The Rule of Law: Government of the Mind (4)

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them.” Leviticus 18.1-4

It would be inevitable that the people of God would be confronted, from time to time, with laws, statutes, and practices which other nations followed. They must be able to distinguish between these foreign rules and precepts and those which God had commanded them to follow. A firm grounding in the Law of God would be thus essential to making sure that practices foreign to God’s design did not find their way into the daily lives of His people.

This was a danger to be guarded against especially with respect to the religious practices of pagan peoples. Solomon’s failure in this regard (1 Kings 11) would be the direct cause of the division of the nation and God’s judgment on His people. Since the Law of God is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7.12), to add to it any additional statutes from the surrounding peoples would be to compromise its purity and the purity of Israel’s practice.

Certainly additional statutes and policies would be developed on the basis of the Law of God, as circumstances required, but these must not conflict with any other aspect of the Law or else they would jeopardize the integrity of the whole. Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees’ practice of “corban” is an example of how such compromises could undermine the original intent of the Law and make the people into hypocrites (Matt. 15.1-9).

God’s people must learn His Law and guard against the temptation to adopt the practices of the surrounding nations. They must not add to His Law anything which does not agree with it, and they must not fail to learn and keep all that God has commanded (Deut.4.2). The Law of God is to be the guiding moral light in their minds.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.