The Law, aka the Torah, is referred to as the Law of Moses some 23 times throughout the scriptures. In both the Old and New Testament it is referred to as the Law of Moses by the following witnesses:

• Joshua (Joshua 8:31, 32 and 23:6)
• Daniel (Daniel 9:11, 13* Luke (Luke 2:22 and 24:44)
• Paul (Acts 13:39 and 28:23; 1 Corinthians 9:9)
• The Pharisees (Acts 15:5)
• John (John 7:23)
• The author of the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 10:28)
• The author of the book of 1 Kings (1 Kings 2:3)
• The author of the book of 2 Kings (2 Kings 14:6 23:25)
• The author of the book of 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 23:18 and 30:16)
• The author of the book of Ezra (Ezra 3:2 and 7:6)
• The author of the book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8:1)
• Jesus and God, I saved the best for last (John 7:23, Malachi 4:4)

Moses was the one through whom God gave the law to the children of Israel to govern them as a nation. Throughout the Bible, the law of Moses,  is a reference to the Law. It was given from God by Moses, to the second generation of Israelites and it actually refers to the second giving of the Law Covenant.

We’ll go into this in more detail later, but first it is important to point out that the Law is associated with Moses all throughout the scriptures. Time and time again the scripture says, Moses commanded, Moses said, or Moses gave.

For example, in Matthew 19 the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Why did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement?” (Matthew 19:3-8; Deuteronomy 24:1-3). The Pharisees were challenging Jesus concerning a provision within the law which, according to Jesus, was allowed because of the hardness of their hearts.

The bill of divorcement was a law catered for the hard hearted Israelites. It was not the expressed will of God even though it was part of the law. For this reason Jesus says, “In the beginning it was not so.” God’s will is that a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.

In contrast to the bill of divorcement, the New Covenant established in the blood of Jesus instructs men to love their wives as Christ loves the Church and gave himself for her. The new Covenant doesn’t make allowances for being a hard hearted husband.

Interestingly, when the Ten Commandments were given, they were engraved in tables of stone. In contrast, God’s promise of the New Covenant was, “I will take away the heart of stone and I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” ~ Ezekiel 36:26 TNLT

At the beginning of God’s covenant with the people of Israel, after he led them out of Egypt by a strong and mighty hand, he gave them the Ten Commandments at Sinai. While Moses was upon the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people persuaded Aaron to lead them in worshipping other gods. They made and worshipped a golden calf. When they did this, they aroused God’s anger and God made it clear to Moses that his intention was to destroy them, but Moses interceded on their behalf. Consider narrative and the conversation between God and Moses.

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

STOP FOR A MOMENT!

Consider how offensive it must have been to God after he had delivered the people out of Egypt, that they would make an idol and claim that this idol had delivered them out of Egypt.  Consider also how darkened their hearts must have been to do such a thing. Let’s continue.

And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. ~ Exodus 32:1-14

Moses reminded God of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He also prayed that God would not destroy the people for his (God’s) reputation’s sake among the other nations. Thus, God relented from his anger and did not destroy them. However (and this is important to understand) God did give them over to their idolatry. Consider God’s words through the prophet Amos

Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. ~ Amos 5:25-26

Now consider the following from Stephen in the New Testament:

But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt. They told Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made. Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, ‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No, you carried your pagan gods— the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon.’ ~ Acts 7:39 -43

According to Stephen, God turned away from the Israelites who came out of Egypt at the time of their idolatrous worship of the golden calf at Mt Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

God spared them because Moses interceded for them on the basis of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet he gave them over to the idolatry in their hearts, the idolatry of other gods that they had brought with them out of Egypt. Not long afterwards, God swore in his wrath that they would not enter into his rest (the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), because they would not trust him.

In Numbers 13 God told Moses to send men, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, as spies to search the Land of Canaan. After the men had explored the land for forty days they returned and reported to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran according to Numbers 13:27-33

This was their report to Moses:

We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley. But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:27-33 TNLT)

Of all the spies only Caleb and Joshua brought back a good report. Only they believed that Israel was able to go in and possess the land God had promised to the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their inheritance and possession. All the other spies spread a bad report among the people (an evil report of unbelief KJV).

The evil report given by the other 10 spies cause the entire congregation of Israel to become disheartened.

And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” ~ Exodus 14:1-4

They believed the evil report rather than believing the promise of God and the good report of Joshua and Caleb. As a result, Joshua and Caleb were the only two of that first generation of Israelites above the age of 20 who entered the Promised Land.

The Book of Numbers covers the 40 years of Israel’s miserable existence in the wilderness, and God dealt with them harshly at times because they worshipped other gods from their heart and would not trust Him to bring them into the land He swore to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The book of Numbers is filled with the harsh reality of the failure of these Israelites. It is a book that is almost entirely void of any blessing from God. For forty years God endured them in the wilderness so that he could fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by bringing the second generation of Israelites (after the Exodus) into the Land of promise.

After God swore in his wrath that they would not enter his rest, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until that first generation of Israelites had died. Only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb remained by the time we reach the end of Numbers and the beginning of Deuteronomy.

The book of Deuteronomy covers the final days of the life of Moses before the second generation of Israelites entered into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy literally means the second giving of the Law, and covers Moses’ instructions for them concerning how they were to live in the land after they took possession of it.

The instructions given by Moses were written in a book that contained the full terms of the Covenant with the blessings and the curses. This book is called the Law of Moses and it was placed in a side compartment of the Ark of the Covenant.

This book of the Law is not to be confused with the Ten Commandments which had been given at Sinai 40 years prior and kept inside of the Ark and directly under the Mercy Seat.

The book of the Law, aka the Law of Moses, served as a witness against the people of Israel because God knew they were stiffed necked and would eventually forsake him and seek after other gods.

This second giving of the law was ratified by the declarations of both the blessings and the curses after the Israelites entered the Promised Land. Scripturally speaking, there is no such thing as being under the law without being under the curse as well. That is why Paul warns the Galatians that if they attempt to seek right relationship with God through the Law, they would consequently be under the curse of the law.

In the language of scripture, Christ redeeming us from the curse of the Law, is the equivalent of being delivered from the law entirely (more on this later).

The actual terms of the covenant (the law of Moses) are laid out in Deuteronomy 27-30 and it is impossible to separate the Law Covenant given to Israel from the curse contained therein. The book of the Law, containing the blessings for obedience and the curse for disobedience, was given to the second generation of Israelites before they entered the Promised Land and is referred to as the Law of Moses throughout the balance of scripture.

And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. ~ Deuteronomy 31:24-28

God promised the descendants of Abraham that he would bless them if they would keep his covenant and obey his voice. Yet God warned the children of Israel that if they did not keep his covenant and obey his voice, he would judge them and send the curse upon them. The curse would result in the Israelites being exiled from their inheritance in the land and becoming servants to other nations.

Israel replied with Amen to both the blessings and the curses! Eventually Israel inherited the curse and was judged. This resulted in them becoming servants to other nations.

During the reign of King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, Israel was divided into two Kingdoms.  The 10 northern tribes were known as the kingdom of Israel and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were known as Judah. The northern tribes of Israel were taken captive by the Assyrians in fulfillment of the curse, and later Judah was carried away by the Babylonians in fulfillment of the same.

God had plead with the leaders of Israel and Judah through the prophets but they refused to return to him fully and to do that which is right in his sight. They continued to resist and would not obey His voice. As promised, God’s judgment came and all Israel was exiled into captivity. After Judah was taken captive into Babylon, Daniel prayed the following:

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

When the Jews eventually returned from the Babylonian captivity, they bound themselves with a curse, dedicating themselves to God and to the covenant God made with their fathers through Moses.

And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes… ~ Nehemiah 10:28-29

The Law of Moses was accompanied with a curse (the curse of the law). The Law of Moses was a binding covenant on the nation of Israel and being a partaker of that covenant meant being subjected to the curse for not doing all that the law demands.

This is precisely why Paul warns the believers in Galatia not seek justification by the works of the law, because the curse accompanies the law. The law demands the continuation in the works of the Law to all who are under it and therefore all who do not continue in all things contained in the law are under a curse.

You cannot separate the curse from the law covenant given through Moses. Those who attempt to do so are guilty of trespassing the very law they claim to obey. They claim they are not under the curse, while at the same time claiming that the law is still binding. Yet, the law itself says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Those who teach such error by putting others under their private interpretations of the law often excuse themselves for not keeping all the Law which the law itself actually demands. In this they reinvent the law with the portions they deem enforceable.

The Law of Moses was a unit, and not some divided up thing that some have made it into. Yet some have turned it into something that the Bible never reveals it to be. It was never a broken up dysfunctional system. According to the Holy Scriptures the Law Covenant was first ratified with the blood of animals, then the Law was given, then the priesthood, the sacrificial system, the various statutes and ordinances including the festivals were put in place and served as rule of life and constitution for the people of Israel in the flesh.

These were all interlinked and you cannot have one without the other. If any part of this covenant is obsolete, it is all obsolete. You do not, and cannot have the Law covenant without the blood of animals, the Levitical priesthood, the tabernacle/temple, the brazen altar, the laver, the lamp stand, the table of shew bread, the golden altar, and the Ark of the Covenant.

Jesus died and rose again, not to keep a remnant of the Law covenant in place, but to give us a better covenant established on better promises.