4. The Work in Era of the Law

The Era of the Law indicates the time when the perfect covenant was documented and became the perfect law.

God delivered the nation from Pharaoh’s evil reign through the blood of lamb, in order to teach them the law of atonement. This prophetically foreshows the liberation of chosen children from the devil’s authority through the holy blood of Only Begotten Son. Following is the law God established at that time.

First: God gave them the administrative law for the chosen nation, and it became the Law and the Commandment

This was not the law for all mankind, but was the law for the theocratic nation and also it was the document to make the world know the perfect justice of God.

Second: The design of the Holy Temple was the tangible symbol of spiritual churches. (Hebrew 9:1~)

Third: The law of atonement represents Christ’s eternal atonement on the cross. (Hebrew 13:11~12)

The law of atonement was established in the purpose to teach what the cost of sin is and how to blot out that cost, and this law had been performed in the Temple in Jerusalem. But when the prophetic church was corrupt, God struck it using the strong force of the North to purge the corruption, and then He had a few spiritual ones to restore Jerusalem. It was all shown as prophetic for the end of man.

To make this known to all people, oracles were revealed to all prophets mainly regarding the Judgement and New Era. Therefore, the kingdom of Israel, built up based on the Books of Moses, is the antitype of the spiritual church. And Bible clearly says the fact – that the prophetic church was consumed by the northern enemy due to their corruption and Jerusalem was restored by the spiritual men – is the antitype of how the peaceful Kingdom of saints on the earth will be fulfilled.

Christ is testified according to Old Testament as follows. The apostles testifying the first advent of the Lord devoted their life for reforming the prophetic ethnic religion into the worldwide religion, because it was their mission given from the Lord. (Luke 24:44~48)

On the contrary, the saints who will meet Christ’s second coming must know that the Kingdom of saints will be fulfilled by the perfect Work at the end of man. And the perfect Work is which will begin from prophesying again what Prophets saw in oracle and wrote under the depraved religion and politics at late period of Old Testament.

The Word related to God’s Work in Era of the Law or things happened at that time are all prophetic. The prophetic Work of God in the Era of the Law can be described as follows.

(1) The Work at Exodus

This was not based on prophecy but on the ethnic covenant given to Abraham. Exodus was the struggle for the freedom to offer the sin offering. (Exodus 5:3~9, 8:25~27) God commanded to put the blood of lamb on the doorpost as a sign according to which He worked.

Israel’s cry for the freedom to offer sacrifice was answered, and Israel kingdom occupied the blessed land in Canaan and built the Temple of Jerusalem. And under the chosen nation’s religion, they were blessed or punished whether they offer a sacrifice appropriately. This was the Work done on the chosen nation.

Even though they sacrificed, when there was any compromise with foreign gods, God struck the nation by using the power of foreign nations.

This Work is not lifeless because the LORD God has worked in it. God who worked for the prophetic chosen nation will work in the same way at the end of man; this is what the Books of the Prophets say in detail.

When God declares things to take place afterwards, He shows the living testimonies and reveals to man the oracles of what will happen, so His Word are always associated to the Alpha and the Omega.

(2) Babylonian captivity and liberation

They disobeyed the prophecies of the true prophet, which are the Word of the LORD, and mistreated them as if they were heresy. So God brought the tribulation to desolate His beloved Temple. At this time, the true prophets were falsely reproached and oppressed and had to fight to the point of death.

Under the pretense of being descendent of Abraham, they were indulged to their chronic custom, and the living religion, the basis of their kingdom, was considered as lifeless and ritualized religion so that the great worldwide religion couldn’t be achieved. That is why God used the northern force to get rid of corrupt leaders of religion and politics.

The tragedy in Jerusalem at this time was miserable and hopeless. But God lifted up again those who were not discouraged yet heeded the faith of the true prophets and kept fighting for the faith, and they restored Jerusalem along with Cyrus of the East who exercised his authority for the restoration. Every prophet prophesied the dreadful disaster coming to Jerusalem and the restoration of Jerusalem; the oracles they received became the plumb line of Judgement.

As the chosen people were mercilessly collapsed due to their disobedience to God’s Word, Judgement at the end of man will be the same; this is the oracle the prophets received and wrote. Now the connectivity between the Work in Old Testament and the Work of Christ is as follows.

It is the Work at the exodus from Egypt that God worked in the struggle for the offering of sacrifice, and this Work was concluded through the victory of Christ’s cross. Therefore, under the victory of the cross, the chosen nation’s religion is completely abolished. Yet the restoration of the prophetic religion will be perfectly completed at the end of Christianity when Judgement and New Era come.

In other words, all of God’s Work in Old Testament is prophetical and shows what would be fulfilled through Christ, and its actual fruit is the fulfillment of the Word of the LORD through the Work of Only Begotten Son. So the Prophets use a phrase ‘the Word of the LORD’ but New Testament does not use it because the Word of the LORD must be fulfilled through the Work of the Holy Spirit.

All of the Work of the LORD in the Era of the Law are practical examples of what will take place during Judgement and New Era. The sin offering in Old Testament was shown for the atonement of the cross, and all Work of the LORD on Israel is the foreshown testimony of His Work for Judgement and New Era.