I don't want to give the impression that our approach to the Scriptures and the Torah in particular is one where we are free to pick and choose according to our personal preferences. While it would be seem simpler to either accept or reject the books of Moses and the Sinai covenant, that really isn't an option. As I have already explained, we cannot keep the Sinai Covenant is due to the destruction of the Temple and the termination of the sacrificial system. This alone forces us to discern what is applicable to our own day.
The destruction of the Temple does not mean that we are left with remnants of the Torah, since Torah is actually more than what we find contained in Moses' writings.
One of the passages that has helped see that there is more to Torah than the commandments of the books of Moses is Vayikra / Leviticus 18. Here we see a list of illicit intimate relationships, including, but not limited to incestuous ones. After the list is given we read, "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled" (18:24). This means that God was holding the non-Jewish nations to a particular standard apart from them knowing the details of God's revelation to Moses. We don't know if they knew these details or not. Either way, their engagement in such practices resulted in harsh judgment. Their being called to account was not due to the establishment of the Sinai covenant, but rather according to eternal principles of God.
Israel on the other hand was given a much broader standard to live by on the basis of the promises to the ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. These things were not shared by the other nations.
So we see that God has always had a standard for all peoples even though there may be differences in those standards depending on his dealings with that particular nation.
Therefore as we look into this further, we need to discern what are the eternal principles that God continues to set for us.
1 comment:
It helped me to realize that right and wrong are not arbitrary standards set up by God, but reflections of His character. Something is right because it is like God; something is wrong because it is not like God.
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