Don’t eat pork or shellfish, don’t wear clothes of mixed fabrics, don’t sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, don’t shave the edges of your beard… That is a sample of the commands God gave in His law that strike many today as…well, weird.
Why would anyone, never mind God, care about these things? And,
if Christians are meant to take the Bible as being God’s word, why don’t any of
them obey these laws? Does this not show that Christians pick and choose which
parts of the Bible to obey?
There are a couple of things to bear in mind:
- These commands
weren’t for everyone – they
were for a certain people
- These commands
weren’t for ever – they
were for a certain period
As we look at these two subjects, we will see that these commands were for a certain purpose,
and that purpose has been fulfilled.
These commands weren’t for everyone – they were for a certain people
God selected Israel as the nation through which the Messiah
would come. It was vital then that they be kept separate from the nations
around to maintain the purity of their God-given religion and the integrity of
their genealogies. Mixing with the surrounding idolatrous nations was an
existential threat to the mission of Israel, and so God emphasised the lesson
of separation in every sphere of their lives. In the foods they ate, in the
clothes they wore, in the seeds they planted, even in the way they groomed
their faces – God was saying, “Don’t mix, stay separate.”
Animals were classified as clean and unclean, and there have
been interesting reasons suggested as to why certain animals would be classed
as unclean and not allowed for food. Scholars have shown that the forbidden
animals were predatory animals, animals that fed on unclean things, or animals
that exhibited a lack (i.e., they were defective in some symbolically
significant way). In the Bible, eating is symbolic for what we feed our minds
on, and what shapes our character. With this in mind, we see that the Lord is
communicating that He doesn’t want His people being predatory, unclean or
defective in their character.[1]
The prohibition on mixing fabrics and sowing with different
kinds of seeds (Deuteronomy 22:9-12) enforced the lesson that in everyday life
and in business life the Israelites were to be separate from the surrounding
nations.
The instruction not to mark their beards (Leviticus 19:27) had
to do with not following heathen occultic practices (as Leviticus 19:28
indicates). According to the historian Herodotus, the Arab tribes marked their
beards in certain ways in honour of their gods.
There are other “strange” laws but what we have looked at should
satisfy us that they were given because of their symbolic significance. While
in some cases, their significance might escape us, the Israelites would likely
have understood the point – God wanted them to be distinct.
These commands weren’t for ever – they were for a certain period
We have established that one purpose of the ceremonial law was
to separate Israel from the nations. Another purpose of the ceremonial law was
to point forward to Christ. For example, the animal sacrifices had no saving
value, but they pointed forward to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, and all the
details connected to these offerings have wonderful significance and fulfilment
in Him.
When we see this twofold purpose of the ceremonial law (to make
Israel distinct and to point forward to Christ), we can see that they have
served their purpose. The Messiah has come – the ceremonies have been
fulfilled. The dividing wall between Israel and the nations has been broken
down and God has started something new – the Church – composed of all
believers, no matter their nationality:
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has
broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the
enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to
create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He
might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting
to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:14-16)
The law of Moses was for the nation of Israel (a certain people)
under the Old Covenant (a certain period). So, does that mean we dispense with
all the commandments of the Mosaic law? Do we say that none of the commands are
binding? No. Not at all. Many of the commands are binding, but not because they are in the law of Moses.
If you looked at the laws of another country, some of those laws would be
applicable to you, but only because they are also the laws of the country you live in. The law of
Moses is the law of another country, but many of the commandments are relevant
to all humanity – God has written them on the hearts of all men (Romans 2:15).
We can see that the moral aspects of the law were not just for a certain
people, because God said He was judging the nations for their abominations:
Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all
these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land
is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the
land vomits out its inhabitants. (Leviticus 18:24-25)
These nations weren’t guilty of transgressing the Mosaic law (it
hadn’t been given), but they were guilty of transgressing the law God had
written on their hearts.
We see too when we come into the New Testament that the moral
aspects of the law weren’t for a certain period. Eating pork was wrong under
the law of Moses, but when that covenant ended the eating of pork was no longer
wrong. However, murder, lying, adultery, etc. are still wrong, and condemned in
the New Testament.
These strange ceremonial aspects of the law, while not binding
on anyone today, are certainly not irrelevant. When we look at them through the
lens of the culture Israel was in there are big lessons for us to learn about
the holiness God desires from His people, and when we look at them through the
lens of the gospel there are wonderful pictures for us to discover about the
Saviour who is pictured in so many of these passages.
