THE JUDGMENTS AND LAWS

Moses wrote in a book the judgments and laws that God spoke to him while he was on Mount Sinai. If the people of God had obeyed the principles of the Ten Commandments, there would have been no need for these added rules given to Moses. The new rules showed the people their duty to God, to one another, and to strangers. These rules explained the principles of the Ten Commandments in more detail and made the commandments easier to understand so the people need not sin.SRme 1.632

The Lord gave Moses special instruction about the law of sacrifices of animals. These sacrifices were to end at the death of Christ. They were to point the Israelites to Christ, who was to be offered as a Lamb without spot or imperfection.SRme 1.633

The Lord first gave the system of sacrifices to Adam after Adam sinned. Adam taught his descendants to offer sacrifices. But the system of sacrifices became mixed with evil practices before the Flood. The people who separated themselves from God's followers after the Flood and built the tower of Babel replaced the system of sacrifices with evil practices. They sacrificed animals to idols. The people believed they were pleasing their idols by offering a large number of sacrifices to them. They did not sacrifice animals to show their faith in Jesus.SRme 1.634

The fears of these idol worshipers led them into wrong practices. People were taught that, if they made more expensive sacrifices, the idols would be pleased. They also were taught that the greater their gifts to the idols, the greater would be the blessings and riches to their nation. So they offered human beings as sacrifices to their silly idols.SRme 1.635

The idol-worshiping nations had laws that were very cruel. These laws were made by people whose hearts were not softened by God's grace. The people who were in power often would not punish people for terrible crimes, but sometimes gave very cruel punishments for small mistakes.SRme 1.636

Moses was thinking of these nations when he said to Israel, "'I have taught you all the laws as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy. Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, "What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!" No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help. No other nation, no matter how great, has laws so just as those that I have taught you today'" (Deut. 4:5-8).SRme 1.637