Totally: Getting to Know Our Knowing, Present, Capable, Caring GodSample

Through Moses, God freed His people from slavery and continued to keep His covenant with Abraham. God had promised that He would grow Abraham’s descendants into a great nation, deliver them from slavery, and take them to the land He had set aside for them (see Genesis 15).

On the way to that promised land, God entered into another covenant, this time with an entire nation—the Israelites. God didn’t just offer His blessing. This time, He also required obedience. God had saved His people, so He expected them to live like it. His interaction with them would show the world what He was like and earn Him the praise and recognition He deserved.

This Mosaic covenant—also known as the Old Covenant (see 2 Corinthians 3:14)—was conditional (see Genesis 19-24). As long as Israel lived up to God’s expectations, God would treat them like His treasured possession, but if they failed, they would experience the consequences of that failure. God would not disown them, but they would be disciplined for their rebellion against God (see Deuteronomy 28:58-64). Because people are just people, the Israelites did not keep up their end of the covenant. Eventually, God would exile His people from the promised land for their rebellion (see 2 Chronicles 36:14-21).

God gave Moses the law through the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20). The purpose of the law was to show God’s people what He was like and to set standards for their own behavior as His representatives. God is TOTALLY knowing. He never thought for a moment that His people could keep all of the commandments without fail. That’s why He set up the sacrificial system that allowed His people to pay the penalty for their sins and right their wrongs (see Leviticus 1-10). God wanted His people to be able to stay in right relationship with Him because He is merciful.

God never meant for His law to serve as a form of rescue or a pathway into perfect relationship with God. He meant for it to serve as an eye-opener that reveals to us our own weaknesses and need for God to rescue us (see Romans 3:20).

If we didn’t have God’s law as recorded in His Word, the Bible, we wouldn’t turn to Him to be saved because we wouldn’t see the need. God’s Law is a gift.