January 9 | Galatians 3:10-14; Deuteronomy 21:23-24

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DAILY READING

Galatians 3:10-14; Deuteronomy 21:23-24

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REFLECTION

The Book of the Law and Christianity - Revisited

By Dave Thompson

We are slaves to the law if we let ourselves be. The Book of the Law as an Old Testament set were the first five books of the Bible. They exist as a reminder of the historical law that the Jews had to follow, even up until today. They are very demanding as written, but then groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees took these laws and interpreted them into a very stringent sets of directives. The five books were, and are, commonly called the Pentateuch or the Torah.

It reminds me of my life as a early teen. My mother and father divorced and that left three boys ages 17, 14 and 12 with their mother to keep up a big property and house. She developed four lists of household chores (they were sacred documents). Each Friday we were to get a list and proceed to follow the list to the letter of her law. Because, yes there were penalties. One had chores like vacuuming and dusting the upstairs. Washing the kitchen and bathroom floors. Another list had vacuuming the downstairs family room. Clean the toilets and the tub, etc. The third was to do dishes for a week (I hated this one). The fourth had stripping the beds and doing the wash, etc. This was usually my mom's list as she wanted it done right. You see, for our world and community, these sacred documents brought order and gave a fulltime working mother a break.

So let's look at the passages and see the parallels. In Galatians 3:10-11, we find that everyone was to participate in the keeping of the laws. They were so sacred that God directed the Levites (God's pastoral duties tribe) to put them in the Arc of the Covenant and guard them, read from them on the Sabbath, and to function as the community civil and moral guide. They were used to settle disputes. Much like my mom's sacred documents they served as a guide to live in civility and they were used by my Levite mother to settle disputes and to direct and motivate her community. Both sets were the "LAW."

In the last of verse 11 and through verse 14 we are given close directions on the difference of the Old Testament Law and the New Covenant (or law). This New Covenant was formulated by God and Jesus Christ and facilitated by the Holy Spirit. The problem with the Old Law was that you could read it, listen to it read, preached on it and were followed by each person of Israel. They could know it like the back of their hand, but they were so hard to follow completely, especially to live by the Law with the modifications of the Pharisees and Sadducees. An example: God said you were not to labor on the Sabbath. However, a father might break the modified law by picking up his son if he had stones in his pocket. Picking the son up was OK according to what God had written, but you broke the Old Testament Law due the the stones. You were done for eternally and in that society unless you did a whole bunch of make up things like taking two doves to the Levite priest to be sacrificed. If the Priest and God accepted the doves and whatever else, you were made right until the next day when you possibly blundered again.

Another couple of laws are seen in the Deuteronomy passage provided. It deals with leaving convicted people on a pole overnight being a sin and not desecrating the land that God gave you.

So, God says to try to do the laws, but gives the great news that if you have accepted Christ the perfect one that was executed on a pole you are a Christian and that if we blunder (even if it is one of the ten commandments like "Thou shall not kill") all we have to do for that or something as simple as keeping the Sabbath holy, we have Christ in between you and God. Why is that important? God is so perfect and Holy, He can't accept or look at sin (why the unforgiven Jew is in such trouble - no Christ, no forgiveness). But we Christians have Christ who sits between us and His Father. When we sin, we pray for forgiveness and the transaction goes to Heaven. Christ views it and accepts it and takes it to His Father. He says something like "Dad, Dave has messed up but asked for forgiveness. I want you to do your 'casting the sin away as far as and through Christ and sees no sin. We are forgiven and unlike many humans it is also forgotten.

My mom was not so good at that. If it was determined that we had messed up according to her and the sacred documents, the perpetrator(s) would have to run around the outside of the house and the large detached garage fifteen times. It hurt, but it was better than having to find two doves and then to find a Jewish priest. I love my mom and I must admit I did my sacred documents without much complaint and I lived through the sacrifice of running 15 on the Thompson speedway way too often...

PRAYER

Dear God, Christ and the Holy Spirit,

Thank you so much for loving mothers, but more importantly for you all. Christ's sacrifice on the cross being that He was a perfect being without sin through His 33 years made it possible to create the New Covenant. Anyone listening to these above words would be foolish not to take up the offer of Christian life - please have the Holy Spirit convict them. Thank you for being our Father, Savior and Guide.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVE THOMPSON

I am the administrator of the Daily Worship Blog. My wife, Carla, and I have been attending UALC for eight years at the 9 o'clock service at Mill Run. We just celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary. We have two children, Catherine and Aaron. I have been a Christian for 52 years and am thankful that my Savior has given me two spiritual gifts that have carried me both spiritually and vocationally all my life: they are teaching and administration. I look forward to spending many years here at UALC to serve my Lord and Savior.