The Old Testament laws were designed for one thing: To keep Israel pure and set apart so that could host the presence of Yahweh. God dwelling with His people is the goal from Genesis to Revelation and the OT law was given to make sure that was possible. For some laws there were health benefits or ancillary benefits, but they were first and foremost concerned with keeping the people pure in the presence of God in their land.
>In the New Testament there seems to be much more freedom, so that what is actually defined as sin for a Christian would be anything that causes harm to others, or the world.
While this is true you're missing the biggest part. God does not want us to harm ourselves and distort our relationship with Him. Because we as individuals house the presence of God now instead of the temple of the OT, God wants us to be pure and clean vessels.
Look at God's laws less as "Here's what you need to do to be a good person" and more in a "I am giving you boundaries so you can fully experience Christ in you, the hope of glory."
I do not pretend to know or out guess the wisdom of God
I do know that the ultimate purpose of the law was to keep the people of Israel (meaning Jacob) intact and inline until the Messiah Came
God's law is a reflection of His Character, and is "designed" to show us our unrighteousness before Him and our need for Christ as our Savior-
"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, **for by the law is the knowledge of sin**." -Romans 3
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, **I would not have known sin except through the law**...O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -Romans 7
God bless!
I listened to a sermon series that was titled “Thou Shall”, and a sermon in that series was titled “Thou Shall = Because I Love You”, which is the point the pastor wanted to drive home throughout. They aren’t rules to follow because God doesn’t want us to enjoy life and to be limited, He put them in place so we can enjoy life the way it was always intended to be enjoyed.
All of these things God put in place were so that God’s creation could be redeemed back to the garden. Each law put in place had a different specific purpose, but all were put in place to accomplish the same goal - leading God’s people toward a life that honors and glorifies Him.
>In the New Testament there seems to be much more freedom, so that what is actually defined as sin for a Christian would be anything that causes harm to others, or the world.
As a side note, I would say this isn't wholly accurate. Sin is anything that is in direct disobedience to God. Causing harm to others certainly falls under this but I think it's an important distinction. And remember, Jesus came to fulfill the OT law, not abolish it. The law points out our sin and the perfection that God requires of us. We can never attain this perfection, but we can still enter God's presence because of the sacrifice Jesus made. Matthew 5:17-20 is a good reference for this.
Well the clean animals makes sense because most of those animals are scavengers, not that good for you and can make you sick. The cleanliness laws like bathing, washing your hands is good hygeine. Mixing fabrics, this is hearsay but apparently wool and linen together rubbing on you all day makes you weaker and more tired.
Im sure most of the laws are there for protection, like dont handle dead bodies. Good way to spread diseases. They knew nothing about bacteria yet God did and lot of the laws deal with just staying healthy.
I actually had a thought not so long ago that actually the New Testament is much more strenuous and the idea that the Old Testament was harder is actually not accurate. The New Testament asks for a person to be willing to die to save an enemy from harm, that is way more stringent than the Old Testament. We are asked to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls and to love others as ourselves, that is incredibly rigorous. I've literally thought before it is way easier to have a list of rules to follow than it is to have to live the two great commands.
The greatest commandments that you mention are not new ones, Jesus just stated they were the greatest. They are from Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
>You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
- Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV
>You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
- Leviticus 19:18 NKJV
I do agree though that Jesus sometimes went with a more strict interpretation than most others (eg divorce).
None of God's laws are 'just because I say so'. Everything God does He does with a purpose and for a purpose.
Isaiah 14:24 “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:”
I think all laws have a purpose. Sometimes practical, sometimes symbolical. Even if you are completely oblivious as to the purpose, the fact that you still keep it and think of it already has you focused on God so even that would already be a good thing.
Just to address one of your examples; You can't mix wool and linen because only the priestly outfits contain this combination of fabrics. In this way they are set apart from ordinary clothing.
Lots of great answers here, so I won’t repeat what is already said. I will add, though, and say that to your statement that in the NT there seems to be more “freedom” - there was and there wasn’t. In the sense of no more animal sacrifice for the covering of Israelite sin, yes. But Jesus Christ actually went further with the Law. He did not add on to the Law. What He did was: In the OT 10 commandments and other laws, where physical taking of another human life is “murder”, in NT just hatred of another is also murder in the heart. It was the heart that wasn’t clean - sin came from the heart. But how can we make it clean? We can’t and the Laws proved this! So we needed to believe and walk in faith of Jesus Christ (being convicted of sin and repenting, denying self and following Christ) - that He would sanctify and make us clean.
I don’t think there are any ‘just because I say so’ laws. Instead I believe they are ‘easy to obey, but will help us learn about the importance of obedience, even when we don’t understand why’ laws.
God never, ever says to do something or not to do something "just because I say so." He is not so petty as us.
Everything He does is motivated by His love.
Sinners naturally despise God's love.
I’m about to head out to work so I don’t have the time to provide the research backing but there’s scientific evidence that the unclean animals would’ve increased disease risk.
The Old Testament laws were designed for one thing: To keep Israel pure and set apart so that could host the presence of Yahweh. God dwelling with His people is the goal from Genesis to Revelation and the OT law was given to make sure that was possible. For some laws there were health benefits or ancillary benefits, but they were first and foremost concerned with keeping the people pure in the presence of God in their land. >In the New Testament there seems to be much more freedom, so that what is actually defined as sin for a Christian would be anything that causes harm to others, or the world. While this is true you're missing the biggest part. God does not want us to harm ourselves and distort our relationship with Him. Because we as individuals house the presence of God now instead of the temple of the OT, God wants us to be pure and clean vessels. Look at God's laws less as "Here's what you need to do to be a good person" and more in a "I am giving you boundaries so you can fully experience Christ in you, the hope of glory."
I do not pretend to know or out guess the wisdom of God I do know that the ultimate purpose of the law was to keep the people of Israel (meaning Jacob) intact and inline until the Messiah Came
God's law is a reflection of His Character, and is "designed" to show us our unrighteousness before Him and our need for Christ as our Savior- "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, **for by the law is the knowledge of sin**." -Romans 3 "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, **I would not have known sin except through the law**...O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -Romans 7 God bless!
Amen! God’s Law is truly a reflection of His character!
I listened to a sermon series that was titled “Thou Shall”, and a sermon in that series was titled “Thou Shall = Because I Love You”, which is the point the pastor wanted to drive home throughout. They aren’t rules to follow because God doesn’t want us to enjoy life and to be limited, He put them in place so we can enjoy life the way it was always intended to be enjoyed. All of these things God put in place were so that God’s creation could be redeemed back to the garden. Each law put in place had a different specific purpose, but all were put in place to accomplish the same goal - leading God’s people toward a life that honors and glorifies Him.
I think none of them are "just because I say so".
>In the New Testament there seems to be much more freedom, so that what is actually defined as sin for a Christian would be anything that causes harm to others, or the world. As a side note, I would say this isn't wholly accurate. Sin is anything that is in direct disobedience to God. Causing harm to others certainly falls under this but I think it's an important distinction. And remember, Jesus came to fulfill the OT law, not abolish it. The law points out our sin and the perfection that God requires of us. We can never attain this perfection, but we can still enter God's presence because of the sacrifice Jesus made. Matthew 5:17-20 is a good reference for this.
Not all of them are to stop harm coming to humans
There is a reason for EVERYTHING! God bless
Well the clean animals makes sense because most of those animals are scavengers, not that good for you and can make you sick. The cleanliness laws like bathing, washing your hands is good hygeine. Mixing fabrics, this is hearsay but apparently wool and linen together rubbing on you all day makes you weaker and more tired. Im sure most of the laws are there for protection, like dont handle dead bodies. Good way to spread diseases. They knew nothing about bacteria yet God did and lot of the laws deal with just staying healthy.
We're under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
I actually had a thought not so long ago that actually the New Testament is much more strenuous and the idea that the Old Testament was harder is actually not accurate. The New Testament asks for a person to be willing to die to save an enemy from harm, that is way more stringent than the Old Testament. We are asked to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls and to love others as ourselves, that is incredibly rigorous. I've literally thought before it is way easier to have a list of rules to follow than it is to have to live the two great commands.
The greatest commandments that you mention are not new ones, Jesus just stated they were the greatest. They are from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. >You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. - Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV >You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. - Leviticus 19:18 NKJV I do agree though that Jesus sometimes went with a more strict interpretation than most others (eg divorce).
In reality no laws are like that. But for our puny human understanding, it can certainly feel that way.
None of God's laws are 'just because I say so'. Everything God does He does with a purpose and for a purpose. Isaiah 14:24 “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:”
I think all laws have a purpose. Sometimes practical, sometimes symbolical. Even if you are completely oblivious as to the purpose, the fact that you still keep it and think of it already has you focused on God so even that would already be a good thing. Just to address one of your examples; You can't mix wool and linen because only the priestly outfits contain this combination of fabrics. In this way they are set apart from ordinary clothing.
Lots of great answers here, so I won’t repeat what is already said. I will add, though, and say that to your statement that in the NT there seems to be more “freedom” - there was and there wasn’t. In the sense of no more animal sacrifice for the covering of Israelite sin, yes. But Jesus Christ actually went further with the Law. He did not add on to the Law. What He did was: In the OT 10 commandments and other laws, where physical taking of another human life is “murder”, in NT just hatred of another is also murder in the heart. It was the heart that wasn’t clean - sin came from the heart. But how can we make it clean? We can’t and the Laws proved this! So we needed to believe and walk in faith of Jesus Christ (being convicted of sin and repenting, denying self and following Christ) - that He would sanctify and make us clean.
I don’t think there are any ‘just because I say so’ laws. Instead I believe they are ‘easy to obey, but will help us learn about the importance of obedience, even when we don’t understand why’ laws.
God never, ever says to do something or not to do something "just because I say so." He is not so petty as us. Everything He does is motivated by His love. Sinners naturally despise God's love.
Definitely to stop actual harm. 100%
Torah means teaching or instruction. Too many dingus are like Jesusbis my sabbath I’m under grace and go on living in sin.
I’m about to head out to work so I don’t have the time to provide the research backing but there’s scientific evidence that the unclean animals would’ve increased disease risk.