Paul nearly tells us something (about the Law of Moses) in Galatians 3:19, that last clause, that it not blatantly mentioned in the Old Testament, at all!
Specifically: “… and it (the Law of Moses) was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” As I have just indicated, “it” being the Law!
But yet again I emphasize, this fact is not definitely told us by Moses … at least not anywhere in his Exodus Account of the Receiving of God’s Law, there on Mount Sinai. Not that I can find, for sure!
But now Stephen, the martyred Deacon/Preacher, as he testified before an angry mob … proclaimed: “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who (the Prophet Moses for the Jews) have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.” Acts 7:52-54
Stephen believed in those “angels” at Sinai!
But Psalm 68:17 may be the “clincher!” There David wrote: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.” According to David (the Psalmist) here … Not just one angel at Sinai (Was this when the Law was being given?), but thousands of them!
Then … maybe … Deuteronomy 33:1-2 will help … “And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.” With the noun “saints” perhaps carrying the meaning of “angels.” Literally here “saints” (“qodesh” in Hebrew) means “holy ones.”
Then Paul (the writer of Hebrews at least) perhaps had angels at Sinai in mind when he wrote, warned certain Jewish Christians: “For if the word (the Law?) spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” Hebrews 2:2-3
Wow!
From these Scriptural “possibilities” or “verities” (you decide as the Holy Ghost leads you) … Paul certainly was convinced that angels “mediated” the Law, right alongside Moses, on the Mount those days long ago!
And since the Same Holy Spirit “inspired” Paul to write these words in Galatians 3:19 … I am accepting this information as Fact! Angels were there! I’ll take my Bible as inerrant, praise the Lord!
But still, what is Paul’s “point” this morning?
“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” Galatians 3:19 our Text for the past few days now!
Paul is certainly here saying the Law is “inferior” to Jesus!
The Law needed a “mediator,” and that’s not just Moses now, but the angels too! Maybe even thousands of them!
But for real Salvation, God Himself came to earth! Yes, Jesus IS God the Son! (God did not entrust some middle-man!) Not in getting sinners saved, and into Heaven!
And by the way … Jesus is “better” than the angels! (Explicitly stated in Hebrews 1:4 … “Being made … Jesus Christ … so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Amen!)
All Paul is saying (still preaching the same Theme) is that the Law is NOT the way of salvation! God designed a Better Way, Jesus Christ and His Shed Blood!
To which we should all be shouting, “Hallelujah!”
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
This Lesson has been very enlightening to me, as a Preacher. I trust it will help your understanding of the Superiority of Jesus as well.