The Law Was Complete

Other arguments have been raised by sceptics, would-be “theologians” and others who refuse to obey God, trying to connect the Ten Commandments to the various other statutes, ordinances, sacrifices, judgments and even the annual Feast days, which God commanded Israel to keep in Leviticus 23:1-44.

All of the other laws that God gave later—His statutes, ordinances, precepts and judgments—were not part of His complete spiritual Law given by Him directly to the people at Mt. Sinai. This must be understood, and so few people seem to recognize this. God held nothing back in the giving of His Law. He left nothing out—His spiritual Law was perfect and complete.

God’s Law is living. Speaking of this Law, Acts 7:38 states, “This is he [Moses], that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel [Christ] which spoke to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give UNTO US.” That’s right! God’s Law is a living—“lively”—Law, and it was intended to be carried down “TO US.”

The Ten Commandments are binding on God’s people today—“US.” They have not been done away. They were sent “unto us.”

Have you ever noticed the following passage from the New Testament? The foundation—His Law—of God’s Old Covenant agreement with Israel is the same as His New Covenant agreement with the Church: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put MY LAWS into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people” (Heb. 8:10).

We have now painted a dramatic picture of the setting in which God gave the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel. This background sets the stage for understanding this great Law, and how it was ultimately sent to the entire world—for any who will choose to obey it!

The Ten Commandments and “Book of the Law” Are Different Most people have no idea how to prove the Ten Commandments are completely different from the “book of the Law,” or the Law of Moses. This is at least partly because they do not realize a series of verses, when put in correct sequence, leave no question that these were two entirely separate laws. This chapter is not complete without examining six final passages.

Deuteronomy 5:1-33 laid the groundwork with Deut 5:22, just quoted, in which Moses was recounting the receiving of the Law of God to the assembled Israelites. After referencing in Deut 5:3 the covenant God made, remember that at that time God “added no more,” and that He “wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.”

Next, let’s plainly recognize that Moses also was used to bring a law. Notice, this time from Deuteronomy 33:1-29: “Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deut 33:4).

The Ark of God—and What Was “in” It

Now we go to chapter 10 of Deuteronomy, where Moses is recounting more of what happened. The role of the ark of God is introduced. Read carefully: “At that time [when the Ten Commandments were first given] the LORD said unto me, Hew you two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make you an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me” (Deut 10:1-4).

Then, I Kings 8:9 removes all doubt about whether anything else went into the ark. This is vital to establish before continuing: “There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.”

The “Side” of the Ark

At this point, an all-important distinction can be made. The ark was very specially constructed so that a second and different law could be accommodated. Let’s see what that law was and where it was kept. We return to Deuteronomy: “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you” (Deut 31:24-26). This reveals that the ark contained a separate compartment—actually a kind of pouch—on the “side” wherein was kept the longer book of the law.

It should now be clear that the Ten Commandments—God’s Law—and the much longer book of the law—recorded by Moses (but even this was done on God’s behalf)—are NOT the same sets of law. But let’s remove all doubt with a final passage.

Here is what you should never forget: “Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land…only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, AND according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them” (II Kings 21:8).

There remains no doubt that God’s Ten Commandments and Moses’ book of the law, though certainly related, were entirely separate. Even the ark made this plain distinction.

Now for the Law of God…