Ordinance

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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This term in the Old Testament generally signifies that which God “ordered” for His people to observe. “They kept His testimonies, and the ordinance that He gave them” (Psa. 99:77He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. (Psalm 99:7)). “Ye are gone away from Mine ordinances” (Mal. 3:77Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? (Malachi 3:7)). It is also applied to things in creation: God giveth “the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night” (Jer. 31:3535Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: (Jeremiah 31:35)). David made an ordinance (Ezra 3:1010And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. (Ezra 3:10): Compare Neh. 10:3232Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God; (Nehemiah 10:32)). In the New Testament it refers especially to the enactments of the law: “ordinances of divine service” (Heb. 9:1,101Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. (Hebrews 9:1)
10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (Hebrews 9:10)); “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances” (Col. 2:1414Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (Colossians 2:14)). It is also applied to human laws (Rom. 13:22Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. (Romans 13:2); 1 Peter 2:1313Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; (1 Peter 2:13)); and to the rules of the moralists (Col. 2:2020Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Colossians 2:20)). The directions that Paul had given to the Corinthians are in the AV called “ordinances” (1 Cor. 11:22Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. (1 Corinthians 11:2)); margin, “traditions.”