Real Restoration: The Law and the Nature of God

We tend to think of the Law of Moses as a bunch of arcane, archaic rules about what to eat and not eat. I think it’s better to view the Law as God’s self-revelation to the Israelites. Consider, for example, Deuteronomy —

(Deu 10:12-13 ESV) 12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

God explains that his commands are not designed to please himself, but rather are for the good of the Israelites. God doesn’t command arbitrary things just to test our faith. Rather, his commands are for our own good — even if we don’t understand why. God’s commands are expressions of his love for us, not demands for us to show love for him by passing arbitrary tests.

(Deu 10:15 ESV) 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

God elected Israel — the nation — as an act of Divine Love. Israel did not merit this love.

(Deu 10:16 ESV) 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

God’s election demands a response — a changed heart that submits to God’s loving will — a will that shows us what is best for us.

(Deu 10:17-19 ESV) 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

God takes no bribes, but treats all fairly — meaning that we should do the same. God cares for and demands justice for widows and orphans. Those who can’t look out after themselves have God as a protector — and he commands his people to follow his example.

God demands that the “sojourner” (also translated “alien” or “stranger”) be cared for by his people, even though the sojourner is not among the elect. The love God urges is not just inward. The elect aren’t allowed to only love the elect. After all, the Israelites were once sojourners (aliens) in Egypt, and so they should care about those who sojourn among themselves.

(Deu 11:16-17 ESV) 16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

However, God is jealous. There are no other gods. You must worship God and God only.

(Deu 12:5-7 ESV) 5 But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

God will choose a place among the tribes (later identified as Jerusalem) where sacrifice is to be made to him. But “sacrifice” will include meals shared with God himself. The people will enjoy fellowship meals with God.

(Deu 14:28-29 ESV) 28 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”

God established a system of tithes to support the priesthood as well as sojourners, orphans, and widows. That’s right: God created a welfare program.

(Deu 15:7-9 ESV) 7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.”

God required his people to freely lend to the poor among them, and not to refuse loans even though loans were forgiven even seventh year. In modern terms, God created a bankruptcy system, and required that the poor be provided for with loans even when it was inevitable that the loans might never be repaid.

(Deu 15:11 ESV) 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Generosity to the poor is a command.

The commands conclude with —

(Deu 26:17-19 ESV) 17 “You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18 And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19 and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”

We see the idea that Israel was to be a demonstration to the world of the wonders of God’s love. It’s not so much that they were to send missionaries as that they were to live in right relationship to God, to each other, to those in need, and to the sojourner so that the world would see that God makes these people “his treasured possession.” We are God’s treasured possession and a sign to those outside God when we become like God and love whom he loves.

You see, before Israel could be a light to the world, Israel had to be a light. That is, before they could share the blessings of righteousness with others, they had to be righteous. The first step in being the light of the world is forming the community that God requires.

Some want to argue that Israel had no missionary obligation, at least not until Isaiah. But the first obligation of the church is to be the church, and the first obligation of Israel was to “be a people holy to the LORD your God” so that God could set them “in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made” — thereby showing God’s glory to the world.

And Israel’s failure is also the church’s failure. The church sends missionaries, but fails to evangelize as it should because it fails to be holy to the Lord as it should be. The church cannot be effective until it’s righteousness exceeds the world’s righteousness — and sometimes the church is even less righteous than the world.

God is still God, and he still loves the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, and the poor. He still commands us to be openhanded to those in need. We’d rather please God by singing without instruments and making certain our elders have multiple children. That’s easy. Being the church — being the light of the world — now, that’s hard.