The LORD is Angry with the Law…
Here is a pattern in the word that the Lord showed me one morning many years ago as I was reading about Moses and wondering why he could not go into the promised land. It is an excerpt from Crucified, Getting the Mind of Christ.
Let’s look at Moses when he was about to leave this world…just before Israel was about to cross over into the Promised Land. There is so much here that it is overwhelming; so much symbolism is here. I want to just illustrate some symbolism that is here for the church. Ok, first we see that Moses was told by God that he could not enter the Promised Land because he had disobeyed God in Numbers 20:12. Moses, representing the law, almost a personification of the law, is unduly harsh with the people when they ask for water.
Moses gets angry with them when God was not angry with them and therefore misrepresents the heart of God. He strikes the rock. Now there is so much here that I am going to try to be organized about it. I hope that works. Now the next thing we see is that the striking of the rock represents the necessity of the crucifixion of Christ (the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old revealed in the New…they are one, Augustine). The water that comes out of it is the life of Christ poured out for us because He was stricken.
Even though Moses is disobedient here, there is an intentional pattern to see that foretells of the crucifixion. This whole pattern that I am going to lay out tells us that the law is good in that it brings us to the realization of sin. But it cannot save (Galatians 3). The law then, Moses, misrepresents God’s heart. The law condemns, but the heart of the Lord is mercy. Oh, how beautiful this picture is!
Look how Moses asks God if he can PLEASE go into the Promised Land. God gets angry with Moses and says, in essence, I said no, Moses, don’t ask Me again. Oh my, this is so great that I am holding back the tears.
While Moses actually did these things, and it is not exclusively symbolism, because it actually happened, the symbolism that I am about to discuss is heart wrenching. Let’s for a moment view Moses strictly as the Law. Remove his personhood just for a minute so we can see something hidden.
Moses, in Deuteronomy 3:25 says to God: I pray Thee, let me go over.
This is the law asking God if it can have a part in salvation. Notice that God gets very angry with the law at this point and essentially says, I said no, Moses, don’t bring it up again. God explains how Moses can go up to the mount and look at the Land but only Joshua could take them in.
Now Joshua represents Jesus. The names are the same. Yeshua, is Jesus in Hebrew, which is also Joshua. God is showing how the law brings all the way up to salvation, but only Jesus can bring us in.
The pattern continues. The law is not abolished, it can only have no part whatsoever in salvation. Jesus said don’t think I came to abolish the law, but to fulfill it!
Now look at what happens next. Before Moses leaves Israel in Joshua’s hands who will be the one to lead them into the PL, he says this to them as a warning, an admonition: “After you have entered into the land (salvation) keep the statutes and the commandments I have taught you that you may live. Do not add to or take away from the Word of God. If you will do His Word, you will have wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently, (Deuteronomy 4:1-9). We see that wisdom and understanding come as we obey. “If you will obey, you will know doctrine, if it is from God”.
What a pattern. Moses, the law, brings us all the way up to salvation, then Joshua, Jesus, takes us by the hand and leads us in. Moses cannot come. He must stay behind. (Paul said if it were not for the law, he would not know he was a sinner). But look, Moses’ voice is echoing after them as they march in…”Be sure to cling to God and keep His Word as you go in, that you may know wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently.”
The law brings us up to salvation, Grace takes us in. By marriage to Him, we do not violate the law. ” Righteousness and peace have kissed!”
Wherefore my brethren, you have also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.”
Notice that God buried Moses. Dead to the law means I have a new Husband and am married to Christ. This means that the law has no power over me because I keep it in Christ. The law IS master over the sinner in sin. If he breaks it, it is his slavemaster, if he keeps it, he is a slave to righteousness…free. The law is GOOD. It is not bad. It just can have no part whatsoever in salvation. Can the law EVER form Christ in me? NO! It is impotent to do it.
I disagree with a lot of teachers who think Moses messed up here. I think it happened exactly as God wanted. The Holy Spirit loves to use pictures and patterns to teach truth…they are so much better than mere words sometimes.
If Moses did not hit the rock (this is Christ, the rock), then it would have been Moses who lead the people into the promised land. This would mean that the law saves and not grace…which is not possible. The law would have marched them in, Christ would not have been stricken and bruised, but there would never be salvation.
The law put sin to death. It crucified the Lord (and rightly so…Jesus died as that sin). The law declared a death sentence upon sin. Jesus came in and saved by becoming that sin. The law is angry with sin and rightly so. If Jesus would not have come and been sin for us, the law would continually condemn mankind. Moses would have led them in and mankind would have a continual struggle with sin and the law that rightly condemns it, with no remedy.
We see this continue through the whole New testament, in the Lord’s teachings and all the apostles. Look at Matthew 5. Jesus is telling us that the one who breaks the commandments (this means the heart of the word and not the 10 commandments…the word shows us that) and teaches others to do so, will be what? not lost, but least in the Kingdom. The one who keeps the word and teaches others to do so will be what? greatest in the Kingdom.
James explains how we should be doers of the word and not hearers only.
So the one who LOVES God, truly loves God, is not the one who is soft on sin and filled with compliance with the things God hates. This is a man centered gospel that elevates man above God and seeks to please man and not God. No, Jesus tells us Himself that the one who really loves God (and this is higher than knowing that God loves me) , keeps His Word. This is how it is seen.
We must love God with heart soul and mind before we can love our neighbors as ourselves. One comes before the other and the other is not possible without the former.
True Godly love leads others in the ways of God, not in the ways of man.
A believer who still fights the Word of God is a slave to sin. He is miserable. He is not free. “He has not yet received a love for the Word”. One who is free, IS the Word of God. He is one with Christ, hidden with Him in God. Remember that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. When we become one in Him, we will be a sweet walking gospel as well. But some things Jesus has to say are hard and many will walk away when he gets to hard things, John 6:66.
But Jesus said, look, if you cannot hear (believe, understand) earthly things, how then can you receive or understand heavenly things? We cannot.
“Behold, therefore, both the goodness AND severity of God.”
Love in Him,
Cheryl
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