gregoreite
I have a question for you, Cody_G. Both St Paul (Colossians 2:17) and the unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:1), state that the Law of Moses in both its legislative requirements and its stories is a mere shadow of the reality we have in Christ. So, to put things in your terms, if the Holy Spirit inspired the life of Christ, what spirit inspired a mere shadow and not the reality?
They were certainly from man, for see how Jesus responded in Matthew 19:“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “ Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning .” (Matthew 19:7-8 NIV)
Clearly a human being (Moses) has played a central role in the giving of the Law, albeit in an imperfect way. So the question is whether the Law was also from God. If so, then the question cannot be answered in a binary way, that is, in an “either or” way. So the framing of your question will not lead you to the truth.
gregoreite, I trust this will answer your questions.
The Law was a shadow of things to come, the reality is found in Christ. After Jesus came, the shadow would fade away because the reality had come and fulfilled and replaced what was in the Law. As light shines on an object, the object creates a shadow; the shadow of the Law gives us a dim image of the Kingdom of Heaven and of Jesus. Since the Law is the shadow of The Kingdom and Christ, the commands, statutes, ordinances, laws, decrees or whatever other words used to describe God’s will that He spoke to His people, are a shadowy figure of the Heavenly reality. These were not as some would say, laws, customs, and ideas from surrounding cultures or some examples that came from
false gods. This was not just ANE culture and thought; it was the spoken Word Of God.
The Law was given verbally to Moses by God. Consistently in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, phrases such as these were used to describe Gods” communication with Moses and Israel, “The Lord said to Moses” or Moses said “the Lord said to me” or “as the Lord our God commanded”.
The Law was The Word Of God from God’s own mouth. It was so much so that Jesus said, Matt 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. And, Luke 16:16 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. The reality of the Law, is Jesus, and he came to FULFILL the very Words Of God. It was so much the Word Of God that Jesus had to fulfill it to the letter.
In Heb 8:5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” The reason God warned Moses to make everything according to the pattern shown him on the mountain was because it was the representation of heaven. Not some ANE idea, not an image he dreamed up in his head and not stories handed down the generations to him. It was God speaking directly to him about heavenly things.
These are a few things of what Jesus said about the Law or it was said about him.
Keeping the Sabbath was a command God gave verbally to Moses, this is what Jesus said about that commandment of God, Matt 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus was the Lord of that verbal command of God.
Matt 22:37"‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Here the Law is united with what God told the prophets.)
Matt 23: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you.”
Luke 2:22 When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”, 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” (Here the Law of the Lord and the Law of Moses are the same.)
Luke 2:39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord , they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.
Luke 11:52 “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
So Jesus and the apostles new, God Himself was the author, creator and giver of the Law.