The Lord would have been happy to bless the children of Israel with all the blessings of the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through their wickedness, the Lord decided to take away the higher law and the Melchizedek Priesthood. Paul records, Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made (Gal 3:19). It is through the Joseph Smith Translation that we come to understand the meaning of Paul's words. After Moses returned from Mount Sinai, he found the children of Israel worshipping a golden calf. Filled with anger, he threw down the first set of tablets containing the higher law (Ex 32:19-20). Later the Lord instructs Moses:
'Hew thee two other tables of stone, like unto the first, and I will write upon them also, the words of the law, according as they were written at the first on the tables which thou brakest; but it shall not be according to the first, for I will take away the priesthood out of their midst; therefore my holy order, and the ordinances thereof, shall not go before them; for my presence shall not go up in their midst, lest I destroy them.
But I will give unto them the law as at the first, but it shall be after the law of the carnal commandment.' (JST Ex 34:1-2)
The law of the carnal commandment is one which contains many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows, but it availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood.