The Mosaic Law

God’s Mosaic Law did not begin as a list of dos and don’ts, but a revealing of Who He Is, His very nature. In essence, He revealed Himself and said, "This is Me and I have created you like Me and I want you to be with Me." And remarkably, He gives a choice whether to accept His offer. 

God made a marriage proposal to Israel and she accepted! The Lord then set forth a covenant, such as the marriage vows a couple makes during their wedding ceremony, "Do you Groom take this Bride to be your lawfully wedded wife? And do you Bride take this Groom to be your lawfully wedded husband - exclusively unto one another?"

When you read the Mosaic Law from beginning to end, you will see that its primary motive is to show how to have a loving relationship with God and man. It reveals very intentional boundaries to insure pure and moral behavior with God and one another! God shares with us Who He Is, what pleases Him and what does not please Him, what is holy and what is not holy, what is clean and what is unclean. 

Again, the Mosaic Law was a type and shadow of the of a marriage contract between Israel and Messiah. In fact, what we attribute as the New Testament Law of Love, was the very cornerstone of the Mosaic Law?

“…You shall love the LORD your God and your’ neighbor as Yourself…” (Luke 10:27)

The Mosaic Law is conclusively 613 commandments; 248 are positive constructive commandments and 365 are negative prohibitive commandments. 

When the Mosaic Law commanded the Children of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves, these are commandments that build relationship, both in the spiritual and the natural. They are constructive commands. 

When the Mosaic Law commanded not to kill, steal, commit adultery, or covet, these commandments, these are prohibitive commands, they are to protect relationship from being destroyed. Furthermore, positive commands are the visionary motivation to return to our high place within, the image of God -- our redeemed identity of who we were before the fall. The negative prohibitive commands serve to caution us in our fallen state against and away from our urge to merge with bottom-feeder appetites! 

In other words, all the positive commands are working towards building an edifice to insure healthy relationships, both individually and corporately. And all the prohibitive laws are to protect that which was and is being built – much like a security fence around your house. The prohibitive laws are subsidiaries to the primary constructive laws. Consequently, there is a greater penalty required for breaking prohibitive laws because they are breaking down that which is being built – a relationship, which is of primary value! The Apostle Paul describes this way,

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Rom 13:8-14