Every once in a while you will hear this term, “the Law of Moses” thrown around in biblical conversations.  Most Christians use it to tell other more radical Old and New Testament Christians that they are still operating under the Law of Moses.  My friend was having lunch with me when we worked for a sandwich shop and during that week it was the festival of unleavened bread.  I had the bread removed from my lunch and it was pretty much meat, lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, and a few other veggies.  I pretty much ate it like it was a salad.  My friend asked what I was doing and I told him I was keeping the festival of unleavened bread.  Obviously he was not a bible reader and asked if that was in the bible or was I in some weird religion.  I told him he could read about it in Leviticus chapter 23.

Then he responded “so you live under the laws of Moses.”  He had to respond that way to show me he had some biblical intelligence but the phrase is what caught my attention.  Moses was indeed a law giver; he is the one God chose to give the commandments to the children of Israel.  However, we cannot use the phrase to imply these are Moses’ laws.  In fact Moses did not have any laws; the laws belong to Jesus, the God of Israel. 

In Exodus chapter 19 you will see that the God of Heaven and Earth gathered Moses to gather Israel at Mt. Sinai to introduce Himself to them personally.  Then God came down on the mountain in burning fire, with lightening, thunders, and extremely loud trumpets and spoke 10 Commandments. 

These then are the law of God and not the Law of Moses.  The Law of God and for identification I always say the God of Israel is what Moses brought down to the people to adhere to.  These laws, the 10 Commandments are to be established forever and were not nailed to the cross upon the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.  The 10 Commandments are the covenant between God and man; this is the agreement that you believe and trust in a Supreme Divine Creator, and believe that such a Divine Creator was/is Jesus and His Christ. 

We can loosely use the term law of Moses but even if you meet Moses, one of the first things he will tell you is that he absolutely had no laws.  In fact in Exodus chapter 3 or 4 when Moses was being commissioned to go rescue the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses tried to get out of the gig with several lame excuses.

Moses only wanted to live out his life peacefully with his wife and children but God had plans for him to be the hand in which He used to deliver Israel.  Moses did not have any law, he was just to administer of the law.  The one law Moses added on his own knowledge and inspiration was the law of the divorce where he permitted a man to send his wife away with a bill of divorcement.  Jesus came in the flesh and corrected that mishap reminding us the only reason God will entertain divorce is for the matter of adultery.  This certainly lets us know that the Law of Moses is really the Law of God.

Koko Ishe