On her Blog, Aubry Smith writes: -

"Westerners want everything to conform to a rule, just as nature conforms to the laws of physics, and just as the rules we set for our children. We want them to apply to 100% of people, 100% of the time. A rule is a rule is a rule . . . 

"We want everything to apply to us, all the time. But the biblical writers and audiences weren’t as concerned with rules as we are; instead, relationships were the basis of reality for life. 

"This is why the Mosaic Covenant wasn’t over when Israel sinned and broke the Law – when the rule was broken. They did this millions of times before the Covenant was broken! Instead, the Covenant ended when the relationship was severed — and this took quite a long time."