Caution
I should say something to first-time readers of the Old
Testament here. We are now getting into
a part of the Bible in which it will be difficult to stay current and
up-to-date. Resist the urge to buy into
your thoughts that the “law is boring.”
This is usually the place where people who have the best of intentions
get swept away, put the Bible down, and convince themselves that they aren’t
able to read it and make sense of it – or perhaps even be interested in
it. So if this is your first encounter with
the Law of Moses, trust me when I say that we’ve all been there before. We’ve all thought those thoughts. There is good stuff to be gleaned out of the
Law of Moses. It just takes some
training to understand how to get it out.
But together we can find the pearls of wisdom that God has established
for our communities of faith.
Law and Relationships
So let’s look here at Exodus 22. The first fifteen verses are all about
protecting personal property. As I said
in yesterday’s blog, God is setting up rules for stealing, but He is not condoning
that stealing is acceptable. Just
because we have rules about how the thief is to repay the victim does not make
stealing okay. But it is a part of the
darkness of humanity and we do need to deal with it.
Notice that within these laws God is sure to uphold good
relationships. There are rules about
repayment so that the victim can feel vindicated but there are limits on the
vindication so that the thief need not fear for his life.
In fact, notice that God even desires to speak to this issue
based on when a thief breaks into the house!
If a thief breaks in during the night – when help is out of reach – then
the person defending their house is not to be held guilty if the thief should
die at the homeowner who is defending his property and family. However, if the thief breaks in during the
day – when help could be summoned and evidence could be gathered – then the
homeowner is to be held guilty should the thief die at the homeowner’s hands. Even in the midst of crimes and self-defense
the aspect of life and killing and communal relationships is a significant
issue!
The rest of these fifteen verses are about various crimes
and restitution. Notice that in all
cases restitution for personal loss is set at a monetary value (even if the
currency be sheep, oxen, or grain). God
values life so much that life should not be taken except in response to an
action that unjustly took a life. Crimes
of stealing and property loss are to be punished by financial restitution. When the restitution has been paid, the crime
is forgotten and done away with.
Social Justice Is Still About Relationships
The second half of this chapter deals with a topic that is
commonly referred to as “Social Justice.”
Here we can see laws that with the exception of Exodus 22:18-20 are set
up to protect people: virgins (v. 16-17), foreigners (v. 21), widows (v.
22-24), and the poor (v. 25-27). God is
very concerned with the oppressed and as He draws His people out of Egypt He
wants them to know that they have no right to oppress anyone either –
especially against people who are defenseless against the oppression.
Even More on the Law and Relationships
Let’s go back those who fornicate with the practices of
other gods (v. 18-20). You might find it
odd that a verse about bestiality is sandwiched into the middle of a trio of
verses about sorcery and worshipping other gods. That’s largely because all three practices
violate our relationship with God on a spiritual level rather than being a
violation on a communal level (like stealing or arson might).
When people practice arts of magic, they are opening up
themselves to a source of power other than God.
Magic – and any occult practice – is simply an attempt to accept another
source of power than God. It is
fundamentally a denial of God’s providence and thus a denial of God. The same is clearly true about worshipping
other gods.
The reason bestiality is sandwiched in between magic and
idol worship is because bestiality was one of the main practices of those who
worshipped other gods in addition to it being an attempt to “create” through
some other means than the means which God gave to us – human procreation. The act of sex is first-and-foremost an act
of creation. The natural product of sex
is children – the creation of life. God
has ordained creation through this act as just.
Any attempt to mimic the divine power of creation outside of the
God-ordained way of human sexuality (such as bestiality, sorcery, or idol
worship) is simply wrong and a direct assault against God as the only one who
has the true power to create.
As evidence of all of this, look at how this chapter
ends. Having just told the people to not
oppress others as well as to not go against His divine power, God speaks to
them about honoring Him. Fundamentally,
this second half of the chapter has much to say about our practices being a
statement of honoring God. When we
oppress or try to circumnavigate God’s power we are fundamentally removing God
from His position in our life.
See? There is some
good understanding that can come out of reading about the Law of Moses. We will learn these tools together and begin
to understand just how God’s law really does speak to us about relationships
with Him and with others.
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