Dispensation Bible Study #6

Dispensation of Law - The Passover and Giving of the Law

God is delivering His people from Egypt to take them to the Promised Land! Nine plagues have already struck the land of Egypt, and yet, Pharaoh will not let them go. Finally, God makes preparation for the final plague. God will kill the firstborn male of every family and animal in Egypt. God commands each Israelite family to take a spotless, blemishless, male lamb and place it aside from the rest of the flock. He then gives specific instructions.

Exod 12:6-14 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

So God provides a way of escape for His children! The lamb has to be killed and eaten while they are standing and ready to leave. If the blood of the lamb is applied to the door of their house, then God will pass over their house and spare their firstborn. God also commanded them to celebrate this day forever in remembrance that God had delivered them. The Jewish Feast is now called “The Passover.” This judgment finally gets Pharaoh’s attention and he agrees to let the Israelites go. Through many miracles and deliverances, God leads Moses and the Israelites into the wilderness to a place called Mt. Sinai. Here God began to give His law and the rules for the new dispensation.

Exod 19:3-6 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Sound familiar? God is renewing with them the covenant that He had with Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant is still in effect today, because when God makes a covenant, He keeps it forever! Once the people agreed to keep the Abrahamic covenant, then God began to outline His laws. The first part is popularly called the “Ten Commandments”

Exod 20:1-17 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

The Ten Commandments were the first part of the Moral law that God gave the children of Israel. The Law that God gave can be divided into three parts:

1. Moral law- This is found in the ten commandments and various abominations mentioned in Deuteronomy.

Abomination-extreme disgust, loathsome, extremely hateful. In scripture, it is a sin that God really hates and loathes. It is something that God can’t stand!

Some abominations to God are: Graven images (Deut 7:25); Human sacrifices (12:31); a defective animal sacrifice (Deut 17:1); Witchcraft and spiritualism (Deut 18:10-12); religious prostitution (23:18); Remarrying a defiled woman (24:4); Interchange of apparel between sexes (Deut 22:5); pride, lying, murder, sowing discord, froward heart (Prov 6:16-19); and homosexuality (Lev 20:13).

Rev 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Anyone committing an abomination will not enter into heaven! God’s moral law has not changed nor will it ever change! What God extremely hated then, He still hates today regardless of dispensation!

2. Civil law - Relates to the rights and duties of citizens of the community of Israel. God’s people were going to govern themselves for the first time as a nation! So God wrote the laws of the land. The Civil law is found in Exodus 21-23. In it God outlined laws dealing with business matters, treating of servants, owning of land and possessions, certain feasts that all men were required to attend, and the boundaries of the promised land. The Civil law of God has been the basis of most man made governments including the United States of America. Many of our national and local laws were formed from Israel’s civil law. Many of these laws do not apply to us today in the legal sense, but applied to those living in the Israeli nation.

3. Ceremonial law.- Outlined how to approach God and the various religious ceremonies and rituals that God would require. The book of Leviticus is primarily all Ceremonial law. A Tabernacle would be erected as a place of worship. We will study the tabernacle in more detail in the following lesson. The tribe of Levi (the Levites) because of their eagerness to help Moses stop Idolatry (Ex 32:26), were chosen to be the priests. Aaron (Moses’ brother) would be the High Priest. Burnt offering and sacrifice would be a part of this dispensation as well, but they were now organized according to purpose and type. There were two types of sacrifice now: those with blood and those without blood.

Sacrificial offerings without blood were:

1. Firstfruits and tithes- Tithing (10%) was still going to be a part of this dispensation!

2. Meat and drink offerings- Free will offerings were given to the Levites.

3. Incense- the providing of incense to burn in worship to God.

Sacrificial offerings with blood were:

1. Sin offerings- If a man sinned against God ignorantly, he had to present a sin offering. If man sinned willfully against God, he was put to death!

2. Trespass offerings- were offered if someone violated the law in a specific way especially if it required retribution. If the trespass was against the Lord, payment was made to the priests; if it was a trespass against a fellow man, then to that man was the payment made.

3. Burnt offerings- Signified self-dedication to God. A time and method of personal consecration.

4. Peace offerings- These were somewhat different that the others, because the offerer got to eat of the sacrifice. It symbolized a communion, relationship and friendship with God and stressed the importance of fellowship!

Lev 23:26-27 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

In addition to these offerings and sacrifices, a special ritual called the “Day of Atonement” was commanded. On it the high priest offered a sacrifice for all the past sins of the people. It did not erase or forgive the people of their sin but merely rolled them ahead for a year. In other words, by participating in the Day of Atonement, their sins were not held against them for one year, but were not truely gone! We will talk more about the day of atonement in the next lesson.

We are still responsible today for the ceremonial law but many of the forms have changed. As we get into the dispensation of grace, we will see how many of the ceremonial sacrifices changed into the forms of worship that are familiar today!

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

The law was God’s way of teaching man what was acceptable to Him and what was not. It was our “school teacher” teaching us how to please God. However, under the law, sins were not removed and the spirit side of man that had died in the dispensation of Innocence was not quickened or brought back to life. God used the law to prepare us for understanding His grace!

We will finish the dispensation of law in the next lesson!