What is the law? The Bible severally mentioned the word ‘law’, what does it mean and refer to?
There are 8 dispensations and the dispensation of Law is one of the dispensations. See the eight ages or dispensations of God in saving man
What is the Law
A law is a rule enacted or customary in a community and recognized as commanding or forbidding certain actions. The law rules.
The word ‘law’ as used in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew word ‘Torah’ meaning instruction. The Hebrew word for ‘law’ comes from the verb ‘Yarah‘, which means to throw or to shoot (arrows). The verb ‘Horah‘ means to point, guide, instruct, and teach.
Hence the law is that which provides authoritative guidance.
In the New Testament, the Greek word used for law is ‘nomos‘. Nomos means that which is assigned hence, usage, custom and then law or a rule governing one’s actions.
What is the law in the Bible
The term law in the bible refers to: –
1. The entire Old Testament
John 10:34: Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? Jesus was quoting psalms 82:6.
1Cor 14:21: In the law it is written, ‘By men of strange tongues and by lips of foreigners will I speak to this people; and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord’. Paul was quoting from Isaiah 28:11-12.
Neither psalms nor Isaiah are books of the law, but the term law applies to the entire Old Testament because it constituted God’s special revelation of instruction for Israel and ultimately for man.
2. The first five books of the bible (The Pentateuch)
The first five books of the Old Testament are called Torah or the law books. They contain the laws or commands and instruction given by the Lord through Moses to the people of Israel.
These books are; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
3. The Ten commandments
The word law refers also to the God’s commandments; The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.
The Ten commandments were written by God and given to Moses to present them to the children of Israel thus the world at large.
Ex 24:12-13: And the LORD said to Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give you tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
4. The Mosaic law
The mosaic law are the laws which Moses coded (wrote) and set to rule or govern the children of Israel, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; God.
These laws are found in Exodus chapter 21 up to the last book of the Pentateuch except for Deuteronomy chapter 5 (Deut: 5 contains The Ten Commandments which are God’s laws).
The Mosaic law given to the nation Israel governs and guides their moral, religious and secular life.
See the difference between The Ten Commandments and the Mosaic law.
God bless
