THE LAW OF MOSES One of the most basic things that divide people who call themselves Christians is how we handle “The Law of Moses,”  sometimes referred to simply as, “The Law.”  We are talking about the first five books of the Old Testament written by Moses.  Gentiles refer to this as the “Pentateuch” (collection of five).  Rightly so, the Jews, rightly so, reverently refer to this as “The Torah.”  All the rest of the Old Testament, the writings, history, poetry, and prophets, revolve around the first five books of God’s originally written revelation of Himself to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let me remind all who read this that the New Testament (Covenant) is not an addendum to the Old Testament (Covenant).  The New Testament (Covenant) is exactly that - NEW!  “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He (God) has made the first obsolete.   Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old (Jeremiah’s time) is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). Now, let us understand that God gave a perfect covenant to Moses, and it is impossible for God to do anything less than perfect; however, there was a problem with the first covenant.  It was not on God’s part, but rather on man’s part.  “All have sinned…” (Rom. 3:23). You see, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.” (Heb. 8:7).  The Old/Mosaic covenant ultimately becomes “a shadow (covenant) of things to come, but the substance (real thing/covenant) is of Christ” (Col. 2:17). Jews and Gentiles today need to consider some serious problems with the Law of Moses.   Firstly, it is only given to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  That leaves the rest of us with an uncertain genealogy out of God’s favor without hope.  Secondly, the Old Covenant was dedicated with the blood sacrifices of bulls and goats.  Read Hebrews 9:11-15; and observe the superiority of the one-time sinless, perfect lamb of God blood sacrifice Jesus made in comparison to that of the Old Covenant’s bulls and goats.  Thirdly, observe that those Old Covenant bull and goat sacrifices can never make one perfect (sinless) before God.  It is not possible that the Old Covenant plan of the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (Heb. 10:1-4). The replacement plan of God in the second covenant is not some afterthought of God’s, as if He could be or were caught off guard.  One of the most outstanding prophecies of this is found in Jeremiah 31: 31-34, and is quoted by the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 8:8-12.  This climax of human history was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:19-20).  Our God is in charge.  He does know what He is doing even before Adam and Eve are created.  Great is our God regarding His love and foreknowledge of all things. Now, having said all that, let us remind ourselves that though the Old Testament is not our binding covenant today, we must still read it and study it.  There are important lessons for New Testament Christians to learn about both God and themselves.  From the Old Covenant we observe God’s track record.  He is always reliable, true, dependable, present, and powerful.  These are important things for Christians to learn about God.  “For whatever things were written before (Old Covenant) were written for our (Christian) learning…”   (Rom. 15:4).  The Old Testament things that happened in the past are to be examples for us and were written for our (Christian’s) admonition (1 Cor. 10:11).   Because of Christ, Christians, who in times past were viewed as Jews or Gentiles, are now reconciled or made right before God with the perfect, sinless sacrifice made on the cross.  Through Christ, God has abolished the enmity (division/hostility) that has existed in times past under the Old Covenant between Jews and Gentiles and now has made both ONE (Eph. 2:14-18).  In the New Covenant Christians are encouraged not to make them- selves into Jewish Christians.  Following or trying to follow the Law of Moses gets us into an “I can earn it, I can do the works” mindset where we focus upon ourselves.  Having this mindset takes away from the faith we are invited to have in our God (Gal. 3:11, 12).   Christians are free to simply follow Christ.  We don’t have to follow any pattern that causes us to be entangled with a yoke of bondage, as we were in the past (Gal. 5:1).  Remember, the Law of Moses was temporary and served a purpose till the Seed (descendant of Abraham, Christ) should come (Gal. 3:19).   What was the purpose of the Law of Moses?  For the Jews it was to be a tutor to bring God’s people in that first covenant to the awareness that the Messiah was coming.  The purpose of the law was to prepare a spiritual people through whom God could send the Messiah and Savior for His faithful Old Covenant people and all people.  God keeps His covenant to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Gentile) (Rom. 1:16) in making the gospel known. God has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us (Gentiles – alienating us), which was contrary to us.  God has taken those written requirements out of the way, having nailed them to the cross (killing them) (Col. 2:13-17).  This is God’s plan, not yours or mine.  We simply need to see and understand the rest of the story regarding Christ Jesus and be thankful for Him.