What was the law that Israel received at Sinai like?
The law Israel received at Sinai was severe, a burden, and a yoke of bondage that the nation could not bear. It was given 500 years after Abraham through Moses, placing the entire nation under it, but righteousness does not come through law; it comes through faith.
Les teaches that the law came 500 years after Abraham, when Moses and the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai, and the whole nation was put under it. He emphasizes that the law was severe, a burden, and a yoke of bondage that Israel could not even bear. Yet righteousness did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Les also points to Galatians, where the letter was written to the churches of Galatia to show they were not under law but under grace, because Judaizers were trying to put them under law. Using the analogy of Isaac and Ishmael, Ishmael was of the flesh, earthly, not the spiritual seed; Hagar and Ishmael stood for the law and the flesh. Scripture says cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Ishmael and Isaac could have no interrelationship, because Ishmael stood for law and legalism, while Isaac stood for grace and freedom.