The Prescription: Ot Secrets I Was Never Taught in Church

By Jay Dee

The Friend of God

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)

In every instance where you find the word believe in either testament, it involves trust, obedience, fidelity, and behavior. To believe and not conform to that belief is unbelief! James is plain-spoken, allowing little room for modern word parsers to twist his meanings. In another verse, James plainly says faith without works is dead. If we are to believe James, then its clear that faith and belief prescribe submission for our own good to the loving rule of divine authority, else they aredead!

The Prescription is not intended to be an entertaining storybook; rather it is a study book teaching righteous government.

It is a commentary on those aspects of the books of Moses that pertain mostly to godly government; personal, community, institutional, and state government. Although it addresses some religious aspects, its focus is upon the underlying principles of conduct which are both universal and eternal, whether one agrees with them or not. Wherever there are two or more in close proximity, there must be understanding and agreement in order to maintain harmony, without which either tyranny or anarchy will rule by force.

Anyone who disregards Gods loving instructions for righteous behavior cannot rightly call himself the friend of God. This malady can be remedied by applying godly principles revealed in The Prescription.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490808192

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Copyright © 2013 Jay Dee.

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Cover photo credit of copyright Jim & Penny Caldwell

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-0820-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0821-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0819-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917295

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/26/2013

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Genesis

In the Beginning

Sacred Name Discourse

Exodus

The Mosaic Covenant

First Tablets

Second Tablets

Leviticus

The Seven Feasts of Israel

My Three C’s of Government

Taxes

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Tithes

Debt

Passover

The Feasts of Weeks

The Judiciary

Supreme Court setting

Treason

Governor

Taking of life

Property rights

Testimonies

Military

Just Weights and Measures

The Third Tithe

Israel’s wedding vows

The prophesies of YHWH and Moses

Conclusion

Appendix I

Appendix II

Divine Government

Divine Legislator

Divine Executive

Divine Judiciary

Precaution

Glossary

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

(Micah 6:8)

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

Paul of Tarsus

(II Corinthians 13:5)

Preface

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In the beginning, I had no intention of publishing a book, I simply enjoyed writing out my thoughts about the scriptures as I studied them. After writing numerous commentaries on various other books of the Bible, I decided to tackle the five books of Moses, aka Torah. Somewhere along the line it occurred to me to print these commentaries so that after I am gone my children would know my thoughts on matters of the scriptures. Eventually, it became clear to me that ignorance of Torah was widespread and deep even within the Church of Jesus and that maybe a few other people might benefit by my humble observations.

Many hours and many days went into this project, though over a period of about five years, here a little there a little. As I grew in understanding, I changed some of my comments, deleted others while continuing to add, so you will see redundancy here and there because of it, which is okay. Some things need to be repeated. It’s not a story book, I never intended it to be anything other than a learning helper.

Hopefully, my grandchildren might be interested. Their generation knows nothing about how life was when I was young and free. I am nearly eighty, still in reasonably good health considering. Our parents raised us to respect and value the Ten Commandments and local schools reinforced our parent’s wishes for their children to be morally straight in all their dealings. Previous generations to this present one had little need for locks and lawyers because they had been raised in this way. To be sure we had some trouble makers, but they were few and rarely dangerous.

Today it is inconceivable that someone would come to a public school once a week to teach children something from the Bible, but we had that and I cannot think of anyone harmed by it or even objecting to it. I cannot recall one thing from that experience, but overall I know my generation was pretty much self governing as a result of education and parenting as it then existed. Police Departments were not occupational forces in those days either, policemen were our friends and neighbors. Central government was seldom given much thought except during time of war. Central government support from personal federal income taxes was insignificant also. Secular society is much more costly to maintain than a religious society. Much has changed since then—way too much!

As the wall between Judeo Christian education and secular government education grew in strength and dominance, so too did evil doing and the need for more and more government and less and less freedom. As the church retreated from education and from Torah, it fled to a new kind of super spirituality apart from social and civic responsibility. Thus churchmen and government men worked synergistically to divide the nation along extreme secular and extreme religious lines.

On the other hand Quranic Islam does not share this new schizophrenic wall of separation between people’s belief and government, and its logical systemic resistance to it should be obvious to everyone.

The change in the way Americans view life has come at an enormously great material and spiritual cost. Material life alone is not real any more than a spiritual life alone. Man is first a spiritual being needing spiritual sustenance and secondly a material being needing material sustenance. Christians have too long indulged in spiritual feelings devoid of the reasonable building block nutrients that sustained the first believers and the church for ages.

Hopefully I will have given hope to readers by helping them to realize just how relevant the underlying eternal principals of Torah are today.

Introduction

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It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Messiah Y’shua (Matthew 4:4)

Ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

St. Jerome (347-420AD)

He is the Author of both Testaments, because the New is prefigured in the Old and the Old is unveiled in the New.

St. Augustine (354-430AD)

Miserable Christians, whose words and faith still depend on the interpretations of men and who expect clarification from them! This is frivolous and ungodly. The Scriptures are common to all, and are clear enough in respect to what is necessary for salvation and are also obscure enough for inquiring minds—let us reject the word of man.

Martin Luther (Luther’s Works, V.32, Pg. 217)

NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

(Psalms 119:105)

The lamp is the Word of God, the Oil of the lamp is the Spirit of truth. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (John 15:26) The lamp alone is not enough to shine light into the world, nor is the oil enough alone. Speaking to his disciples: Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:14-18) May these words sink in and illuminate your understanding.

The purpose of this commentary is not to provide an exhaustive study of the Pentateuch (Torah, prescriptions, teachings, instructions in righteousness, Law), but to simply reintroduce to the thoughtful Bible student, what has been denigrated by Antinomian (denial of the fixed meaning of obligatory universal moral Law, or simply anti-law) false doctrines concerning the Law and shallow teaching by doctrinally impoverished evangelists concerning divine Law and grace. There will therefore be portions of Moses books which will be skipped over, not because I think they are unimportant, but because they are not particularly helpful as a remedy for ignorance of lawful, self government. Good government is built upon a foundation of high moral character and personal integrity which values godly principles above self.

Nor is the objective of this book to entertain, but to show that "God’s will and God’s Law" are eternal, inseparable, synonymous terms and therefore understanding the Divine Prescription for man is essential to understanding God’s will for man. I have attempted to reconnect contemporary unprincipled modern industrialized and automated America with her Judeo Christian roots. This will probably be unlike any other Bible commentary you’ve ever read.

By now you have noticed certain stand alone italicized words. The purpose for those italics is to tell you such words are defined in the glossary. Please consult with these definitions often in order to fix a better understanding in your mind of the text where they appear. Later you will notice the capital letter C hyphenated with numbers one through ten in brackets i.e. [C1], indicating which of the Ten Commandments are most closely associated with that verse where it appears. Hopefully these devices will help the reader to build a stronger understanding of the foundations which support all the rest of scripture!

In order to return to a first century view of scriptures it will be necessary to know that the word "Law as translated from the Old Testament into English is from the Hebrew word Torah (Pron. Towra Strong’s #8451), meaning the five books of Moses. Almost all English versions of the New Testament have translated the Greek word nomos into the English word law". (Strong’s #3551) I have frequently taken liberty to use the word Torah instead of the word Law when quoting scripture. When quoting scripture I have also frequently used our heavenly Father’s Hebrew name and our Saviour’s Hebrew name given by God to the Saviour’s Jewish mother. In recent years it’s believed by some that Matthew had written the book of Matthew in the Hebrew language and that it had been translated into the sister Aramaic language before it was translated into Greek and preserved in the eastern church in that same Aramaic language where it remains in liturgical use. From that translation the word "Torah" has been rightly translated Torah in the English version of the Aramaic book of Matthew. This is really not new, but apparently new to some modern western theologians.

Next be sure you understand what the meaning of the word Torah is. This can be confusing if you look up the word in Gentile dictionaries because therein is considerable confusion, so I will tell you that Torah is simply the first of three parts of the Hebrew Bible, the five books of Moses which I have written about herein.

The simple meaning of the word Torah is instructions given to Moses as a prescription for peace, safety and righteousness here, foreshadowing the hereafter, hence the title for this book.

It may help you as it did me to rather than think of the Judeo Christian Bible as a religious book divided between the Old and the New Testaments, but rather think of it as a cohesive whole set of covenantal instructions for godly government, the principals of which are a continuum from eternity through time to eternity. Wherever two or more are gathered together there must be understanding and agreement, else there be misunderstanding and disagreement from which comes strife and war. Understanding and agreement of Torah constitutes understanding godly government. The New Testament contains instructions for understanding that the cross fulfilled the Mosaic covenant, satisfied its sacrificial requirements and amended the former with a better covenant than what the Mosaic covenant could not do. Torah wasn’t abolished, it was amended, cured of its weakness and amplified with a better covenant by the same Divine Author who appeared in the epiphany of fire and smoke at Sinai, who later appeared manifest in the flesh in Judea! Pause here and let this concept sink in.

I highly recommend careful study of Hebrews chapters eight through ten so that you have a sure understanding of the better covenant, established on better promises, that it replaces that part of the Mosaic covenant that was faulty because it depended upon fallen men performing many bloody animal sacrifices. For by one offering he (Y’shua) hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14) So that you know, this in no wise cancels Torah as some suppose, to wit: "For if we sin (transgress the Law) wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth (of our sanctification), there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." (Hebrews 10:26) That which is old has vanished away we are told in 8:13. That which passed away was the earthly tabernacle with its ordinances of service, but it was a shadow of the heavenly tabernacle and heavenly services now administrated by Y’shua our sinless mediator.

The Judeo Christian Bible in its entirety is a book of laws intended to govern man’s behaviour in the way. We shy away from that concept because we’ve been wrongly taught to fear law, but laws and knowledge of laws are beneficial to our health and well being in this life and in the life to come. We readily accept most natural laws because we learn very early in life that violating them results in harmful, sometimes even fatal consequences. Every natural science has laws which we accept and use daily without thinking because we’ve been disciplined in those laws. What we don’t readily accept are supernatural laws such as the law of salvation for instance. We cannot apprehend it any ole willy nilly way we please. We prefer to think of it, if at all, emotionally or sentimentally in an undisciplined way instead of systematically. Sadly most would rather not ever think about it at all, but choosing to ignore law will surely result in tragic consequences.

It may surprise you to learn that the early congregations were Torah observant and that even the pre-Catholic church observed the canons and constitution of the Apostolic Fathers which were directly and indirectly founded in Torah. The believing Jewish assemblies were also Torah observant as well as obedient to the teachings of Messiah Y’shua and his Apostles. In the very beginning all congregations were Torah observant Jewish believers in Messiah Y’shua—all! They were either Jewish believers or Gentile converts to the Messianic sect of Judaism. There simply was no Christian Church per se in the beginning. Everything you find in the New Testament is founded upon things in the Tanakh (Old Testament). Sadly the modern church has all but abandoned these disciplines in favor of unconditional unilateral forgiveness which leads to licentiousness, universalism and lawlessness!

Are not all laws, either temporal or spiritual instructions for dealing with matters concerning life? To illustrate: "(There is) therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2) Lawless teachers say this is proof that the Law has been abolished. Nothing could be further from the truth! What is truth is that the penalty of death for transgressing the Law has been abolished for those who walk in the newness of life in the law of the Spirit! Ask yourself is the Spirit opposed to the Law of Moses, would the Spirit transgress the moral law of God? Did the Creator change his mind? Obviously then, by definition walking in the Spirit is walking lawfully. The Law is our school master instructing us, teaching us to walk in the way.

The word ‘bad’ does not define sin! Neither does ‘good’ define righteousness. The adjectives good and bad are contingent, subjective terms having little meaning by themselves. There is only one correct way for either Jew or Gentile to define sin, and that is by the lawful instructions recorded in the books of Moses, witnessed by all Israel, testified to by the prophets, avouched by Y’shua and affirmed by the apostles whereby sin is defined as transgression of the Law! Any other basis for identifying sin is based upon subjection and unbelief!

Let’s use another example, the word evil. We all know what it means, or do we? I don’t think we do. Its meaning has become blurred, meaning different things to different people in our current relativistic culture. Fundamentally it’s in the same category as sin, which is simply transgression of the Law. We can’t even rightly discuss evil without holding the view that it’s transgression of the moral Law of God and yet that is exactly what Antinomians routinely do. On the other hand righteousness is defined by lawfulness, meaning compliance with the Law. A Christian who thinks to base their view of right and wrong entirely upon the New Testament, without regard to the Law and the prophets, is Biblically ignorant and almost as error prone as those who imagine they can divine the one from the other. Such a view is not only a truncated view of scripture; it’s a very arrogant and dangerous view leading to sin! The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)! Ignorance of the Law is not a virtue!

It has been said that grace is unmerited favor which it is, but grace is not unlimited favor! Even a cursory reading of the New Testament alone tells us that much. Grace’s limits are found in the underlying principles of the Law. God does not violate his Word! Unmerited favor is reasonable. Unlimited favor is unreasonable and self destructive. It leads to what the Bible does not teach—license and universalism! Rather, what the Scriptures do teach is that true liberty and true liberality are freedoms of choice within the limits of the Law! Grace is in no wise an enabler of sin, but grace provides a conditional way out of sin and its ultimate penalty.

Grace hasn’t replaced the Law; grace relies upon the Law for dimension, otherwise lawless grace soon descends into shapeless subjectivity that can be twisted by endless dialectics and boundless confusion. Without the Law there is no need for mitigating grace.

What about this is so offensive to the Antinomians who teach that Christians are not accountable to the Law? Are not laws a fundamental principle to any society? But, not all societal laws are righteous, some in fact are wicked. The Law of Moses is given by grace, and the reasons for grace are embedded in the Law. We must not permit the foolish idea that Christian doctrines can be hung in mid air without the Law. Without the framework of the Law, what Y’shua and his apostles taught simply falls to the ground. It’s impossible to rightly understand what they taught without the cohesive support of the Law. You can’t even read what they taught without stumbling over some aspect of the Law at every turn. The error of Antinomianism is its myopic, superficial view of the precepts, as opposed to a penetrating look into their substantial conceptual foundations. Antinomianism simply blinds us to the obvious healthy, life giving and loving principals of the Law!

For instance, scoffers mockingly and falsely accuse true Bible believing Christians of advocating stoning rebellious little children. Antinomians and other Biblically ignorant Christians and Jews who are defeated by this specious accusation should be ashamed of themselves! By such sleight of hand our false accusers intentionally slander both the true believer and the Word of God! Not only do they ignore the plain language in the cited case that the rebel was also a "glutton (‘zalal’: a worthless, immoral pig, thus indicating a lazy, irresponsible social problem who is otherwise well capable of responsible behaviour), and a drunkard", thus revealing his adulthood, but they also fail to see beyond the surface of the precept into the underlying concept, namely that rebellious offspring, whether juvenile or adult are to be disciplined according to their age and degree of their rebellion. Adult children in Israel were under state, ecclesiastical and parental authority until death. Adult children were free to make their own decisions, but citizens of Israel were never free to break the Law of the land any more than citizens of modern states today. Parents of law breakers who shield their adult children from the Law are culpable law transgressors themselves. Making Biblically ignorant Christians believe the Law mandates stoning little children is a religious party line, propaganda for unbelief, and left unchallenged the lie stands to deceive many! These deceivers intend thereby to discredit the Law and its Law giver by misrepresentation which is bearing false witness!

Understand also that for the children of the kingdom of Israel, God was their Legislator, their Judge and their Governor. In the strictest sense that’s what kings are and what God was until Saul was chosen (I Samuel Ch. 10) to be their king instead (I Samuel 8:7)! He also legislated by decree the laws governing national government which is an extension of family government and to rebel against them was to rebel against the state and against God the Governor. Hence, capital punishment was legislated for the most egregious of rebels—seditionist adult children who acted to overthrow government by their rebellion against God’s lawful line of authority!

Within the Law prohibiting tolerance of seditionist children, lay more than just parental discipline, whether it be concerning juvenile or adult children. Indeed the state, the congregations of believers and the community have a duty to play an active role in protecting the culture and the nation. Underlying the precepts of the Law are the illuminating conceptual principles which emanate from the omniscient Divine Principle! Therefore we would do well to examine the Law for its principles and apply them to life, that we might live long and peaceable lives in the land.

Whatever we read in the Old Testament we find also in the Gospel; and what we read in the Gospel is deduced from the Old Testament. There is no discord between them, no disagreement.

St. Jerome (347-420AD)

Let me be very clear here by saying that while obeying the Law has spared much grief in this life; were it possible keeping it has never saved a single soul from everlasting destruction (Galatians 2:16; 3:11). To transgress the Law on even the least point is to be guilty of transgression on the greatest point as the reader will see. The ten words aka the Ten Commandments are the summary of all the commandments, judgments, statutes, ordinances, etc. One cannot transgress any lesser commandment without transgressing the first and greatest commandment. Only by putting self in the place of God can one even think to transgress any other commandment, and one can only come to the place of putting self in the place of God, by coveting which transgresses the tenth commandment. Hence that person has transgressed both the first and the tenth commandments. It is impossible to transgress any other commandment against external transgressions without first internally transgressing these two laws. Righteousness hinges upon these two commandments! (Matthew 22:40)

It should be therefore clear also, that keeping the whole Law perfectly is quite impossible for mortals. There is only One who ever kept the whole Law perfectly—every moment of every day without a single exception! The rich young ruler ostensibly kept the whole Law, but Y’shua exposed his hypocrisy when he commanded him to give all he had to the poor and follow him. He believed Y’shua, but failed his faith test and walked away sorrowfully because he loved his possessions more than he loved the living Word of God, which transgresses the first and great commandment. No attempt at Law keeping ever merits life eternal!

Luther rightly rediscovered that, "the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17) and no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith" (Galatians 3:11). "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Y’shua Messiah, even we have believed in Y’shua Messiah, that we might be justified by the faith of Messiah, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified (Galatians 2:16). Modern theologians misunderstand, even modern Bible versions misinterpret by changing the word of to the word in, which turns the verse on its head. See also Romans 3:22 and Galatians 3:22, the latter of which clearly indicates that Y’shua submitted to the scandal of the cross by the act of faith, not of the will alone. Confirmation of this is found in the words of Y’shua in the garden and in his final hour on the cross, Eli, Eli, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) We must not indulge in the supposition that the Son knew everything the Father knew, or that Y’shua did what he did simply because he is God. To do so is to negate the temptation of Y’shua. It wasn’t merely an academic exercise; it was a real temptation to the humanity of Y’shua. There is a very fine line here and elsewhere between the act of faith and the act of will. One can exercise will without faith, but one cannot exercise faith without will. The entire debate over law and grace revolves around this paradox. What Antinomians miss is that faith, unlike belief which can be very personal and passive, acts by grace, enabling the out working of lawfulness. By trusting in the testimony of Messiah Y’shua, the precedent setting gift of "the faith ‘of’ Y’shua" is manifested in us by our faith and lawful compliance, not the other way around which is meritorious will works. I hasten to add that compliance means doing or not doing as instructed in spite of our contrary flesh driven feelings and that without love it is impossible.

Christians and Jews need to beware of those on either side who would hold up a wall between us. Pre-Christian era believing Hebrews were saved by faith in the coming Jewish Messiah, like as believing Christians are saved by faith in the returning Jewish Messiah. Christians are in fact grafted into the tribe of Judah by faith in the Jewish Messiah (Romans 11:17-24). Now some of the Hebrew branches were broken off, but not all and some are grafted back in by faith (verse 23) in the Messiah. It’s not keeping the Law that saves either Jew or Gentile, but faith (Hebrews Ch.11) in the testimony of Messiah which is action prompted by absolute trust in the Moses affirming testimony of Y’shua as evidenced by obedience to his commands. (James 2:14-26) Saving faith is always evidenced by lawful behaviour, else it isn’t saving faith!

Obviously not all Pre-Christian era Hebrews were saved and just as obvious not all Messiah professors are saved. The missing link for the unsaved is the same as it was for the rich young ruler, i.e. action prompting trust in God’s testimony through Moses, the prophets, Y’shua and his apostles which is faith testified to by millions of eyewitnesses, by the way of Sinai. Faith is neither a blind leap into the dark, nor religion, nor an abstraction, but acting upon the trust one puts in this testimony! If you look up this word in the dictionary, you will see it there as a noun and the first description of it is, ‘a confident trust’. However when you read scripture, the word is in the context of action, so it acts as a verb. Next you will see something like this in the dictionary, ‘belief in God’, but belief and faith are not the same things! Belief and trust are not the same things. One can say they believe anything, but belief does not translate into faith until it is acted upon in trust. The rich young ruler was not willing to act upon Y’shua’s command. Many today, even in many churches are not willing to trust and obey (have faith in, act upon) the commands they say they believe, which is rejection in doubt! The test for belief then is corresponding action prompted by trust in God’s express written words.

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." St. Augustine

(354-430AD)

The Law was never intended to be a passport to life eternal! Many Jews had apparently come to hope that it was, but the focus of Moses is upon life and government in the earthly Promised Land which is a shadow of the heavenly Promised Land. The many hair splitting Rabbinical traditions subsequent to that which was first written by God, then audibly dictated in great specificity to Moses, may have led many to believe in the perfectibility of man, but these Rabbinical words were merely subordinate to the words of the Law, the sum of which is the moral Law of God. The sheer volume of the traditions of the elders makes it impossible for anyone to completely assimilate and abide in them in a natural lifetime. Perhaps key to understanding this is to ask ourselves; why keep the Law of Moses at all? It has to do with motivation and purpose. The Law is undeniably governmental, so why do we persist in thinking of it only as religion? Until the appearance of the Jewish Messiah, the Law stood between man and God as governor mediator. It was teaching man godly government, and providing mercy (grace) through the ordinances. The Law demands perfection, but it also provided mercy through the ordinances. Later when Messiah came, he fulfilled those ordinances and he removed them from their earthly administrators, taking their administration upon himself! But, he did in no wise abolish what is commonly referred to as the underlying moral Law, accorded to the prophet Moses (Matthew 5:17-19). It is the authoritative, righteousness defining moral Law which is intended to govern behaviour and to which all mankind is held accountable! Man made laws that clearly conflict with God’s moral Law are unauthorized, unlawful, outlaw laws not to be obeyed. Peter was very clear on the matter in Acts 5:29.

There are many enumerated benefits for compliance and prescribed disciplines for non compliance to authorized law. But, the Jewish hope for national and personal salvation in a coming messiah who would save them from their transgressions of the Law and from their enemies was obscured by the proliferating Rabbinical expansion and mechanization of the original Law given to Moses! By the time of Messiah’s visitation, it appears to have become an impossible and insurmountable obstacle to rational faith! However, we need to keep it all in perspective; the Law also governed civil life, so by comparison with modern American laws it was really quite small and uncomplicated so that almost anyone could understand it.