The Importance of God's Law (even for Christians) -- a study of Deuteronomy 4
- mww
- Oct 22
- 23 min read
Updated: Oct 24
God's laws enable us to be truly human.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Deuteronomy 4
This week is our first lesson in Deuteronomy, so we will get an overview of the book. In our passage, Moses focuses on the importance of obedience (particularly in rejecting idolatry). Have they learned the lesson from their failures in the past? Are they prepared to trust that God knows what's best for their religion, culture and society in the Promised Land?
so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord (4:1)
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Painful Lessons
What's a painful lesson you have learned? If you use a topic like this first, keep it on the lighter side. Humorous lessons like "pay attention to which door says enter and exit" or "write down your password in a safe place".
Obviously, this topic can get very serious very quick. We've all learned some very painful lessons, and many of us would say that they have been some of our most important lessons in life.
The point of this topic would be this: if we have learned a painful lesson, we really want to remember it, right? The only thing worse than a painful lesson is having to learn it twice.
And that's exactly what Moses will say to the people in this week's passage.
What Do People Add or Subtract from the Bible?
Thomas Jefferson famously had a copy of the Bible from which he had removed everything he didn't like. I daresay it's safe to say that people still do that today.
What do people add to the Bible?
What do people subtract from the Bible?
Sometimes this is really obvious -- like Mormons adding The Book of Mormon to their scripture, or Catholics adding their councils and papal bulls. And we can see where that has gotten them. Sometimes this is more subtle -- like "cleanliness is next to godliness" or "God helps those who help themselves" -- truths that aren't in the Bible but greatly affect how someone interprets the Bible.
Just as common are those people who ignore the things in the Bible that they don't like. That's basically how liberal Christianity got to where it is -- the Bible does not support their understanding of the world, therefore they threw the Bible out.
I'm much more interested in how normal, Bible-believing Christians can do this (often unintentionally). Is it from lack of familiarity with the Bible? Is it from lack of prayer and communion with the Spirit? Is it from overreliance on worldly voices? What do you think?
Where in the World Do People Want to Live?
There are all kinds of rankings of countries. US News and World Report has a quality of life ranking that starts Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway. The Forbes ex-pat survey starts Panama, Columbia, Mexico, Thailand. The getgoldenvisa (?!) rankings start Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Australia. I guess my point is that there are lots of different ways to rank countries.
Where do the people you know want to live, and why? (In other words, it's not enough to say "America is the greatest country in the world" -- why do you/others think that?)
If you use this topic, I would suggest taking it to the next level. It's pretty clear from a lot of the country rankings that they're mostly about what the country provides for the person living there. Let me channel my inner JFK that I didn't know I had -- what should you be willing to do to make your favorite country an even better place to live?
The connection with this week's passage is Moses' words that God gave Israel the laws He did so that the rest of the world would see what true, godly living looked like and be amazed. They would "envy" the Jews and desire to live the same way. My topic idea is a combination of "what do people envy in a country's lifestyle today?" and "where does godliness fit into people's desires for their lifestyle?". I like the possibilities, and I hope to have it better fleshed out by Sunday. Of course, that doesn't help you a whole lot . . .
How Would You Describe Your Utopia?
What's your perfect place to live? Your perfect society? How would everybody act? What would happen there?
If your group is Bible-literate, ask how their utopia compares with heaven? If it's different, do they need to change their view of utopia?
This Week's Big Idea: Deuteronomy!
Deuteronomy is the key to understanding the Old Testament (from an Old Testament perspective). In it, Moses explains what happened before and why, and he gives the framework through which the rest of the authors understand future Jewish history -- blessings and curses.
First, note that the title is a bit of a mistake. "Deuteronomy" means "second law", and this book is actually a recap of laws already given. The title comes from 17:18, where the king (more on this below) is told to make a "copy" of the law (but not a new law).
Jesus cited Deuteronomy more than any other book.
Deuteronomy is Moses' last words to his people. He is the primary source. However, it's obvious that later editors edited the text, like adding the account of Moses' death. There are also a number of places where Moses is written about in the third person, and a couple of references -- like that to the king -- were clearly added later. But the content is from Moses -- of that, God's people have been sure for thousands of years.
Major Themes:
There is one true God.
God's people should be united.
God has revealed Himself.
Judgment must come for all who reject God.
God's laws are necessary for human living.
God's people must choose to obey.
The Importance of the Law
I've attached an article on this topic to the end of this post. In both the Old and New Testaments, obedience to God is a central theme. Christians who feel otherwise have clearly not read the Bible carefully.
The long and short is this: God created the world, and God created humans. Therefore, only by obedience to God's law can we prosper and live successfully in God's world. Only by living according to God's rules can we enjoy life the way God intended. And indeed, the behaviors set in God's law is the only meaningful picture of what it means to be truly human.
Yes, the law is filled with disturbing consequences for violating those rules, but all we have to do is look around us to see the prevalence and effects of sin. Those parts of the law are what we might call "regrettable necessities". The point of sharing them was deterrence -- if the people had simply obeyed the law, none of those things would have mattered.
The law is not filled with punishments; it's filled with protections. For this reason the OT asserts that the law has been given for our good, to bring us to a hitherto unrealized fullness of life. Obeying the law is not some sort of new bondage to a slaver god, but rather proof that our bondage to sin is past.
You might say, "But isn't all of the gone in Christ?" Okay -- Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf, but He did not set it aside. If anything, He gave us a fuller picture of what the law really meant. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). God's law tells God's people how to live in God's world. But those laws don't (and were never intended to) cover every decision and behavior. Rather, they were and are a kind of "tutor" to get us started, and now in Christ, with the Holy Spirit living in us, we have everything we need to truly live as “little Christs” in a fallen world. But we simply have to look at ourselves and the world around us to see that we constantly need “tutoring”, and thus the Old Testament law is always a valuable resource to be reminded of the kind of behavior God expects out of His people in a sinful world.
What Do Christians Do with the Law?
We should all know that we don't obey the law in order to be saved. So, why do we care about the law at all? A lot of Christian teachers divide the law into three categories:
Civil laws related to the fact that Israel was (is) a nation; just as American laws don't apply to people living in another country, those civil laws don't apply to non-Israelites.
Ceremonial laws related to the fact that Judaism was (is) a religion; because Christianity is not Judaism, those ceremonial laws don't apply to Christians.
Moral laws that apply to all people in all places at all times.
In other words, we look to the moral laws for guidance today, and we just kinda ignore the rest. If that kind of categorization helps you understand and apply the law, then use it.
But technically, the entire law has been fulfilled in Christ. Christians are not "obligated" to follow the Ten Commandments any more than anything else in the old law. But the Holy Spirit speaks to us that those Ten Commandments accurately reflect how God views His world, and therefore it is right for us to live by them -- not because we have to, but because we trust that God's principles give us a better way to live.
I like this statement in my NIV Study Bible:
What kind of God would forbid other gods and idols? A God committed to truth and reality. What kind of God would forbid violating his name and identity? A God committed to his own holiness. What kind of God command a Sabbath law? A God committed to the re-creation of his world and the liberty and rest of his creatures.
Does that make sense?
Outline of Deuteronomy
Introduction (1:1-5)
Speech 1: the Past (1:6-4:42) -- how we got here
Speech 2: the Present (4:44-28:68) -- you must have sole allegiance to God
Speech 3: the Future (29:1-32:52) -- blessings and curses, what happens next
Benediction (33:1-29)
Speech 2 has a lot of what we probably think of when we think of this book -- commands and rules. But it's certainly not dry. We read the Ten Commandments, the Shema, instructions for worship and festivals, the Jubilee Year, Cities of Refuge, blessings and curses. It's an incredibly effective summary of everything we've read in the Bible to this point.
Just as effective as anything I could write are these videos by the Bible Project:
Part 1: Learn from Your Past (Deuteronomy 4:1-4)
Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live, enter, and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the Lord your God I am giving you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed every one of you who followed Baal of Peor. 4 But you who have remained faithful to the Lord your God are all alive today.
Moses has just given the people a brief history lesson --
God brought the people out of Egypt
The people sent scouts into the Promised Land
10 scouts convinced the people to rebel
The people wandered for 40 years
The new generation came back to the edge of the land
God has already defeated multiple enemies
Joshua is soon to take over leadership from Moses
"Now, Israel, this is what it all means."
This should only make sense. The whole reason the people were in the mess is because they didn't trust God. And because they didn't trust Him, they didn't obey Him. Did they learn their lesson?
Certainly, obeying God will be necessary for "taking possession of the land", but for the long-term, it will be necessary for living there. We'll talk more about this in the next section -- God's laws help God's people live meaningful, fulfilling, abundant lives.
"Statues and ordinances" occurs throughout the book; the terms are used interchangeably of what we call the entire "Mosaic Law".
Moses reminds of something we highlighted last week: the Promised Land doesn't belong to the Israelites; it is God's land, and He is graciously allowing the people to live there. Their "right" to the land is based on the covenant they made with God (the "statues and ordinances") -- obey that covenant, and they will live the kind of life that God intended for all humanity.
That's why they were not to add or subtract anything to the law. Subtraction would result in some kind of law being ignored (and thus violated). Addition meant that they found God's law insufficient (which is the same kind of rebellion that got them into their original mess).
Important Aside: What Does This Mean for Christians?
If we're not supposed to add or subtract anything to the law, why don't Christians obey the law in full? Remember what I said above. Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf, and in the Sermon on the Mount He taught us that the law was just a "starting view" into the kind of life God wants people to live. We should not have to skim through Deuteronomy all the time because we should be sensitive to the Holy Spirit guiding us through life. A big reason for this is that Christians are not Jews. We don't live in Israel. We live in the world as God's ambassadors to the lost people around us. That's a very different circumstance, and it demands an even stricter obedience to God (which we should feel in the influence that sinful people try to have on us at all times).
In summary, the Mosaic Law (what Moses talks about in this passage) does not apply to Christians as it did to those Jews. But our call to strict obedience to God in all things does equally apply to us. What do we obey? For the sake of making this discussion possible in a few minutes, we can start with the commands given in the New Testament. Maybe even just start with the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission. But when you study those things carefully, you will see a lot of roots in the Old Testament. In other words, learning the Old Testament helps us understand the New Testament.
This is also why we say "the canon is closed". The Bible is complete. It was written by Moses and God's Old Testament prophets, and also Jesus' disciples. They have revealed to us what God wants us to know. We are not to add anything to it or subtract anything from it.
Back to the passage.
Baal-peor. We skipped over this; it happened while Balaam was not cursing Israel, even though they clearly deserved to be cursed. (God in the Old Testament is full of grace!) You can find this in Numbers 25 -- lots of Israelites chose to worship one of the gods of their neighbors, and many Israelites were destroyed. God's command to wipe out all traces of His enemies applied to His own people! If His own people turned, they fell under the same command.
The people, even this new generation, had firsthand experience of obeying God and disobeying God. The obvious commitment is to obey God.
How committed are you to obeying God?
Part 2: Trust God's Purposes (Deuteronomy 4:5-9)
5 Look, I have taught you statutes and ordinances as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to possess. 6 Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him? 8 And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
9 Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
This is where all of that information about "the law" is really useful. People tend to think of laws as restrictive (or even arbitrary). But God's law helps people live the way He intended. It helps us "be truly human". And wouldn't God know best?
For the moment, set aside the criminal consequences spelled out in the law. What does the law describe? The law describes a society in which
the people are respectful of one another,
the poor, the orphan, and the widow are cared for,
the people gather regularly to celebrate God's blessings,
the people emphasize nuclear and extended family,
the people live in harmony with one another,
the people share their truth with the world around them.
Doesn't that sound great? Doesn't that sound like a great "evangelistic tool"? Indeed it does! And how is that any different than sharing the gospel with someone and talking about how Jesus gives you peace and joy and fulfillment and a loving church?
When God's people live God's way, it appeals to the rest of the world. Why? Because God created all humans with that desire to live His way. Sin has distorted that but not removed it.
And that's why Moses told the people to be diligent about remembering those laws and teaching them to their children. Do we not do the same thing by gathering regularly for Bible study (for all ages)?
Specifically, what are the things we are to remember regularly and to teach our children and grandchildren? Are we doing that as a church? Are you doing that in your family?
Part 3: Beware the Temptation to Stray (Deuteronomy 4:15-20)
15 Diligently watch yourselves—because you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb— 16 so you don’t act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of any figure: a male or female form, 17 or the form of any animal on the earth, any winged creature that flies in the sky, 18 any creature that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the waters under the earth. 19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the stars in the sky—do not be led astray to bow in worship to them and serve them. The Lord your God has provided them for all people everywhere under heaven. 20 But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for his inheritance, as you are today.
Our lesson skips a few verses in which Moses explains that he was the mediator of God's law -- the people didn't talk to God directly (because they were terrified), so Moses talked to God and reported what he saw and heard.
As a result, the people might be tempted to build an idol to represent God, just like all of the people around them have done. This is why God specifically commanded them not to do that (the Second Commandment). And of all of the commandments, Moses specifically reiterates that commandment here, in great detail. Why do you think that is? Why this commandment about idolatry?
God, the true God, is Spirit, meaning He has no physical form (He can choose to represent Himself by any form He wants, but He is not bound by physics in any way). And that's hard (impossible) for humans to grasp; we like things to be tangible, because we are tangible beings.
But a sinful nudge is all it takes for us to cross over from appreciating or loving one of those amazing tangible things in the world to worshiping it out of a desire to worship something physical. It's what the peoples in the land of Canaan did, and the Israelites were about to enter that land. (Remember God's command from last week to completely destroy all evidence of their idolatry?)
What happens when people start worshiping an idol?
How can that happen to Christians today?
Last week, I mentioned Kyle Idleman's book Gods at War; I think it's more applicable this week. An idol is anything that would supplant God at the center of your heart. That could be your time, your allegiance, or your source of truth. And lots of things can do that -- things like money, your job, your health, even your family. Anything can become an idol to us if we are not diligent and on guard at all times. A Christian might not literally worship the sun, but there are plenty of other things that we might not realize have become an idol.
What are the "idols" you need to be on the lookout for in your life? What are the things that Satan can use to distract you from your relationship with Jesus?
And finally, something the Lifeway material rightly emphasizes and that the article below explains in powerful detail, do you understand the importance of obedience to your relationship with God? And that means everything -- your worship, your prayer life, your spiritual vitality, all of it is directly tied to your obedience to God. How's your obedience?
Are you starting to see what a great book Deuteronomy is? Yes, Moses' words had a specific application to the Jews of that day, but they are filled with wisdom that can help Christians of every age and era.
Closing Thoughts: "The Biblical Concept of Law"
This is that article by J. A. Motyer about the law in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. I've highlighted a few of the lines that I found particularly helpful to understanding his point.
Law, Biblical Concept of. The truest window we possess into the mind and life of the OT believer is the Book of Psalms. Here we meet the saints of the old covenant in their joys and sorrows; we feel the weight of their problems and covet the richness of their spirituality. At the center lies the law of the Lord. Taking verses at random from Psalm 119, we find God's law is a delight (v. 92), an object of love (v. 97), venerated as truth (v. 142), a means of peace (v. 165) and liberty (v. 45), and a treasure above all earthly wealth (v. 72). To say that we do not customarily think of OT law in these terms is to admit that we have fallen into the error of identifying the Pharisees of the NT with the saints of the OT, forgetful that to the Lord Jesus, Pharisaic Judaism was a plant his heavenly Father had not planted (Matt. 15:13) and that he himself was the perfect example of life under the law.
God's Law in God's World. From the beginning God's law lay at the center of his dealings with humankind. The major focus of Genesis 2 the Creator's benevolence and bounty toward his chief creature-does not obscure the fact that humankind in the garden was under law and that it was through obedience that they entered into life. The balance of things is seen in the contrast between "every tree" that is there for our enjoyment and the single tree that is forbidden. Yet in that single tree was enshrined the principle of law. Thus, at the outset the Bible joins together that enduring partnership, obedience and life. Obedience safeguarded the enjoyment of the life that was life indeed, disobedience not only forfeited that life but replaced it by a death-bearing opposite. In Genesis 3, with disobedience came the birth of a bad conscience (v. 8), the replacement of love by resentment (v. 12), the corruption of marriage (v. 16), and, most notably from our present point of view, the dislocation of man from his environment (vv. 17-19), which turns to fight against him and only grudgingly and at great cost furnishes a sufficiency for life.
The rest of the OT perpetuates this view of people in their environment: only by obedience to God's law can we prosper and live successfully in God's world. The very environment itself turns against the disobedient. The earth is defiled by lawbreakers (Lev. 18:24-30) and "vomits out" those who fail to keep the law (Lev. 20:22). Behind this concept of the moral vitality of the environment lies one aspect of the OT theology of the Spirit of the Lord: he was operative in creation (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6), and his activity is seen in both the renewal and decay of plants (Ps. 104:30; Isa. 40:7). The life that vitalizes the environment is God's life, full of his holiness.
Thus, the OT has a distinct environmentalism to share with us, and at its center lies the law of God the Creator.
The Two Images of God. Humankind in the Image of God. Humankind is the crown of the creativity of God. The threefold use of the verb "to create" in Genesis 1:27 marks humankind as both the creature par excellence and the perfect creative act. This human uniqueness is summed up in the description "in our image, in our like-ness," words that are used uniformly throughout the OT of outward form or shape, and this must be their leading idea here too. This does not mean that visibility, form, and shape are part of the divine essence, for God is Spirit. Nonetheless, the OT reveals (e.g., Judg. 13:3, 6, 10, 15) that there is an outward shape uniquely suited to (though not essential to) the divine perfection, and in that image (selem) and likeness (dẽmut) we were created. But every other aspect also of our nature is related, directly or indirectly in the Genesis narrative, to the image of God: matrimonial (1:26-27; 5:1-2), governmental (1:28), spiritual (subject to personal address by God: 1:28, contrast the bare fiat of 1:22), moral (2:15-17), and rational (2:19-20). The uniqueness of the divine image permeates human nature and constitutes a definition of what humankind truly is. [Editor's Note: in other words, true humanity is what God made us, not what we think we can make of ourselves]
Law in the Image of God. Turning now to a very different genre of Scripture, we find in Leviticus 19 that God has provided another image of himself on earth. Every aspect of human experience is gathered into this rich review of life under God's law: filial duty (v. 3), religious commitment (v. 4), ritual exactness (v. 5), care of the needy (v. 9), honesty in deed and word (vv. 11-12), and many more, touching on relationships and even on dress, hygiene, and horticulture. Yet all this variety suspends from one central truth: "I am the LORD." Lord is the divine name, the "I AM WHO I AM" (Exod. 3:14), so that the significance of the recurring claim is not "You must do what I tell you" (i.e., "lord" as an authority word) but "You must do this or that because I AM WHO I AM"; every precept of the law is a reflection of "WHO I AM." Humankind is the living, personal image of God; the law is the written, perceptual image of God. The intention of Leviticus 19 is declared at the outset: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (v. 2). The Lord longs for his people to live in his image, and to that end he has given them his law.
A Truly Human Life. The nature of humankind is the image of God, and the law is given both to activate and to direct that nature into a truly human life; any other life is subhuman. Of course, it is true that in a world of sinners the law, regrettably, has to give itself to the task of curbing and rebuking antisocial and degrading practices, but OT law has, to a far greater extent, the function of liberating humans to live according to their true nature. For it is only when people find the law of liberty that they become free.
For this reason the OT asserts that the law has been given for our good, to bring us to a hitherto unrealized fullness of life (Deut. 4:1; 5:33; 8:1).
The Pillars of True Religion. The full flowering of the law of God in the OT came through the ministry of Moses and in the context of that foundational series of events that began with the exodus and climaxed at Mount Sinai.
Grace and Law. A major truth emerges simply in the way in which the Exodus story is told. Egypt was the scene of a twofold act of God: liberation and redemption. The former was achieved by the tenth plague (Exod. 11:1) and actually brought to Israel all they had sought in crying to the Lord (Exod. 2:23). But the Lord himself had something further in mind: he promised also redemption (Exod. 6:6) as a distinct exercise on his part and, to accomplish it, added the Passover: In this way Israel became the people who took shelter beneath the blood of the lamb (Exod. 12:13, 22-23) and who, by sheltering, were saved from the wrath of God (Exod. 12:12) and were initiated into a life of pilgrimage (Exod. 12:11) Pharaoh would have made them outcasts (Exod. 11:1); the blood and the flesh of the lamb made them the Lord's redeemed pilgrims. It was this people-the people liberated and redeemed by grace-who came to Mount Sinai.
Sinai was not a chance stopping place on the journey but an intended, primary destination (Exod. 3:12), and thither they were led by the pillar of cloud and fire (Exod. 13:21-22). The people redeemed by blood were brought by their Redeemer to the place of lawgiving (Exod. 20:2). Grace precedes law; the law of God is not a system of merit whereby the unsaved seek to earn divine favor but a pattern of life given by the Redeemer to the redeemed so that they might know how to live for his good pleasure. Such is the biblical understanding of the place and function of law.
The Way of Holiness by Obedience. The law that God gave through Moses had many aspects e.g., civil, dealing with the legal system of the people of God considered as a state, with courts and penalties; moral, the law of holy living; and religious, the law of the ceremonies and sacrifices. It is the latter two that concern us here.
The first desire of the redeemer God is that his redeemed should be obedient. To keep the law is not a new bondage but a proof that the old bondage was past (Exod. 20:2). The lawgiving led up to a pledge of obedience (Exod. 24:7) that matched the longing of the Lord (Deut. 5:29).
With the law so central to life, it is understandable that the OT should develop a rich legal vocabulary. In logical order, the first word descriptive of God's law is "testimonies" ('édâ, e.g., Ps. 119:2 KJV). In his law the Lord has "testified" regarding himself and his requirements. This self-revelation was given in "teaching" (tôrâ, e.g., Ps. 119:1), such as a loving parent would impart (cf., e.g., Prov. 3:1; 6:20). Once given, the teaching is a "word" (dabar, e.g., Ps. 119:28) to live by, an intelligible body of truth to be pondered and ap-plied. But the Lord's testimony is also imperative, taking the form of "statute" (hoq, a permanent enactment, e.g., Ps. 119:5 KJV), "judgment" (mispat, authoritative decision, e.g., Ps. 119:7), "precept" (piqqûd, e.g., Ps. 119:4), and "com-mandment" (miswâ, e.g., Ps. 119:10), applying the law to the details of life. As a whole, God's law is a "way" (derek, e.g., Ps. 119:37 KJV) or characteristic lifestyle.
In the OT as in the NT (e.g., Acts 5:32) obedience is a means of grace. The narrative of Genesis 2-3 provides a historical visual aid: obedience gave access to the tree of life; disobedience promised self-enhancement (Gen. 3:5) but brought death. Throughout the OT this remains the mirror of the true. A life based on the law of the Lord is constantly nourished by secret springs and is consistently fruitful (Ps. 1:2-3); it is under the blessing of God (Ps. 1:1), for by his law the Lord has made his people secure from bondage (Exod 20:2). The psalmist speaks for every true believer when he testifies that the way of obedience is the way of true liberty (Ps. 119:45).
The Way of Fellowship. In the covenant ceremony of Exodus 24:4-8 the ritual of the blood matches the two focal points of the Passover: the people sheltering beneath the blood both enjoy peace with God and also are committed to pilgrimage. Thus it is that Moses first sprinkles the blood on the altar—a Godward movement reflecting the central Passover theology of propitiation. But next, as soon as the people have committed themselves to the way of obedience, the rest of the blood is sprinkled over them; the blood covers the needs of the redeemed throughout their walk of pilgrim obedience.
In the covenant ceremony it is also to be noted that the presence of the Lord in the midst of his people is symbolized by an altar, for it is the blood of sacrifice that alone secures and maintains fellowship between Redeemer and redeemed. The permanence of the people in the divine presence is symbolized by stone pillars - stone for durability - but, while thus in his presence, their activity is to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Blood had brought them into peace with God, and blood would maintain his fellowship by means of the appointed offerings.
The other side of the same reality is seen in Leviticus 9. The Aaronic priesthood has just been introduced into its sacred function (Lev. 8) and now for the first time celebrates the full round of levitical sacrifices: the sin offering (9:8), the burnt offering (v. 12), and the fellowship offering (v. 18). The climax follows: "The glory of the LORD appeared to all the people" (v. 23), this being the foretold purpose of the sacrifices (v. 6). The sacrifices are thus designed for the expression, enjoyment, and maintenance of fellowship with God.
Three main sacrifices were enjoined: the burnt offering, the fellowship offering, and the sin offering. The burnt offering expressed the double idea of acceptance before God and dedication to God. Its aroma is sweet to the Lord (Lev. 1:9), indicating his delight to accept it and the one who offers it (cf. Gen. 8:20-21). The truth of acceptance is underlined when the burnt offering reappears in token form in the fellowship offering; the fat of the offering (Lev. 3:3-5, 9-11, 14-16) is regarded as a burnt offering in miniature and is called "the food of the offering" (Lev. 3:11 KJV; cf 21:8). This means that the Lord, accepting the offering and the offerer, is delighted to sit at table with him, condescending to participate in the feast of reconciliation. But the burnt offering also expresses dedication. In Genesis 22 the Lord exercised his right to claim all, and in responding with a burnt offering, Abraham was holding nothing back (v. 12). The story of the offering of Isaac, ruling out forever the admissibility of human sacrifice, established at the same time the heart-searching standard of devotion the burnt offering expressed.
The fellowship offering looked toward both God and humanity. Godward, it expressed thanksgiving and personal love (Lev. 7:12, 16), but it was commanded that this joyous response to God's goodness should be marked also by fellowship with others: the priest has his share (Lev. 7:31-34), and we find the command of Leviticus 7:16 fulfilled in the family celebration of Deuteronomy 12:7.
The object of the sin offering was forgiveness. Awareness of a particular fault brought the individual sinner with his offering (Lev. 4:23), and the result was divine forgiveness (Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35).
Two acts are common to all three main categories of sacrifice: the laying on of hands (Lev. 1:4; 3:2; 4:4) and the ritual of the blood (Lev. 1:5; 3:2; 4:5-6). In connection with burnt offerings and sin offerings these acts are explicitly linked with making atonement (Lev. 1:4; 4:20, 26), and the sacrifices thus find their focus in the price-paying concepts of a substitution-based theology.
That the OT concept of law is, in fact, the biblical concept of law is nowhere seen more clearly than in the continuance throughout the Bible of the same pillars of true religion: grace and law. For the purpose of God remains the same, the obedience of his people, and it remains true that those who thus walk in the light find that the blood of Jesus Christ keeps cleansing them from all their sin.