Silly Laws or Symbols for a Savior?

Leviticus 11-15 contain some of the most interesting laws God gave. We have what animals are clean and unclean (fish with fins and scales are okay, cormorants are not). We also have the laws regarding how long a woman must remain unclean after childbirth (41 for a male child, 81 for a female). Following that are laws about leprosy and for cleansing houses ("if the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it ... he shall break down the house...")

So what gives with these laws?

Some argue that they have more to do with public and personal health and safety than anything else. They argue that shellfish might have bad stuff in them but fish with fins and scales don't, and that the population was especially susceptible to outbreaks of disease and so the house rules were in place, etc.

I'm not here to argue for or against that position. It may or may not be true. Know this, that all the Law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But I want to simply point out that the reason for the laws doesn't really matter. What matters is that God told them to follow these rules and it was up to them to decide whether or not to obey.

The truth of the matter is that no matter how much we try, we cannot obey God's Law perfectly. We cannot be like God. That is the real purpose of the Law, to show us how weak we really are, and how sinful we really are.

Paul the Apostle told us that the Law was designed then as a tutor, showing us our need for a Savior to fulfill the Law for us.

Galatians 3:23-25 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

So don't sweat the details and the whys and wherefores. They are great for studying the symbolism of the Law and how Jesus fulfilled it, but what we should really focus on is letting Jesus Christ fulfill God's Law in our hearts as we become more like Him.

Pastor Tom