We are about to move into what many Christians consider to be the worst, or second-worst, part of the Pentateuch. It's a whole bunch of laws and regulations, elaborate cases ("When so-and-so does such-and-such…"), and cryptic pronouncements ("You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk"). What possible value could there be in such a miscellaneous listing of stuff? The answer is that these things reveal the character of the living God. Do you want to know God? Then pay attention to what He revealed in the Book of the Covenant, this short section after the Ten Commandments to which Israel had to assent in order to be in covenant with God. These laws are not all applicable in the same way; I agree with the ancient tradition of the church, as crystallized in Thomas Aquinas, that some of these precepts are moral, some civil, and some ceremonial. The civil and ceremonial laws are not directly applicable to us; they were for Israel during its residence in the land. Nonetheless, they are important. They are worth preaching through because we look behind them and say "What sort of a God would make this sort of a law? What is our God like?" What we'll see, as we try to get an overview of the Book of the Covenant today, is that He is a God of justice. The civil and moral laws orbit around this theme of justice, as exemplified in the "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" precept that we find in this section of Scripture. The ceremonial laws orbit the theme of piety — the reverence and worship due to God. God is about justice, and His covenant people need to be about justice and about worship too. That's the lesson of this "Book of the Covenant".
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Caleb Nelson grew up in Ft. Collins, CO. Born into a Christian home, where he eventually became the eldest of 11 children, he has been a lifelong Presbyterian. He professed faith at the age of six, and was homeschooled through high school. He then attended Patrick Henry College...
