ANG AKLATAN - AHKMAN 9 - A UNIFIED LAW

Laws of God point to Christ

At the gathering of Suran's people at Katagan, Ahkman teaches them the history of their people, instructs them of the laws and covenants God made with their ancestors which were written in the Great Scroll, and explains their meaning. (This will serve as an expansion on what we discussed in Suran 8, HERE.) Now, their Levite ancestors had many laws that were complex and hard to obey. (The rabbinic tradition maintains the existence of 613 commandments in the Torah! And by the time of Christ, the Pharisees had accumulated thousands more regulations through oral tradition. Their focus on the law and holding it up as a light had become idolatry.) But the descendants of Ophir didn't have so many laws. Ahkman wondered how these disparate laws could both be given by God, so he goes to the source (as we always should) and prays to know more concerning this issue.

God tells him that both of those peoples were to be His chosen people because they were elect and special to Him, so He caused the two ancestral laws to come together. (Yes, God works with separate chosen people living different laws and following different trajectories toward Him.) He had offered the greater law to the children of Israel in the wilderness, but they had rejected it. So he gave them another lesser law to prepare them to eventually accept the greater one. However, the earlier inhabitants that God led to the islands didn't have the law of Moses. They were already following the greater law passed down from the Fathers (the patriarchal order) and didn't need those preparatory things. But, as we read in and discussed with Suran 8, when the two people came together on the islands, there was much contention because they refused to accept the laws of the other. So, in order to unify these separate but special people, God created a unified law that meshed both the Patriarchal and Mosaic orders, laws, commandments, and practices.

God tells Ahkman that Suran's people will follow this selfsame unified law which was given to their ancestors. He will also reward their faithfulness since they have become a special and chosen people and have found favor with Him, and He promises to remember and bless them forever. I think this is a key to remember, too -- no matter their starting point, individuals and groups of people can become chosen of the Lord through their faithfulness.

Ang Aklatan