I recently was speaking to a group of people when I made the statement: “G-D is G-D of love, He is also a G-D of judgement.” One of the hardest concepts for people to comprehend is that G-D can both love and judge at the exact same time. All of His judgements are made through love and in His judgements he is demonstrating His great love for his creation. Once we begin to understand that G-D’s judgements are a demonstration of His love, we begin to realize that a large portion of the Bible, both Tanakh (Old Testament) and Brit Chadasha (New Testament), was written to help us understand this concept. For instance Exodus 21:1 says:
1 “Now these are the ordinances which you will set before them.
The word translated ordinances in this text is the Hebrew word משפטים (Mishpatim) which means judgements. When we keep the text in context, everything that follows Exodus 21:1 is a list of judgements that G-D lovingly put in place for Israel. G-D didn’t provide this list of judgements because He wanted Israel to have Hebrew slavery (Ex 21:2-11), murders (Ex 21:12-14), children cursing their parents (Ex 21:15), assaults (Ex 21:18-21), infaticide (Ex 21:22-24), and the list goes on.
G-D didn’t provide these laws because He was hoping that these activities would become a normal part of Israel. We know this because His word tells us that if Israel listened to His voice and obeyed His commandments they would be prosperous and blessed in every possible way. So these chapters in Exodus were written by G-D through Moses’ hand in the form of “ifs,'' not “whens.” “If” you fail to hear my voice and obey my commandments, then these are my judgements that you must obey.
For those of you who are a little averse to “Old Testament Laws,” simply turn in your Bible to Colossians 3:18-25 (as well as other places) and you will find similar instructions provided in the New Testament.
These were G-D’s pre-established judgements provided for Israel so that if Israel fell into sin, there were clear instructions provided for them to obey to make sure they didn’t add sin to sin. Every one of these pre-established judgements demonstrates G-D’s love for His people. If you are still having a little difficulty understanding the concept of these judgements, please stop for just a moment and remember that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before man was formed from the earth, G-D provided a pre-established judgement for sin that would allow for man’s restoration, the death burial and resurrection of Yeshua. G-D didn’t preordain that man must sin. G-D did however pre-ordain the judgement for sin “if'' man would sin. G-D loves you and I so much that he provided judgement even before man was created.