I said before that I was thinking of defining terminology, at least my definitions, for clarification, but I think that as we go through different singular aspects of this topic, the definitions will come out.  If nothing else, if there is a question about what somebody means by some word or phrase, let's ask right away. 

There were many things that were put into the Law because they were RIGHT: they are still right but we are not under the curse of the Law of Moses.  The good part of the Law was to protect the people FROM the state or national religion which God abandoned them to.

There is only one spiritual Covenant: that which Christ made with Abraham and confirmed in Galatians 3 which LEAPFROGS over the Law of Moses.

When God tried to speak to the people they demanded a mediator and because they refused to hear God they were blinded until they turned to the Lord. 2 Cor. 3.

And he took The Book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. Exod 24:7

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Exod 24:8

The Book of the Covenant had 70 tenets: they were all conditional such as "IF you offer a sacrifice THEN this is how to do it."  This extended the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham and the first born sons were still tribal leaders.  The people pledged to obey those 70 laws.

However, while Moses was gone for 40 days to test the people they rose up to PLAY meaning the musical idolatry of the Egyptian trinity under the symbol of the Golden Calves.

When Moses came down he said that he did not hear the legitimate noise of WAR or of celebrating victory but  "It is singing that I hear."  Moses broke the tablets and they are never restated in the same form: they are stated for a people doomed to commingle with paganism. God sentenced them to go back to Babylon to carry out the captivity and death sentence. The conditional sentence began to be carried out when the elders fired God and demanded a human king: God understood that they wanted "to worship like the nations." He gave them kings in His anger but warned that they would rob, steal and enslave them and He would not stop it.

Stephen and many others say that God turned them over to worship the starry host and it is clear that the Jerusalem temple was devoted to STAR and SERPENT worship: the Levites as an old cult in Egypt devoted to burning infants to Molech continued in the wilderness and in Jerusalem.

God then gave The Book of the Law of Moses: This was a firey law to legislate for the lawless and to protect the weak from the growing Civil-Military-Clergy complex.  Christ in the prophets say this is not what God commanded when He saved them by grace and defined them as robbers and parasites. Fittingly, in Greek the sacrificial musician (made noise) is called a PARASITE.  A HERETIC is defined as the priest who lifts the lambs up to cut their throats.

At the same time in Numbers 10 the assembly of the people as the church in the wilderness was the Qahal, synagogue or Ekklesia in Stephen's account in Acts 7.  Stephen also repudiated the temple and the whole false system and got himself murdered.

The Holy Convocation was on the First and Seventh days of festivals and on each SABBATH day in organized synagogues.

That was INCLUSIVE of REST (sabbath), READING and REHEARSING the Word of god.

That was EXCLUSIVE of vocal or instrumental rejoicing. Just common sense when you grasp that a Disciple goes to Bible class and not a worship ritual which makes sure you don't hear or sing "that which is written."


That defined the synagogue from the wilderness onward for those NOT of the tribe of Levi.  Jacob had pronounced a curse against Levi and warned us NOT to attend their assemblies. The Church QUARANTINED the Spiritual people from the temple for BIBLE STUDY which is the sole purpose of a church.
The Law of Moses had no effect on the spirit or conscience.  The Civil-Military-Clergy complex was abandoned to a NATIONAL sacrificial system just like all of the goyim or gentiles including Canaan, Babylon and Egypt to which God abandoned them.

There is NOTHING in the Law of Moses which has any place in the Church as a school of the Bible: Paul's only worship word means to give heed to the Word of Christ.

A shadow is not a GOOD TYPE:

Skia
2. reflection, image (in a bowl of oil), Sch.Il.17.755.
3. shade of one dead, phantom, Od.10.495,  A.Th.992,
of worthless things, that phantom at Delphi (Apollo or Apollyon or Abaddon and the Muses)
4. evil spirit, 
also, of one worn to a shadow,

That is why Israel's was a COVENANT WITH DEATH: Amos defines it perfectly using the term MARZEAH.

What part of the Law is not to be pursued.  Paul seemed to indicate in Romans 7 that the law is holy, righteous and good.  That doesn't sound to me like he said anything about it being set aside.

Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. 2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

Exod 16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

Exod 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Lev 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Num 15:40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Deut 5:10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Deut 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Deut 11:13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandmentswhich I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

God Himself made the major separation that exists between the ten commandments, and the rest of the old covenant law.  He descended to earth, and spoke the ten to Israel with His own mouth, then He wrote them with his own finger, twice.  Even after Moses smashed the first copy, God would not let Moses write them, but God Himself wrote them again.  The rest of the law was written by the hand of Moses, and spoken by him to the same.  Anyone who does not want to see and acknowledge this difference, is simply making a choice to ignore the obvious for whatever purpose they might have. 

The seventh day sabbath of the fourth commandment was instituted at creation before the law was spoken by God.  He refers to it as His continuously also.

Exod 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

Isa 56:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths,and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; 5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

Ezek 20:12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. 14 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. 15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; 16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. 17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. 18 But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: 19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; 20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God. 21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. 23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; 24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

Ezek 23:38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

Ezek 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.[/u]

Paul said a couple things about the Law:
1. It was added to lead us (Israel) to Christ - the Law is not the point, but simply a tool.
2. Because the Law essentially defines sin, it cannot save but only accuse.
3. While the Law is good (in that it shows us our failings), Israel's mistake as well as current well-meaning folk, was to make it a checklist righteousness.
4. What is needed is not a checklist to pursue (as good as that checklist might be), but rather a transformed life based on and shaped by actual believing in God.
5. That the Law was given to Israel and could not of itself incorporate the Gentiles into the people of God - even now.

Conclusion: should we "pursue" the Law? No. We should pursue God, allowing Him to transform us into His likeness.

 

He gave the law to the Isrealites because they and they alone were His people. It wasn't a dividing wall. The mystery revealed when the veil was torn asunder was Christ.

What do you mean when you say the law is not for us today?  Shouldn't we love God or respect him?  He hates sin in the OT and he has never changed, he still hates sin and is coming to destroy it.  No matter who you are He will destroy you and take your name out of his book.

I'm talking about the moral laws of God. Jesus never lowered them nor did he take them away.

 

The Law of commandments was what divided between the Jew and Gentile.  That is what Ephesians 2:14-15 says.  In verse 15 he calls it the enmity.  Jesus took it out of the way so as to bring about one new man in Him.

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

I am not saying that God does not require that we live according to His will.  He does have a moral law that applies to all people for all time since the beginning (Romans 5:12-13).  Notice that Romans 5:13 that until the Law sin was in the world.  There was a time when the Law was not in the world (Paul is talking about the Law of Moses) but there was law or else there would have been no sin.  That men were sinners proves that there was law, but it was not the codified Law given through Moses.

My contention is that the Law given through Moses to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai is a codified representation of the moral law into a legal system that applied only to the Israelites from the time of Sinai to the time of the cross of Christ.  It was not given to anybody before Sinai, it was not given to anybody else during the time between Sinai and the cross, and finally, it is not given to anybody since the cross.

God removed that legal system, which included the Ten Commandments, but His moral law still applies.  It applied to all before the Law of Moses was given, it applied to the Gentiles during the time of the Law (and it applied to the Jews, but it was codified), and it applies to all now.  In Christ we are under a different law, that of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2), the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21).  This law does for us what the Law of commandments could not do (Acts 13:39); it frees us from the law of sin and of death; it frees us from our sins.

One thing that might help to some degree is to remember that in the first century, the Law of Moses was still being strictly observed by many, and even some converted Jews in the church wanted to apply the Law to themselves and others.  Thus Paul had to deal with this in his letters, such as in Romans and Galatians.  When reading these, look for the definite article before the word "law."  Unless it is explicitly stated or strongly implied, that combination "the law" will refer to the Law of Moses.  Without the definite article it can refer to law in general. 

Most translations fail to include the definite article before “law” when it is in the Greek in some passages.  Young's Literal Translation seems to be faithful to the Greek in this respect.  I mention this because I believe that we need to be sure to define terms and to apply them accordingly in order to understand each other and to hopefully better understand the word of God.