Note: this will be a shorter post as my son has been going through sleep regression from teething which keeps me up in the night, and I am currently dealing with the effects of a serious lack of sleep. Never-the-less, God has been faithful to bring me through it and provide all that I need up to this point, and I and confident He will continue. This post, though short, is my recollection on the first five Books of the Bible and provides important insights into our understanding of the nature of God’s relationship with His people. I have very much enjoyed doing the prep work for this post, which was going through these books in as few sittings as possible to get a bird’s eye view. Although I didn’t realize at the time it was prep work. I simply had a desire to do it and felt the Holy Spirit push me in that direction. This is the usual way He leads me in writing this blog.

I have been listening to the Bible the past two weeks as I work. The You version Bible app allows listening to the Bible like an audio book in some translations. I started at the beginning and yesterday I finished Deuteronomy, which concluded with the death of Moses. Here is what I learned:

1. The whole point of the law that God gave His people was to create a way for Him to have uninterrupted relationship with His people. Because of the fact that Jesus had not come yet, there was no covering for sin and there had to be a way for God to be among His people without constantly seeing their sin. God was aware of not only his hatred toward sin, but He was also aware of how His anger affected His relationship with the people. God would say things like, “The Levites shall serve at the tabernacle and protect the people of Israel from the Lord’s anger.” God Himself wanted the people to be protected from His own anger because He knew they would all be destroyed if they were not.
2. The law was divided into three categories. 1) Sacrifices and offerings, and what sin was to be dealt with in what way. Even in the time of the law, God was merciful and understanding. If anyone sinned unintentionally God would not punish them until they were made aware of their sin and refused to offer the required sacrifice. If anyone sinned and could not afford the offering, God instituted a substitute offering that was less costly, down to an offering of flour to be burned on the alter. In this God showed His understanding of the situation each of His people was in. 2) cleanliness and how to become clean if they became unclean. God told his people what foods they could eat or not eat according to what was clean or unclean. All of the unclean animals, according to modern science, would give the one who eats them a deadly or incurable disease if not cooked properly. In this way God protected His people from food borne illness by forbidding the eating of such animals.
   3) Festivals. The festivals and sabbaths were a sign from the people that they remembered what God did for them and put Him first in their hearts. This is the most important part of relationship with God even in our day, though we express such remembrance differently according to the freedom Christ bought for us as Paul taught in the New Testament.
3. Reading these books gives a clear picture of the holiness and righteousness of God. God is jealous for our love and sin is nothing less than adultery against God, putting the love He is supposed to receive in a different, unworthy place. This is why the penalty of sin is death and why Jesus had to die for us.

In our time today, we do not live under the Law of Moses. The Apostle Paul goes into great detail throughout many books of the New Testament about how Jesus became the fulfillment of the law and through His life and death He fully satisfied all of its requirements. We now live in the freedom that Christ brought to us, following the one commandment He gave:

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

If you struggle with accepting and living in this freedom, the book of Romans can help you. This book holds the most detailed and thorough explanation of the gospel and what it does for the believer.

Jesus lived in our place and became our sacrifice as God required in the law. Those who believe in Him have this credited to their account before God. All of God’s wrath was satisfied in Jesus and there is none left for you who believe in Him and walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1). What a wonderful gift He has given us!

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30.