While reading Job, I wondered constantly what he did to achieve perfection. What he did to be talked about by God in his own courts? I thought that he must have followed God’s laws immaculately. (1 John 2:5) Job talks about doing things that are very similar to Torah: treating others well, doing good to the fatherless, helping the poor, and being good to your enemy (Job 31:15-29) but no one is quite certain when Job was written. Many think it was written in the time of Abraham, but if that’s the case, then how would Job know God’s laws yet? How did Abraham know God’s laws? Moses hadn’t yet written down the commandments. Was there a law at all before Abraham in the first place?
This was all very confusing to me. Yeshua (or Jesus, Yeshua’s his name in Hebrew. I prefer it. ) says:
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15
I had to know if Job and Abraham — who were beloved of God — followed his commandments as well and if those before Moses had a law at all.
My thoughts on this were that God did talk to his servants directly in the ancient Biblical times. Maybe he would visit those he found to have integrity?
I also thought that sometimes you just know what’s wrong in your heart and maybe God chose servants who had a conscience. But there were all sorts of problems with this idea. If people always followed their often evil feelings, then they’d often be left astray.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Finally, I asked my dad about it. My dad’s very learned in the Bible and an excellent counselor when it comes to God’s laws. I thought that his interpretation was the best. He said that just because people back in ancient Biblical times didn’t have a law written down, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a law. Abraham and Job did their best to please God and did whatever he asked of them. (God asked Abraham to give his son as a sacrifice and Abraham was prepared to do so before God stopped him Gen 22:1-19)
He also gave an excellent point that Noah knew the difference between clean and unclean beasts to put into the ark. This was an eyeopener for me! Noah knowing this proved that he knew at least some of God’s laws! I also realized that as soon as God told Abraham to circumcise his sons and men, he did so and it became one of the Christian laws today. Men like Job, Abraham and Noah knew what God wanted of them and they did it. I believe that was a big part of their amazing relationships with God. After all, God’s our Father and a way of pleasing your father is doing what he asks of you.
It’s a choice. They chose God and chose to follow His Word the best they could.