GOD THE LAWGIVER. “For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us" (Isaiah 33:22, NKJV).
God’s law is an inseparable part of the whole Bible, Old and New Testament. It is also an expression of His love. And so, when we love, we reveal the fullness and beauty of God’s law.

When we understand God’s law as a hedge, a protection, something created for us, for our own good, then we come to understand more about what God is like.

Jo Ann Davidson, Professor of Theology, Andrews University, www.ssnet.org

A LOVE AS TOUGH AS THE DESERT. Ex.16: ²⁹ Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

Similarly, what kind of God would we have if, after creating us and claim­ing to love us, gave us no guidelines on how to live our lives?

Thus God, being the loving God that He is, provided a law by which we are to live…It is a law given to us because of His great love for us; and because of that, we regard our keeping of it as being based on our love for Him and for humanity (Luke 18:18–22).

Trufosa Mochache, Collegiate Quarterly, www.cqbiblestudy.org

THE LAW AT SINAI. Ex.19: ¹⁸La montagne de Sinaï était tout en fumée, parce que l'Éternel y était descendu au milieu du feu; cette fumée s'élevait comme la fumée d'une fournaise, et toute la montagne tremblait avec violence. ¹⁹Le son de la trompette retentissait de plus en plus fortement. Moïse parlait, et Dieu lui répondait à haute voix.

Hébreux 12: ²¹Et ce spectacle était si terrible que Moïse dit: Je suis épouvanté et tout tremblant!

“For as God’s great rule of right was presented before them, they realized as never before the offensive character of sin, and their own guilt in the sight of a holy God. They shrank away from the mountain in fear and awe.”—Ellen G. White
It was right after the giving of the law that they were given instructions to build the sanctuary, which revealed to them the plan of salvation. The law was to point people to the Cross, to their need of atonement and Redemption. No wonder, then, that they trembled before the law, because the law showed them just how sinful and fallen they were.

Psalm 119: ⁶ Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.

The problem is not with God’s law; the problem is with sinners who have violated the law, as we all have done. Paul is showing how the law is inseparably tied to the gospel, that the law is what shows us just how sinful and fallen we are.

THE DAY A MOUNTAIN DANCED. Ex.19: ⁹ The LORD said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the LORD what the people had said.

^{Ex.19: 18} Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain^[a] trembled violently.

Prior to descending to meet with His people, God instructed Moses to have them sanctify themselves for two days, and on the third day He would visit them.

“Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.”

Like the Sinai experience, Christ’s coming will be glorious, literal, visible, audible, and dramatic.

“God’s law is given for two basic reasons—for our joy and protection. The Ten Commandments were not written to restrict our happiness; they free us to enjoy life to the fullest. Obedience is the doorway to happiness.”* The psalmist also discovered that “great peace have those who love Your law, / and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps. 119:165, NKJV).

T. Makini Mogere, Collegiate Quarterly, www.cqbiblestudy.org