The Law of Posterity
This is also closely related to the levirate law. Levir is the Latin word for husband’s brother.
Preface: Even though this is a little-studied doctrine, the law of posterity suggests that there may have been a more extensive moral code prior to the Law of Moses, as it preexisted Moses. This doctrine explains both the book of Ruth and the question of the sadducees. It also explains why the Catholic church is wrong about birth control. Finally, the underlying meaning explains that those who believed in Yehowah Elohim had an eternal inheritance with God, undefiled, that does not fade away (1Peter 1:4).
1. God desires for all to be saved, which meant all Jews as well. Therefore, this was suggested by the Law of Posterity. According to the law of posterity, the name of every family who came into the land of promise was to be preserved along with a plot of land that was to remain in their family forever.
2. What this represented was, all those of the Exodus generation were saved; and God wanted for their sons and grandsons to be saved, so that they could inherit the earth.
3. This was based upon the fact that the land which God gave Israel was to be their possession forever. Deut. 6:18 11:9
4. Knowing that people have unequal abilities in the realm of business, God even provided for this land to revert back to the original family every 50 years (Lev. 25:10, 13 Joshua 14:2 15:1). This is not because God is a socialist or a social justice God. This represented God’s faithfulness to each family; to every believer of Israel. This represents their eternal reward. 1 Once you are saved, no one can snatch you out of the hand of God (John 10:28).
5. If a man died out without heirs, then there would be no one to whom the land could revert back to. Instead of the land being an eternal inheritance, it became an eternal loss to that family. This is representative of not teaching your children about Yehowah Elohim. If they did not believe in the God of Israel, then they lost their inheritance.
6. The way a name was preserved is, if a woman’s husband died without producing a male heir, the brother would raise up seed in this woman in her husband’s name. This is also known as the Levirate Law. Deut. 25:5–10
7. This was actually a carry-over from an old-world custom, which may have been commanded by God (Gen. 38:8–10). A man, whose brother had died, was supposed to “raise up seed” in the wife of his deceased brother. He had sex with the wife, but ejaculated onto the ground. This passage is too often quoted as an argument against birth control. However, the problem was not that they younger brother used an early withdrawal to avoid making his sister-in-law pregnant, but that he did not fulfill his duty to his brother who had died, to preserve his brother’s name.
8. The book of Ruth is based upon this law of inheritance. Boaz, by marrying Ruth, allowed her deceased husband (Mahlon), a Jew, to have his name continued. By this act of kindness and love, the line of our Lord passed through Boaz and Ruth. For this reason, Boaz is known as the kinsman redeemer and is a type of Christ.
9. The sadducees used this law of posterity to try to trip up our Lord. They said, what happens if we have brother, after brother, after brother marry this woman, then which one is her husband in heaven? Jesus explains to them that there is no marriage in heaven. Luke 20:27–34
10. What this woman from Tekoa was attempting to do was to cause David to favor the law of posterity over criminal law. 2Sam. 14:5–7