Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!princeton!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: math1h3@jetson.uh.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: "Laws that are not Good" (Ezekiel 20) Message-ID: Date: 7 May 91 04:32:54 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Houston Lines: 74 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) writes: > And here's where the fun really begins... > > 25 "Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not > bring life. 26 I let them defile themselves with their own offerings, > and I let them sacrifice their first-born sons. This was to punish them > and show them that I am the Lord. (TEV) > > So, just like in Isaiah and in the Gospels, God (Jesus in the > Gospels) claims that the people have made their own laws, and turned > from God's Laws and Commands. And, like Jesus' teachings on the laws > governing divorce, it appears that God has given Israel bad laws in > addition to the good ones. How then are we to decide which laws are > laws made by the people, which ones are God's good laws, and which ones > are God's bad laws? I think the proper interpretation of this passage is that the 'bad laws' are not 'God's laws' as recorded in scripture, but laws that God led or permitted the sinful leaders of Israel to enact. Hence they sacrificed their first-born sons, which God clearly condemned in several places. (Do not give your children to Molech, etc.) Here is how the passage reads in the NIV, and I think you will see quite a difference: "25) I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by; 26) I let them become defiled through their gifts --the sacrifice of every firstborn--that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord." This is a theme restated by Paul: "Did that which is good [the Law], then become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good [the Law], so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." -- Romans 7:13. Of course here Paul is speaking of the true Law of God, which is not bad, and which is able to give life to anyone who obeys it -- but due to our fallen, sinful nature, we cannot obey it. But the Law serves the larger purpose of showing us that we need Christ's redemption. In both cases (God's law and the 'bad laws') God is being gracious, trying to call people back to him, people who continue to turn away from him. David H. Wagner a confessional Lutheran. "The Law commands and makes us know What duties to our God we owe; But 'tis the Gospel must reveal Where lies our strength to do His will. The Law discovers guilt an sin And shows how vile our hearts have been; The Gospel only can express Forgiving love and cleansing grace. What curses doth the Law denounce Against the man that fails but once! But in the Gospel Christ appears, Pard'ning the guilt of num'rous years. My soul, no more attempt to draw The life and comfort from the Law. Fly to the hope tha Gospel gives; The man that trusts the promise lives." --"The Law Commands and Makes Us Know" --by Issaac Watts --from "The Lutheran Hymnal" #289. My opinions and beliefs on this matter are disclaimed by The University of Houston.