. The Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." Genesis 17:1. The testimony of God concerning His faithful servant was, "Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Genesis 26:5. And the Lord declared to him, "I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." Genesis 17:7.
Though this covenant was
made with Adam and renewed to Abraham, it could not be ratified
until the death of Christ. It had existed by the promise of God
since the first intimation of redemption had been given; it had
been accepted by faith; yet when ratified by Christ, it is called
a new covenant. The law of God was the basis of this covenant,
which was simply an arrangement for bringing men again into harmony
with the divine will, placing them where they could obey God's
law.
Another compact--called in Scripture the "old" covenant--was formed between God and Israel at Sinai, and was then ratified by the blood of a sacrifice. The Abrahamic covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, and it is called the "second," or "new," covenant, because the blood by which it was sealed was shed after the blood of the first covenant. That the new covenant was valid in the days of Abraham is evident from the fact that it was then confirmed both by the promise and by the oath of God --the "two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie." Hebrews 6:18.
But if the Abrahamic covenant contained the promise of redemption, why was another covenant formed at Sinai? In their bondage the people had to a great extent lost the knowledge of God and of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant. In delivering them from Egypt, God sought to reveal to them His power and His mercy, that t
