One of the main reasons for the first five books of the Bible or the Torah is to provide man with a set of laws to live by in order for us to have a peaceful coexistence with each other. God had, by then, been watching man for about 2,400 years and all we could do was to use and abuse each other with no remorse. So He gave us a set of laws to be an example of how we should act and treat each other. It is very interesting to study these laws because they tell us how people were acting and behaving towards each other at that time. We are still behaving just as badly today with some exceptions from those of us who do actually try to follow these laws.
An irony here is that during the 1950's and 1960's there was a wish expressed in America through our movies and television shows that some alien visitor would come to our world and give us some laws and secrets that would teach man how to live together in peace. Mean while, right under our noses were a set of laws given to us by a greater intelligence just for that purpose. But we have rejected these laws for "our personal freedom" to be selfish. Guess what, most of us would reject such laws given to us by anyone because we are selfish and don't care who we hurt for our own personal gains and pleasures.
One thing which must be understood before studying these laws is the sociology of that time. People were very cruel and barbaric. It was not only considered all right but was even expected that if anyone wronged you in any way you should kill them. This often meant that a person or even their entire family was cruelly tortured to death. People were often very vicious much the way our gang bangers are today. After a battle, it was common practice for the leader of the losing army to be beheaded, his head placed on a long pole, and someone would dance around carrying the pole while everyone ate a victory dinner. Legend has it that the Prophet Isaiah was sawed into pieces and died during the process. If you watch the evening news, you will see that some of use are returning to that cruelty today.
The single biggest reason for so many people today to persist in denial for the existence of God is that they don't want to have to live by truly humane laws. They prefer to live by their much more liberal definition of what is humane which is all too often that,"If I don't get hurt by it, then it is OK, especially if I like the end results." The trouble is that sooner or later some other person will do something to us.
God knew that He could not get people from that time period to completely convert to a truly humane life style within one or two generations so He set the laws so that people would improve over many generation. I have found that most people simply don't make social quantum leaps and God knew that 3,600 years ago. Look at how many people today want a permissive life style so they can do to others or themselves as they please. We really don't learn from history or we would know that to permit me to be permissive so I can do as I please is to also permit others to be permissive so they can do as they please and it will only be a matter of time until someone will decide that it will please them to hurt me. The reason we have laws is to prevent others from taking unfair advantage of us. Some of us have learned that there are those who will hurt others if given a chance.
If this being, God, really does exist and He really did create our cosmos, then we are within His legal jurisdiction and must abide by His laws and answer for our crimes against His laws. By today's terminology, we would call these laws Intergalactic Laws. No matter where we went in our cosmos, we would have to abide by these laws.
We have even set a precedence for this with our own laws. There are many examples of this. Recently, some militia people were arrested in Texas, Montana, Arizona, and Oklahoma because they had convinced themselves that they did not have to abide by US Federal laws for some reason or rational. The fed's showed up and proved them wrong. Our own laws make it very clear that no matter what we choose to believe, as long as we are under the jurisdiction of the US Government, we must abide by the laws of the US Government. When we travel to another country, we come under the laws of that country.
Therefore, it is only logical that, no matter what we choose to believe, if we are under the jurisdiction of God, then we must abide by the laws of God. I repeat, the last thing I want to do is to be like these militia people and find myself standing in a court room saying,"Oops!" Especially, when it has to do with my eternal destiny. Eternity is a long time to remain in anyone's penal institution.
Therefore, it is irrational to believe that such a being does not exist just because you don't want Him to exist. That makes you just a dumb as those militia people that you probably laughed at. The only rational thing is to find out for sure if this being really does exist. If He does, I definitely want to know about it and I don't care who calls me crazy for trying to find the truth. Because, if He does exist and you laugh at me for being objective to find the truth, I will get to laugh at you in His court room when you say,"Oops!" Eternity is a long oops.
Another precedence we have set with our own laws, is that it is illegal for any lesser government, such as a city, county, or state, within US jurisdiction, to pass a law or court ruling which conflicts with either the federal law or the US Constitution. It is interesting that God's law says the same thing. In a number of places, He clearly states that any leader or judge who passes a lay or makes a ruling which permits or encourages people to break God's law will be held accountable for their crime. In other words, if I as a judge or politician, make a ruling or pass a law making it legal to commit abortion and it turns out to be murder of the unborn, I will be held partly responsible for every murder of an unborn child committed because of my action.
By our laws, it is also illegal for me to encourage or assist, in any way, another person in committing a crime against federal, state, or city laws. I am held partly responsible for the committing of that crime because it is possible that the person may not have committed the crime without my encouragement or assistance. Again, God's laws have the same principle. If any person, such as a journalist, should encourage people to violate God's laws, that person will be held responsible for their part in committing that crime.
Once again, it only seems logical that politicians, judges, journalists, and the rest of us should want to know whether or not this being, God, really does exist and what His laws are. Within our own laws, pleading ignorance or to have convinced ourselves of a false hood as a defense for a crime has never gotten anyone acquitted. And guess what, it wont work in God's court either.
There are other similarities between our laws and God's laws. In our system, you only need to commit one crime to be a criminal. You don't have to commit murder, rape, robbery, AND other crimes to be a criminal. The same is true with God's law. It says that to have committed the least of these crimes is to have committed them all. Which just means that any crime makes you a criminal. If you study God's laws in the Bible or Torah, it is easy to see that we have all broken at least a few of His laws. Therefore, by God's laws, we all stand before Him as criminals and deserve to be institutionalized in His eternal penal system.
That is the way it was 2,000 years ago. Every man and woman on the planet had just one choice; to stand before God in judgment, be condemned for our crimes against His laws, and spend eternity paying for our crimes. This is because God is a just being requiring that all crimes be paid for. But, fortunately for us, He is also a loving being who doesn't want us to spend eternity in His penal institution. For this reason, God had a plan to give man another chance. One that would give us two choices instead of one.
In love and in justice, He used molecular construction to reprogram an egg inside of a Jewish woman named Mary to become a zygote. (It amazes me that some people mock the idea of a virgin birth when we ourselves are now capable of creating a virgin birth through artificial insemination or with test tube babies. :-) Some how, which I still do not understand, God seems to have more than one spirit (the scriptures refer to the seven spirits of God), He entered one of them into the new zygote, and became His own son. (Because we cannot do something like this does not mean that another being cannot.) As God in the flesh, He lived a perfect life without violating any of His own laws as only He could do, did not deserve to die, but died (as He had planned to do, read Psalms, Isaiah, & etc.) to pay for all of our crimes.
Now, we have two choices. We can either accept the payment made for us by a Jewish carpenter named Jesus, the son of God, or we can spend eternity paying for our crimes ourselves. The hard thing for many here, is that before we can accept His payment for our crimes, we must first make a commitment to Him to give up our crimes. Unfortunately, some of our crimes give us a lot of temporary pleasure. The only question is,"Will you live by His love or die by His laws?"