The Great Commission of the Old Testament

# 636 - Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 12:18-23 Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:
"Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. "Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring. "And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise. "So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also. "Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife."

The Sadducees were convinced that a bodily resurrection would be impossible and they use the Mosaic levirate law to make their point. You can read about this law in Dt 25:5-10, and can actually see it in action in the Book of Ruth.

The law required that a surviving brother was to marry the wife of his deceased brother if she had no son. This marriage then would provide the opportunity to raise up a son and continue the family line.

This seems so strange to us today, but it was very important to the people of the Old Testament. Given the fact that the Messiah was to come through the Jewish race, one can see how important this would be to the Jews! In fact it was the levirate Law which brought David into the picture through the marriage of Boaz and Ruth! And of course the Messiah, Jesus came from the line of David!

This Law obviously is no longer needed since Christ has come, but I want you to think about another aspect of all of this. The Great Commission of the Old Testament church was to bring Christ into the world physically! The Great commission of the New Testament Church is to bring Christ to the world in a spiritual sense.

We ought to take our commission just as seriously as the Old Testament church took theirs.