Exodus (Program #71) – The Implications, Indications and Significances of the Ordinances of the Law (2)

After the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, the Lord continued for 3 more chapters to give item after item of regulations regarding man’s relationships. These added items are called “ordinances”, many if not most, seem to us to have nothing whatsoever to do with us as New Testament believers. They deal with such things as treatment of slaves and the ancient feasts and rituals of Jewish religion; and, even such things as “not boiling the kid in its mother’s milk”. So how do we as Christians regard these Old Testament details? Do we just skip over and dismiss them? Or, in the light of God’s New Testament ministry, is there a real and meaningful application of these items for us?  We return once again today to the book of Exodus and the remarkable journey of God’s people out of their bondage of worldly captivity and through the wilderness.

We’re continuing today to look at Exodus chapter 22 and 23, chapters that as we said offer many items all contain in these ordinances that were supplements or additions to the basic ten Commandments that we’re all quite familiar with. In an earlier message, we heard that though we cannot directly see Christ in the ten original commandments, these supplemental ordinances contain all of the rich details of Christ – what do we mean by this kind of speaking?

These commandments show us who God is and what He requires but they do not reveal to us what God does…..Who could claim to be not guilty when such a demand is made from the Holy God Himself, revealing what He is in His nature, His holiness, His righteousness and really not supplying us according to these ten commandments with any way to carry them out?

Now, we know that whatever things the law says (this is a quote from Romans), it speaks to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may fall under the judgment of God because out of the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified before Him, for through the law is the clear knowledge of sin. That’s from Romans chapter 3 and it really shows us that even if we think that we’re keeping the law, this does not justify us. We’ll see in this message that the ordinances really open up a way for sinful men to come to a Holy God by introducing a lot of aspects that are types of Christ and His redemptive work – they bring us into God’s economy, God’s way of redeeming man so man could enjoy Him. So we have to praise the Lord for the ordinances that were given in the Old Testament in addition to these Ten Commandments because these show us Christ as our Saviour in His redeeming work which is altogether according to His plan, His purpose, His economy. So just listen as it is pointed out regarding to this marvelous redemption of the ones who should have been killed with the first born in Egypt.

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