How do we interpret the Mosaic Law? Are we to destroy our homes if mold keeps growing in them, and go to the pastor if we have a persistent white bump on our skin? Are we to accept the killing of the Canaanites as an enduring precedent for how God might deal with heathen nations? (In which case we might have to support the Crusades etc.) Is polygamy okay, since David, Jacob, and Abraham participated in it? Questions like this demand accurate interpretation of the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law in particular. Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God inspired me to make some hermeneutic observations here. 

Progressive Revelation

A prominent piece of theology has to do with the “progressive revelation” of God to man. The main idea is that God has revealed himself in stages throughout history. Thus, although God is eternal and unchanging, men have understood him differently (with differing degrees of perfection) throughout history. (Sometimes referred to as “dispensations of grace” etc.)

Covenant Stages

Progressive revelation can be seen in the Covenants he makes with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. He reveals himself more and more in each of the covenants and gives conditional promises (covenants) that lead his chosen faith community closer and closer to the revelation of the Messiah. As Copan points out (p. 65), even within the history of Israel itself there are stages to how God relates to man. In each stage the covenant people are referred to with different Semitic words.

1. Ancestral wandering clan (Genesis 10:31-32)
2. Theocratic  people under the prophets (Genesis 12:2, Exodus 1:9, 3:7…)
3. Monarchy, institutional state (1 Samuel 24:20)
4. Afflicted remnant (Jeremiah 42:4)
5. Postexilic community/assembly of promise (Ezra 2:64)

The Covenant People as a Maturing Bride

Evolutionists might have a grain of truth in saying that there have been certain kinds of improvement over time in the human race. Mankind has had a long way to go in climbing back up from the Fall, and God has been nurturing her toward maturity. The imagery of a bride in the process of preparation can be found throughout scripture  referring to the Covenant People. For example, in prophetic metaphor in Ezekiel 16 God describes his Covenant people as a child who he nurtures until she is full grown and ready for marriage. In Revelation the people of God are called the “bride who has made herself ready.” Like the Hebrew wedding ritual, only after a time of preparation and sanctification will the husband come for his bride. Therefore, the Mosaic Covenant should be seen as a stage in the gradual enlightenment of the people of God.

The Promises of Another Covenant

The Mosaic Covenant never claims to be ultimate. In Jeremiah, God promises another, better covenant in which he will write his law on the hearts of his people. The Lord tells Moses that he will raise up another prophet like himself (Deuteronomy). Therefore the Mosaic Covenant should not be seen as absolute and final revelation, but rather as an intermediate and less perfect one.

The Purpose of the Mosaic Covenant

God in his wisdom knew that to prepare the Covenant People for the messiah, they needed a tutor; so he sent the Law. The law is not, by nature, not an agent of faith, but rather an agent by which the need for faith is made manifest. Consider Galatians 3:17-25:

The Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate [the Abrahamic] covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made…. For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Therefore the Mosaic Covenant is essentially prophetic in nature. It should be seen as a preliminary and preparatory revelation, creating the need for faith in future grace through a system of visible signs and types that prefigure Christ and his atonement. It was never intended to be an end in itself or to supply righteousness, and the provisions of the law cannot be simply taken at face-value without understanding this prophetic function.

Contextualization

The Mosaic Law was spoken to members of the ancient Semitic or Near Eastern culture. Their world was quite different from ours. As with all scripture, it contains eternal truth, but this truth is subject to its meaning, and its meaning must be interpreted through language, and language is a function of culture. The fact that God’s revelation was contextually tailored to the Ancient Near East (and thus must be understood as nearly through that lens as possible) is shown through the many references that the Law makes to that culture. The Mosaic law utilized, referred to, forbade, and improved upon different aspects of Semitic culture (we’ll look at examples later). Many seemingly arbitrary laws take on new meaning when we understand that God had cultural references in mind that Israelites would have understood loud and clear. Because the Bible was written to a specific group of people at a particular place and time, extreme hermeneutical care should be taken to consider the cultural and linguistic context in order to understand the significance that the Law had for those for whom it was intended.

Conclusion

The Mosaic Law must not be understood as an absolute moral standard, but as a tutorial code that would evolve the faith of the people of Israel in such a way as to prepare them for the Messiah, as part of the overall growth of God’s people. Furthermore, they must be understood as they would have been understood by their original audience, the Israelites and their ancient Near East cultural context. Copan talks about the law as a “compromise” that bridges ancient semitic culture to the New Covenant. Does this mean that the Mosaic law does not contain eternal, divine truth? Does it mean that the books of the Old Testament were not inspired – every jot and tittle? No. It just means that these perfect revelations were perfect but not entire, but each cumulatively leading to Jesus. Even now in the church age, our revelation is incomplete, as we “see through a glass darkly” until we meet Him face to face.

The Mosaic Law must be understood this way, as a stage in progressive revelation that was directed toward a people in ancient Near Eastern culture. To absolutize it is to misapply it. I plan on writing several posts on the killing of the Canaanites and the treatment of women, slaves etc. in the Old Testament, and I will bank on and refer to these hermeneutical presuppositions.