Each time period recorded in the Bible teaches us something about our relationship with the Creator. Principles are carried forward as a learning tool. Much of Israel's laws were concerned with human behavior. Israel could contrast its laws and practices with those of the nations around them who had no such laws.
Their hygiene laws alone prevented a lot of health problems. Their compensation laws meant that there was no need for prisons. Those who committed theft, worked to pay for what they stole many times over. Capital crimes were never committed again because the death penalty prevented them ever doing so.
Scripture also provided a way to gain instruction from the Creator on what to do individually to bring benefits to the nation as a whole, and what to avoid because the consequences could also affect the whole nation.
It was designed to allow humans to see their individual place in God's arrangement, as contributing to the wellbeing of the collective. Following his instructions would have saved them from many disasters, but they never learned the lessons from the past, so we're doomed to repeat them.
We still see humans thinking that they should make their own decisions about everything and chafe at any limitations placed on them. If we want our children to grow up as responsible adults, then we place fair restrictions on them for their own good....why would the Creator do less for his own children?
It's a funny thing about "progress".....most people just see the benefits whilst ignoring the detriment. But when the detriment outweighs the benefits, they still cling to their own ideas as if the detriment couldn't be avoided. God has always given us ways to avoid trouble.....we fail because we don't listen.
"I did it my way" rings hollow when you are standing on a dying planet surrounded by sick people (morally, spiritually and physically) as the result of humans thinking they can do things better without God. Humans are pathetic when it comes to governing themselves. Have we woken up to that yet?
Jesus showed us what happens when you take something good and pollute the daylights out of it.
The Jewish faith was founded on Mt Sinai when Moses put God's conditions before them. He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and was going to lead them through a wilderness and into a bountiful land that we was going to gift the them as their exclusive possession. It would have been like the garden of Eden to them, but like their forefather Adam, they just couldn't seem to get the obedience thing under control. Self interest keeps getting in the way.
Christendom did the same to Christianity as the Jews did to Judaism. History repeats because we refuse to listen and learn. Soon, I believe the lesson will be concluded.
In Eden, the conditions for continuing life in paradise was obedience. Entering the Promised Land was also based on obedience....what is up with humans who think they know better than their Maker?! Do they never get it, that the one thing that stops them from getting a better life is still their own disobedience?
Comments like that just make me smile. Human morality is dying, in case you hadn't noticed. This is because God has been removed from so many shoulders.
It's the hypocritical religious systems that misrepresent God that are the problem.
Misrepresenting God was what caused the first humans to rebel....what has changed in all these thousands of years, when the solution to all our problems was in plain sight all along?
Rebelling against God and his reasonable restrictions has been the cause of every disaster and calamity that humans have brought on themselves. Ignoring God's rules just keeps it happening.
Has no one twigged by now?
