1.) LOVE: The Law, in all of its nuance and extremity, is summed up by loving God and loving your neighbors. (Matthew 22:37-40) In the time which the law was given, many laws were given to the theocracy Israel in order that through that given law, they may at least envision the nature of love. Love does not let his bull gore his neighbors bull and not pay for it. Selfishness does that. Love does not commit adultery, or expose the nakedness of family members. Love from Yahweh does not look like the idolatry of the surrounding nations, so seething a kid in its mothers milk like the pagans is not to be practiced. Love from God is otherworldly.
A loving slave-owner does not deal harshly or bitterly with his slaves but treats them justly and with kindness. A loving priest of his home and his people does not mark himself with a remembrance of the dead like the pagan priests. These people, in a national sense, were called to be completely different than all the other nations around them. The specificity of the law in many cases certainly seems...strange (for lack of a better word) to us in our day, but we forget how novel these concepts were when they were given. Imagine, a nation, called out of slavery, and shown how to love one another!
2.) SPECIFICITY: The specificity of the sacrificial system was essential, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. An "unblemished sheep," (Leviticus 22:20-22) spoke of the lamb that was to come and "take away the sin of the world." In Israel, through the specificity of its national, priestly worship, we saw looming pictures of our sin, and sin's solution. All these things were "shadows" (Hebrews 8:5, 10:1)
3.) SIN: Romans 7:13 says: "Has then what is good become death to me? (Speaking of the law.) Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful." In other words, the Law...was a driving factor. Its greatest work is that it is a goad toward the true sacrificial lamb. It drives us to need Christ, that we may, through his Spirit...possess the very love which the law describes.
4.) KNOWLEDGE OF SIN: Romans 7:7, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." Paul here confesses (though he is referring to the Decalogue and not the the Mosaic law) that the law showed him something he never would have understood about his own selfishness. The specificity of the law has an exposing capacity. It is like a mirror, reflecting the light, or lack thereof (mostly, if not all, the latter)of the humans heart. It would seem to me that a great deal of the Mosaic National law did this.
5.) Exodus 12: In the passage you mentioned, the feast of unleavened bread was to be a cultural legacy of remembrance. This nation was to have, coded into its culture, celebrations to honor and remember what it was that God had done. I imagine the particulars were visual representations, knowing the human mind he created, to sear these truths into the minds of many many consecutive generations of people. I watched a documentary the other day about how Bards that traveled around the city-states of Greece made their living reciting millions of lines of poetry from memory. It is amazing what God has created us to do that we no longer do in our modern world because of convenience.
6.) I like what Ron said as well, Our God is the maker of this universe, and in his universe there are many laws governing and driving its functionality at any given moment. He is the God who knows all, and forms all into his design. He is the God who says..."Make it according to the pattern!" Exactly! Man must not diminish, nor make diminutive each and every word that comes from the mouth of God, for by his commands come life. What may seem tedious to man, may have a much farther reaching, excellent meaning than we can grasp at first glance. As a matter of fact, the whole word of God is written this way. It is written in such a fashion as to reward those who are diligent to study its exactitudes, and does not reward the slothful agent.
These are just a few thoughts I had when I read your question Bob. God Bless.
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Jeremiah Dusenberry
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