What was distinctive about the period when Israel was under the Law?
Israel under the Law was distinctive because God gave that nation a different set of circumstances: the Ten Commandments, the ritualistic law, the priesthood, and the temple. It had never happened before, and the human race had never had anything written as a criteria of behavior. God distinctively told Israel how to operate.
Les explains that Israel’s period under the Law was another distinctive change in God’s dealings. After the Garden, the Ark, and the establishment of human government, God called Abraham out of the pagan nations and began dealing with the one nation descended from him. Then, after about 500 years, God gave that nation yet a different set of circumstances: the Law. This had never been before, because the human race had never had anything written for a criteria of behavior. Now God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, the ritualistic law, the priesthood, and the temple. It was a period in which God distinctively told the nation of Israel how to operate.