Are We to obey any of the Old Testament Law?

 

Old Testament legislation was better known as the Law of Moses or the Mosaic Law. God started instituting the Law on the day the Hebrews exited Egypt during the inaugural Passover.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for the household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You make take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire – its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

And thus, you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike the firstborn in the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you when I strike the land of Egypt.

‘So, this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat – that only may be prepared by you. So, you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land’” (Ex 12;1-20).

The Passover along with the Feast of Unleavened Bread were the first feasts instituted in Israel. To read about the other Mosaic feasts go to Leviticus chapter twenty-three.

The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah which means instruction. In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy is where Moses reveals all of God’s laws and customs to His people. This consisted of ceremonial laws, dietary laws, religious festivals, and civil and moral laws.

The ten commandments or decalogue where some of earliest laws given to Israel. There are some perhaps many people who wonder if the ten commandments are applicable to us today. Yes, they are apart from the fourth commandment which says, “Remember the Sabbath Day, keep it holy” (Ex 20:8). There may be some Christians who disagree with me regarding the Sabbath; they may believe that we should observe it like the Seventh Day Adventists. The Bible gives us latitude regarding days. Romans 14:5 tells us this, “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems everyday alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” The Sabbath was the day of rest for the nation Israel. They were to do no work on that day because the Lord rested after He was done creating the world and everything in it. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day which on our calendar is Saturday (Gen 2:2-3; Ex 20:8).

The only part of the Mosaic Law we are to observe and obey today is the moral part of the law. We are not subject to their dietary restrictions or their religious ceremonies. We are not bound by their religious festivals; e.g. The Feast of Trumpets (Rosha Hashanah), The Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth), Passover, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), et al. Neither are we subject to their sacrificial system. Their sacrificial system was made obsolete once Jesus sacrificed himself as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world (John 1:29; Heb 9:12,26).

 

 

 

 

 

The Meaning of Mark 11:23-24

 “For assuredly whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you have received them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:23-24).

These verses have been used like a magic formula in the Charismatic-Neo-Pentecostal-Name-it-and-claim-it movement. They have been used to write a blank check type of prayer to get whatever you desire from God. Of course, these verses like so many others, have been aborted from their original context so that a pretext has been created around them – to make them mean other than what Jesus said it means.

So, let’s go back to verse twelve to get the context and flow of thought, Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He (Jesus) was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said it to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it (Mark 11:12-14).

Skipping to verse twenty of Mark 11, Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.”

So, Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:20-22). Word of Faith teachers misinterpret this verse to say Jesus said, “have the faith of God or the God kind of faith.” God does not need faith to do anything. Who would He trust in?

We arrive at Jesus talking about moving mountains because of the cursing of the fig tree back in verse fourteen. The point Jesus is driving home is have faith in God when you pray. The phrase regarding the mountain, being removed and cast into the sea is hyperbole. Hyperbolic language is intentionally exaggerated speech to prove a point. Obviously, Jesus is not talking about us literally moving mountains. But rather, with trust in God, we can overcome insurmountable odds in life. The mountain simply represents a colossal challenge in our lives.

Verse twenty-four Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (vs. 24).

This verse has been a staple for the Word of Faith movement. This is where they use the power-of-positive-confession to say things like: I believe am healed. I believe I have that new home. I claim that new job. I bind the devil and demons over my finances, etc. If you confess things which are currently in the spiritual realm over and over again, they will by the force of faith, manifest in the natural realm. How do I know this? Because I was part of this environment for years. This is not what Jesus meant when He said when you pray believe you receive the things you prayed for, and you shall have them – that you keep confessing what you want over and over again. Jesus was simply teaching us to trust Him. In due season we will reap if we do not give up (Gal 6:9).

Now according to verse twenty-four of Mark 11, is Jesus saying we can have whatever we want? No. But that is what the verse clearly appears to imply right? Yes, it does.

That is why it is so important to be well versed in your Bible. What we desire is not always the will of God. Ultimately God’s will be done (not ours) on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). The Lord gives His children the privilege of praying to Him to fulfill His will in their lives here on earth. Prayer is not about us getting solely what we want. God is not a Cosmic Jeanie in a name-it-and-claim-it bottle.

In John 5:14 we read, “This is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will (italics mine), He hears us. And if we know He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him.”

Jesus also commanded us to seek first His kingdom and righteousness and everything that we need will be added to us (Matt 6:33). It is a matter of priority when we pray. If we are seeking our own desires over the Lord’s will, we will not receive what we desire from the Lord (James 4:3). Also, if we doubt, do not expect to receive from the Lord either (James 1:6). All prayer to God MUST be in faith realizing our God can do the impossible. God’s sovereignly through the prayer of His saints fulfills His master plan in the earth. When we understand that our wills have to be subordinate to His, only then can we have confidence that our desires can be met. Why? Because we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean to our own understanding. In all our ways we are to acknowledge Him so that He can direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).