moses, mildew and me: how do I understand the old testament law?

Taught by Susie Leafe at UCCF South West Team Days, May 2009.

A very helpful book on this subject: ‘OT Ethics for the people of God’ by Christopher Wright.

Most of us have a bible that is dirty and well leafed in the New Testament; the Psalms are quite dirty, and maybe the beginning of Genesis.  But not the bits we try to avoid, like Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Yet that’s where our mates often go first in grilling a Christian!
How are we meant to understand the Old Testament law?  How does it relate to the New Testament and the overall biblical gospel of grace?
Problems start when we zoom in on the little verses and forgo the bigger picture.  See Leviticus 19:19ff – how do you deal with that?
One approach is to consider the different types of law.  The classic division of the law is between the Ceremonial (relating to sacrifices and the temple), the Civil (relating to the Israelite state), and the Moral (the only bit left).  The problem with this division is that nowhere in the Bible suggests this approach!  Yet when we look at the law, we see there are different types – but we need to let the bible explain what those types are, rather than imposing them on the bible.
Two different ways of looking at the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament:
(1) They are the old and new covenants, and a completely different world.  This is called dispensationalism.  The blank page in the middle of the Bible, separating Old Testament from New, is very important.
(2) Rip the middle page out – the bible is the same all the way.  This is called theonism, when taken to an extreme.  There is no change.  An extreme theonist might say that all the sexually immoral should be killed, because it says so in the Old Testament; it’s all one book and although we’re saved by grace, we should still consider the Old Testament law for our lives.  Some cults would embrace and exemplify a type of this.

The reality may be that we probably have bits of both in our understanding.  Many people are happily both, for example on their stance on the Sabbath.

How should we approach it?  Christopher Wright argues that as Christians, we tend to approach the Law totally differently to the rest of the bible; but we need to remember, it was given to a people, and that Jews in referring to the Law mean the first 5 books – it is not separate to the exodus etc.  So:

exodus 5-6

Taught by Philip de Grey Warter at UCCF South West Team Days, May 2009

Life can at times seem like a series of inescapable disasters.
Up to this point, it’s been preparation, and now we get to the action.  “Let my people go!”, says Moses.  Pharaoh’s response: “who is the Lord?”  Fair enough – if I walk up to you and say, ‘You must give Kenny ten quid’ – who’s Kenny that you should give him ten quid?!
This question of Pharaoh is a question that continues over the next ten chapters, in a tussle between the Lord and Pharaoh – “Let my people go”/”No I won’t”.   But it starts off badly for the people.  They are told to forget about it and get back to work, so that they’ll have no time to listen to Moses (5v9).  So, v10, the new orders are given, and much pressure (v13-14).  So in this chapter the slavery intensifies – it gets even worse.  They’re beaten for not meeting their impossible quotas, and are accused of being lazy.  Verse 19 is an understatement – they were in trouble.  At the end of chapter 4 the people were delighted to see Aaron & Moses but now they call on God to judge them.  So Aaron & Moses go back to God in v22; “Thanks a lot God – all we’ve got is more trouble and no sign of rescue.”
What are we to make of this chapter?  Why does God do things in this way?  3 things to learn here:

exodus 4

Taught by Philip de Grey Warter at UCCF South West Team Days, May 2009

The film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ asks the question: what might happen if global warming continues?  It pictures worldwide catastrophe, flooding and the beginning of the next ice age.  The human relationship in the story is a father-son one, with the (not so) immortal line:

“Whatever happens stay put, because your father is coming to rescue you.”

Same here.  Yet Moses, known throughout his Scripture for his faith, is anything but a man of faith here.  At a recent conference, Mark Ashton looking back on his ministry felt he had been “inadequate in his task” – remarkable considering his ability!  Yet in a sense, that is the normal Christian life.

Picture a graph – with time along the bottom axis, and along the side, some measure of godliness or the Christian life.  On the graph are two lines.  One is your head knowledge of the Christian life, what you know it ought to be like.  This one is a steady trajectory.
The other = living it out.  It ought to have an upward trajectory, though a bit wobbly!
But there’s a gap. The gap between your knowledge line and your living line, and it grows as they go up.  The gap is an increasing sense of guilt, and inadequacy – what the Accuser uses to sling at us.  That feeling of inadequacy is the normal Christian life.  It is expressed in Romans 7:

“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.”

If this is the normal Christian life, Exodus 4 is a great encouragement – God is using a tentative, uncertain man with flaws, doubts and weakness – an ordinary guy used to do extraordinary things.  The chapter is a picture of Moses’ faithlessness: his reluctance, then his disobedience.

exodus 3

Taught by Philip de Grey Warter at UCCF South West Team Days, May 2009

Joanna Lumley grew up near the equator so had never seen the Northern Lights, but saw it in a picture book as a child.  A TV programme followed her through Norway to Svalbard to try and see the Northern Lights.  One of the true natural wonders of the world , when solar wind hits the magnetic field – it’s something of that awe we need to imagine when we consider the burning bush.  It caught Moses’ eye – intriguing and captivating.
Some intriguing puzzles in 3v12.  “This” may be referring to burning bush rather than the worship – if so, God’s telling Moses not to worry, but rather, this bush is a sign of God’s great power, a guarantee therefore that what he says will happen will happen.  But it’s not the spectacle that’s the captivating point – not the attention grabbing spectacle, but the attention grabbing words.  See v6, v15, 16.  God introduces himself as a God of his people.  Here is a God who has made and who keeps promises.  It’s because of that promise that God is now acting to rescue his people.  So where politicians make promises and break them, God makes promises and keeps them.

exodus 1-2

Taught by Philip de Grey Warter at UCCF South West Team Days, May 2009

The Italian Job conundrum has been solved!  It ends with a cliffhanger.  The Royal Society of Chemistry ran a competition – what’s the most plausible idea to the cliffhanger ending? – and somebody came up with an answer.  But arguably the cliffhanger ending was better – not just for the theatre but for its reality – the big plan was left hanging in the balance.  All human ideas inevitably do.
The only perfect plan in history was given in Genesis.  In Genesis 12 we read of God’s enormous promises to Abraham that drive the rest of Scripture: promises of people, place, and blessing.  Yet when we begin Exodus, it’s a bit like the end of The Italian Job.  The plan has worked so far, but then we drive round the corner and Pharaoh is standing in middle of road; the plan swerves and is left hanging in balance – or is it?
In these opening two chapters of Exodus we learn something about God’s fulfillment of his promises through this period in Israel’s history.

galatians 5:15-6:18. the community of the spirit

Part 3 of 3.  Taught by Dave Bish, Sept Team Days 2008, to the South West massive.  

Friends are important!  Not friends like we see on The X-Factor: friends of the contestants, of those who really can’t sing – if you have friends like that, who needs enemies?!  “My friends tell me I’m a brilliant singer.”  They’re not friends, they clearly hate you!

Yet we want people around us who will affirm us and help us to live. 

 

Often our gospel outlines are a bit too individualistic.  It’s not just about me and Jesus.  We’re born again into a new community.  Biblical Christianity isn’t just private piety but it is lived out in a gospel community; it is worked out with other people. 

So what does it look like to work out this Christian life?  So far, Paul has said it’s not about keeping rules and law; but what then is it instead?  Paul answers this in chapters 5&6. 

galatians 3:1-4:7. adopted as sons!

Part 2 of 3.  Taught by Dave Bish, Sept Team Days 2008, to the South West massive. 

If you want to get into 24, don’t start with Season 6.  You don’t start reading a book at the final chapter.  Yet we often approach the bible like this – we often think it only contains 27 books, the ones at the end.  Is this is what Paul is preaching to the Galatians?  Did he ignore the Old Testament?  In this section, Paul makes an 1800 year climb to get to the top, in his argument for justification by faith. 

galatians 2:11-3:1. to the cross!

Part 1 of 3.  Taught by Dave Bish, Sept Team Days 2008 to the South West Massive

Luther loved this book like his wife. It concerns a crucial doctrine: justification by faith.  Christianity is lost and flourishes on this doctrine – this gives us life. 

A distinctive letter: starts differently to Paul’s other letters: see 1v6.

A missional letter: concerned with mission.  It concerns the question: what is required of a Jew who becomes a Christian?  What must the world believe to become Christians? 

Similarly to Philippians, Paul uses lots of examples: his conversion, a visit to Jerusalem, a subsequent encounter with Peter.  This sets Paul up to teach the Galatians. 

 

the original jesus

‘The Original Jesus, or How the New Testament bears witness to him’

A Christological Survey & Summary of the New Testament, taught by John Stott at The London Lectures in Contemporary Christianity, 2000

Regardless of whatever people may think of him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in Western culture for almost 20 centuries. 3 particular ways we can notice his dominance:

(i) He is the centre of human history.  One third of world claims to be Christian, split history into BC/AD

(ii) He is the focus of Scripture.  Jerome: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, because the Scriptures are full of Christ.”

(iii) He is the heart of mission.  Why do Christians cross continents and cultures as missionaries?  To commend a person, Jesus Christ.

In this lecture, Stott considers the New Testament evidence for the Original Jesus, in general, except for the book of Revelation which he considers in a later lecture.  He summarises each New Testament book and in particular considers their teaching on Jesus Christ.  He proposes that the lecture series is appropriately called ‘The Incomparable Christ’, for there is nobody – past, present, or future – like Jesus.