@michaelvpardo - Good morning ( well it is here ) I have been reading about Saul over the last few days. Would love to know how you see Jesus in those harsh passages - what you have learned from them.
You didn’t address the issue of all the laws in Leviticus ,....
How do you apply them. Honestly I would like to know your views.
Rita
I actually posted much of the results of my early study of Jesus in the books of the law and the prophets in a series of posts meant to be a faith building endeavor, that I called "seeing Jesus Christ". That was quite a while ago and the posts were by no means comprehensive, but you can still locate them by search engine on this web page. The book of Joshua is one of the books with rough passages about the conquest of Canaan and yet Joshua was a biblical type of Jesus Christ. Although Joshua was Jesus' actual name in the Hebrew, Joshua's real name was actually Oshea or Hoshea, but Moses called him Joshua. Passages about Joshua in Deuteronomy are somewhat revealing. I don't really think that this thread is a particularly good place to dive into the law of Moses and I'm not a teacher of the law, but use law to understand the holiness of God. The book of Hebrews is the most comprehensive instruction on the law in the purpose of revealing Jesus Christ, though it isn't really comprehensive either. We could start a thread for the purpose of examining law in regard to the New Covenant, but I guarantee that such a thread will lead to very heated argument, finger pointing, heresy hunting, and all forms of less than edifying comments. It would seem counterintuitive to pursue. I don't apply law to Christians and Christian living beyond the means of examining what is pleasing to God. If God commanded something, I'm sure that He expected obedience, but being omniscient always knew the outcome. If scripture calls a behavior an abomination to God, I except the notion that He really doesn't approve.
In the book of Deuteronomy we find instructions about the law, the blessings and the cursings upon Israel for obedience or disobedience, and the prophetic word of Israel's failure, banishment and restoration. In scripture God rarely gives a full explanation for what He says and does, and if we try to understand His reasons, we are left with speculation and educated guesses based upon His revealed character and what is explicitly stated. Its helpful to speculate from an informed opinion when attempting to reconcile scripture that seems contradictory to itself, but the speculation is not inspired. I've participated in discussion about the disposition of souls that never saw the light of day, but we have no clear teaching in scripture on the topic and speculation has given us such peculiar ideas as "limbo". When discussing the subject with someone that has experienced such loss (and my wife and I did) you can only refer to the character of God and place your hopes upon Him (and maybe refer to David's comments about the loss of his child by Bath Sheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.)
Thank you for your comments. Being retired and partially disabled, I don't need to rush anywhere, but I do need to get off my couch and at least get a little exercise in. I hope that your day was blessed, but life is rough in a secular world. And so we "endeavor to persevere" in the patience of the saints. He has made us witnesses to stand in these times and when we fall, He picks us up. I can't rely on my own faithfulness because the flesh is such a frail thing and subject to its nature, but I can rely of God's faithfulness. It took Him all the way to the cross on our behalf and for His glory (in all things, for His glory). Its a long walk home.
