Making sense of some of the unusual laws in the Old Testament

As a new follower of Jesus I was zealous to read and understand the Bible. I remember the first time I ventured out to read the Old Testament, starting at the beginning with Genesis. To this day Genesis is one of my favorite books of the Bible. From there I continued to make my way through Exodus only to get stuck in Leviticus. Leviticus is a book full of laws such as this one—Leviticus 11:26, “The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean.” Huh?

The Bible is clear that the worship and sacrifice laws ultimately point to and are fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 10:1-10). The question still remains as to the purpose of the many ceremonial, cleanliness and dietary laws.

In this past weekend’s message I gave three principles to help us make sense of some of the more unusual laws in the Bible.

1. Some laws were given to a specific group of people (or person) for a specific time. (Or as my Hermeneutics professor would say, “All of the Bible is for us, but not all the Bible is to us.” For example, in Genesis 6:14 God commands Noah to build an ark— not a command that is applicable to us today. Many of the laws found in Leviticus (and repeated in Deuteronomy) were given specifically to Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land.

2. Some laws were temporary in nature. This is exactly what caused the tension in Peter’s account of his vision in Acts 11:9, “What God has made clean, you must not call common (or unclean).”

3. Every time God gives a negative command, “Thou shall not…” it is always to protect and provide. Listen to Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 10:13, “Keep the LORD’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.”

I’ve been helped recently by Ben Hobrink’s book, Modern Science in the Bible. A biologist who previously embraced evolution was drawn to Christ when he observed that the bible “contains knowledge that was thousands of years ahead of science.” While Hobrink does not answer every questionable law in the Bible, his insights are well worth consideration.

Modern Science in The Bible: Amazing Scientific Truths Found In Ancient Texts By Ben Hobrink / Howard Books