Grace - the realm of Faith

Please note that the underlined words are links to scriptures. Be sure to click on them for additional context.

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At this point in the series, I hope that you appreciate the essence of rightly dividing the Word of Truth. My intention has been to bring light to the things that were written for a believer’s learning, specifically the faults in our stars that end up being repeated in christendom.

In a way, our lack of learning has hurt the Church. The recent exodus of people from Christianity is disheartening, but in talking to some exiles, a pattern starts to emerge which surfaces the fact that most of them were never in love with God. They had been held hostage in Christianity through antiquated teachings that revolved around the wrath, anger and punishment of God — the God who sent plagues on the Egyptians, punished the Israelites in the desert for forty years and commanded the slaying of entire populations without remorse. To be fair, if I were seeking for a religious commitment, and ran across someone preaching the aforementioned views, I would reject the invitation to that religion. This is essentially what is happening — people are rejecting God based on the flaws of some heavy hitters in the Old Testament, not knowing that those mistakes were not of God, but of man.

In this episode, we start to close the loop of Moses’ mistakes by examining the issue of the spies documented in Numbers 13. By examining the scriptures, we shall see how Moses’ proclivity to please man prevented the Israelites from inheriting God’s promises, and how this one mistake practically ensured that even he, the progenitor of the Old Covenant could not make it into the promised land. This follows from the previous episode, where we discussed how he vailed the Jews from seeing Jesus.

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The Craftiness of Moses

There are scriptures in the Bible that are better studied “backwards”. 2 Corinthians 4:1–2–3:7 is one of them. Recall that the previous episode dwelt on 2 Corinthians 3:7ff, which provides the contextual backdrop for 2 Corinthians 4:1–2. If you remove the chapters and the verses, chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians is a continuous thought of chapter 3. Given that the main thrust of chapter 3 is Moses and his ministry of condemnation, in Chapter 4, Paul continues to unmask Moses as a cunning and crafty minister who beguiled the Israelites, failed to manifest the truth and ended up blinding them. If we take it that Moses is the subject of 2 Corinthians 3, then the following verse is about him:

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  

2 Corinthians 4:1–2

There are about three instances in the Bible where the words cunning and crafty are used in reference to someone — this particular one, the warning about false teachers in the book of Ephesians and when the serpent beguiled Eve in Genesis. For Paul to use the same language towards a purportedly great man in the Old Testament is revealing, and should force the reader to pause and reconsider Moses’ integrity. You may not agree with what I am positing, or you might think I am on a mission to whitewash the Bible by blaming Moses for the violence in Bible in order to make God look good, however, you still need to explain 2 Corinthians 3:7–4:2? Either you ignore it by invoking some contextual contraptions or you will be forced to contend with what it’s saying.

As Paul teaches, the ministry of the New Testament believer is founded on the mercy we have received from God, which divorces it from the the curse and wrath of the cruel, the foundational framework of the Old Testament. People who fail to grasp this mercy are lost, and because they are lost, the Gospel is hidden from them:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 

2 Corinthians 4:3

It is possible for the Gospel to be hidden from someone or a group of people — as it is certainly hid from a great number of Jews, not of their own volition but because of the Vail, which can only be removed when they turn to Christ. With the Vail removed, they begin to understand the promise that Moses hid from them. Let’s explore the events that led to Moses’ catastrophic mistake.

Be wary of that which pleases you

The promise God made to the Israelites was that He would free them from the bondage of Egypt, usher them to the Promised Land to freely serve Him. However, that promise was initially delayed by forty years when Moses fled to the desert after murdering the Egyptian, and then for another forty years because they sent spies to scout the Promised Land, who came back with a bad report that disheartened them from proceeding to possess their possessions.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 

Numbers 13:1–2

This account gives the impression that God explicitly asked Moses to send spies to stake out the Promised Land, and since it comes before the account in Deuteronomy, it is the one most Christians are familiar with. And you would be forgiven if that is all you read and subsequently concluded thus. However, to rightly understand what transpired, it is important to study the scriptures, specifically the first chapter of Deuteronomy. In it, Moses gives an account of the events that led to the Israelites abandoning their procession towards the Promised Land:

And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. 

Deuteronomy 1:20–21

It is not clear why the two accounts are dramatically different, especially given that they were written by the same man. At this point in their journey to the Promised Land, the Israelites had arrived at Kadesh-Barnea, and were poised to enter the Promised Land. They had thus far adhered to the commandment of God, and the next task was to go up and possess it.

For every believer, it is imperative to grasp the notion that God has already preordained and laid out all that is necessary or desired. Through the power of the Cross, each believer has been bestowed with the entirety of what is needed for a life of piety and excellence, a direct consequence of the Abba Father’s blessings, consisting of all the spiritual blessings found in heavenly realms, mediated through Christ Jesus. However, for these promises to manifest in the temporal realm, it is the responsibility of the believer to take hold of them. God will not acquire these promises on behalf of the faithful. It is essential to acknowledge that God has triumphed over all our adversaries, including poverty, disease, famine, ignorance, violence, infertility, sin, satanic forces, discouragement, and cancer — but the onus falls upon the believer to take hold of these blessings.

Note that the latter part of Deuteronomy 1:21 encourages them not to fear, nor be discouraged. The astute among you will recall that this is the same encouragement God gave to Joshua after the forty year sojourn in the desert, when he was appointed to lead them into the Promised Land. Fear and discouragement are the primary devices that satan employs to prevent believers from possessing the blessings that the Lord has provided. Lest we forget, God prepares for us a table in the presence of our enemies — however, He will not force you to eat the bread on the table. If He forced you, you will forget your saviour and how much it cost to secure your soul, since the sacrament of breaking bread is made in remembrance of the Cross.

So what was the response of the Israelites to this promise? Did they march forwards into the promised land and possess it? No, their response is not dissimilar to what many Christians do:

And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, we will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. 

Deuteronomy 1:22

Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the initiative to send spies into the land of Canaan originated from the hearts of individuals lacking in fortitude, who were fearful of entrusting their faith in the Lord. While on the surface, their request may have seemed reasonable. They could have reasoned that since they were travelling with children, women, animals, and other possessions, it was prudent to search for the most expedient route to the Promised Land, perhaps to avoid mountainous terrain, swamps, or any other obstacles that may have complicated their journey into Canaan. However, it is apparent that their underlying motivations were not rooted in practical considerations, but rather in a lack of faith and a tendency towards apprehension.

Perhaps if the technology of GPS was functioning then, this unbelief could have been averted, but alas, that technology didn’t exist. Or did it? Recall that they were led by a cloud by day, and a fire by night — their GPS was synced to the time of the earth, with a dark mode theme coming on at night. The problem is their carnal thinking, and a carnal minded man cannot inherit the things of God. To ask those questions is to presume that God has not thought of them — it is to infer that God would lead someone to an inheritance fraught with danger, forgetting that every good and perfect gift comes from Abba Father, who knows the plans He has for us, not to harm us, but to bring us to an expected end. The correct response was to give thanks and march forward, which is essentially what they did forty years later when Joshua led them in praise for seven days, proceeding to march over the dead bodies of their enemies into the Promised Land.

The rejoinder would be that the request came from the Israelites, and Moses is innocent in all this? He is not since he records it as a commandment from God in Numbers 13, which is not true since he acquiesced to the request of worried men in his own camp:

And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe. 

Deuteronomy 1:23

How many times have we heard men say God has told me? As a minister, I have encountered various people in different walks of life who start discussions with I heard the voice of the Lord, then proceed to speak something contrary to the Word. I have also listened to ministers claim that God sent me to this and that person with a word, and yet the content of said word contradicts the New Covenant we have in Christ. As the Bible warns, we should beware of dogs, they tend to bark without cause.

There is a way that is pleasing to man but the end thereof is death. What pleased Moses caused untold destruction in its aftermath. This seemingly simple pragmatic action that appeared wise in Moses’ conceits led to the death of all the men, except Joshua and Caleb, that had accompanied him from Egypt, including him and Aaron, and added a forty year sojourn in the desert.

The aftermath

The metaphor of a shepherd is one that is frequently employed in the Bible. The reason for this is that sheep are known for their tendency to follow rather than lead. In most cases, they require the guidance and protection of a shepherd to lead them to their intended destination. Conversely, wolves are known to be independent and self-sufficient hunters who possess the ability to locate their destination without assistance.

The metaphor of a shepherd is not intended to suggest that human beings are completely helpless, like sheep. Rather, it is used to highlight the need for guidance and protection. Just as a shepherd protects and guides his flock, so too does God appoint leaders to watch over and guide His people. It is a way of illustrating the relationship between a loving, caring God and His people, who are in need of His protection and guidance.

Furthermore, the metaphor of a shepherd is significant because it underscores the importance of trust and obedience. Sheep trust their shepherd to lead them to safety and provide for their needs. Similarly, believers are called upon to trust and obey God, knowing that He has their best interests at heart and will guide them to their intended destination. Ultimately, the metaphor of a shepherd is a reminder that we are all in need of guidance and protection, and that God is the ultimate shepherd who lovingly cares for and leads His flock.

As a minister of Christ, it is imperative to know that a lot rides on you. Moses Mukisa, the Lead Pastor of Worship Harvest Ministries, emphasizes that ministers not only need to do what is right, they ought to give the appearance of doing what is right. Moses ought to have stuck to what God had asked him to do, which was to proceed to the Promised Land. Having led the Israelites, he was aware of their fickle faith, and should not have given them another cause to doubt. The shepherd’s primary goal is to lead the sheep to a resting place where they can reap the promises of the Lord:

My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. 

Jeremiah 50:6

Anything less than trusting the Lord and empathetically revealing His Will leads to unrest and causes the congregants to murmur and scatter to mountains where they encounter all manner of mysteries and confusion. This explains the reactions of Moses and Aaron to the unbelief of the Israelites:

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 

Numbers 14:5

Moses and Aaron realized the gravity of their mistake and what part they had played in it. Had Moses obeyed God and asked the Israelites to proceed to possess the land, the story would have ended differently. But because he wanted to please both God and man, he ended up pleasing none. It is interesting that in documenting this sin, Moses does not see the part he played in it, he documents it as a rebellion of the Israelites against God:

Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God: And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

 Deuteronomy 1:26–27

It is Moses who exposed them to the doubt that birthed a rebellion. It is true that they murmured, but that is because he failed to emphasize what the Lord told him, which was to edify the Israelites not to fear or be discouraged. Au contraire, he acquiesces to their doubt, and sends spies who came back and sowed fear and doubt in the camp, leading to discouragement and the eventual abandonment of the procession to the Promised Land. The consequence of Moses’ action was that even He would not make it into the Promised Land. It was not for lacking of trying, he later bargained with God to be let into the Promised Land, and the Lord had literally had enough of carnal thinking.

I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon. But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. 

Deuteronomy 3:25-27 (NKJV)

The Lord’s mercy and patience knows no bounds, thus when the Lord exclaims enough of that!, it indeed is enough. At this point, the promises of the Lord were eighty years in arrears, and Moses was still insisting to lead yet he was responsible for pegging back the fulfillment of the promises of God. It is one thing to forgive Moses, which God did, and it is another to let Moses run interference against the will of God. It is the reason why he had to be removed from the picture, so that they would finally make it into the Promised Land.

As ministers, we ought to be cognizant of the influence we have over those that we lead, and we should graciously lead, knowing that we can be taken in a fault that can hinder the fulfillment of the promises of God in those we are leading. Our focus should be firmly on the Lord, and the Word should be our guide. If anything contradicts that, we should stick to the Word, however pleasing the contradiction might be.

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In the next episode, we shall explore the genesis of the Gospel, and see that not only was Jesus crucified before the foundation of the world, the Gospel has been the only consistent message preached throughout the ages, even to the Israelites when the Law was given.

Please note that the underlined words are links to scriptures. Be sure to click on them for additional context.

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Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. 

George Santayana

In the previous episode, we explored what it means to rightly divide the Word of Truth, and why it is essential for teachers operating under the New Covenant to know the differences in the Law pertaining to the parts that were written to be fulfilled in Christ and those that were written for our learning. This distinction helps us understand the relationship between God, the Law and Moses.

In this episode, we explore how Moses’ lineage predisposed him to cruelty, and how the wrath with which he enacted the Law was forecast by Jacob. We shall also explore how that wrath morphed into an ill advised attempt to appear holier than he was, leading to the vailing of the Israelites into bondage.

It might come off as I am judging Moses too harshly, and inferring motive without the requisite context. To some extent, I agree — I was not there with Moses on the mount, neither did I spend forty years in the desert (and neither would I want to, thank God for the Cross that has provided a better way). In such matters, I am guided by the famous psychologist Carl Jung:

If you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences — and infer the motivation. 

Carl Jung

The precise motives behind Moses’ actions remain unclear — and it’s impossible to definitively tease them apart. However, we can infer his intent from the outcomes that history offers us, given that the outcome is not dissimilar to the intention.

It is worth noting that acknowledging the flaws of historical figures does not diminish their significance or impact on the overall scriptural narrative arc that led to Jesus. After all, God works through imperfect individuals, and we are all subject to human fallibility. However, as we reflect on their actions, we must do so with the awareness that we are viewing them through the lens of Grace, just as future generations will evaluate our own deeds.

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The Error in Moses

When the Bible speaks about the Law in terms of pedagogy — with regards to what was given to the Israelites — it emphasizes it as the Law of Moses. However, when it speaks about the Law in terms of what was meant to be established, it reclaims the possession towards God. The wrath that is spoken of in the Law is the wrath of Moses, not of God.

Moses, the revered leader of the Israelites, was born into a world of curse, wrath, and cruelty. He had a tendency of taking matters into his own hands, and this had the unintended consequence of impeding God’s plan. His early actions, including the murder of an Egyptian, were driven by his desire to hasten God’s promises to the Jews. However, this impulsive crime led to his exile into the desert and delayed the fulfillment of God’s promises by forty years. In fact, Moses’ actions delayed God’s will to bring the Israelites to the Promised Land by a total of eighty years, and is thus solely responsible for their wandering in the desert. Despite his close relationship with God, Moses did not live to see the fulfillment of those promises. Its plausible to conclude that God mercifully shortened his work because there was a risk of him further delaying the Jew’s entry into the Promised Land by another forty years.

Recall that Moses is descended from the tribe of Levi, and together with Simeon, they were given a very marked inheritance by Jacob:

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. 

Genesis 49:5–7

There is no coming back from such an inheritance, especially if it is bestowed by a father on his dying bed. Simeon and Levi’s fates were entwined and its no coincidence that Moses received the Law and the Levites became custodians of the Law and thus take up Moses’ seat. However, Jacob’s prophecy foreshadowed the cruelty that the Law would exact on its adherents.

Simeon and Levi’s slaying of men in anger, against their father’s will, foreshadowed the slaying of three thousand people — at Moses’ behest — when the Law was given, and the wrath with which Moses ground the golden calf, mixed it with water and made the Israelites to drink:

Moses took the calf which the Israelites had made, burnt it in the fire, ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it. 

Exodus 32:20

How cruel! Instead of exercising mercy by cleansing the children, he marinates them in their sin, like his ancestors did. Simeon and Levi hatched a nefarious plan to make the men of Shechem weak, by asking them to circumcise themselves, something they acquiesced to. As they were recuperating, Simeon and Levi attacked them and killed them. The circumcision is a subtle reference to the circumcision of the heart, since the shechemites were technically gentiles who repented. Perhaps the incident that best captures Moses’ cruelty was the sentence he passed on the man who was caught picking sticks on the Sabbath to make a meal. I personally do not believe that God passed this sentence, I believe Moses creatively interpreted it thus, and passed a death sentence on a hungry man. In contrast, Jesus defended the disciples when they picked corn on the sabbath, and healed people on the sabbath, which was contrary to the statues of the Law of Moses.

Moses then possessed what I call the curse and the wrath of the cruel — the inheritance of those that adhere to the Law, and its fruit is death.

The Error of Moses

Above all else, Moses was a man given to mystery. He encountered a burning bush that did not consume, he turned sticks into snakes, called plaques on people. He spent forty days and forty nights atop a mountain, speaking to a being he envisioned was God (it was a dialogue between him and angels). He saw the back-parts of God, accused God of sinning, threw the tablets onto the golden calf and had a face that spastically glistened for a moment when he left the presence. By any measure, he encountered mysteries that most religious men crave for.

The peculiar thing in all his exploits was that God forbade him from building the Ark of the covenant and its accoutrements — if we take the Ark to be a symbol of Jesus, then Moses did not establish Jesus — and also failed to attain the gift which he purportedly led others to — the Promised Land. By another measure, he failed as a leader.

What Moses failed to perceive is that the same vail that prevented him and his priestly cast from entering into the Holy of Holies was the same vail that would take away the sins of the world, and most importantly, open the way to the Holy of Holies for everyone. On this, it’s hard to blame the guy — it is plausible that if anyone were thrust into his shoes, they would have done the same thing. Like many things of God, it’s easy to miss the obvious. How would anyone believe that the thing that separated the most sacred part of the Tabernacle would turn out to be the instrument of salvation? That is like the secret service forbidding a man to see the US president, while simultaneously ushering him into the presence of the president at once.

And that is how Moses lost his way. He concealed that which was meant to be revealed. He deduced that because he encountered God in a rock, where the hand of God vailed him so that He could not see the face of God, that God would always be a mystery only attainable by a few. He probably concluded that God would always vail himself from people. And by carrying this understanding throughout his life, he prevents the children of Israel from understanding that which was abolished.

He envisioned the status quo as eternal (or at least wanted it to be), even promising that God would send them a prophet like him, which was not true since Jesus was unlike Moses in almost everything. He failed to see the latter consecration through the vail by the blood of the Lamb, that was to be done for the benefit of the people. He failed to perceive that the door that kept out was the door that ushers in — or that the hands that concealed his overzealous heart were the same hands that would be nailed for the sins of the world.

In insisting to see God, he received a vailed revelation of God without the understanding to receive a full revelation of Jesus. Like the Apostle Peter warns, he wrestled with a vailed revelation to his own destruction.

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What then

To answer that question, we have to appreciate the passion of the Christ with a thankful heart that hopefully gives us a new perspective through grappling with the following question:

Was it necessary for the romans to treat Jesus as brutally as they did?

Given the profound awareness of the severe cruelty, divine wrath, and formidable curse that pervaded the Mosaic Law, it becomes incontrovertibly apparent that the magnitude of Jesus’ affliction had to be equivalent in order to fulfill its demands. Christ Jesus had to endure the burden of the Mosaic Law in order to expiate sins on our behalf — it is imperative to comprehend that Christ’s vicarious suffering was a mandatory condition to effectuate its expiation on our behalf.

The condemnation stipulated by the Mosaic Law was borne by the sacrificial lamb of God, and as those who are reborn in Christ, we are able to abscond the divine wrath of the Law. The brutal torture and agonizing crucifixion that Jesus endured at the hands of the Roman authorities were necessary to secure our liberation from the apprehension and terror prescribed by the Law.

The Law of Moses has been fulfilled, and in the absence of the Law, there is no transgression. As those who belong to the New Covenant, we have been liberated from the wrath of the Law and have been engrafted into the lineage of God through Faith. Moreover, we have received the righteous requirements of the Law, and no longer need to be burdened with the interpretation of the commandments of Moses for righteous living. By looking to Christ and relying on the Holy Spirit, we can continue to be transformed into vessels of holiness and righteousness.

We shall explore the consequences of divorcing from Moses in a latter series, in the meantime, I hope this edification empowers you to live free, bold and have the courage to approach the throne of Grace — something that Moses nor the Israelites couldn’t do.

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In the next episode, we explore how Moses embraced the hidden things of dishonesty leading to the vailing of the Israelites, to this day.

Please note that the underlined words are links to scriptures. Be sure to click on them for additional context.

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For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 

Romans 15:4

It is always important to distinguish between the scriptures since there are parts in the scripture that have been written for fulfillment and parts that have been written for our learning. There is not much a believer can do about the things that have been written for fulfillment, since their attainment is solely dependant on the power of God. However, that which has been written for our learning should be brought to the fore, since they are requisite for perfecting the saints.

The distinction between what was meant to be fulfilled and what is meant for learning means that a large corpus of scripture that was written before Christ Jesus manifested in the times of men is transitory — it was a shadow that pointed to the Person of Christ. As Jesus tells the Jews, the scriptures bore witness of Him:

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 

John 5:39

To testify of something means to have had a first hand account of the thing or action when it occurred. And this is the important point, since we tend to think that the scripture was just written down. The scripture bore witness, and preached the Gospel to the Jewish forefathers in preparation for the manifestation of Jesus.

However, to distinguish between what was written for fulfillment and what was written for learning takes careful study, without which one runs the danger of coming undone by erratically interpreting a scripture. And this is essentially what happened to Moses when he received the scripture on the mountain, he failed to divide the patterns as intended.

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The Risk of Shame

To rightly divide the waters is to understand what God decided to conceal from the beginning of creation, and to further deduce that history is a choreographed revelation of that which was concealed above. Recall that after God called forth Light from the darkness, the second thing He did was to create a firmament to divide the waters from the waters. The waters existed before the Light, upon whose face the Spirit of God hovered in darkness.

The waters refer to the Word. If we take the firmament as a division, we can infer that it was a vail that separated that which God concealed above, and thus cannot be readily perceived, from that which is below, which can be readily perceived. The astute reader can see how the firmament is a representation of the Vail that separated the outer court — the waters below — from the Holy of holies — the waters above. However, these were just figures of the true, which is Christ.

The pattern still stands that in any scriptural interpretation, the division of the word demands an understanding of that which was concealed for our benefit and that which has been revealed for our salvation. For those that can bear it, this is the material distinction between a Son given and a Child born.

To miss that distinction is to bring shame upon oneself as the Apostle Paul warns his disciple Timothy:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

2 Timothy 2:15

Men of God study not to achieve theological badges or degrees, but rather to be approved unto God. This approval is not an attainment of righteousness or holiness, it is the understanding that comes from searching out that which was concealed, and attaining the honor that comes from careful study and reception of revelation:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. 

Proverbs 25:2

We have to be careful not to fall into gnosticism or a searching of deep knowledge. The searching of the scripture is with the intent to see more of the Person of Christ, who was concealed in the waters above, but has been revealed in the times of men for our salvation. Gnostics error by searching for distinctions between the Person of Christ and Jesus, attempting to separate the two by emphasizing the carnality of Jesus or de-emphasizing the divinity of Jesus by downplaying the death of Christ on the Cross — that the person who died was devoid of the Christ since Jesus gave up the ghost. That is not what searching the scriptures refers to in this case. And neither is it searching the scriptures for eternal life, since that is the mistake the Jews made. We seek Christ Jesus, guided by the scripture and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

The Law and Moses

With the understanding of how to divide the Word of truth, we now turn to dividing the Law. The question to answer is:

What is the relationship between God, the Law and Moses?

We often subconsciously assume that the entire Law is connected to God. But that is not correct, especially since it was not the Law that was preached to the Israelites at Sinai, it was the Gospel. But that is something we shall explore in a latter part of the series.

For the sake of discussion, the Law can be roughly divided up into two sections: the sacraments that were given for the aim of pointing to Christ Jesus and the Cross — which is the Gospel — and the legalistic framework that was added onto the sacraments, which morphed into the Law of Moses, like who was meant to minister, when they were meant to minister, who was meant to eat of the sacrifices etc. The former did not evolve — it was not meant to until it’s fulfillment in Christ — the latter did evolve as evidenced when Jesus admonished the Pharisees for adding onto the Law of Moses burdensome constraints that even they were unwilling or unable to bear.

The sacraments in the Law were part of a long tradition that stretched back to Genesis, covenanted between God and Abraham and written down as doctrine in the Law. These did not involve a slew of burdensome regulations and constraints, those were added by Moses and his cohorts, and is what the scripture refers to as the Law of Moses.

For the purpose of this discussion, I am focusing on the latter part of the Law that morphed into the Law of Moses, so the reader should assume that I am not attacking the sacraments or the parts that pointed to Christ.

To tease apart the relationship between God and the Law, we have to revisit how and to whom the Law was given:

Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 

Galatians 3:19

In most discussions about the Law, one thing that is not given enough weight is the fact that it was ordained by angels into the hand of a mediator. We cannot particularly speak as to why that was ordained thus, since we do not have a reliable scriptural reference, but we can compare it with another verse to provide additional context:

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 

John 1:17

John adds more context to the parties involved in the giving of the Law by stating that it was given by Moses (the implication being that it was not given by God). That is quite a statement, and it stirs controversy due to varying interpretations across christendom. Whatever your persuasion, suffice it to say that the fact that God chose to somewhat distance Himself as the Law was given or ordained — but personally came to deliver Grace — is a poignant action in and of itself.

Accordingly, since the testator embodies the essence of the testament, and Moses, as opposed to God gave the Law, he becomes a Law and by extension a stumbling block to his listener, something that ails the Israelites, and a substantial part of humanity to this day.

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Believers should not worry given that we have the Holy Spirit who will lead us into all the truth. Notice again that there is truth that has been revealed, and truth is yet to be revealed. As long as we rely on the Holy Spirit, and read the scriptures with fear and trembling, the working out of our salvation by the washing of the word should be straightforward. It is also for this same reason that the Apostle James warns believers not to rush to be teachers, since the ministry of dividing the word of truth is non trivial, and the odds are really stacked against the teacher.

However, we thank God that this is not requisite for daily living, and neither is it a requirement for salvation. The right division of the word is something that those with the gift of teaching should think about.

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Moses’ shame then was thinking that the waters below – the Law – were permanent. Ultimately, he lacked the comfort of scripture, and his message was devoid of hope.

In the next episode, we explore how Moses’ history, especially his lineage marked him out for the cruelty that he later embedded in the precepts of the Law.