In Exodus 21-22, Moses includes details about the laws in the Book of the Covenant including laws about worship, slavery, personal injury, and property. God is providing civil laws which will help them live as a nation.
Within Exodus there are 3 concepts that dominate. And God is going to constantly remind the Israelites of all 3 throughout the book. They are:
· Redemption
· Worship
· The law
Within the law, our focus today, God gave Israel 3 types of Laws.
1. The 10 Commandments – the moral laws – how to live as an individual – Exodus 20
2. The Book of the Covenant – the civil laws – how to live as a nation – Exodus 20:22 – 23:33
3. The Ceremonial laws – how to live spiritually – Exodus 25 – 40
Today we are going to move from the moral laws (the 10 commandments) to the civil laws in the Book of the Covenant: or God’s instructions on how Israel should live as a nation.
These laws had a special purpose – to transform how people live in whatever type of culture they found themselves. No culture or country is flawless. It is always subject to the nature of the people who live in it.
As we read these laws, do not think that God is endorsing every practice. Israel is very much like the neighboring cultures and there were developmental and economic reasons for some practices. Societies developed more humanitarian solutions as they advanced, settled and could for example, build prisons, corporately pay for policeman, etc. What we should focus on when reading these laws is how God is teaching the Israelites to further protect the rights and dignity of those who might be vulnerable. Such as orphans
God was calling his people to a higher standard of love and obedience than other cultures.
Obedience to the law was required, not just so that people would have something to do, but so that they would develop a right relationship with God and with others. There was a vertical (with God) and horizontal (with others) dimension to their obedience. And there was a vertical and horizontal dimension to the relationships that developed because of their obedience to the law.
The book of the covenant includes laws about:
· Slavery
· Physical abuse
· Property
When we left Moses in the last episode, he was once again on his way up the mountain where God begins a new discussion with him about laws of worship.
- God prefaced the 10 commandments with “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt”
- He prefaces the Book of the Covenants with the most recent miracle, the reminder of his terrifying meeting with them on the mountain where he “spoke from heaven”
- God wants Israel to remember who He is.
POINT: Like the Israelites, we need to remember every minute of every day just who God is. It will change how we approach him. And it will change how we pray and worship him.
ACTS Prayer Acronym Printable –
- the first part of the ACTS prayer acronym is a reminder to remember God first when we pray.
- By praising God, by remembering all he has done, we position ourselves to ask with hope and faith that He can do all things.
- Adoration – God you are ________
- Confession – God forgive me for _______
- Thanksgiving – God thank you for _______
- Supplication – God I pray for _______
God gives a warning that reiterates the first and second commandment.
· An obvious clue that these 2 laws from the 10 commandments are important to what is going to follow in the Book of the Covenant.
· In other words, everything hinges on these 2.
Then God gives instructions for how to worship:
- The act of worship is to be well thought out and reverent.
- The use of uncut stones and no steps may have been to prevent cultic Canaanite temptations
- The Canaanites had ceremonial practices that included sexual rituals
- Later in Israel’s history, stepped altars were used, but God instructs the priests to wear linen undergarments.
God then turns his attention to laws about slavery or human trafficking.
Slavery is the same as modern day human trafficking.
- Why would God start the Book of the Covenant with a lengthy discussion of slavery? You would think murder would take precedence.
- Slavery was important because the Israelites were coming out of decades of slavery themselves.
- And slavery was deeply rooted in their understanding of how a culture prospered.
- God had other ideas, but He knew that sometimes what we know is what we trust.
- And this generation of Israelites only knew one lifestyle that of a slave.
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The laws set out in the book of covenant regarding slavery will not be comforting to us. Why did God not abolish slavery all together?
- We must consider the context of the society, a camp that they are living in.
- There were no prisons. Therefore, if a man committed a crime, the consequence was to make amends to the victim of the crime by becoming their slave.
- Think of it as serving time in a home versus a prison.
- There were no other alternatives other than casting the criminal and his family out of Israel to starve.
- There also was no welfare system. Therefore, if a man fell on hard times, he could sell himself or his children to provide for his family.
- There were no prisons. Therefore, if a man committed a crime, the consequence was to make amends to the victim of the crime by becoming their slave.
- The focus of the laws for slavery, then, are the proper, godly treatment of those Israelites who have fallen to the lowest rung of the social ladder. And to provide a way for them to climb out of their situation and attain freedom.
- We must consider the context of the society, a camp that they are living in.
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To offer some comfort, there are limitations to the length of slavery
- And the limits model creation and the 4th commandment regarding the Sabbath.
- Freedom is provided after 6 years of labor, in the 7th they go free.
- In the other books of the Bible, the 7th year is applied to women and the year of Jubilee will be introduced, where all slaves are freed.
- Among the Hebrews the selling of children was rare, but occurred in cases of extreme poverty
- At this point in the law, it does not seem that women went free after 6 years.
- However, Deuteronomy 15:12 states that women sold this way could claim freedom at the end of 6 years.
- Many commentaries interpret this passage as laws addressing a woman who is sold with the intention of marriage.
- These laws then protected a woman’s rights to have
- Marital status for life, even if another wife is taken.
- Family status for life, she is to be treated as daughter if given to a son.
- If neither is agreeable, the buyer has two choices:
- She can be redeemed, sold to someone else but not a foreigner
- Or she can go free and her family does not have to return the money paid for her.
Laws about Personal Injury or Physical Abuse
The Death Penalty
- Was the consequence for all of the laws we just mentioned: intentional murder, attacking or cursing parents, kidnapping
- Unless the death was an accident, in which case they could flee to a safe place.
- It is impressive that parents and family were so highly valued. But extreme that death was the law for cursing parents.
- Work was necessary to put food on the table, therefore if one was injured, they must be compensated to provide for their survival.
- This law is another that protects a slave:
- If a slave is struck and dies the owner will be punished
- And a slave is struck and recovers it will be assumed, it was necessary discipline.
Laws about Property
Property loss due to gross negligence
- Bulls are still a problem. Switch to sheep.
Property loss due to theft
- I am not sure how they would enforce this.
- If one is stealing a sheep, it is most likely because they don’t have a sheep, so how would they pay back 4 sheep?
- This must be where the slavery comes in. A person caught stealing a sheep would have to labor for 6 years to pay for the sheep if they didn’t have 4 sheep to repay with.
2 “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 3 but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.
- Curious this one. Killing the intruder is only permissible at night! Definitely safer to steal in the daytime.
- The commentaries here explain that in the light of day the intent of the thief would be visible. Whether or not they intend to steal only or to kill the homeowner. At night that would be difficult to ascertain.
“Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft. 4 If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—they must pay back double.
- If the stolen animal is alive they pay back double.
- And they have nothing to pay, the thief is sold into slavery for stealing.
Property loss due to gross negligence
5 “If anyone grazes their livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in someone else’s field, the offender must make restitution from the best of their own field or vineyard.
6 “If a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution.
- Because damage is material rather than personal injury, the penalty is material rather than death penalty.
Property loss due to custodial theft or negligence
- These are trust laws between neighbors and friends which were important to this new nation that depended on each other for survival.
God was calling his people to a higher standard of love and obedience
The purpose of these laws was to help the Israelites develop their vertical and horizontal relationships. The vertical relationship with God and the horizontal relationships with others.
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ACTS Prayer
