From the light which God has given me it would be for our advantage to study the directions given to Israel. (Read Malachi 4.) Verse 4 especially has a meaning which all have not comprehended. Let it be carefully considered. {PH087 8}
Malachi 4:4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
What are the statutes and judgments?
It was Jesus Christ Himself who gave special directions to Israel. Do these specifications testify of a Christless dispensation? Is this code of statutes of a lower order than are the statutes which are given in this age? The Lord guards the interests of His people. He gives special directions concerning the poor. How impartial are His ways! How exalted are all His requirements.
The Lord gave many other statutes or judgments, which were to be strictly obeyed. These are recorded in the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third chapters of Exodus. {2SAT 187}
There are also statutes and judgments in Leviticus and Deuteronomy ( Lev. 26:46; Deut. 12:1). Are we supposed to keep these laws?
…The words of Moses to Israel, concerning the statutes and judgments of the Lord, are also the word of God to us; he says: “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? {ST, March 21, 1895}
Following is a list of quotes showing that the laws given to Israel were also given for us. What a blessing that the Lord has given us these laws as a wall of protection from Satan!
He (the Lord) then came still closer to his people, and would not leave them, who were so readily led astray, with merely the ten precepts of the decalogue. He required Moses to write as he should bid him, judgments and laws, giving minute directions in regard to what he required them to perform, and thereby guarded the ten precepts which he had engraved upon the tables of stone. These specific directions and requirements were given to draw erring man to the obedience of the moral law which he is so prone to transgress. {3SG 299}
The light given me is that we are to study more than we do the instruction given to Moses by God after He had proclaimed the law from Sinai. The ten commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were then written on tables of stone, to be preserved till the judgment should take place. After the giving of the law, God gave Moses specifications regarding the law. These specifications are plain and explicit. No one need make a mistake.
In the day of judgment we shall be asked whether we have lived in harmony with these specifications. It is because we do not carry out these specifications in all our dealings, in our institutions, our families, and in our individual lives, at all times, and in all places, that we do not make greater advancement. It is by the directions that God has given that we shall be judged at the last day.
Have we studied these specifications? I heard them one night some weeks ago. It seemed as if they were being given to Israel, and there was the same solemnity that there was when they were given. I thought, This is given to me that I may tell our people that we must study these specifications. When the directions that God has given are followed, our institutions will be pure and clean, free from all selfishness and covetousness. The tenderness of Christ will come in. His love will fill our hearts. A sense of God’s goodness will make us weep, and sing, and praise God. Then we shall be living channels of light, prepared to do His will. {AUCR, March 25, 1907}
The instructions given to Moses for ancient Israel, with their sharp, rigid outlines, are to be studied and obeyed by the people of God today (Letter 259, 1903). {1BC 1103}
There must be humbling of spirit; the heart must be changed. Why, with their Bibles to read, do they not understand the “It is written”? The directions so plainly given in Deuteronomy are sacred truth. They are to be acted out in principle in all our religious service toward God and toward one another. It is always safe to be Christian gentlemen, to love as brethren, to do no injustice, and to always show liberality, tenderness, compassion, and true courtesy.
The very same principles expressed in James 3 were spoken by the voice of God from the pillar of cloud. God spoke to the people the acts they should do and the actions they should not do. Deuteronomy chapter 4. The specifications are never to lose their force, for they are the expression of the mind of the infinite God. Every word is to be cherished.
This truth is to be preached. It has been made a thing of naught by many, but the infinite God will not be trifled with. He would be represented by His people by correct principles in everything. All who depart from His word in their actions misrepresent the character God. “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” Ps. 97:11.
Why, I have asked, are not these principles that have been expressed seen and acted out, for they are the principles of the law of God. {1888 876-877}
We are to become familiar with the Levitical law in all its bearings; for it contains rules that must be obeyed; it contains the instruction that if studied will enable us to understand better the rule of faith and practice that we are to follow in our dealings with one another. No soul has any excuse for being in darkness. Those who receive Christ by faith will receive also power to become the sons of God (Letter 3, 1905). {1BC 1110}
Where shall we find laws more noble, pure, and just, than are exhibited on the statute books wherein is recorded the instruction given to Moses for the children of Israel? Through all time these laws are to be perpetuated, that the character of God’s people may be formed after the divine similitude. The law is a wall of protection to those who are obedient to God’s precepts. From what other source can we gather such strength, or learn such noble science? What other book will teach men to love, fear, and obey God as does the Bible? What other book presents to students more ennobling science, more wonderful history? It clearly portrays righteousness, and foretells the consequence of disloyalty to the law of Jehovah. No one is left in darkness as to that which God approves or disapproves…. {FE 393}
In consequence of continual transgression, the moral law was repeated in awful grandeur from Sinai. Christ gave to Moses religious precepts which were to govern the everyday life. These statutes were explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ. They were to be binding upon man in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and they clearly and definitely explained that law. {RH May 6, 1875}
“This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments; thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice.” This is not the voice of man; it is the voice of Christ from the infolding pillar of cloud. Read carefully all of Deuteronomy 26, also chapters 27 and 28; for here are stated plainly the blessings of obedience.
These directions, which the Lord gave to His people, express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God, and they are made specific, so that the minds of the people may not be left in ignorance and uncertainty. These scriptures present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things. The message has not grown weak because of age. God’s claims are just as binding now, just as fresh in their importance, as God’s gifts are fresh and continual. {RH December 25, 1900}
It would be a scene well-pleasing to God and angels, would His professed followers in this generation unite, as did Israel of old [referring especially to the revival in the days of Nehemiah], in a solemn covenant to “observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes” (SW June 7, 1904).
Will you make this covenant?
When we bring our lives to complete obedience to the law of God, regarding God as our supreme Guide, and clinging to Christ as our hope of righteousness, God will work in our behalf. This is a righteousness of faith…(MS 43, 1907). {1BC 1118