The Laws and Orders of God

By Dr. Gilbert H. Edwards Sr.

I have searched and surveyed the Books of the Pentateuch and found many Laws that God has set forth in the beginning. God also set the orders. God has placed in order the food diet.

Mans most sacred privilege is freedom of will; the ability to obey or disobey his maker. This sharp limitation of self-gratification, this dietary law, was to test the use he would make of his freedom; and it thus begins the moral discipline of man. Unlike the beast, man has also a spiritual life, which demands the subordination of mans desires to the Law of God. The will of God revealed in His Law is the one eternal and unfailing guide as to what constitutes good and evil, and not mans instincts, or even his reason, which in the hour of temptation often will light darkness and darkness light. These laws and orders that he wills out and tries to the best of his ability to explain, is to be obeyed until God says otherwise. The author will point out other laws and orders in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477202692

Dr. Gilbert H. Edwards Sr.

Bishop, Dr. Gilbert Edwards, Sr. was born and reared in Maryland. He is a family man with 16 children and one wife, Dorothy of 57 years. His children are of adult age and have obtained success in various areas of life such as clergy, pastors, entrepreneurs, carpenters, electricians, etc. Some are still pursuing higher education. Family time and love is still an important aspect of Dr. Edwards’ life. Today, his adult sons spend quality time together with him, and his adult daughters spend quality time together with mom. He has obtained his Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Biblical Studies from the Arlington Bible College in Baltimore, MD. He received his Master of Arts Degree in 1993 and his Doctorate of Theology in Bible and Theological Studies in 1996, from the Antietam Bible Seminary in Hagerstown, MD. Dr. Edwards serves as the Diocesan Bishop of the State of Delaware under the Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith International, Inc. (PCAFI); Chairman of the Eastern and Southern States Council, District of the PCAFI, Inc., and is now the Senior Pastor of The Full Gospel True Mission Church, Inc., Baltimore, MD, since 1982.

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Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I DIETARY LAWS

CHAPTER II LAWS OF PURIFICATION

CHAPTER III A MANUAL OF MORAL INSTRUCTIONS

CHAPTER IV LAWS BEARING ON IMMORALITY

CHAPTER V LAW OF THE BAN

CHAPTER VI THE LAW OF THE NAZARITE

CHAPTER VII SPIRITUAL PURPOSE OF THE LAWS (Leviticus 11:44-47)

CHAPTER VIII THE LAW OF JUBILEE

CHAPTER IX THE LAW OF HOLY DAYS

CHAPTER X THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

CHAPTER XI REGULATIONS CONCERNING PRIESTS AND THE SANCTUARY

CHAPTER XII LAW OF RECONCILIATION WITH ONE ANOTHER

CHAPTER XIII REGULATIONS FOR THE PASSOVER FESTIVAL

CHAPTER XIV CIVIL, CEREMONIAL AND CRIMINAL LAWS CIVIL LAW: CIVIL LITIGATION

CHAPTER XV. THE LAW OF LOVE

CHAPTER XVI THE LAW OF FINANCES

CHAPTER XVII THE LAWS OF MOURNING

CHAPTER XVIII THE LAWS OF MARRIAGE

CHAPTER XIX THE LAWS OF SACRIFICES

CHAPTER XX LAWS OF PAUL’S CONCERNS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PREFACE

I have searched and surveyed the Books of the Pentateuch and found many Laws that God has set forth in the beginning. God also set the orders. God has placed in order the food diet.

Man’s most sacred privilege is freedom of will; the ability to obey or disobey his maker. This sharp limitation of self-gratification, this dietary law, was to test the use he would make of his freedom; and it thus begins the moral discipline of man. Unlike the beast, man has also a spiritual life, which demands the subordination of man’s desires to the Law of God. The will of God revealed in His Law is the one eternal and unfailing guide as to what constitutes good and evil, and not man’s instincts, or even his reason, which in the hour of temptation often will light darkness and darkness light. These laws and orders that he wills out and tries to the best of his ability to explain, is to be obeyed until God says otherwise. The author will point out other laws and orders in this book.

INTRODUCTION

The first book, Genesis, set in order the Laws of God on earth.

(1) Commandments. Laws dictated by the moral sense, e.g. against the crimes of robbery, bloodshed, etc.

(2) Statutes. Laws ordained by God, which we are to observe although reason cannot assign an explanation, e.g., the prohibition of swine’s flesh.

(3) Laws. Customs and traditional ordinances orally transmitted from generation to generation.

The covenant given to Noah (the seven Commandments of man).

The blessing which was bestowed on Adam (Genesis 1:28) is repeated, since Noah and his sons were the heads of a new race. The divine benediction would hearten them to undertake the task of rebuilding a revived world.

(1) Every moving thing. The term is here used in a wide sense to include beast, fish and fowl as the green herb. The meaning is that just as the green herb was granted to man as food by God (Genesis 1:29), so now permission is given him to partake of the flesh of animals. Because of sin, God changed the disgusted system.

(2) Blood. In the biblical conception, the blood is identified with life (Deuteronomy 12:23), for the blood is life. This thought was the obvious deduction from the fact that as the blood is drained from the body, the vitality weakens until it ceases altogether. Life in every form has in it an element of holiness, since God is the source of all life.

Therefore, although permission was given to eat the flesh of an animal, this was done with one special restriction; life must altogether have departed from the animal before man partakes of its flesh. The restriction was of a two-fold nature. It firstly forbade cutting a limb from a live animal, and secondly the blood must not on any account be eaten, since it was the seat of life. This double prohibition of cruelty to animals and the partaking of blood, is the basis of most of the roles of the Jewish slaughter of animals and of the preparation of meat that have been observed by Jews from time immemorial.

(3) Your Blood of Your Lives. Your blood, according to our own souls, your life-blood, and based on them the prohibition of suicide – will I require e.g., will I exact punishment for it.

(4) Beast. If an animal killed a man, it must be put to death (Exodus 21:28-32), for the Law concerning an ox which gored a man.

(5) At the Hand of every man’s brother-at the Hand of His Brother-man. This clause emphasizes the preceding phrase, and at the hand of man. If God seeks the blood of a man at the hand of a beast, which kills him, how much more will He exact vengeance from a human being who murders his brother man?

(6) By man. Through the agency of man, by judges or by an avenger.

(7) For in the Image of God. We have here a declaration of the native dignity of man irrespective of his race or creed. Because man is created in the image of God, he can never be reduced to the level of a thing or chattel. He remains a personality with inalienable human rights. To rob a man of these inalienable rights constitutes an outrage against God. It is upon this thought that the Jewish conception of justice, as respect for human personality. The interpretation of these verses (Genesis 9:1-7) deduced seven fundamental laws from them:

a. The Establishment of Courts of Justice

b. The Prohibition of Blasphemy

c. The Prohibition of Idolatry

d. The Prohibition of Incest

e. The Prohibition of Bloodshed

f. The Prohibition of Robbery

g. The Prohibition of Eating Flesh Cut from a Living Animal

These constitute what we might call natural religion, as they are vital to the existence of human society.

The Law of God embraces the whole of life with all its actions, and as none of these actions can be withdrawn from the unity of life, so can the law be excluded from more of them. Many things, therefore, that affects only the physical life come under the purview of that Law. A healthy soul in a healthy body is clearly its ideal. The regulations prescribed in these chapters are means toward the attainment of that end and therefore, a spiritual purpose and eternal worth.

CHAPTER I

DIETARY LAWS

Among the Laws of purity, first place is given to the subject of food, because the daily diet intimately affects man’s whole being. God brought Israel out of Egypt to be a holy people, a consecrated people, a people apart, distinguished from all others by outward rites which in themselves helped to constitute holiness. Outward consecration was symbolically to express an inner sanctity. This thought of being a holy people, a light supernaturally kindled, lest darkness should become complete, a witness to God’s sovereignty and purity, lest He become utterly unacknowledged in the world He had made, a kingdom of priests, sanctified in themselves, and sanctified for the rest of the world’s sake, this sublime thought would be daily impressed on their minds by those commandments which separated them from other nations. These would furthermore, prevent that close and intimate association with heathens, which would result in complete absorption. The Dietary Laws have proven an important factor in the preservation of the Jewish race in the past, and are in more than one respect, an irreplaceable agency for maintaining Jewish identity in the present.

Modern research recognizes that certain animals harbor parasites that are both disease-creating and disease-spreading. Their flesh is consequently harmful to man. Such animals are excluded from the Hebrew dietary, as it is in the blood that the germs or spores of infectious disease circulate. Thus of all, animals must be thoroughly drained of blood before serving for food. This is most effectively done by the Jewish method of Shechitah, and especially by the traditional koshering of the meat before it is prepared for food.

Statistical investigation has demonstrated that Jews as a class are immune from, or less susceptible to certain disease, and their life duration is frequently longer than that of their neighbor. Although much remains to be discovered to explain in every detail the food-laws in Leviticus, sufficient is known to warrant the conviction that their observance produces beneficial effects upon the human body (Leviticus 18:5). The supreme motive of the Dietary Laws remains Holiness, not as a regulating principle in the everyday lives of men, women and children.

The Dietary Laws train us in the mastery over our appetites. They accustom us to restrain both the growth of desire and the disposition to consider pleasure of eating and drinking as the end of man’s existence. Whosoever eats forbidden foods become imbued with the spirit of impurity and is cast out the realm of Divine Holiness. Rejection of the Dietary Laws has at various times been considered as equivalent to apostasy.

It was the duty of the Priests to put a difference between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean (Leviticus 10:10).

Whosoever parteth the hoof – instead of enumerating the animals which may be eaten, the general rule is given by which the individual species could be tested. The animal must possess three characteristics: (1) it must divide the hoof, (2) it must be wholly cloven-footed and (3) it must chew the cud.

Cud – food forced up into the mouth from the first stomach of a ruminant and chewed over again.

Camel – at the bottom of the camel’s hoof there is an elastic pad or cushion on which the camel gets its foothold in the sand. This pad prevents the hoof from being wholly divided.

Rock-Badger or Coney – this animal and likewise the hare have the habit of working the jaws as though they were masticating food.

Swine – the aversion of the pig is not confined to Israel. The primary abhorrence was caused in all probability, by its loathsome appearance and mode of living.

In the water – the characteristics given in the Law of the permitted animals, chewing the cud and divided hoofs for cattle, and fins and scales for fish, are in themselves neither the cause of the permission, when they are present, nor of the prohibition when they are absent, but signs by which the recommended species of animals can be discerned from those that are forbidden. In general, the Law forbids every kind of shell-fish, which is disease-breeding, especially in hot countries.

Living creatures that are in the water – this alludes to the sea animals which do not come under the category of fish, such as seals and whales.

Detestable thing – the forbidden species are described as unclean, not only uneatable, but the touch of their carcass is defiling with fish this was otherwise. They were detestable and disallowed as food, but they were not defiling by touch.

Fins nor scales in the water – as long as they have the fins and scales, when in the water, they are edible.

Unclean Birds – the birds prohibited all belong to the class denoted as birds of prey, and also those that live in dark ravines or marshy land. But since the Law adds the words, after its kind, the Rabbis enumerated various criteria by which a clean bird may be distinguished in detestation.

Great Vulture – the Hebrew word translated eagle, but it is very probable that the griffon vulture is intended it is the most powerful of the bird of prey (Deuteronomy 32:11).

Osprey – possibly the sea-eagle is intended.

Raven – the species including the crow, jackdaw and rook.

Ostrich – daughter of wailing, this bird is represented in the Bible as living in dreary ruins (Isaiah 8:21), and constantly wailing (Micah 1:8)

Night Hawk or Owl – the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain.

Sea-Mew or Sea-Gull, Little Owl – dwelling amidst ruins.

Cormorant – The Hunter, the bird which hurls itself from a height and snatches fish from the water.

Great Owl – the bird which dwells in twilight, or inhibiter of ruined places (Isaiah 24:11).

Horned Owl or Swan – pelican leading a solitary life in desert places.

Stark – the Hebrew signifies a bird which is kind and affectionate to its young.

Heron or Ibis – hoopoe – an uncertain word. The Rabbis understood it to be a species of grouse.

Bat – named together with moles as being a bird which prefers dark places (Isaiah 2:10).

Winged Swarming Things – insects that multiply rapidly and become a pest to man; go upon all fours – their method of locomotion, and signify that move like quadrupeds.

Jointed Legs – bending hind legs, higher than their other legs.

Locust – every species of Locust to be forbidden, which have four feet without the bending legs; unclean creeping things.

Unclean – prohibited as food, and whose dead bodies are defiling

Gecko – species of lizards.

When they are Dead – unclean creatures do not defile by contact while alive.

Permitted creatures and animals – In Leviticus 12:2, the Torah enumerates the identifying marks of the animals we may and may not eat, and in Deuteronomy 14:4, it lists the names of the permitted animals. Among the domesticated animals there include, cattle, sheep, goats (buffalo, yak), and among the undomesticated animals are the deer family, i.e., stag, moose, hart, elk, antelope, gazelle, and eland.

Clean and unclean fowl – The Torah does not prescribe any identifying marks for birds, instead it enumerates the species that are forbidden – a total to twenty-four according to the reckoning in the talmud. The implication is that those not listed are permitted. The Rabbis of the Talmud, deduced four distinguishing marks of birds that are permitted. A permitted bird has a crop; the sac in the gizzard can be peeled off, it has an extra toe, i.e., in addition to the three front toes, it has another toe in the back, it is not a bird of prey. According to one opinion, a bird that divides its toes when it rests i.e., two toes in front and two in the back, is not permitted. Despite these identifying marks, it has become the accepted practice that only those birds that have been traditionally accepted as permitted may be eaten. They are chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and pigeons.

Fish – The fish that may not be eaten are those that have fins and scales (Leviticus 11:9-10; Deuteronomy