Page 203 - Through New Eyes

The World of the Tabernacle 201
months on end, and could not attend festivals, it became a more
serious matter.
The laws of uncleanness were not hard to keep. You were to
wash out a pot if a lizard fell into it and died. We would do the
same today. You were not supposed to marry your sister, aunt,
or child. Few of us would be tempted to. You were not supposed
to eat dog-burgers or salted roast roaches. Most of us wouldn’t
either. That is because these are our customs, and we don’t find
them burdensome. If we were used to eating dog meat, as some
cultures do, then the restriction would be temporarily burden-
some until we got used to it. The Jews were not to eat pork
either, but that was not hard for them. They were no more
tempted to eat pork than we are to eat roaches.
So, the Mosaic law was not horribly complicated or impossi-
ble to keep. Of course, in the New Covenant we are not under
the Mosaic law. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ replaces all the sac-
rifices of Moses. Christ has cleansed the world once and for all in
His Resurrection, and so the laws of uncleanness no longer apply
to us. That is, they no Ionger apply as laws. In terms of their
symbolism, they still provide wisdom.
That does not mean that the law is irrelevant, however,
which is the third common misconception. The Mosaic law has
been ignored by the Church for a couple of centuries. In reac-
tion against this, some have taken up the Mosaic social laws as a
virtual blueprint for modern society. s The proper middle ground
is to understand the topological nature of the Mosaic economy.
The Old Covenant is a type of the New, and the Mosaic estab-
lishment, like the other establishments we are looking at, is a
type of the Kingdom of Christ. As a type, it is filled with wisdom
for us.G
A proper approach to the Mosaic law asks four questions.
First, it asks what this law meant in the Old Covenant. Second,
it asks how this law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Third, it asks
how this law is to be fulfilled in the Church, which is in union
with Christ. And fourth, it asks what relevance this law may
have in shaping wider society outside the Church. If we keep
such a procedure in mind, the Mosaic laws can be of great vahe
to us; and we can avoid the dangers of legalism on the one side,
and antinomianism on the other.