The law of Moses given by God reveals his nature… and everything in the law of Moses God also has bound himself to. God submits to his own law otherwise he would be a lawbreaker if you want to go through the 10 Commandments as they’re called you will see that God does not break any of them!
Yet also other ‘minor laws'( if we can say that) God also keeps spiritually speaking.
The apostle Paul a zealous Jewish brother wrote in Romans 7 that “the law is spiritual.”
So when we read in Exodus that if any man digs a pit and does not cover it and if someone falls into it and is hurt or killed or if his livestock fall into it and is hurt or killed then the man who dug the pit must make good to the owner of the livestock. He must pay him back in full.
Exodus 21:33 (NKJV)
“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it,Exodus 21:33 (NKJV)
“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it,Exodus 21:34 (NKJV)
“the owner of the pit shall make [it] good; he shall give money to their owner, but the dead [animal] shall be his.
When God placed Adam in the garden to tend the garden, he already knew that the serpent was there therefore legally God is liable for what happened because he has ultimate authority and everything happened under his watch. He knew what would happen as a result of placing man in the garden with the fallen angel Lucifer.
For instance if I hurt myself at work and it is proven that there was a known hazard in my workplace not only does the manager get fined or even jail depending on the severity of the injury or even death but also the owner of the company can be fined over $1 million or jailed because they are liable even though they were not directly involved in the accident they had the oversight. They had the responsibility.
That’s where Exodus 21 comes into relevance.
Knowing all things God knew that he must now “make it good” and pay back man for leaving an open pit in the path of man.His own law demands that he ‘make it good’ and this is exactly what he did by dying on the cross. God deliberately made himself our debtor so that through the law he would be responsible to make right what he had a part in making wrong.
And you will notice in the second verse above that ‘the dead animal will become His‘ hallelujah!
You and I and everyone else along with Adam fell into that pit, we DIED! All in Adam died – therefore once the payment was made through Jesus death for all of us – we all became HIS!
in order to save us He had to lose us
God did not just react to what happened God purposed it all from the beginning. You see salvation is God’s purpose and in order to save us he had to lose us.
So he made himself liable under his own law. Before God gave Moses the law do you think that all of those laws never existed before? No they existed in the heart and mind of God? They are his nature. God was already living like that.
if God who is life keeps his own law at least spiritually we should too. God is love and love wants to make things right.
The new covenant which God spoke through Jeremiah in chapter 31 verse 31 tells us that God will write his laws upon our hearts. Why did he do that?So we will naturally do what the law says to others.
we become sharers in the divine nature through faith in Jesus Christ. God is not Lawless! his nature is love and love is the fulfilment of his law. trying to keep the law without receiving Jesus does nothing for anyone that’s why God abolished the first covenant… not the law…and has imparted his nature to believers in Jesus.
You might say, “Then why do so many Christians not reflect the nature of God?”
Good question !
The answer is because many go back to trying to live under the law – being good, not doing bad- instead of resting in faith that Jesus is the life and righteousness of God within us..
When we live under the law trying to do good and not do bad every day, self is on the throne judging itself by its performance and that will only lead to trouble