Everyone knows the story of Moses, who through the power of The Lord, made Pharaoh free the children of Israel from captivity. This was done through many plagues set out by The Lord, but the final straw was when God killed all the firstborn children of Egypt. He passed over all of the children of Israel’s home that put lamb’s blood over their door. This was known as the Passover and is celebrated by the Jews every year since.
God conquered Egypt. He freed the children of Israel and they traveled in the desert to the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was not an easy journey, even though God supplied their needs, sending manna down from heaven and water from rocks. The children of Israel complained and complained. They showed little faith in The Lord. When God came down to speak to them, they told Him they would do all that He required. God then gave Moses the 10 commandments struck into stone. When Moses came down he saw the children of Israel building a massive idol in reverence to The Lord. Moses told them to destroy it as it was an abomination to The Lord. They were worshipping God the way the pagans of Egypt did. The Lord came down and gave them the Law. This Law is the Mosaic Covenant and was only given to the Jews to follow. It was only given to them. But this is what made them different from all other people. They had set guidelines and rules that was given to them by only one God, when all other cultures believed they were subjected to many gods.
There is much to the Law. It will not be covered in-depth in this article. What needs to be understood is what the Law was. It was the process of how to atone for one’s sin. There were animal sacrifices required, bringing tithes to Levitical Priests, resting on the Sabbath (which Jews recognize as Saturday), and many other requirements. It was very strict and needed to be followed by the letter. If you were guilty of not following one, but did follow all the others you were still guilty of not following the Law.
So now the Jews were judged by God through the Law He gave them. This is what they follow to this day. God was very specific when He commanded them not to worship Him as the pagans do, stay away from all idols, and do not mingle with the pagans things.
God even let a whole generation of Israel wander & die in the desert for 40 years, not allowing them to get to the land He promised them because of their disobedience and mingling with other gods. Moses even took the penalty for some and was not allowed to enter the promised land.
The important things to notice here are that:
1) The promised land was simply the land of Israel, the current land that the nation of Israel owns now, (including the land in Palestine occupation)
2) The Jews were given the Law that was given to them by God. They live by it currently.
