17-Torah: What Profit is it For the Church?,pt1

Several months after Nehemiah completed the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem and the Israelites had settled in their towns, Ezra the scribe read to them from "the Book of the Law of Moses" (Pentateuch) as the people were assembled before the Water Gate at Jerusalem (New 8:1). Ezra read from the Law from daybreak till noon (v3). The Levites also read aloud from the Law, "making it clear and giving the meaning/sense so that people could understand what was being read" (v7-8). As a result the people were joyful "because they now understood the words (v12). But was that just for saints in the Old Testament? What is the Church to make of Torah and the Law? As we study the Pentateuch and come across strange laws like, "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Ex 34:26) OR "A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean" (Lev 13:40), we tend to wonder why should we adhere to some laws and not to others? Before we finish our study of the Pentateuch with the final book of Moses (Deuteronomy) we will take a brief look at "Torah: What Profit is it for the Church?"