Exodus

If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. Exo 22:5 

 

I am reading in Exodus at this time.  Israel has been delivered mightily from Egypt and are now at the foot of Sinai receiving the Law at the voice of Yahweh thundering forth from the smoke enveloping the mountain.

 

The thing that occurs to me is that at this point in time, the Law is only potential.  An example is the law stated above.  At the time that the Law was given, no Israelite owned any vineyards.  The Law was given in anticipation of Israel entering into the Promised Land.

 

In just a short time from when the Law was pronounced audibly by Yahweh, Moses went up the mountain to receive the tablets with the Decalogue—the Ten Commandments, engraved by the finger of God, and while he was up there, the people turned to idolatry and reveling.

 

For this, that generation of Israelites was cursed to die in the wilderness, made to wander for forty years.  And yet during all that time, the Law did not change.  The Law, whether or not they could understand it, was a prelude to the Promise given.  It was a certain Hope.

 

That generation of Israelites that bore the curse had the hope that their children would inherit the land, else why would they bother trekking through a desert with only the prospect of death before them?  They took with them the Law that they knew that they never could fulfill and taught their children from it in anticipation of their children's inheritance.

 

And so it is with we who are Christians.  We have received a promise of a Place where we will never suffer and will never go hungry.  It is a Place of Peace and Love, where every man is a brother and every woman a sister.  A Place where we will see the face of God, and be called the Children of the Living God.  A Place entered into by Faith.  Right now we stumble at the Fruits of the Spirit as we Wander, but there we will realize the full potential of those Fruits.

 

It is a Place where the natural man has no entrance, where only those born again—or from above as the Greek dictates—may enter.  Our old man, the flesh, has a long trek through the wilderness, but we have the Hope of the Promise set before us that the New Man will surely enter in.  We have our Moses, Jesus Christ, going with us step by step, as the Angel of the Living God,

 

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 

Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 

But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. Exo 23:20-22 

 

And there, we will see the fullness of God's law, and that is LOVE.  (Al Bacon)