Eternal Truths of those

CRAZY Old Testament Laws

An email was forwarded to me from a man who listed several points about the Word of God in a response to the claim by Dr. Laura that homosexuality is an abomination according to the Word of God. He addressed issues regarding the laws of the OT (Old Testament), in which he thought they were nonsensical. His point was to show the laws were absurd and therefore dismiss anything it may say about homosexuality. Many stumble at these issues so I felt it was important to talk about them. Here I address each of the topics he mentioned. I hope this brings some light though I realize there is much to learn.

Seeking with a mindset to truly know and not to lift ourselves above God allows us to be open to learn from Him. If we seek to know God as He is, then we will start to see the perfection in all His ways, and how all works together to teach us and instruct us. God is love. All He does is in love. As we seek to understand His truths with this mindset and trust the Holy Spirit to teach us, we see that is the case.

Before we get started a couple of points. The Word is written layer upon layer so that each passage holds layers of truth. It’s incredibly rich and deep, which makes seeking and learning an on going process. Second, those of the OT didn’t have the Holy Spirit to guide and to teach them, therefore they needed numerous external rules to live by. Third, the stories and events of the OT point to spiritual truths, eternal truths. The laws are symbolic and reminders of God’s truth. Each one pointed to a deeper spiritual truth, and those truths endure though many of the rules do not – as they were no longer need with the coming of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

God is God and we are not. We see a sliver. He sees eternity. He knows how all works together. We think we know better and we know best, we don’t. God knows our nature better than we do. He understood that the Israelites needed boundaries, rules, reminders of His truths to be constantly before them. He understood if you give people an inch they take a mile. God knows the human nature better than any. All the “rules” were for the Israelites protection and continuance of a nation. He needed to protect them because from that lineage Christ would come. At the manifestation of Jesus Christ not only was He the perfect fulfillment of the law but we are now able to receive the Holy Spirit to guide us so we didn’t need all those outward reminders. Further, God was building illustrations that taught eternal truths and many pointing to Christ. On with the issues …

Slavery Leviticus 25:44, Exodus 21:7

God allowed slavery for a reason to serve certain purposes. It caused history to play out in a certain way. We can’t understand the beginning from the end or the full purpose of its existence, because all we’ve know is history with it. Like today, our systems serve certain purposes though far from perfect. Some systems seem unfair, but that is our estimation. We aren’t qualified to judge, because we see only a sliver of time. We think we know what fair is. We haven’t a clue. We don’t see the beginning and the end. We don’t understand the fullness of our purpose here on earth. Ecc 3:11 We are trying to play God when we think we do.

In addition, the way the world is at any one time is to teach us spiritual truths and the “negative” teaches just as much as the positive, if not more so. Slavery in the physical taught us about slavery in the spiritual. If there was no slavery we would lack understanding. We can’t see the spiritual so the physical is there to teach us about it in a way we can understand.

The more important truth is we are all slaves either to God or to “Satan”. It’s the spiritual life that matters much more than the physical. The physical life is but a nit; the spiritual for eternity. We put far too much weight on the physical and not enough on the spiritual life. Many people today are slaves to greed, lust, and a whole host of things that are far worse than physical slavery. And it this internal slavery that Christ came to free us from. Freedom is an illusion to those who are slaves to this world.

Matthew 10:28 , 1 John 5:19, Titus 2:9, James 4:14

Animal sacrifices – Lev 1:9

Animal sacrifices pointed to Christ. God designed this world that life is to be given for life for there to be forgiveness; blood for blood. The sacrifice of the animals was to teach us about the seriousness of our sin – how it separates us from God and what is required for us to be reunited to Him – the life of another. For the Israelites, it was a constant reminder of their need for forgiveness and that it’s only life that can pay the price for sin.

With Christ, the eternal sacrifice, an animal sacrifice and having to do it over and over is no longer needed.

Further reading – Lesson in Sacrifice

To be continued ….