The giving of the law was part of God’s loving design to
make His people a beacon to the nations.
The justice that was on display among them, the safety of their people,
and the environment to allow for prosperity and happiness was meant to draw
people to see the LORD’s wisdom. Even a
slave in this land might receive better treatment than a freed man in a
different nation.
In our reading today God begins telling Israel how He
wants matters of justice to be handled. There
are plenty of details in the following chapters, describing what life among the
people of God was like. The following
chapters will refer to a wide variety of relationships and situations where
injustice can be seen – all of which are possible.
To be really frank, some of the items that God speaks to
here may seem very foreign to us. Just
in today’s reading all the laws about slavery could certainly rub those of us
in North America the wrong way! Slavery
is so tied to racism in the United States that, to our minds, slavery is an
abomination. Yet in those days slavery
was commonplace, and God addressed it to say that slaves were people and they
needed to be treated appropriately.
There is also commentary about polygamy here. God is not condoning polygamy, but
recognizing that it was practiced . . . regularly. He speaks to it to protect women who, without
the rights of men or the ability to provide for themselves, found themselves
married to a man with multiple wives.
Probably the topic that is most comfortable to us is the
passages dealing with the ox that gores.
This seems reasonable. If a
farmer didn’t know the animal would attack, and it does, why should the owner be
held accountable? But if he knew that
the animal was prone to goring, and he didn’t properly protect people and other
livestock from it, of course he has responsibility.
These were hard times in history, and the world was a
brutal place. Empires like Egypt were
more a rarity than the norm. Kingdoms
were generally smaller regions. Kings in
these days were largely whoever was the strongest warriors. Might made right. So laws like these – along with the Code of
Hammurabi, which has striking similarities to God’s code given here – set
Israel vastly apart.
Even the portion in v. 23 stating that punishment shall
be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. was a powerful
statement. Known today as the lex talionis, it recognizes that some
crimes are more egregious than others.
We see it as a demand for punishment, but it also served as a limit to
vengeance. The punishment was to fit the
crime, and, in a time where might makes right, those limitations were
radical.
This also shows us something important about sin. If, in God’s estimation, the punishment is to
fit the crime, and “the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23) we must ask
ourselves the following question: How
great a “crime” is sin? Clearly, in
God’s economy sin, no matter how we grade it, is a capital crime. We might classify sin as mortal, venial, or
whatever rating we wish, but to God they are all damnable. That makes Jesus’ choice to bear our sins and
take our punishment all the more amazing.
Make no mistake, God loves justice, but Jesus’ death
allows Him to be both just and justifier, saving us from our sins, and
reconciling us to Himself. (Rom
3:26)
Father, Thank You
for Your justice and justification in Jesus.
Amen.
Comments