Dr. Lawrence Butler

The Bridge Church, Pembroke

During our last study we were made aware that God established a covenant with Abraham that the land known at that time as Canaan would one day belong to his descendants.

However, before that would occur, the seed of Abraham would spend some 400 years in Egypt, most of those years as slaves. The compelling story of their struggle for survival is found in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible.

After becoming slaves to a new foreign power which overran the kingdom of Egypt, there was no way for the people to escape. God had to intervene with miraculous power to deliver them, and He did so with ten natural disasters. These events were called “plagues” by the Israelites, as the children of Abraham came to be known.

Despite being promised a great heritage by the Lord through their patriarch Abraham, God had to teach them how He expected them to live.

He did so by giving them a set of “laws” to live by. The most well-known of these rules were the Ten Commandments. However, there were many rules and regulations to be obeyed, and most of these are found in the book of Leviticus.

Strict guidelines governing marriage, religious worship and civil law were taught by Moses to the people.

God’s plan was to keep this people separated from the idolatrous practices around them, and to present through this holy congregation a Savior who could save us from our sin.

The plan of God did not work as well as it could have because of the sinfulness of man. At almost every turn men chose lust, sin and wickedness over righteousness.

Just as in the Age of Innocence, the Age of Conscience, and the Age of Promise, this Age of Law turned into human failure.

Later in the history of these people they were divided into two distinct kingdoms. Despite having some 41 kings and 1 queen who should have encouraged them to follow the Lord, only a handful of their monarchs (9) ever really tried to obey God.

God’s ultimate plan worked despite human inability to obey the Law given them. There were those who loved the Law of God and wanted to serve Him.

The real reason for the Law was to point us to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, who was born of a virgin into the family of Abraham.

God’s grace is greater than man’s sin!