God’s Allowances With Moses (a theory)
When Jesus said that we are not to put the new wine into the old wineskins that clarifies the relationship between the Old and New Testament. One non-fitting area is where the peculiar people of the Old Testament (the Jews) were given allowances that the peculiar people of the New Testament were not.
Peculiar people of the Old Testament = Deuteronomy 14:2; 26:18
Peculiar people of the New Testament = Titus 2:14; I Peter 2:9
To understand God’s allowances requires understanding two absolute elements.
- Sin violates God’s being and will always face His wrath. Revelation 15:7
- God is longsuffering and delights in mercy which means he holds back His wrath for a time. Micah 7:18
The Jews in their sinful rebellion after being freed from Egypt were constantly facing God’s wrath to the point of annihilation. On at least two occasions God said he would destroy the Jews and replace them by a nation He would make from the descendants of Moses. Exodus 32:10 & Numbers 14:12
I believe why God did not destroy the Jews is because he could not resist Moses when he interceded for the Israelites; and why He could not resist Moses is most likely because he saw Moses as a reflection of his Son Jesus who is the ultimate intercessor.
You ever wonder what Moses was doing in his discussions with God for forty years when God as a Pillar of Cloud talked with him in the Tabernacle of Congregation? Exodus 33:7-10 I believe a good portion involved interceding for the stiffnecked Israelites. Jesus tells us that God made allowances for certain sins because of the Jews being so stiffnecked and because of Moses’ intercession. God suffered through these allowances according to his mercy and grace.
The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. Psalms 145:8
We do not know what the complete Old Testament law would have looked like without the intercessory allowances God made with Moses. Jesus, however, made no such allowances. This is one reason why you cannot put the new wine into the old wineskins. Whatever Jesus said took precedence. It set the record straight wherever syncretism had taken place with God’s negotiation with Moses. This distinction is made most clear by this statement of Jesus:
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20
It would be useful for some benevolent person to make a parallel list showing the Old Testament law elements in one column and in the other what Jesus said to set the record straight.
For a time, this allowance of God in His negotiation with Moses really bothered me. On the surface it seemed as if God was allowing sin. But on closer examination there never was an allowance made nor has there ever been an allowance made for sin. What was negotiated did cause many Jews to commit sins that were unknown. Yet even these sins were covered within the law for all sins both known and unknown. Leviticus 16:29-33 God made a commitment to Moses and the rest of the Jews to hold back His wrath for various sins which would have otherwise ended in the extermination of the Israelites. Moses most likely pushed for God’s tolerance in various areas because he knew the Israelites would have never held to the law on certain points and they would have faced the possibility of extermination over and over. Moses knew he would not be there all the time to intercede, and it was unlikely someone would step in to take his place.
It is important to recognize that this allowance for sin does not carry over into the New Testament. Unfortunately, many Christians pick and choose from both the Old and New Testaments without understanding this concept. Therefore, at times they are taking defective elements from the law and applying them to the New Covenant where absolutely no imperfection is allowed and was demonstrated by Jesus who followed the pure unadulterated law to perfection. This allowed Him to become the absolutely pure and holy lamb who took upon Himself the wrath of God for all the sins of the world.
Walking in the footsteps of Jesus allows you to be called a Christian rather than just a believer. As such we are to walk in the same perfection as you see in a reading of I John. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit leaves no allowances for sin. The Holy Spirit can empower us to conquer all sin and every temptation. Any failure to do so is only our own fault and leaves us in a dangerous position where we are to examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith; if we are not then we are just false Christians.
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? II Corinthians 13:5
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
Therefore, we must be very careful when using whatever the Old Testament law says about marriage. Jesus set the record straight and that sets things straight absolutely. To seek from the Old Testament justification for an adulterous relationship because of its allowances for divorce and polygamy is an attempt to put the New Wine into the Old Wineskins. This same principle also holds for such things as slavery and women’s rights. Setting these and other important issues on the right course is a direct result of the teachings from the New Testament.
Ralph Wendt
For a further look at elements dealing with this theory: Exodus Points
