Leviticus

Given that it has been prophesied that they will fall, if I were transported into the land with the Israelites during a time of rebellion, but with knowledge of the future, and the blood of Christ, would there be any significant difference between them and myself with regard to ability to follow God? Why or why not?

Transported back in time to the land of Israel at the time of judges just in time to see the people falling away from God, I think that I would be able to withstand the spreading evil better than most of the Israelites. While those under the old covenant and those under the new covenant serve the same God, we who are under the new covenant have a much closer relationship to God than those under the old covenant. Those under the old covenant mostly serve God out of fear or respect. Because of the distance between them and God, it would be a lot harder for them to serve him out of love. It would be especially hard to know that God was loving if you had watched him kill thousands of your people. From the new covenant, however, it is much easier to love God. We have his sacrifice on the cross to look to, and we are drawn much closer to God than those in the old covenant. He is our father. This means that when the fear begins to get old, and God’s people begin to forget what happened a few generations ago, those in the old covenant lose most of the reason why they serve God. However, for those in the new covenant, we have survived for many, many generations because we love him for what he has done.

Another difference between the old and new covenants is that while the sacrificial system of the old covenant dealt with the external consequences of sin, it was powerless to loosen the stranglehold of sin on the people. In the new covenant, Christ conquered death and gave us the Holy Spirit, so we have a new nature. We have been changed from the inside out. This means that while those under the old covenant are still prone to sin, we are less so. When the people begin to forget why they are following God, those under the new covenant still have the holy spirit in them to remind them, and their changed nature to remind them, while those under the old covenant have neither of those, and only have exterior reminders that are easily ignored.

Also, in the moments that God doesn’t make sense, when life is not fair, those in the old covenant can only cower and wonder and remember God’s past deeds. We in the new covenant have direct access to God, and we have the bible, including the new testament. We have a much more obvious reason to believe that God loves us in Christ’s death and resurrection than the Israelites had at that point.

For myself in particular placed in a time of complacency and forgetfulness, I think that I would have a pretty hard time until things got rough. It is so easy to forget when things are easy. I still think that I would be able to stand where the issues are clear cut. I suppose it would depend on what stage of decay was present at that time.