Question: Who must obey the Law of God?

“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” Deuteronomy 4.5, 6

The Law of God encodes the wisdom of God, which is the way of life. As all Israel kept and did the Law of God they would become a wise and understanding people, unlike the Egyptians from whom they had fled and the Canaanites whom they dispossessed.

God was not hostile to the nations surrounding His people, except as they made themselves enemies of His will. He allowed strangers and sojourners to live within Israel, and commanded that they should enjoy the same privileges and protections of His Law as His redeemed people, even though they were not fully members of the covenant community. Strangers and foreigners should also expect to come under the same judgment of the Law so long as they were in the land.

God also foresaw that, as the people of Israel were faithful in their obedience, their wisdom would stand out as a light to the nations, creating a desire in those nations to enjoy the benefits of that wisdom for themselves. In 1 Kings 10 we see how representatives of the nations trooped up to Jerusalem year after year, seeking the wisdom of God and bringing gifts of submission and gratitude to King Solomon. He freely taught those emissaries what the wisdom of God required, roundly impressing and, doubtless, helping many of those nations to a fuller experience of life. Solomon’s actions are echoed in Micah 4.1-8, foretelling a day when all the nations of the world would stream up to the mountain of the Lord’s house in order to learn the ways of His Law.

From the beginning of His Law, therefore, it is clear that God intended the nations of the world to enjoy the benefits of wisdom and life, encoded in His Law, if only to a limited extent (concerning which we shall have more to say later this week).

T. M. Moore

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