Things I’ve seen lately suggest I need to address this again: Biblical Law is not legislation in the Western sense. Legalism is a perversion of what God intended. It’s not a question of the letter versus the spirit of the law; it’s a question of the Person behind the law. If you don’t see the difference, I’m not sure I can help you.
But I’m going to try. The intent of the Law Covenants is to provide an intellectual frame of reference that roughly translates the character of the Person behind the law. It’s feudalism through and through — you are accountable to a Person who knows you better than you know yourself. Any attempt to make the law stand on its own is idolatry, because the hidden dirty hand there is that it raises up the self as god. The Devil is in that; anything that puts the human capabilities on the throne means self-idolatry. It makes the fallen flesh into a deity, and Satan is the only real presence behind any deity that isn’t Jehovah. The frame of reference behind “the rule of law” is that man is god. And it becomes the excuse for the elite serving Satan to enslave us to them.
The only way to keep God on the throne is to force us to fall back upon our convictions. The convictions are written on the heart by the finger of God. By itself that is not optimal, which is why God has always preserved a written record of revelation. But the written record of the Word is not the Word itself. The Word is God Himself. The written record provides the proper path back to Him. We do not worship the written record — AKA, “bibliolatry”. We worship the God behind it.
However, the word “reverence” is appropriate for how we treat the Bible. It is the starting point, the frame of reference for the mind so that we can obey. The written record of revelation teaches us how to think like those whom God historically blessed under His Covenant.
Did Hosea break the Law of Moses in order to obey his God? If you approach it from that angle, then yes; Hosea disobeyed the law by marrying a prostitute. Yet he obeyed the God behind the law. He obeyed his convictions. It’s not that the law was no limitation to his convictions, but that the law was the background against which the convictions had meaning, by which convictions came to life. It wasn’t some kind of special dispensation, a special permit of license. That’s the wrong approach to understanding what happened there.
It’s also the wrong approach to understanding Jesus. His miracles were already written into the Covenant of Moses, so nothing He did was outside what God might do through any of us. He said that Himself (John 14:12-13). Thus, the law was never a restraint, but a set of powers and privileges based on boundaries that keep us out of defilement. It’s written to resolve the human habit of thinking that everything is a matter of instrumentality, that it’s a matter of mechanics. You cannot explain miracles, but you can count on them as normal and regular.
How did Hezekiah defeat the Assyrians? It wasn’t by human warfare nor by any prescribed ritual. There was no ritual that covered that situation. Rather, the rituals in the Law of Moses informed Hezekiah how to approach the God who made all things, and provided the background on how he should communicate with God.
So when Paul talked about blessing those who persecute you (Romans 12:9-21), he quotes Proverbs 25:21-22. It falls into the same category as turning the other cheek. It’s not a rule of combat; it’s a tactic that has its place in your repertoire. Hezekiah didn’t host a feast for the invading Assyrians. But King David did feed the abandoned servant of an enemy he pursued in the wilderness (1 Samuel 30). It’s not a matter of rules. It’s a matter of fitting the character of God to the context.
Do you have a burning conviction about resisting an evil government? Put it in context. If you use the ways of mere men in preparing such a resistance, you will place yourself outside the covenant protections. Your resistance will subject to the vagaries of secular limits and random chance, acting without the knowledge of God’s will and His plans. If you first form a covenant community of faith, then you are in a position to resist as Hezekiah did, receiving a word from God. You get to approach the Lord and hear from Him His plans on the matter, and you are in a position to see miracles.
In Luke 14:25-32, Jesus spoke of counting the cost. You need the calculus of divine power and plans on your side. When faith and conviction are part of the equation, it can change the outcome completely. He didn’t say, “Surrender every time.” He said to be sure you get with the Father before you decide how to proceed. It’s not that resistance is always wrong, but that you should stand ready to surrender every time so that you can hear God tell you when it’s time to resist. And it’s not a matter of always winning, but of knowing whether God wants you to resist regardless of the outcome. It’s not a question of what works, as humans measure such things, but what works to keep you at peace with God.
Israel marched into the Promised Land and defeated giants, beat down chariots with mere infantry, and chased off much larger armed forces. They also got chased off by the tiny forces guarding Ai. It was a matter of having taken the time to hear from God first, of being ready to obey regardless of the outcome. It’s two separate questions. One is, “Shall we go out to battle?” The second is, “Will you deliver the enemy into our hands?” He may not answer the second question, but He never fails to answer the first.
One thing is for sure: You cannot reap the harvest of shalom without the full weight of Biblical Law behind you. If you do not first come together in a community covenant of faith, any resistance is sheer potluck and meaningless. It is vanity and striving after the wind. Only when you can stand together under covenant law can you begin to see what God has in mind.
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