Something very interesting happened on our first Sunday visiting a local church of Christ. The teacher stood up and said, "There was no law before Moses". So I raised my hand and quoted Genesis 26:5.
Genesis 26:5
"because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
After I said the verse the teacher went on. I guess it did not make sense to him what I was saying? So he started out again and said that there was no law before Moses. My wife raised her hand and being prepared read Genesis 26:5. He may have looked confused and then went on and said it again, "There was no law before Moses." Finally a lady across the room stopped him and said, "I think we need to deal with what they just said." Sensing a conflict and general discomfort I quickly explained that God's moral law has always existed and that only the blood ordinances and Levitical priesthood were nailed to the cross because they were all that was added 430 years after the promises. The teacher then went on without comment or repeating his incorrect statement. I think he was still confused. I had just thrown a "wrench" in his entire lesson and he did not know what to do. On top of that most church going people dread conflict of any kind. Most go to church to be told how wonderful things will be in heaven so that they can escape their problems in the here and now. To remove all law is to remove God's very morals and thus one removes the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and thus substitutes a false god that changes with the times or even covenants.
Psalms 19:7
The law of YHVH is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of YHVH is sure, making wise the simple.
Men have compartmentalized the Bible to try to make it make more sense to them. They really don't need to do that. It makes perfect sense the way God wrote it. The problem stems from a false premise concerning the law and morals of Yahweh that they have been taught. That is that there was no law before Moses. It can also include that there was some nebulous Patriarchal law before Moses, but no one really knows what it constituted. The truth of the matter is that God has the same morals today as on our day one and that he does not change.
Malachi 3:6a
"For I am Yahweh, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."
The Bible is one Bible, not two. From beginning to end it tells one story about one people. Most people have the wrong characters playing the wrong parts in today's segment of the story and that has added to the confusion.
One time at a restaurant while waiting for my meal to arrive I was reading the Bible on a PDA. I found it set at the beginning of the story about Moses and Jethro, Moses father in law. Moses was telling Jethro what he did every day for the people.
Exodus 18:13
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
14 And when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God:
16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
What was interesting to me about the above scripture is that it is two chapters before Yahweh God gave the commandments to Moses! So what Law was Moses teaching and why would God let him waste his time teaching a Law that was just about to be replaced? The answer is that Moses was teaching Yahweh's unchanging moral Law and that the commandments given two chapters later were those same moral Laws put into writing because they were a part of the special contract that was made at that time. For more on this contract read the lesson on Yahweh's Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage to Israel