And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 32.45-47

The Law of God is the cornerstone of Biblical revelation. It sets the tone and direction, and provides the major themes for all the rest of what we find in Scripture. The teaching of the Law is interpreted, practiced, elaborated, fulfilled, and enlarged by subsequent revelation, but the Law itself is never entirely set aside.

The Law of God thus contains, in a large kernel, all the teaching of Scripture, including everything contained in the Biblical worldview. A worldview is simply a way of understanding all of life, a mind map, if you will, for discerning the best way to live and prosper in one’s particular place and time. Worldviews answer questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What kind of world is this? How are we supposed to live? What’s the meaning of it all? And so forth. We don’t just ask these questions once, but over and over, in different situations, with different ends in view, and in order to keep ourselves on track in the world.

Everyone has a worldview – even God. And God began to make known His view of life and how to get the most out of it in the five books of Moses which we call the Law of God. The commandments, precepts, statutes, and rules which take up the bulk of the Genesis-Deuteronomy contain God’s worldview as in a nutshell, and the worldview which we may discover there marks out the shape and content of the Biblical worldview as a whole.

Rather than consider the Law of God merely as a body of law, therefore, it is important that we understand it as conveying a worldview. The Law of God is not just statutes and legal codes; it outlines and guides all who submit to it into an understanding and approach to life which is filled with the blessings of God for every aspect of human life and interest.

So we turn in this series of In the Gates to consider the worldview of God’s Law – its form and content, and how we may engage that worldview in a way that will allow us to “live long” in our place and time, rejoicing and being at peace in the blessings of God for ourselves and our neighbors.

For more insight to what worldviews are and how they work, read T. M.’s article, “Getting the Story Right” ( http://www.ailbe.org/columns/revision/item/2242-getting-the-story-right).