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Joshua 22:5-6 "'Take good care to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.' So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to their homes."

 

By the time Jesus came, the law, so new in Joshua's time, had been interpreted, extrapolated, and enforced in ways that strayed greatly from its foundation of love. Thus Jesus' great problems with the Pharisees, Sadducees, elders, scholars of the law, and scribes. They were well versed in the letter of the law, including the laws they and their predecessors had come up with as corollaries to what God gave Moses, but they were very far from the spirit of the law.

 

Nonetheless, Jesus did say He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and told the people to do what the Pharisees said but not what they did. (Matthew 23:2-3) This is because the law is God's law. It will lead us to the right place. It is the foundation for bringing the Kingdom of God to earth.

 

Fallen man will always make mistakes in interpreting God's law, and will allow pride to creep in. Those situations must be corrected, but the law itself is always true, and always good. When we find ourselves confused or uncertain as to the right thing to do (or not do), we should look to God's law. It has simple, although often not very easy, answers. It will guide us in His ways, the ways of true freedom and ultimate salvation.