We started off by reading some crazy American laws and brainstorming why they might have been written. Some examples were:
- In Arkansas it is against the law to mispronounce Arkansas.
- In Washington State x-rays may not be used to fit shoes.
- In Blackwater, Kentucky, it is illegal to tickle a woman under her chin with a feather duster while she’s in church and carries a $10 and one day in jail.
Then we got into the lesson itself. First, we went through some of the laws in the Torah (5 books of law... Genesis through Deuteronomy). There are 613 laws!!! Once we had gotten a sense of the variety of laws, we had a discussion about why God gave his people so many laws.
Some laws were for the benefit of the Israelites because they had not advanced in areas like medicine. God gave them those laws to keep them healthy and safe. We don't need those laws anymore because we have medicine, hospitals, and health care. Some laws were for government, customs, and holidays. We can use those laws for reference, but we don't need to follow them anymore either (but the principles are still beneficial!). Some laws were for moral and upright living, and these are the laws we still follow (e.g. the 10 commandments). Some laws dealt with God's relationship with his people and atonement for sins. We don't need to follow those laws because Jesus took care of all that stuff once and for all! And some laws were for culture - God gave his people the 'wacky' laws because they completely set His people apart from the pagan religions surrounding them! God wanted his people to stand out as different so they could evangelize to their neighbours, and also so that they would not compromise their lives, laws, or religion because of pagan influences. So the laws about special clothing, haircuts, and funny food were all to set the Israelites apart. These are also laws we don't have to follow... thankfully!
One other purpose for those many, many laws was to show God's people that even when they try to follow everything, it's too hard. No matter how hard we try to be perfect, follow the rules, or 'earn' our own salvation, we can never truly do it! That's why Jesus was so significant - he took care of all that stuff for his people so that they didn't have to keep imperfectly trying to atone for their sins.
We will be taking a closer look at how Jesus radically impacted all of those laws by fulfilling them later this year. We are now getting into our "Who is Jesus" unit for Sunday school.
Here are some discussion questions for you and your preteen:
- How well did the Israelites do at following the laws? Can you think of any examples?
- Why might God have given them so many difficult laws to follow?
- What was God trying to show them?
- How do we sometimes forget or not understand how significant Jesus is?
- What did Jesus teach about the Old testament laws?
- Does following Jesus with our actions get us into heaven?
- What does get us into heaven?
- So why should we follow the Bible?
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