The Laws of Israel Israel was constituted a THEOCRACY, the Lord spoke continually about His relationship with them, - “I am the LORD your God.” Israel was a nation with a comprehensive system of worship which embraced every part of their lives, based on the tabernacle and later the temple. Leviticus shows to us this comprehensive system of sacrifices, feasts and the recurring weekly sabbath day. Their personal lives were prescribed/governed by the Laws of God and the sacrifices were in place to deal with their sin. One immediately asks the question – did it work? Were lives lived according to God’s holy laws? However, we have to ask the primary question which profoundly affects everything else – did they believe in the LORD and did they honour him as their God. This is spirituality which determines their morality and their ethical living. The biggest obstacle to believing God was their strong rebellion and their refusal to believe God, which I believe resulted from their awful years of slavery. However, sin is endemic in the human race as we know from Scripture, the old Puritans called it “inbred sin” and roots in the sin of our first parents. The whole issue of their rebellion, their anger, their refusal of Moses’ authority comes to a head in the book of Numbers, but it continually erupts throughout their history – from Egypt onwards throughout the Old Testament. Repentance means that I acknowledge/confess my sinfulness and come to God, acknowledging that I have sinned against my God – as an Israelite the LORD is my God due to my birth and my ethnicity! As a non-Jew I really cannot get my head inside that of an Israelite. I don’t know how to think, to act, or to live under the laws of God. I have a book entitled, “Thinking Black” by Dan Crawford a Brethren missionary to Africa, the subtitle is “22 Years in the African bush without a break” New Life Radio – Talk No 20
4 Derrick Harrison
24/02/2021
