Monday: The Law Before Sinai
As every Seventh-day Adventist knows, as soon as we talk about the law, the Ten Commandments, and Sinai, we hear the refrain that the Ten Commandments were first given to the Jews at Sinai; hence, they are a Jewish or an Old Testament institution and not applicable to our day and time.1
Of course, numerous problems exist with that theology, the biggest being that if this were true, then how could there have been sin before Sinai, “for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4)? The truth is that the book of Genesis yields an amazing witness to the existence of God’s law long before Sinai.
Genesis 1 and 2 describe God’s perfect Creation. Genesis 3 records the fall of Adam and Eve. In the next chapter, Genesis 4, we have the first murder. How did Cain know he was guilty for murdering his brother if there were no law to define murder as sin?
Long before Sinai, God specifically denounced murder in the covenant he established with Noah after the Flood (Gen. 9:6).
In the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, we find God commending Job’s righteousness two times. What does He declare of Job’s character? (Job 1:8, 2:3). Obviously there is a standard of right and wrong operating. Job lived long before the Exodus, and he wasn’t even of the covenant line.
Read Job 24:14, 15. How do these verses help us understand what the standard of right and wrong included?
When Abraham lied about Sarah to Abimelech, God rebuked Abraham for his falsehood. And even though Abimelech was king of Gerar and not of Israelite stock, God held him to the same standard of marital purity found in the Decalogue and demanded that Sarah be returned to Abraham (see Gen. 20:9).
What is the pointed testimony about Abraham that God gives to Isaac about his father? Gen. 26:4, 5.
What’s fascinating about Genesis 26:5 is that the Hebrew uses four different words, mshmrt, mzvot, huqot, and torot (from Torah, “the law”) to describe what Abraham obeyed. Certainly among all these were the Ten Commandments.
When Jacob, at God’s bidding, was returning to Bethel to build an altar to the Lord, he felt the need for revival in his household. What did he request his household to do? (SeeGen. 35:2, 3.)
Clearly, the idea that there was no law until Sinai makes no sense in light of so much of what the Bible teaches about life before Sinai.
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it will therefore interest us to know that the law is never outdated or for the past but is still appplicable 2 our present lives
As long as the the Government of God has been there, the Law has always been there and was there in the beginning before Sinai. People who lived before Sinai knew what was right and wrong and therefore the law was there before sinai and will be there for eternity.
If people think the law is out dated even before sinai then its wrong. If there was no law before then how could God say the sins of men on earth were beyond and as a result He destroyed the earth with floods. Where sin is found its because the law has been implemented so that sin can clearly be seen. LAW SHOWS US SIN.(ITS LIKE A MIRROR)
Actually, it's quite wrong to say that there was no law before sinai. The reason being that, God would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorah for their evil deeds if no law existed before sinai.
we need to pray to our God so that He shows us the marvelous things that are in His Holy Law.
Monday – The Law Before Sinai
1 . The New Testament defines sin as “the transgression of the law”, that is, the violation of the Ten Commandments.
2 . The Old Testament provides ample evidence of sin and a divine standard of right and wrong, before Sinai, that matches the Ten Commandments.
It is quite simple if there is no law, that actually means there is no sin. If there are people who believes there is no law they should not preach or rebuke because there is nothing to rebuke.Without the law there is no gospel
When God gave Adam and Eve the instructions on how to go about life in the Garden of Eden, He indeed spelled out His character which was later inscribed in the Laws of Moses.
Even before Sinai and Eden law existed, EG White tells us that perfection failed in Heaven when Lucifer rebelled against God, so in Heaven they have law and order.
Everything in heaven and earth is governed by some kind of law.
The law is for our benefit. if we keep the law then we won't face so many problems.
Could it be said then that it was a law of love,because God is love?
Welcome to our blog, Dee!
Yes, indeed, God's Law is a law of self-sacrificing love. That's what Christ demonstrated in His life, and that's why it is summarized as love for God and love for our neighbors.
That is the essence if the Good News / Gospel Christ commissioned us to take to the world.
Spot on Dee! And you are talking about something that is much, much broader than a mere 'standard'. You are talking about a vital principle that is the essential foundation of true life and living. Violate this principle and you essentially cut yourself off from life (ie, you "perish": 2 Peter 3:9).
Share wisely what you are able to see with as many people as are willing.