Psalm 119:45

Psalm 119:45

The freedom of the Law

Many people see the Law of God as a restrictive, suppressive set of rules that hinders and suffocates its devotees. We can’t really blame the Jews for thinking this way for they had broken down the Law, as given at Sinai, into 613 commandments but then added a lot more! The idea was that if lesser laws were put in place, they would protect the greater law! An obvious example was the keeping of the Sabbath. The Jewish scribes and teachers decided that the best way to protect this Commandment was to put in place a series of lesser requirements, like how far you could walk and what constituted work, so that by keeping these minor rules there would be no chance of breaking the major one! 

The Law can obviously be an onerous and petty guardian of behaviour, but it can also serve another, very positive function. It provides a wall of protection around those who follow its rules. As parents we put rules in place to protect our children, and those who obey those rules are shielded from the consequences of misbehaviour. God is no different and He desperately wanted to protect His infant nation, the people of Israel, that is why He gave them the Law at the very beginning of the journey towards Canaan. God knew what lay ahead, He knew all about the allures of the foreign gods and the detestable practices of the pagan nations. The Law was given to provide freedom rather than restriction, to guard His chosen ones so that they might stand alone, a holy people, devoted to the Lord. It will do us no harm either to see God’s moral laws as being the guardians of our freedom rather than restrictive barriers to our development.

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