Without getting into a discussion about evolution (because that would be far from the point here...)
From what I understand, when scholars figure out all the dates, ages, lineages, etc, in the Bible, it's figured that there were approximately 4,000 years from the time of Adam to the time of Christ. Well, the Law of Moses was introduced approximately 2,500 years after Adam (which was 1,500 years before Christ). This means that up until Christ, during
five-eighths (
5/8) of the history of man, there was no concept of "The Ten Commandments" (nor of any of God's other moral laws, ceremonial laws, purification laws, civil laws, etc, that are laid out in scripture).
Why is this? Why did 2,500 years go by before the law was given? Did God suddenly give Himself a V-8 bop on the head and say, "Oops! You know what? I could've given these people some rules to live by!" Or did He perhaps simply get fed up one day and say, "Man, these people sure are a rowdy, sinful bunch. What I'll do is I'll come up with some laws, precepts and ordinances that reflect My holiness and I'll set it all up as the standard for them to live by. That'll set 'em straight."
If God's law was given as the standard by which man should live, why didn't He give the law as soon as He created Adam, or
at least right after the fall of Adam? Why did God give the law
quite some time after Adam? How did all those people live, from the time of Adam to the time of Moses - without the 10 commandments and all the other laws!?!? How were they supposed to live righteously?
Did they live righteously? Actually, no they didn't!
"...sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned..." (Rom 5:12)
Well, ok then... when God's holy laws and statutes finally came into the picture, surely they began living right... right?
Wrong!
Even with God telling people exactly what He expected from them concerning righteousness and godliness through His law, there has never been a person who has actually kept it.
Why do I bring all this up? To make the point that
God's law never had anything to do with making people righteous or helping them to live righteously! That was
not the purpose of the law. If that was God's purpose in giving all His laws, then it was a tremendous failure! I'll get into the purpose of the law later.
Right now I guess I'm still intrigued when I think that during 2,500 out of the 4,000 years from Adam to Jesus... man lived apart from "the law." NOT TO MENTION that
most of the people who have ever lived on the earth, even after the time of the giving of the law, were not even a part of the Covenant that included God's laws! Most Gentiles (non-Jews) around the world have probably had no idea that such laws even existed, or at least have not had a clue what the laws actually said!
More to come...
