Get the Word Out – The Kingdom Curriculum III (5)

Get the Word Out

…and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us to up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Micah 4:3

We don’t hear much preaching of the Law of God these days. The Law is not taught with any degree of consistency in the churches of the land. Very few of the followers of Christ include regular meditation on the Law in their daily disciplines (Ps. 1). There is a good deal of evidence that Christians do not consider living according to the Law to be a matter of central significance to the life of faith. Certainly we don’t hear Christian people chattering on about the Law and trying to explain its many virtues to their unsaved friends. Much less do considerations of the Law of God enter into discussions of public policy or political advocacy. The followers of Christ, we must believe, should be eager to bolster their witness to the Lord and to ensure the blessings of prosperity and tranquility for their neighbors. Yet in all the forums where we might expect them to be outspoken, clear, and convincing about the many benefits of following in the ways of God’s Law, what we hear instead is the shameful – even abominable (Prov. 28:9) – sound of silence.

But God says that living and teaching the Law of God – taking up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:17-19) – is a sure-fire way to draw people to the Church, especially in these last days. Peter declared that, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the Church, the last days of the prophets had begun (Acts 2:16, 17). What the world has witnessed throughout the course of these last days is precisely what Micah foresaw – the Church elevated, influential, and drawing the nations to itself (Mic. 4:1-5). And at the core of this incredible drawing power – at least, up to our own generation – has been the core course of the Kingdom curriculum: the Law of God.

Micah – and Isaiah as well (Is. 2:1-5) – insisted that, if we preach and teach the Law, demonstrating and explaining it as God’s blueprint for loving and just societies, people will be interested and want to know more. That is, the witness God intends His Law to be for the lost will have its powerful effect of turning the hearts of many to seek Him. We cannot coerce unbelievers to embrace the Law, nor would we want to do so; but we can try to persuade them to take up laws and practices consistent with God’s Law by our lives and our conversation. The promise of the prophets is, if we will do so, the peoples outside the Church will come around to have a look, eager to know more about how they might follow the ways of God.

This isn’t me making such statements. It’s the prophet Micah, echoing his contemporary, Isaiah, and both of them merely speaking the Word of God. Either we believe this Word – that God intends His Law as a way of drawing the nations to Himself – or we don’t. But if we don’t, then we have some heavy explaining away to do in order otherwise to explain the teaching of this text. Much better if we take up Isaiah’s concluding exhortation to this passage: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD” (v. 5).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.