p. 8 | The ROYAL LAW by F. C. Gilbert

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jun 13, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 23.

The ROYAL LAW

By F. C. Gilbert

(A Hebrew Christian.)

IV. WHAT THE JEWISH CHURCH DID WITH THE LAW.

AFTER the Lord had delivered to Israel His law and they were now organized into a people (Ex. 19:3-6), and into a church (Acts 7:38), Moses received command to take the law of Jehovah and to place it in the ark of the testimony. Deut. 10:2; Ex. 25:16. This instruction Moses carried out. 1 Kings 8:9; Ex. 40:20, 21. But God did not intend to leave them without any further instruction upon the subject, as He well knew how easily and how quickly the people would depart from His divine precepts. Yet there was ever to be kept before the minds of the people the immutable, eternal, and unchangeable character of God's law.

Laws of Ceremonies, or By-Laws.

Consequently, the Lord gave to Moses added instructions from time to time which he was commanded to write in a book (Ex. 24:4-8) and to frequently rehearse them to the people; and the people in turn were to instruct their children. Deut. 6:6, 7. As a result we have almost the entire matter of the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy comprising instructions. Deut. 31:22-24. But all these laws, rites, services, and ceremonies, were to explain the real meaning of the law which was given to them on Sinai, how they were to be kept from transgressing, and what they were to do should this law be violated. Deut. 4:9-13. This Decalogue was the basis of their natural as well as individual life. In other words, the law of Jehovah was the Constitution of the government of Israel.

But Israel was the chosen people of God, the people through whom the knowledge of God was to extend throughout the earth. Deut. 4:6-8. They were to be as a light to the other nations surrounding them; and the course they pursued was to reveal to all other people what it meant to be a member of God's government, and of God's people. The same law that was for them was for every other person of whatever race or nationality. Ex. 12:19-49; Num. 15:15, 16. While, therefore, the Ten Commandments constituted the Constitution of the government of Israel, there were given to them also a great many by-laws in the form of ceremonies and instructions, to make plain to them the meaning of the greatness and depth of the organic law.

Leaders Raised Up.

To make it as plain as He could for them, the Lord did not even give these laws to be administered by the people themselves. He chose special men—Moses, then Joshua, then judges, then prophets—and these special persons were given the endowment of the Holy Spirit. Num. 27:18-20. They were to be to the people the instructors of the commands of God. Everything possible that could be done for the people was furnished; and the Lord did all in His power to make Israel a special people, to preserve the knowledge of His truth through them, for all the inhabitants of the earth. Isa. 5:4. Yet, again and again they left God, they became idolaters, they turned from the truth, they became almost like the heathen. 2 Kings 17:8-11. If they were left to themselves for the very shortest time possible, they forsook God, and became sun-worshippers and idolaters. Eze. 8:16. This they did when Moses left them for but forty days. The same thing was repeated soon after the death of Joshua; so that a good share of the time for four hundred years they suffered afflictions and punishments at the hands of the Philistines and other nations for engaging in their idolatrous worship.

God raised them up seers and prophets, the first of whom was Samuel. 1 Sam. 9:9. Israel for a time had respect for the law of God. 1 Sam. 7:3, 4. Then, to assist them still further, God ordained all over the land schools, which became known as the "schools of the prophets." Samuel was the general superintendent, and he made tours to all these places every year, to see that the people were following the teachings of God. 1 Sam. 7:15-17. Other prophets were raised up, and Israel went along fairly well till the time of Solomon, when, as a result of his leaving the ways of God and turning to idolatry, he sowed the seeds of evil which were not effaced for centuries. The result finally was that the division came; then there were the ten tribes and the two tribes. In a very short time the ten tribes went into the deepest idolatry, and the battle was finally fought on the summit of Mount Carmel over the second commandment. God sent fire down from heaven and showed that He was the true God, and all the images and teraphim and ashera were nothing. 1 Kings 17:18. They finally were carried away captives. 2 Kings 17.

The two tribes continued for a time longer, till they refused to receive the instruction God sent them; they turned their backs on God's law, became gross idolaters, committed all the abominations of the heathen, until there was no healing for them, and for seventy years they were in the land of Babylon. 2 Chron. 36:14-18. While here God did not entirely forsake them, but occasionally manifested His power in His own behalf, and for His own name's sake. Still Israel kept forgetting His law and His truth, so that when the people returned from captivity their domestic and social conditions were of such a character that much

of the priesthood even was corrupted. See Ezra 2:61, 62; Nehemiah 13.

The People in Bondage to Tradition.

God raised up several men such as Ezra, Nehemiah, Mordecai, and others, to instruct the people in the way of the Lord; and Ezra in turn associated with him a number of men, and these men became the teachers of the people. The great burden of these teachers, however, was to instruct the people in the law of God, and to show them the right way, that they might nevermore become idolaters or ever forsake God's law again. But a very short time elapsed until there had arisen a great system of ecclesiasticism which developed into a great despotism, with the result that instead of the masses getting a true knowledge of God's law, and the meaning of those by-laws which were to make plain the original law of Jehovah, they had again almost entirely lost the knowledge of the law of Jehovah. Tradition had been put in the place of the truth. Man had been put in the place of God. The synagogue had been put in the place of true worship. The sayings of men had been substituted for the Word of God; and the true God and the knowledge of His truth was again lost to the church and the world. See "Practical Lessons," chapter 2.

This is what the Jewish church had done to the law; this was the condition of the church when the blessed Lord Jesus had appeared in person in this world. Men had for centuries again been in bondage to man, not in the bondage of a physical servitude as were their ancestors in the days of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, but in the bondage of spiritual slavery, while their masters, the rabbis, stood over them with the lash of anathema and excommunication, until the whole people were again crying unto God for deliverance from spiritual slavery. God again heard their cry, and sent them a Deliverer. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people." Luke 1:68. Jesus Christ came to deliver the people; for if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:32-36.