Why David Loved the Law

“The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

- Psalm 19:7-11

When I left off last month I wrote about how Paul viewed the law as a Pharisee. This week I would like to look at how David viewed the law. The Psalms are filled with David’s love for the law and his desire to obey the Lord. But in Acts 15:10 Peter calls the law “a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.” Did the law change from the time of David to the time of Acts?

Although many Orthodox will tell you it is a joy to follow the law, and I believe for many who do so it can be, but I do not believe that David is talking about the law in the same form that Peter is.

Did you ever play whisper down the lane?  We used to play it in elementary school.  The teacher would line up all the kids in the class.  The first kid would whisper a message to the second kid and the second kid would try to repeat the same message to the third kid.  Then the third to the fourth and so on down the line until we got to the last kid who would then share the message with the class to see how close it was to the original message.  Needless to say, the message always seemed to be completely different from what the original message was.  Who knows how many times it was misunderstood, rephrased or deliberately changed along the way.  

The Rabbis tell us there were two forms of the law.  The written law which Moses wrote down, and the oral law which Moses passed on to the judges.  The Rabbis tell us this law was passed on to the prophets in time of the kings and during the exile.  Upon the return of the Hebrews to Israel it was passed along by the scribes, which started the schools of the Pharisees in order to preserve the law and keep it from being broken so it would never be lost.  After the destruction of the second temple the Rabbis began writing down the oral in the Mishnah.  For more on this you can read my post entitled Judges, Pharisees and Rabbinut.

The point is, I think something happened while passing along the oral law. Something seems to have changed, just like the message changes in whisper down the lane. 

Part I - History

We know sin existed in the world even before Moses, from the time of Adam and Eve. In Genesis chapter 2 we read the first command God gave Adam.  Verses 16 to 17 (NIV) read; “And the Lord God commanded man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’”  In Genesis 3 we read the story of the fall of man, how Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We read in Genesis 3:22 (NIV) that God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.”

In Genesis chapter 4 we read how Cain kills Abel out of jealousy. He knows this is wrong even though Moses had not yet been given the commandments.  In Genesis chapter 6 we read the earth was corrupt and God decides to destroy the people with a flood, sparing only Noah and his family, for “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God (from Genesis 6:9 NIV).” We know that God is fair and just, and would not destroy most of the people on earth if He didn’t feel they should know the difference between right and wrong.

In Genesis Chapter 7:2 (NIV), there is something I find very interesting.  God tells Noah; “Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate.”  Even before the law of Moses, God had distinguished between clean and unclean animals and Noah knew the difference.  God did not need to specify.

If we read the length of time the early people in the bible lived as literal, meaning, Adam actually lived 930 years, and Methuselah actually lived to be 969 (the longest human life recorded in the bible), then Adam would have died 126 years before Noah was born and Adam’s son Seth would have died 14 years before Noah was born.  However, many of Adam’s early descendants would have known both Adam and Noah, such as Adam’s grandson Enosh, Adam’s great-grandson Kenan, Kenan’s son Mahalalel and grandson Jared, and of course Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, who likely died in the flood, and even Noah’s own father Lamech all knew both Adam and Noah.  Although Noah missed out on the first 1,056 years of the world, he knew people who had at least second hand knowledge. Not exactly whisper down the lane, but still the world had been corrupted.  

It seems Noah had at least an occasional conversation with the Creator Himself, although these conversations may have been limited to the flood, the ark and other various preparations involving the destruction of most of the world.  But let’s say in these conversations, God confirmed with Noah what He expected of a righteous man. Noah lived 350 years after the flood and was alive when Abraham was born, but died before Isaac was born.  Shem who lived to be 500, would have lived just long enough to live through God’s judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah, less than 400 years after the flood, although Noah and Shem presumably lived far to the East of Canaan.  

The Israelites lived in Goshen 430 years before the Exodus and it seems that they had heard stories about the God of their forefathers, but their faith was intermittent.  As we saw from Sodom and Gomorrah, 400 years is more than enough time to forget.  400 seconds is usually enough time to forget something in my household.  Within a few months of the plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, with enough food and water to satisfy 600,000 men and their families, the Israelites still turned to a golden calf.  Perhaps this is why God decided to have Moses write the law down.    

We are told in 1 Kings 6:1, that Solomon began to build the First Temple 480 years after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.  According to 2 Samuel 5:4 and 1 Chronicles 29:27, David was 30 years old when he became king and was king over Israel for 40 years.  So David began his reign as king about 436 years after the Israelites came out of Egypt.

After Solomon's reign, which totaled 40 years, the kingdom split into two, Israel and Judah.  Israel had 19 kings after Solomon, and lasted almost 250 years before Hoshea, the last king of Israel, was defeated by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria.  We are told in 2 Kings 17:7-23 that Israel was exiled because of they had turned from the Lord.  

Judah had 19 kings and one queen after Solomon, and lasted close to 400 years before Zedekiah, last king of Judah, was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians. In 2 Chronicles 36:11-19 we read how the Lord’s wrath was aroused against his people because they had become unfaithful to him and followed the detestable practices of the nations.

Part 2 - Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

"You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

- Matthew 23:16-26

When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem 70 years after they were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, there became a new emphasis in Judaism on following the law of Moses, so that the Lord would not forsake his people again. Scribes, whose school of thought would develop into the Pharisees, began to study the law and the prophets.  But for all their study, they must have missed something, because 590 years after they began constructing the Second Temple, it was destroyed again. Either that, or something happened along the way in passing down the "oral law" just as the message is inevitably changed while playing whisper down the lane. In reading the Matthew 23, I get the sense that Yeshua was disgusted by the way the Pharisees perverted the law and focused on the things that were unimportant, while neglecting the things that were important. As Yeshua put it, cleaning the outside of the cup while neglecting what was on the inside.

Going back to David, we read in 1 Samuel 18 how King Saul becomes jealous of David and he begins to plot to kill him.  In 1 Samuel 20, during the New Moon Festival, Saul is looking for David so that Saul can kill David, but David’s seat is empty. In verse 26 we read that Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely, he is unclean.”  

In contrast, we read in Acts 10 how Cornelius sends men for Peter, and how God gives Peter a vision before the men arrive.  Peter goes to Cornelius’ house and finds a large gathering of people there. In verses 28-29, Peter says to them, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.”

The Pharisees taught that being unclean was forbidden. You could not do anything that would make you unclean. Yet, when Saul sees that David hasn’t shown up for the New Moon festival, Saul thinks David has done something to make himself unclean, then thinks no more of it. Saul is jealous of David, who he sees as his political rival. Right now, America is in the middle of a presidential election. Do you think if either one of the candidates thought the other might have done something that was seen as “forbidden” in our society, that they would just casually dismiss it and think nothing of it. Yet, this is what Saul does.

In 2 Chronicles chapters 29 to 32 we read about the reign of King Hezekiah.  2 Chronicles 29:2 reads; “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” Hezekiah ruled after King Ahaz, who had shut the doors of the temple and set up altars on every street corner.  In the first month of Hezekiah’s reign, he reopened the Temple doors, told the priests to consecrate themselves and remove the defilement from the sanctuary. He presented sin offerings to atone for all Israel.

In Chapter 30 Hezekiah invited all of Israel to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.  We are told a very large crowd of people gathered in Jerusalem and that there was great joy, for there had not been anything like it since the days of Solomon. In 2 Chronicles 30:18-20 we read; “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.’

Hezekiah was king. He could have forced these people who were unclean to purify themselves or to leave, yet he understood what was more important, that these people who had not known the ways of the Lord had set their hearts on seeking God. And God healed them.

That’s the law that David loved. A law that looks at a man's heart before it looks at his appearance. A law with justice, mercy and faithfulness.

Paul's perspective on the law

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

- Matthew 5:17-20

Reading the scriptures can be confusing at times.  In the above verse, Yeshua himself says that he has not come to abolish the law and that those “who break one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be the least in the kingdom of heaven.” But we all know from reading the letters Paul wrote that we are saved by grace and therefore we are not under the law.  We can read this in several ways, and I am not here to debate the scriptures, but to give a different perspective.

Judith and I went to a party, not long before we got married, where we met a young Jewish girl who was having a hard time understanding exactly what Messianic Judaism was.  We tried to explain, that since Jesus was Jewish, it only made sense that we live a Jewish lifestyle.  To which she replied, “If you want to believe that Jesus was Jewish, that’s your problem.”  Judith and I were both speechless, but unfortunately, there are actually people out there that don’t know Yeshua was Jewish.  Perhaps this is because Christianity seems so different from Judaism.  Yet, early Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism, so how did the two religions become so different?

Many people read the book of Acts as a history of the early church.  The first non-Jewish believer, Cornelius, doesn’t enter the book until chapter 10, and the Jews weren’t exactly sure what to do with him.  After hearing Peter’s story of how these uncircumcised Gentiles were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the other Apostles and brothers from Judea praise God saying (Acts 11:18), “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

As more Gentiles came to faith, some brothers from Judea were teaching (Acts 15:1), “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”  In verse 5, we see this idea repeated from “some of the brothers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees,” who added that the Gentiles should also be required to obey the law of Moses. The decision was made that they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God, and not to burden them with anything more than abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

We read throughout the rest of the New Covenant how Paul took the Gospel message “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” preaching first in the synagogues and then to others, in many of the provinces of the Roman Empire in the area of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.  It is believed that during Paul’s life, which ended a few years before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Paul is believed to have been martyred around 67 AD while the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD) Christianity was still considered a sect of Judaism, although, as we read in Acts, many Jewish leaders strongly opposed this movement.  Some historians believe there was a power struggle between Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism and the followers of Yeshua which eventually lead to the formation of these two separate religions [source needed].

After the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the Jewish revolt, the Roman Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on Jews throughout Roman Empire in place of the “tithe” Jews used to pay for the upkeep of the Temple [source needed].  Domitian expanded the tax during his rule to also include anyone who observed Jewish customs [source needed].  Naturally, Christians petitioned the Emperor to recognize Christianity as a separate religion so they would not have to pay the tax [source needed].  Nerva, Domitian’s successor, limited the tax to those who openly practiced Judaism, allowing Christians to avoid the tax by disassociating themselves from Judaism [source needed].

In 303 AD Christians were again persecuted in the Roman Empire under the Emperor Diocletian [source needed]. Christians pushed themselves further from Judaism at the Synod of Elvira in 306 AD when they banned marriages, sexual relations and community contact between Christians and Jews [source needed].  In 313 AD Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan officially recognizing Christianity as a separate religion.  Finally at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the complete separation was made official when the church declared; “we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.” 

Part 2

While Judith and I were dating, we attended a college and career group.  The teaching one night, perhaps for our benefit, was on the question of differentiating between the “law” and “sin.” A leader of the group explained the law could be separated into different categories; moral law (as in the ten commandments), ceremonial law (as in the sacrifices) and civil law (as in an eye for an eye).  He argued that Yeshua and others who uphold obedience to the law were referring to moral law, while Paul, in arguing against the law, was referring to the ceremonial and perhaps the civil law. Perhaps, but that really ignores who Paul was.

Who was Paul?  In Acts 22: 3, Paul says; “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.  Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”  Paul was a Pharisee.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, Judges, Pharisees and Rabbinut, during the first century, there were two types of law in Israel, the written Law, or the Mosaic Law, and the Oral Law, which would become the Rabbinic Law.  The Pharisees believed that their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, through the Oral Law which had been handed down to them, was to be held in higher regard than the scriptures themselves, for without the rabbinic interpretation, the meaning of the scriptures is unclear.  As Christians have separated themselves from Judaism over the centuries, they also separated themselves from the rabbinic law as we are told from the scriptures not to be under the law, which coming from a Pharisee would mean, not to be under the law of the Pharisees.

Take a look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.”  Here, Paul specifies that he is outside of the law, “not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ."

Popular thinking is that Paul is referring to Jews when he refers to “those under the law.”  But if you read this as a Pharisee living in the first century (as Paul was), you read those under the law as those who live according to the interpretations of the Pharisees.  Remember, the Pharisees were not the only religious leaders at the time, there were also the Sadducees who believed the Law of Moses should be read literally, and does not need the interpretation of the oral law.

It is written in Matthew that Yeshua says “not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”  There are no pen strokes in the oral law, a point which surely wasn’t lost on the Jews listening to Yeshua.

Christians seem to like to call everything that is “Jewish” living “under the law.”  If you keep any type of kosher, keep Shabbat or celebrate Jewish holy days then you are living under the law.  Although Christians can back up decisions not to keep the above commands with other scripture, I would argue that we cannot just throw away everything Jewish by saying it is living under the law.  I would argue that we are taught not to be under the oral law and the rabbinic interpretation.  That when we read the scriptures, keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and celebrating the biblical feasts look very different from what Orthodox Judaism makes these commands look like.  Am I telling you that you need to start keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and the biblical feasts? Certainly not as the Orthodox Jews do today.  I would like to see what the scriptures say (Old and New Covenant) about these ideas, but we’ll deal with those scriptures another week.