CHAPTER 3
Kingdom Law
‘The Torah’, is probably, the most misused section of scripture, when it comes to understanding the Kingdom-of-God. These five books of Moses, the ‘Pentateuch’, as it is sometimes called, (or more often,‘The Law’), contain six-hundred-and-thirteen laws, between its narrative.
I
have heard it called, ‘The law of Moses’, which it is not. It is God’s blueprint for living in the Kingdom-of-Heaven. I have heard others say, ‘We are not under this law any more’, which we are. It is the yardstick by which we will be measured in the Kingdom-of-Heaven. I have heard it said, ‘It is superseded by the teachings of Jesus’, which it is not. It is fulfilled by Him. It is the bed rock on which Jesus taught all His Kingdom principles.
Misconceptions come, when we have lost sight of the principle of energy flow in the Kingdom-of God: The Kingdoms-of-this-world, sap the energy of the kingdom up into its ruling powers, but the kingdom-of-Heaven flows energy down to its people and out to replenish the earth.
Check again on page . Kingdom Law states: ‘All kingdoms are motivated’.107 Contrast then, world-kingdoms, where the motivation drives ‘take’, and God’s-kingdom where the motivation drives ‘give’. In the kingdom of God, conceived in love, it motivates the action of giving. In the kingdoms of this world, conceived in pride and jealousy, it motivates the grab for power and control.
The Bare Necessity of Law.
When Yahweh-Elohim, had the idea to, create earth and expand the Kingdom of Heaven over it, He started with the creation of raw materials suitable for the physical realm. Just forming those physical elements produced Chaos.108 To produce order from Chaos requires Laws. To prevent chaos flying everywhere requires a Law of gravity, to prevent the Sun burning the earth up requires a law convection, and so on. Even the early Babylonians understood the need for laws and boundaries. Their simple formation of the universe was built on the observation of water. When a Sumerian referred to the universe he had no single word but a phrase:
‘The waters above the earth, the waters that cover the earth and the waters under the earth’
Any Sumerian record, described the universe as they knew it. The vapours above are the protective stratosphere, the waters covering the earth were the source of rainfall and food, the waters beneath were the rivers that watered the land. They were scientist in Babylon, they understood the Law of Convection. Water rises into the air toward the heat of sun to form the firmament. It then cools and falls as rain to bring moisture to the seeds that need warmth and water to grow. They understood the Law for life to grow: They observed seeds grow and asked, ‘What is in a seed’? They understood long before Jesus gave his parable:
Someone plants a mustard seed in their garden. The seed grows and becomes a mustard tree, The mustard tree bears seed which contain another mustard seed. God's kingdom is like a mustard seed, wherever it falls , it expands, so even the birds are blessed by building nests on its branches.109
The seed is governed by an inbuilt law of duplication and expansion. It depends on other laws of heat, moisture, soil, light and so on. If it obeys these laws it will grow. Deprived of any laws, it will wither or die.
The same principle, apply to Gods design to expand his Heavenly Kingdom on earth, said Jesus. God established a seed community of Adam and Eve, in a garden with all the right conditions, to live under the laws of the Kingdom-of-Heaven. Adam an Eve were put on the earth to establish a community resembling Heaven and to spread it over all the earth.110.
What is a community?
A community is:
A people,
Unified by pursuit of a common set of laws,
Sharing common values, and morals.
Who practise similar standards and norms,
Which produces a distinct culture.111
Laws, produce, reflect and perpetuate those values, morals, standards, and norms, to produce a culture and behaviour. Checkout, within any town or city, and you will find ethnic or other communities. Communities are a product of laws that people hold in common.
Law is the glue that holds the universe together, everything exists by law.112
Laws of gravitation, laws of thermodynamics, laws of nature, laws of physics, explain how nature works. Laws are observable, measurable, and repeatable because they never change. Laws are inherent in all creation. If you break the law of gravity you are at the mercy of space. On the earth, gravity gives you security that you belong to the earth. The first two laws of walking in space are: One, wear your space suit to comply with the law that every human needs oxygen, and two, make sure your rope is firmly attached both ends. Without those two laws you are at the mercy of space. Where there is no law there is chaos. In Genesis-one, chaos is brought to order by the application of Law.
Community needs laws to survive. It needs the inherent laws that regulate natural life, it also needs laws of relationship. In creation, there are two kinds of law, the natural and the supernatural, physical and spiritual laws. Spiritual laws produce purpose and Physical laws produce potential.
In the Physical, laws of soil, moisture, and temperature become one law. Break with one of these needs and the seed will die. So we see the principle: break one law you break the whole. But the opposite is also true, Obey the laws, and you will have success. This has nothing to do with ‘prosperity-teaching’, propagated by Mammon worshippers. It has everything to do with fulfilling the purposes God has placed intrinsically in each species. On the other hand, God does not have to judge a person for stepping outside a law, it has its own built in judgement. Try defying the law of gravity by stepping off a ten-story building.
Stick with this book of laws. Meditate on it day and night , then will you prosper and succeed in all your purposes.113
Here is a correction to an old proverb: If at first you don’t succeed, return to the laws of God and try again.
In Summary so far:
Law is necessary for all life.
Law is necessary for all relationships.
Law is the foundation stone of all nations and communities
All Societies collapse when it members do not adhere to its law
Quality of life is determined by observance of the law.
Protection of people is determined by law.
Ideas cannot become realities without regard to Law.
Motivations and Laws.
The Ten Commandments were given to build a community and a nation, not a religion. Law is both the foundation of creation and inherent in creation. In on page , we see the two basic motivations for keeping the law. Our two kingdom models, give us two distinct reasons for obeying laws. The doctrinal jargon describes it as ‘rebellion’ or ‘gratitude’.
Laws for the kingdoms-of-this-world model, were seeded in Cain. Cain was a reluctant law observer. His offering to God at harvest time was fruit from the fields, naturally, because he was a farmer. How I wish the writer had been more clear at this point, when he said God, ‘did not have respect for’, Cain’s offering. Why not? The physical laws had been fulfilled perfectly, it was fruit from the garden. Under the same laws of reproduction, the sheep that Abel brought were offered, they were sheep from the flock. It must have been something within the person of Cain that made it unacceptable. God’s part was to provide the ground, fruit and flocks, the water, and the warmth, all this he had done114. Cain and Abel had a part to play in the contract:
The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to work the soil and take care of the garden.115
According to Theology, it could not have been due to Cain’s work, because God’s acceptance is not based on works. So we are left with the spiritual attitude of Cain. The usual answer is that Abel presented his offering in faith which made it acceptable116. Faith is also a seed law that needs cultivating. Fertilized by gratitude, faith grows strong fruit, whereas, rebellion will kill it. Certainly, we are told Cain was angry, and certainly we are told he was unrepentant. And certainly we can trace the same motivation of unrepentant rebellion to the tower of Babel. At Babel, the laws of communities and the nations became established. Abel, the innocent, responded with gratitude but was killed. But Seth, we are told was a replacement for Abel. His line is the line chosen by God to deliver the rightful king and community to usher in the Kingdom of heaven on earth.
All this, you probably knew. So what made the laws of the kingdom of God different to the laws underpinning the kingdoms of the world? Laws of world kingdoms are enforced by power. Laws of God’s kingdom are kept out of gratitude. All the laws of the kingdom of heaven are built on the premise:
‘I have shown you the results of living with these laws, You have seen the natural consequences if you don’t. Now you choose’! 117.
We must add a footnote here. There is no pick and mix stall available. All the laws obeyed, give one result. One law broken gives the other. This may seem unfair, but a Creator has the right to set the laws and bounds for his creation. A Creator has the sole right to distribute and limit the scope for His creation. In other words, The Creator sets the rules and distributes the authority. The Creator alone sets the purpose and mission of his creation in line with his original idea.
Come with me, into the shoes of a designer. A factory wants a cardboard box to transport its widgets in safety, The designer does not start with the machine that forms the box, the design starts with the purpose of the box. First considerations need to be the weight and quantity of widgets being transported. Next, there is the cardboard being used to think about. The grain direction of the cardboard, the thickness, the frictional resistance of the surfaces, the glue absorbent speeds and strengths, and so much more. Within the idea for the machine, must come consideration of materials used and the laws by which they exist. Will the motivating power be electric, steam or air. What is the sequence of build, will forming the side flaps interfere with the base further down the line. We have hardly scratched the surface of this process, but enough to see how laws need to be established at each step of the idea, within which the machine can be built. All the laws established must be obeyed, or the machine will function badly, if at all. God was no less a designer at creation. Setting Adam and Eve in the garden, set them into an environment within all the laws needed to begin His Kingdom-of-Heaven on earth.
Within the organisation of the Factory, Kingdoms and Domains were set. Operators were chosen to look after the machine, buyers were commissioned to purchase the cardboard ‘skillets’118. One buyer decides to save money for the company, by purchasing a thinner, cheaper, skillet119. What happens next? The engineer is blamed for not maintaining the machine, The quality control reject the lot and the bottom falls out of the box, leaving widgets all over the factory floor. Investigate the cause. The buyer was motivated, but his motivation was based on false assumptions and objectives. The buyer, switched allegiance from the motivating objective of the factory, to a motivation to save money. Who knows, if that in turn was not motivated to be recognised as ‘buyer of the month’.
Contrasting Kingdom Motivations
Our factory collapsed because one buyer lost sight of original purpose. The world returned towards chaos again because one human lost sight of original purpose.
If there is to be only one key verse in the Torah, it is surely this:
In the future, when your children ask you, 'The LORD our God gave you teachings, laws, and rules. What do they mean? Then you will tell them,
'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his great power…so that he could give us this land that he promised our ancestors. 120
It must be closely followed by:
You have seen what I have done … Therefore, hear my voice, and keep my covenant, and you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine.121
One citizen can block that whole flow. For the Blessing to flow to the land, as God intended, every Kingdom citizen must own the whole vision, and the purpose of the kingdom.122
Part understanding leads the kingdom open to other motivations. Kingdom-of-Heaven people are apt to agree or disagree among themselves as to which laws we obey or disobey, Mainly because, like our buyer, rules are adapted to suit our own objectives, our own objectives are motivated by, one or more, of three spiritual drive-groups, self-worth, self-security or self-esteem. These block the free flow of blessing downward and may reverse the flow to upward. Kingdom-of-God runs on a law of blessing which provides the energy of the kingdom. In God’s Kingdom, This can only flow down because God is the source of that blessing. To stand in the pulpit of the community and require allegiance to the ten commandments, without the flow of blessing from God, is World-Kingdom motivation, not the Kingdom-of-God motivation because it is demanded, not freely given.
Having seen that, the law is one, and breaking any part of it breaks the whole, the Torah teaches a hierarchy of order within the rules precisely to deal with the motivation for keeping laws. The motivation of grace, mercy and compassion overrides all laws. It is such a pity we do not spend more time understanding these five books of law. Whenever Old-Testament leaders needed to motivate the people, they refer back to the Exodus. The law of not marrying with other tribes was for purity of nation, but out of context, it seeded isolationism and contempt for other nation. Hierarchy of laws puts it back in place, under grace, mercy and compassion.
You must never oppress a foreigner. Remember, you know what it is like to be a foreigner because at one time you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.123
It is out of compassion, not slavery124 that a person could pay his debts with a contract to serve another, but his contract must not last for more than seven-years.
At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. This is the way you must do this: Everyone who has lent money to another Israelite must cancel the debt. He should not ask a fellow Israelite to repay the debt, because the LORD said to cancel debts during that year.125
Tenancy and worker contracts agreements were for six-years.
At the end, let the man go free or choose to stay but, do not send him away empty-handed give to him as the Lord has blessed you.
Because of the heart of God, standing surety for another is based on a motive of grace and mercy. You may take surety for your loan but if a person became down on his luck and had to pawn his coat it must be returned each evening at sundown lest he becomes cold. If he has nothing but the means of earning a living you must not take it.
When you lend someone something, you must not take as security any part of the stones used to grind flour. That would be the same as taking away their life.126
Paul had to handle this one with Onesimus:
If slaves run away and come to you, don't force them to go back to their masters. Runaway slaves may live with you wherever they like in whatever city they choose. You must not trouble them.127
That is the fuller story of Onesimus, there was a dispute between Onesimus and Philemon. Onesimus had run away for a reason not given. Under the World-Kingdom law he could be killed, under Kingdom-of-God law, Paul could have kept him. But in this case even the priority law of compassion is trumped by the law of reconciliation. Now Onesimus had been, ‘born of the spirit’, his priority was reconciliation with a brother. A hierarchy in the law-of-God, is the same as the hierarchy in the heart of God. That, is the wisdom of God!
Underlying all God’s laws, is a demonstration of his character. Underlying the requirement of God’s laws lies the principle, ‘This is what I have done for you, why not obey this for me’.
Because The Lord has greatly , greatly blessed you, because the LORD your God is giving you this land, there must not be any poor people in your country. But this will happen only if you understand the principles of the LORD your God. You must be careful to obey every command that I have told you today.128
In the hierarchy of Kingdom laws, compassion is at the pinnacle. This is the heart and compassion of God. You need to look no further than the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees over healing on the Sabbath, picking corn on the Sabbath, pulling donkeys out of ditches, Ad infinitum.
The Law is shaped by God’s Mission
In the Kingdom-of-Heaven, All its citizens have been given a priestly duty:
To be a servant of Christ Jesus to those who are not Jews. Serve like a priest whose duty it is to tell God's Good News. He gave this work so that non-Jewish people could have an offering that he will accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.129
God’s mission is to bring through Israel, salvation, redemption and other blessings to all nations of the earth. Instead of asking, ‘What is the law for’, we would better ask, ‘What is Israel there for’?
The LORD said to himself, ‘Should I tell Abraham what I am going to do now’? Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on earth will be blessed because of him.130
That is the mission, to change the motivation of the world and bring it in line with the Kingdom-of-Heaven motivation.
I have made a special agreement with him. I did this so that he would show his children and his descendants, how to live the way the LORD wants them to. I did this so that they would live right and be fair. Then I, the LORD, can give him what I promised’.131
God tells His Kingdom citizens, keeping the law is not the object of the mission. Other kingdom citizens keep laws. They do so because they must-or else… You live under God’s laws because you respond to God’s blessings. No other god has this kind of wisdom.
Obey these laws in the spirit of God’s wisdom. This will show the people of the other nations that you are wise and sensible. They will hear about these laws and say, 'Truly, the people of this great nation are wise and sensible. The LORD our God is near when we ask him to help us. No other nation has a god like that! And no other nation is great enough to have laws and rules as good as the teachings I give you today.132
The Law is for your own good
Imagine modern bailiffs behaving like this:
When you give someone any kind of loan, you must not go into their house to get security. You must stand outside. The person who you gave the loan to will bring out the security to you. If he is a poor man, then he might give the clothes that keep him warm. You must not keep that security overnight. You must give his security back to him every evening. Then he will have clothes to sleep in. He will bless you, and the LORD your God will accept this as living right and doing good. You must not cheat a hired servant who is poor and needy. It does not matter if he is an Israelite or if he is a foreigner living in one of your cities. Give him his pay every day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on the money. If you don't pay him, he will complain against you to the LORD, and you will be guilty of sin.133
Imagine the Victorian Judge, excusing the poacher or poor man under this law:
You must make sure that foreigners and orphans are treated fairly. And you must never take clothes from a widow as security. Remember, you were poor slaves in Egypt. And the LORD your God took you from that place and set you free. That is why I tell you to do these things for the poor. You might be gathering your harvest in the field, and you might forget and leave some grain there. You must not go back to get it. It will be for the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. If you leave some grain for them, the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.
When you beat your olive trees, you must not go back to check the branches. The olives you leave will be for the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, you must not go back to gather the grapes you left. They will be for the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. Remember you were poor slaves in Egypt. That is why I tell you to do these things for the poor.134
The act of scrutinizing the law for loopholes is never a Kingdom-of-God motivation, it belongs to World-Kingdoms. Pharisees, who love to scrutinize law out of piety, are living by World-Kingdom laws.
107 It does now! Brian’s laws of Kingdoms.
108 Genesis 1:2
109 Mark 4: 31 (Paraphrased)
110 ‘Your kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven’,
111 Paraphrased from : Bill Johnson : Kingdom Principles
112 Anon or unknown.
113 Joshua 1: 8.
114 Genesis 2: 4 - 9
115 Genesis 2: 15.
116 Hebrews 11:4.
117 Joshua 24: 14-24.
118 Pre-cut pre-printed cardboard.
119 Believe you me – it happens!
120 Deu 6: 20-23
121 Exo 19:4
122 For Blessings read energy because it is the blessings that create the energy.
123 Exodus 23:9
124 Slavery in scripture carries a different concept to modern slavery. Under Mosaic law, the dignity and well being of a slave is sacrosanct.
125 Deuteronomy 15:1
126 Deu 24:6
127 Deu 23:15- 16
128 Deut 15:5 Carefully Hearken to is, ‘understand the heart of’ , or ‘apply the principles to’.
129 Rom 15:16
130 Gen 18:17 -18
131 Gen 18:19
132 Deu 4:6 -8
133 Deu 24:10 -15.
134 Deut 24:17-22