7. The law was given only to
the children of Israel.
This is so manifest in every item
of the law that it needs no argument to prove it. Moses
says (Deut. 4:8) that no nation has a law so good "as
the law which I set before you this day." Then he
names the Ten Commandments as a part of it (vss. 10-13).
"This is the law which Moses set before the children
of Israel" (vs. 44). Then no other nation had the
law. This is stated a hundred times over. It was addressed
to the Israelites, and to them only.
The very wording of the law proves
that it was designed only for them. The Decalog is
introduced thus: "I am the Lord thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage" (Exod. 20:2). To whom is that applicable?
Only to the Israelite nation. Neither angels, Adam, nor
Gentile Christians were ever in Egyptian bondage. Then,
the law was not addressed to them. Paul plainly states to
whom the law was given. "Who are Israelites; to whom
pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,
and the giving of the law" (Rom. 9:41). It was given
to Israel. In Matt 4:4 it is clearly stated that the law
given in Horeb was "for all Israel."
All these things show that this was
a national law worded to fit the condition of the children
of Israel at the time.
