Greetings, brothers and sisters in Christ. Welcome to Talk 6 of our series. In our last Talk, Talk 5, we covered the Law of Moses, identifying God's Law as it applied to the Adamic, the Noahic and the Abrahamic covenants.  We highlighted that the Abrahamic Covenant, even though it is in the Law, is a Covenant of GRACE because the salvation that God set out to save human kind is something we don’t deserve, or earn or achieve. Today, we will pick up from where we last ended.

We covered the first 2 layers. The first layer is God’s covenant with all human kind, including Adam and Noah. The second layer is God’s covenant with Abraham, the covenant for salvation for all human kind. The third layer, the Covenant of God with Israel through Moses, is a Continuation and Expansion of the Abrahamic Covenant because All Israelites are descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob.  They are therefore covered under the Abrahamic Covenant. So from Abraham to Isaac, the next generation — only Isaac inherited the Abrahamic covenant. In the next generation, the third generation, from Isaac to Jocab — only Jacob inherited the Abrahamic covenant. But in the subsequent generation, all the 12 sons of Jacob and their descendants form the 12 tribes inherited the Abrahamic covenant. So each of the 12 sons became the ancestors of the 12 tribes that form the nations of Israel. So there is a multiplication by 12 where God’s covenant with Abraham becomes God’s covenant with Israel including members of all the 12 tribes of the sons of Jacob. Therefore, this is a national covenant of God with the whole nation of Israel. 

The Five Books of the Law of Moses is the foundation of this national covenant.  The History Books of the OT (which is from Joshua to Esther) is a track record of whether they obeyed or disobeyed this covenant.  The Wisdom Books of the OT (Job to Song of Solomon) is a collection of insights as to how to live according to God’s Law.  The Prophetic Books of the OT (both Major and Minor Prophets) record how God continued to deal with His People and revealed His plan for the future, especially in pointing to the coming of Christ and the New Testament. Therefore, the entire Old Testament is based on the Law of Moses.

We want to show from OT History (from Joshua to Ester) how God applied BOTH Law And Grace to His People: When Israel rebelled against God and refused to enter the Promised Land, as recorded in Numbers 13 & 14, God intended to destroy them then and there. If God had done so, He would be absolutely right and just, according to Law. Because the Law of Moses stipulated the judgement that would come upon them if they break the covenant by disobedience. Death penalty was certainly what the law said. But Moses interceded for Israel and God did not destroy them immediately.  He allowed them to live their full lives.  This was HIS Grace.  He showed mercy and kindness when none was deserved.  However, that generation was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. God did not wipe them out immediately. That is His grace. He gave them time to live out their life in the wilderness wandering for 40 years. That is His grace. But, His judgement still stood that this generation was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. So, you can see the interplay of law and grace in this event. At the same time, in the OT history, in particular the book of Joshua, all Canaanites were under judgement by God to total annihilation because of their sins (you can look at Deuteronomy 9:1-5).  That was why God was going to eliminate them.

But Rahab, who is a Canaanite, was saved because she assisted the spies from Israel. she renounced the worship of her own Canaanite gods and renounced her citizenship to join Israel (this is in Joshua 2). Because of renouncement and that she committed to serve, worship and obey the God of Israel, and become a member of Israel, God acted in Grace to save her. So by law, she was under condemnation because she was a Canaanite as all the Canaanites were under condemnation. But by grace, because she repented, she rejected her gods, rejected her own people and joined Israel to obey and honour God, God acted in grace to save her. So, this is another incident of Israel recorded history of how law and grace work together in how God dealt with people.

Another example involves the one we all see as great hero of Israel, that is King David. David although was obedient to God in coming to the throne, he sinned against God when he was on the throne by committing adultery with Bathsheba. To cover up his deeds, he sent her husband to die in battle (this can be found in 2 Sam 11).  The Law stipulates that adultery and murder committed by David are both to be punished by stoning to death (for that, you can look at Genesis 9:5,6; Deuteronomy 22:22).  But when David repented when confronted by Prophet Nathan, God did not require his death — that was God’s act of leniency and grace. But David was not left totally unpunished. Instead, God allowed rebellion from his own son, so that he lost his throne for a time (we can see that in 2 Samuel 12). Because David repented, God did not require him to die according to the Law. God even allowed him to come back to his throne after his loss in the rebellion from his own son. So, we can see in Israel history, there is an interplay how God applies law and grace that the two are not in contradiction. God’s goal is to save, thus God did not always apply His law to the uttermost. But He set out some way by grace so that the repented may be saved. 

We can see, therefore, that the OT is definitely not all gloom and doom and only shows a bloodthirsty God.  This is Very Wrong.  In fact, it shows that God, even in the Law, acted in Grace to save humankind from sin, even though we only deserve judgement.  This is reinforced by very many acts of Grace in the OT, of which we only noted a few above. In fact, in the OT, both law and grace are applied. In the next Talk, we will move on to Law and Grace in OT Wisdom and Prophecy.

Let us pray, “Father, help us appreciate that in real life, in human history that we just learnt today from OT, You always apply law and grace. You seek our salvation, yet your law applies as a standard to guide and even to penalise us. As we look forward to more of Your scriptures, help us to understand more of Your interplay from above. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”