In my previous post I looked at King David’s writing in the Psalms of his deep affections for the “law of the LORD (YAHWEH)” or “law of God” (Psalm 1:1-3) (Psalm 19:7-11) (Psalm 119:1-97). I noted that what he was referring to as “law” were the truths and instructions revealed in the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, referred to historically by the Jewish people as Torah. In these five books we have revealed, by God to Moses, the glory of His eternal person – of His righteous nature and character and all of His divine attributes that make Him worthy of our love, trust, obedience and worship (Exodus 15:11-18) (Deuteronomy 32:1-4). They reveal God as creator and sovereign ruler of all things that exist apart from Him (Genesis 1:1) (Genesis 50:20), and His purposes in that creation, particularly in creating man in His image and likeness, with His righteous nature and character to know love and be loved by God and one another (Genesis 1:26-28) (Isaiah 43:7).
Torah reveals how men and women are to live in relationship to God and one another to fulfill this purpose, presenting to us His order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). This order and design is presented first in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and subsequently outlined in the 10 Commandments/the law of Moses, which are summarized in the two great commands of loving God and neighbor (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) (Leviticus 19:18) (Matthew 22:36-40). We learn later in scripture that this order and design was originally revealed in the hearts of men and women but subsequently suppressed by mankind’s idolatrous inclinations (Romans 1:18-23).
King David would have had Torah read and taught to him as a child, and as Israel’s king he was required by law to both write a copy for himself and study it daily (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). And of all of Israel’s kings, David was likely the only one who came close to doing so. This would be consistent with his writing in Psalm 1:1-3 where he speaks of the blessedness/happiness of the man who delights in the law/Torah and meditates on it day and night.
And although King David would describe all that made the law worthy of his (and our) affections in its essence and ultimate purpose (Psalm 19:7- 11), seeing it as the Apostle Paul would proclaim it to be hundreds of years later as, “holy, just and good”, David would have also seen in Torah and personally experienced that the Mosaic law also had several drawbacks and limitations, beginning with the fact that he/we could not keep it perfectly and perpetually as God required, and thus it brought us under His just judgement and wrath (Romans 7:7-11) (James 2:10) (Deuteronomy 28:15).
Mankind, beginning with Adam, has been duped by the deceitfulness of sin and its promise of freedom in pursuit of our happiness independent of God, when in fact it has only resulted in our becoming slaves to it, hardening our hearts toward God and subjecting ourselves to His justice and wrath (John 8:34) (Hebrews 3:13).
The law could convict of sin, but could not fully restrain it, either through promises of great blessing and reward for keeping it, nor threats of being cursed and condemned by God for not, nor could our most sincere efforts to keep it make us right with God (Romans 3:19-20) (Deuteronomy 30:19).
In fact, beginning with Adam, it appears that the law provoked rather than restrained sin as the moral history of mankind would attest (Romans 3:23) (Romans 7:5). This is revealed most clearly in the Exodus story, wherein the LORD, in faithfulness to His promise to Abraham, rescues Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt through supernatural wonders and miraculous judgements on the Egyptians and their idols, and faithfully establishes them in the “promised land” as the nation through which He would bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 18:18)). He establishes with them a covenant of blessing which requires their obedience to his moral law, outlined in the 10 Commandments (Leviticus 26:1-13) (Exodus 20:1-17). However, it does not take them long after receiving the commandments before they blatantly and heinously disobey the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Commandments, despite having clear warning within the 2nd and 3rd Commandments of God’s judgement for their violation (Exodus 20:4-6).
With Moses up on Mt. Siani receiving the Commandments on stone, written by the finger of God Himself, the people, led by Moses’ brother Aaron, build an idol of pure gold, a replica of the Egyptian bull god, Apis. It appears that within the same event they also violated the 7th Commandment, engaging in a sexual orgy in their worship of this idol (Exodus 32:1-9).
Now, the scriptures reveal that even while in Egypt, the people were worshiping the Egyptian idols, and nothing in their hearts had changed despite the LORD’s miraculous deliverance and establishing His covenant with them (Joshua 24:14) (Ezekiel 20:6-9) (Genesis 6:5).
In this event however, the LORD expresses His just anger towards them for their blatant violation of His holy, just and good laws, and had every right, according to the covenant, to kill them all on the spot (Deuteronomy 17:2-7). Moses, having been established by God as their mediator, intercedes on the people’s behalf and God relents. And in doing so He reveals to Moses (and to us) that, yes, He is a God of justice, but that at the core of His very nature He is first and foremost a God of mercy and grace, a God of loving kindness, compassion and truth/faithfulness, and thus worthy of our heartfelt worship (Exodus 34:5-8).
Thus, here we begin to learn that God, in the giving of the law in which He knows that man will rebel against it and come under His just judgement, unable in himself to escape that judgement, did so that He could magnify the glory of His mercy and grace (Romans 5:20), which would be ultimately displayed through the person and work of His greater prophet and ultimate mediator, His only begotten Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, who in His perfect life, substitutionary death on the cross and miraculous resurrection, would accomplish everything necessary for our sin to be justly forgiven, redeeming – freeing us from the curse and condemnation of the law while restoring us to the glorious relationship with Him for which we were created, (Deuteronomy 18:15) (1 Timothy 2:5) (Ephesians 1:7) (Galatians 4:4-5) (Romans 8:1-4).
So, yes, we should love, delight in and meditate on the law, day and night for its revelation of God’s holy and righteous nature and character, the nature and character which we are to image (1 Peter 1:16). And, yes, we are to love, delight in and meditate on the law for its revelation of God’s order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him (Romans 7:22).
However, most importantly, we are to love, delight in and meditate on the “the law of the LORD” as it reveals to our hearts the width and length and depth and height of the heinousness of our sin and its offensiveness to our Holy God, and in doing so reveals “the width and length and depth and height” of God’s love for us, in Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21), in God graciously reconciling us to Himself by Christ, who at great cost to Himself, fulfilled the law’s just demands on our behalf (Matthew 5:17) (Romans 10:4) (Romans 5:8)). God does this so that by faith, which is itself a gracious gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), we can receive and embrace all that the LORD Jesus has graciously done for us and in us, and come to know Him as He desires to be known, trust Him as He deserves to be trusted, and out of that trust obey Him as He deserves to be obeyed, forever pursuing and worshiping Him alone as the object of our deepest love and the source of our present and eternal joy (Isaiah 51:11). Amen.
Grace and Peace ×