Everyone wants love, of that I’m sure, but I’m not convinced that everyone knows how to love or what love is. The Bible teaches us much about love, what it is, what it means, acts of love, and examples of people who make sacrifices of love. It even tells us that ‘God is love’. But how can we expect someone to love us in the way we want to be loved, if they do not know what love is?
Love and law go together, love without law or rules is chaotic and confusing and law without love is cruel. In a relationship this formula between love and law is important for creating peace and understanding is the key.
For instance, when a parent disciplines a child it is because they want to teach the child how to behave and instil in them a good character, teach them rules (God’s law) and how to make decisions that bring about peace and not strive. Of course in any relationship, things are not always that simple and we would learn nothing if it were.
In the same way in a love relationship, we have to learn to give and take to find the right balance to create a peaceful environment. The question is, what do we do when we find ourselves in an environment that is not peaceful? Is law the problem, or is love the problem or both? We who are children of God should have a good perspective because we have been given knowledge and understanding of both. To be clear, what we judge is the situation, not the hearts of men.
Moses was tasked to teach the people God’s law and the people came to him when they needed advice. One day Moses’ father-in-law Jethro came to him and Moses told him all about what God was doing amongst the Israelites and that he was serving as judge amongst them, but Moses was tired, this was the advice Jethro gave him that day.
“The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
Exodus 18:13
Moses was chosen by God and tasked to teach the people God’s decrees and instructions and take them through the wilderness to the promised land. He was given God’s law and understanding to teach the people. “You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.” This is not a task that Moses took lightly, because he knew he was responsible to God. However, God knows this responsibility is too much for one person.
I wondered why God sent Jethro to speak to Moses and did not tell Moses himself. But I think this was very intentional and is a lesson for us too. We often find ourselves taking on too much because we want to please God and we take on the responsibilities and burdens of others because it’s in our nature and we do not see the logical answers right before us. Moses trusted Jethro and his advice in the past has always been centred around pleasing God too. His advice this time is also very practical, without diminishing God’s authority and without diminishing God’s purpose.
The people were still receiving God’s instructions and decrees and how to live and behave, Moses was still in charge as God’s representative and he was still responsible to God. The men tasked to help were chosen because they were “capable” meaning they had proven themselves to have enough understanding and humility to know what was a ‘simple case or a difficult case.’
Law is good because it creates order and peace, but love is better. You could say that if Moses is a representative of law, Jesus is a representative of love. The law teaches us what is pleasing to God, why rules are important for shaping us into the right people and teaching us how to behave. All of these things that we as good parents try to teach our own children, but love teaches us about who God is. Jesus teaches us that God is merciful, kind, faithful, patient, forgiving and always for the good of us, not against us. He is a loving Father first and always. Love overcomes all things, love makes us go beyond what we think you can handle. Love makes us sacrifice ourselves and our desires to help others, love is the best teacher, but love must be treated with the fear and respect it deserves.
Jesus often uses marriage to describe the relationship between law and love. If you are in a marriage where someone does not love you or know what love is, the relationship is strained and often painful. If a husband or wife does not know how to show you love in the way God teaches us about love, or how to behave in a way that pleases Him, it causes confusion and unrest. A dispute that needs resolution and a fair judge. The Holy Spirit is our teacher, because He reveals the thoughts of God, he teaches us about His way of doing things to display love and makes us an example to others of what that love looks like on Earth. His perspective is above all authority and like Moses and all his judges we must learn when to take it to the Lord and when logical answers are placed before us. When The Lord betroths you to Him, he will not break his vows to you nor his love. Heaven and Earth may fall away, but his words will never. He is faithful to the end. Even when we break our vows, and the law has passed away, love will never pass away. But how wonderful and peaceful a marriage is when we do keep his covenant which is pleasing to him and we can love Him in the way that we should through the Holy Spirit.
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Psalm 116:13
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Luke 16:16
You cannot force love, it is a gift. We can all be teachers of the law like the Pharisees, but without the gift of love which is the Holy Spirit, it is all just rules and regulations which does not relate. It’s like teaching about mercy but having no compassion for people yourself. Or telling someone how to be a loving husband or wife when your own wife or husband is lacking love. Jesus was talking to the Pharisees in this scripture above who believed that if you followed all Moses’ rules and regulations, you have proven yourself a child of God, and therefore you yourself have entered into a marriage with God. Jesus teaches us that God loved us first, as sinners, not because we were good. He created the vows and entered the world to teach us what these vows mean. Without accepting him first and the authority that he carries, you cannot do it yourself. If we are humble we accept his teaching and the good news is that we will find the meaning of real love and be blessed.
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Romans 2:17
Without Love, rules are cruel because they teach nothing of God except wrath and guilt. They teach of punishment and being unworthy without the salvation that follows. They teach me what God is but not who God is.
Jesus or Moses, who is worthy of honour and praise? The Bible answers this question.
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind:
‘You are a priest forever.’
Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Hebrews 7:18
All men have weaknesses and so are corruptible. Moses was not permitted to enter the promised land, but Jesus knew Moses and spoke well of him and because he knew him, Moses lived even though he died. High priests chosen by God are not chosen because they are perfect and good at following rules, the Pharisees can do that, they are chosen because God has given them love and has commanded them to show the world what real love is.
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
Hebrews 11:4