Not a Rule System (10)

The Old Testament law is not a rule system. Moses called them laws and verdicts (Deut 5:1). God gave ten moral principles. He also gave some straightforward examples of how these principles should be applied in practical situations. These examples are not exhaustive, but they are sufficient to explain how the moral principles should be interpreted and applied to different situations.

The moral principles are not absolutes, because there are always exceptions. For example, killing a person is wrong, but is legitimate when defending yourself from attack. Killing a person deliberately is different from killing a person by accident. The books of the law explain how the basic moral principles apply in these different situations. However, they do not try to cover every possible situation, because that would be impossible.

We do not need elected politicians to write laws and regulations to cover every possible situations. We need good judges to interpret the God’s moral principles, using the method of application described in the books of the law.