Law of Moses

“ The Jews were always on the alert to entrap the Messiah's feet and bring him into contradiction with the law of Moses. The law of Moses, as first given to Israel, was that if any should be found in adultery they should be stoned to death ”

“ Beloved, you have seen that the commandment to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy is confined to the law God gave to the Jews through Moses in the wilderness. It is not named in the history of God’s people during the 2,500 years prior to that time. It is peculiar to the law of Moses. It is not found at any other place in the Bible. It was not in force during the patriarchal dispensation. Even during the Mosaic age, or dispensation, it never applied to the Gentiles. It is not binding during the Christian dispensation. It has no place in the will of Christ. ”

“ The law of Moses had made them a free people, who held their property each man from God, by God’s Law, which had said, ‘Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet. Cursed is he who removes his neighbour’s landmark.’ And their kings were bound to govern by Moses’ law, just as our kings and rulers are bound to govern by the old constitutions of England, and to do equal justice by rich and poor. ”

“ Those who believe in Christ and change their ways will be forgiven of their sins, and they may rejoice as though Christ had already come.
Because the Lord's covenant people--the house of Israel--were stubborn, He gave them a lower law--the law of Moses. He showed them many signs, wonders, types and shadows of His coming. Their holy prophets also spoke of His coming.
But the children of Israel still hardened their hearts and did not understand that the law of Moses was given to prepare them to accept the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
It is impossible for little children to sin. ”

“ In a word, the old Law laid down certain ordinances, which if a man obeyed, he should live therein; but the new Law laid down nothing fixed nor certain for us, so that we might say, "I have done this or that, and therefore I have fulfilled the Law of Christ." For the Law of Moses touched the life of man, as it were, in certain points ”

“ When Moses appeared surrounded with glory, and, as it were transfigured on Mount Sinai, afraid lest the Israelites, always superstitious, should consider him as a god descended upon the earth, the Lord, amid a flame of fire, declared at the same time from on high, " I am that I am, and thou shalt worship only me." Moses himself appears before the people with only the tables of the law in his hands, as if to let them know that, notwithstanding the glory with which they had seen him arrayed, he nevertheless was only the minister, and not the author of the holy law ”

“ With regard to the handing over of the law, the fact that Moses not only gave the written law to the priests, that they might place it by the ark of the covenant, but also “to all the elders of Israel,” proves clearly enough that Moses did not intend at this time to give the law-book entirely out of his own hands, but that this handing over was merely an assignment of the law to the persons who were to take care, that in the future the written law should be kept before the people, as the rule of their life and conduct, and publicly read to them. ”

“ The law of Moses holds up the evil of having more than one. If men would carefully read the law of Moses, they would see that the original intention was, that a man should have only one wife. But if a man follow the oral law, he will be encouraged to take as many as he can support. ”

“ Again, let us go back to the days of the Patriarchs before the law of Moses was introduced among the people, and we find the same principle still existed and approbated by the God of heaven. I have heard many of our opponents argue that the law of Moses approbated a plurality of wives ”

“ There are, for all that, a great many that do not think there is much difference. God gave a law by Moses, and it is not lawful to violate it; and He also gives laws by a pope or a council what difference is there between the one and the other? Moses’s law was given by God, and our laws were given by men, and it should seem that those laws which God gave by one Moses should be of less moment than those which the Holy Spirit gives by a full council of bishops and learned men. ”

“ The law of Moses indeed, which in these respects was to remain in force as long as the Jewish Polity existed, strictly enjoined magistrates to punish murder and other similar crimes. But if the precepts of Christ could exist in conjunction with the law of Moses, as far as it imposed capital punishments, surely they may exist in conjunction with human laws, which in this respect are but an imitation of the divine laws. ”

“ it is not unreasonable to assume that the works of God, their existence and preceding non-existence, are the result of His wisdom, but we are unable to understand many of the ways of His wisdom in His works. On this principle the whole Law of Moses is based; it begins with this principle: "And God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31) ; and it ends with this principle: "The Rock, perfect is His work" (Deut. ”

“ If it were an attempt to substitute the austerity of the Mosaic law—the law given to Moses, not the ordinances decreed by Moses—for the half-hearted Christian idealism of the day, even that would be a task in which all right-hearted men could join. ”

“ Such law is always political in its character. The ancient law pertained to the nation of the Jews. It was given to them as a community, and to no other people. Moses said, “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire: Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deut. iv, 12, 13. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words ”

“ But Moses was pure from any such distemper, and lived with countrymen who were pure of it also, and thence made the laws which concerned others that had the distemper. He did this for the honor of God. But as to these matters, let every one consider them after what manner he pleases.
5. As to the women, when they have born a child, Moses forbade them to come into the temple, or touch the sacrifices, before forty days were over, supposing it to be a boy; but if she hath born a girl, the law is that she cannot be admitted before twice that number of days be over. ”

“ If the Pentateuch is not inspired in its astronomy, geology, geography, history or philosophy, if it is not inspired concerning slavery, polygamy, war, law, religious or political liberty, or the rights of men, women and children, what is it inspired in, or about? The unity of God? — that was believed long before Moses was born. Special providence? — that has been the doctrine of ignorance in all ages. The rights of property? — theft was always a crime. The sacrifice of animals? — that was a custom thousands of years before a Jew existed. The sacredness of life? ”

“ The law of God was given by Moses, without writing, to seventy wise men, to be handed down, that the government might be carried on by succession. But after that Moses was taken up, it was written by some one, but not by Moses. For in the law itself it is written, ‘And Moses died; and they buried him near the house of Phogor, [1] and no one knows his sepulchre till this day.’ But how could Moses write that Moses died? ”

“ What could the Jewish rulers think of a man, who, without any ceremony, set up laws in direct opposition to the laws of Moses, when, at other times, he declared himself a follower of Moses, and that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it? Such inconsistent teaching as this, will not admit of Infinite Wisdom’s being the author. ”

“ They are taught to speak with great respect of Moses; and they were the more obliged to keep up his name because he had not provided for the keeping of it up in his family; his posterity were never called the sons of Moses, as the priests were the sons of Aaron. (1.) They must own Moses a great benefactor to their nation, in that he commanded them the law; for, though it came from the hand of God, it went through the hand of Moses. (2.) He was king in Jeshurun. Having commanded them the law, as long as he lived he took care to see it observed and put in execution ”

“ After having explained this division, I contend that no intelligent person can assume that any of the actions of God can be in vain, purposeless, or unimportant. According to our view and the view of all that follow the Law of Moses, all actions of God are "exceedingly good." ”

“ Those who would destroy the authority of the Bible, make it almost a first point to direct their attacks against one whose name stands in front of the Old Testament, as the name of One greater than Moses stands in front of the New. Even writers upon Law, who concede to Moses a place with Solon and Lycurgus among the lawgivers of antiquity, yet sometimes qualify their praise by implying that Moses was great, and that his Law was great, by comparison with ancient barbarism rather than with modern civilization. ”

“ We are told that after Moses wrote the Law, he delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, with a commandment to put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant, [G] that it might be there for a witness against Israel, whom Moses by the spirit of prophecy, foresaw would turn away from God. ”

“ And movement is determined toward the mass in ethics as in physics. All that Moses could have hoped to do was to body his seminal truth in an institution, that should keep it alive in the nation until the proper conditions were found for its quickening and growth. This he achieved in binding the tribes to the worship of Jehovah, whose law was owned in the moral standards of the people. To this loyalty to Jehovah, as the God of Israel, Moses did securely bind the tribes. ”

“ When the Unseen, the Eternal, the Divine Essence, caused the Day Star of Muḥammad to rise above the horizon of knowledge, among the cavils which the Jewish divines raised against Him was that after Moses no Prophet should be sent of God. Yea, mention hath been made in the Scriptures of a Soul Who must needs be made manifest and Who will advance the Faith, and promote the interests of the people of Moses, so that the Law of the Mosaic Dispensation may encompass the whole earth. ”

“ Hardly had the disciples of Christ abolished the Mosaic law to introduce the Christian dispensation, than mankind, carried away by force, and by their ordinary inconstancy, followed a new law-giver, who advanced himself by the same methods as Moses. He assumed, like him, the title of prophet, and envoy of God, like him he performed miracles and knew how to profit by the passions of the people. ”

“ I have before observed, that the sanctions of the Mosaic law, were temporal rewards and punishments; those of the New Testament are eternal. These last, as they are so infinitely more forcible than the first, were reserved for the last, best gift to mankind—and were revealed by the Messiah, in the fullest and clearest manner. Moses, in this book, directs the method in which the Israelites were to deal with the seven nations, whom they were appointed to punish for their profligacy and idolatry ”

“ Moses had said that the people were to do what the Levites told them respecting the Law of God, neither turning 'to the right hand, nor to the left.' The Jewish teachers declared what Moses really meant was that if a teacher of the Law told you that your left hand was your right you must believe him! ”

“ And we gave the book of the law unto Moses, after he had destroyed the former generations, to enlighten the minds of men, and for a direction, and a mercy; that peradventure they might consider. Thou, O prophet, wast not on the west side of Mount Sinai, when we delivered Moses his commission: neither wast thou one of those who were present at his receiving it: but we raised up several generations after Moses; and life was prolonged unto them. Neither didst thou dwell among the inhabitants of Madian, rehearsing unto them our signs ”

“ But after Moses had made his appearance, and had given the law to the children of Israel, and had brought into their memory all the requirements of the law, and all that it behoved men to observe and do under it, and when he delivered over to death only those who should transgress the law, then death was cut off from reigning over all men ”