Chapter
22– The Reasonableness of the Law of Moses
Then
the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance
with these words I
have
made a covenant with you and with Israel
."
(Ex
34:27)
"I
am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you."
(Isa 48:17)
Contents
of Chapter 22
22.1
The Complaints that are made
22.2
How the Law of Moses came into Being
22.3
The Purposes behind the Law
22.4
Looking at the Ten Commandments
22.5
Looking at the Social Laws of Exodus
22.6
Looking at the Laws of Leviticus
22.7
Leviticus Chapter 19 – Misc. Laws
22.8
Some Conclusions
Our
approach in this chapter is to first of all observe the complaint
that is often made about the Law, to see how the Law came into being,
and then to consider briefly why it existed or what its purposes were.
In
order to challenge some of the negatives that are so often spoken
about the Law, we will briefly examine the Ten Commandments and see
what alternatives there would be to these ten rules and see that the
alternatives are not good.
To
then catch a wider view of the Law we will briefly observe the social
laws of the Covenant as seen in chapters 21-23 of Exodus and then
have a scan over the laws of Leviticus to see even further the scope
of these social guidelines given by God to Israel
.
In
this process, I hope we will see that actually, virtually all of these
laws are quite plain, obvious and acceptable and do not warrant the
criticisms that are so often made. They are laws for establishing
a society that is peaceful, orderly and stable.
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22.1
The Complaints that are made
One
thing that I have observed over the years, is that given the opportunity
the world takes delight in ridiculing the Law of Moses by picking
out obscure commands and mocking them as either ridiculous or irrelevant
to modern society.
For
example, in the TV series “The West Wing” the writers (headed up by
a Jew) had Josiah Bartlett, the President, appear very knowledgeable
about the Bible as a Catholic, and from time to time had him deride
some of the laws found in the early books of the Bible.
To
make this appear more reasonable, he did this in each case to counteract
some very poorly behaved Christians who tended to live with one eye
on the Old Testament. The individuals deserved chastising but the
examples given so often revealed a lack of understanding of the Law.
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22.2
How the Law of Moses came into Being
We
refer here to the Law as ‘the Law of Moses' to emphasise that it was
law given by God to Moses for the people of Israel
. That specifically anchors it
in a particular part of Israel
's history – the beginning of
it. Before Israel
finally went into the Promised Land Moses, in the book we call Deuteronomy,
reminded Israel
how this law had come:
Deut
4:11-13 “You
came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with
fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then
the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words
but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his
covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow
and then wrote them on two stone tablets.”
One
thing about Deuteronomy is that sometimes it does appear repetitious,
because Moses knew that his people needed to hear it again and again
if they were to take it in, so a little later we find him saying it
again:
Deut
5:2-6 “The
LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not
with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with
all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke to you face to
face out of the fire on the mountain. (At that time I stood between
the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you
were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt
,
out of the land of slavery.”
Now
note several things that come out of this:
- First,
the Law was conveyed at a specific time-space point of history at
a specific geographical location that all Israel
knew about. It wasn't something
subsequently made up.
- Second,
and most importantly, the Law was given as a foundation of a binding
agreement or ‘covenant' between God and Israel
.
- Third, the first part of the covenant
involved the Ten Commandments, the first FOUR of which are about
relationship with God.
- To see these things further we need
to go back to the original action in the book of Exodus:
Ex
19:4 You
yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt
,
and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
Ex
20:2 I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt
,
out of the land of slavery.
- Twice
there is reference by God to what He has done for Israel
.
- The God to whom they are about to
join themselves is identified as the all-powerful God who delivered
them out of Pharaoh's hand and through the desert.
Ex
19:3-6 Then
Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain
and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob
and what you are to tell the people of Israel: `You yourselves have
seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and
brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant,
then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although
the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and
a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
- The basic feature of the covenant
is stated
- Israel
are to obey all God says (the
Law)
- God will then treat them as a treasured
possession, i.e. look after them
Ex
20:7 And
God spoke all these words:
- Then follow the Ten Commandments
- But these aren't all the covenant:
Ex
21:1 These
are the laws you are to set before them:
- Then follow two and a half chapters
of laws (more appear in Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy).
Ex
24:3,4,7 When
Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and laws, they
responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will
do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said….. Then
he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded,
"We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."
- Thus Moses wrote down what God had
just said to him, and this became referred to as the Book of the
Covenant.
- I think we need have no fear of
Moses having forgotten what he had just heard because it was a life
changing encounter that was so vivid he would clearly remember every
part – just as we may remember a vivid film.
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22.3
The Purposes behind the Law
Reading
through the laws given to Moses by the Lord we may suggest the following
are the primary reasons for the Law:
1.
To distinguish Israel
from all other nations
- That has already become
clear from the verses we have seen so far.
- In
the absence of knowledge a few of the laws appear to be specifically
designed to make Israel
act differently from other nations, although it may be that these
laws do have other practical reasons behind them.
- Some
of the laws appear to be prohibitions that stop Israel
doing things that were cultic
practices of surrounding pagan nations.
- Some
of those laws specifically law down health and hygiene rules for
society (as we'll see later in the chapter) thus seeking to keep
Israel
as healthy as possible.
- There
is within this a clear and observable concern within God for Israel
's wellbeing at a very practical
level.
2.
To establish a moral and social code for the community to live by.
- When we look at specific laws we
will see that they lay down guidelines for life.
- In
respect of the Ten Commandments we see that God
gave these commands because the first four match reality and anything
less degenerates into pagan superstition and fear, and the latter
six bring peace , order
and stability to society.
- When we see the other laws that
flow on in Chapter 21 onwards, we see that the laws there:
- prohibit certain behaviour to
safeguard people,
- demands certain behaviour to safeguard
people,
- lays down requirements when people
fail to observe the first two and do wrong and are thus means
of correction.
- God knows that we are sinners and
knows that things will go wrong in society and so gives laws that
both restrain the wrong and lay down guidelines
how to deal with things when they do go wrong .
- In one sense these are the two primary
functions of all laws: to restrain evil, and to deal with it when
it is expressed.
- Seen
in the overall context of the theme of this book, these laws thus
become clear expressions of God's love and goodness in His desire
for Israel 's
good.
3.
To restore sinners to God
- The so-called ceremonial or sacrificial
law (especially seen in Leviticus) is all about restoring people
to God after they have sinned.
- Part of this, no doubt, is to emphasise
the seriousness of sin, but the stronger point is that it is God's
desire to ensure that each member of the covenant community knows
there is a way back when they have fallen, i.e. reconciliation is
more in God's mind than punishment!
- Again seen in the overall context
of this book, I suggest this is a clear expression of God's love
and concern for His people – even when they sin and drift away from
Him. His desire is always to restore.
4.
To establish a Priesthood and place for Worship
- In
Exodus 25-27 and 35 to 38 we find details of the Tabernacle, the
Tent of Meeting where Israel
were to come to meet with
God
- In Exodus 28-30 & 39 we see
regulations for the priests, and also in Lev 21,22, and Num 18.
- There
are, therefore, very clear guidelines for who will be priests, how
they will dress and what they will do. The secondary purpose of
all this must surely be to make Israel
careful about the way they
respond to the Lord and think about Him.
- The system of worship not only provided
for restoring sinners, as we saw above, but also included making
a number of days special when the whole nation would focus on the
Lord and celebrate the wonder of who He was and what He had done
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22.4
Looking at the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps
because there is so much ignorance today as to what the Ten Commandments
actually say, we would do well to restate them and, briefly, as a
means of showing how reasonable they are, note what the alternatives
would lead to:
|
The
Command (summarised) |
The
Alternative (suggested) |
1
|
Have
no other God |
Many
gods – like Romans & Greeks – unreal, there is only One
– why be superstitious? |
2
|
Have
no idols |
Worship
wood or stone - that is meaningless ritual – why be superstitious?
|
3
|
Honour
God's name |
Abuse
God's name – why? Either He doesn't exist or He is a Holy God
who deserves respect and honour. |
4
|
Have
a day's remembrance. |
Work
every day – exhaustion! |
5
|
Honour
parents . |
Dishonour
& abuse parents = family breakdown and fragmentation of
society. |
6
|
Don't
murder . |
Murder
is OK – it is patently obvious it is not! |
7
|
Don't
commit adultery |
Stealing
another's partner is OK – breeds hurt, pain, anger etc. etc
|
8
|
Don't
steal |
Stealing
is fine – life becomes completely insecure. |
9
|
Don't
perjure your neighbour |
It's
OK to lie about others' activities – injustice prevails. |
10
|
Don't
desire what others have .
|
Work
to take others' goods – discontentment and insecurity. |
No,
simply by considering the alternatives, we can see that each of these
ten commands is still applicable today for any wise society. Reverse
the first four and you have pagan superstition. Reverse the latter
six and you have upheaval of society.
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22.5
Looking at the Social Laws of Exodus
A
quick examination of chapters 21-23 of Exodus gives an idea of the
nature of these laws. For a more detailed examination of them, please
go to Appendix1.
21:2-6
|
Law
of Servants
•
The situation would be that a
family was poor and in need and so might ‘sell' a family member
into servitude.
•
They would become the ‘ownership'
of the master who bought them and the family would receive the
payment for them and they would receive their keep and become
almost part of the family who bought them, and would work for
them.
•
The point that is at issue here
is that when such a thing happened, the Lord demands that their
period of service be limited to six years only and then they
be released without payment.
•
Now we need to realise that this
is very different from the concept of slavery for later in the
Law in Leviticus we find the following instructions:
Lev
25:39-43 “
If
one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself
to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated
as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to
work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children
are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and
to the property of his forefathers. Because the Israelites are
my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt
,
they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly,
but fear your God.”
•
i.e. The servant is to be treated
as a ‘hired worker or a temporary resident', NOT a slave!
•
The subject of slaves is worth
a separate study – it is not what most people think:
•
The fact of history is that slaves
did exist. For example, Hagar had been Abraham's slave.
•
In the Law, slaves could be bought
by the Hebrews but only from other nations (Lev 25:44,45)
and many laws protected the welfare of those slaves (e.g. Ex
21:20, 28-32, 23;12, Lev 19:20).
•
The Lord was just as concerned
for them as for servants and for masters.
•
The Law however regulated
the practice, already in the world , of owning slaves,
and ensured in Israel ,
at least, slaves were well cared for.
•
A distinguishing mark for this
special nation displaying God's love!
|
21:7-11
|
Laws
for female servants
•
Space forbids us covering each
of these in detail – they are covered in detail in Appendix
1.
•
These laws protected and looked
after vulnerable women working as servants.
•
Ditto – A distinguishing mark
for this special nation displaying God's love!
|
21:12-14
|
Laws
about manslaughter or Murder
•
provided for escape of one who
accidentally killed another
|
21:15-27
|
Laws
of Personal Injuries
•
laws or the protection of individuals
and compensation etc.
|
21:28
-36 |
Laws
for Injuries caused by Animals
•
very similar to our modern laws
on ‘Strict Liability'
|
22:1-4
|
Laws
of Theft
•
Being an agricultural economy,
theft of animals was clearly the worst sort of theft
•
a strong penalty made for a strong
deterrent.
•
protecting your home at night
echoes modern legal dilemmas
|
22:5-15
|
Laws
of Negligence
•
the forerunner of our modern laws
on negligence and duties of care
|
22:16-31
|
Laws
of Social Responsibility
•
protects young women being taken
advantage of,
•
also aliens, widows & orphans
and the poor generally,
•
also strong injunctions against
occultic activities that would lead the nation away from God,
•
also requirements to distinguish
human behaviour from animal, and maintain the design of God
for humanity,
•
strong injunctions to maintain
the national relationship with God.
|
23:1-9
|
Laws
of Justice
•
requirement to maintain truth
& integrity in the legal system,
•
also to maintain harmony in society,
even with those you don't get on with.
|
23:10-14
|
Sabbath
Laws
•
Laws to ensure rest for the community
and strengthening of their relationship with the Lord.
|
23:14
-19 |
Annual
Festivals
•
to establish 3 annual celebrations
and strengthen their relationship with the Lord.
|
When
we examine all of these laws in detail (see Appendix 1) we find they
are quite reasonable for this special nation with a special relationship
with the Lord. There is nothing strange or freaky about them. These
were the basic laws of the covenant, the requirements of the Lord
to ensure Israel ,
unique among the nations, lived according to God's design for mankind,
even though it is now after the Fall and has to take that into account.
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22.6
Looking at the Laws of Leviticus
Now
the laws we have outlined above were not the only laws of what became,
overall, to be referred to as the Law of Moses:
Lev
1:1,2 The
LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He
said, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `When any of
you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal
from either the herd or the flock.
-
Again and again in these early chapters
in Leviticus we find reference to the Lord speaking to Moses (see
also 4:2, 5;14, 6:1.6:9, 6:19
, 6:24
, 7:22
, 7:28
), nine times in all. Making
offerings was part of the expression of their relationship with
the Lord.
-
We see here that these additional
laws were conveyed to Moses at his regular encounters with God at
the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting.
We
would do well to note some of these laws to help us understand God's
care for Israel :
Lev
1-7 |
Laws
of Sacrifice or Offering
•
These were primarily guidance
on how the individual Israelite, or a leader, could express
their worship in an acceptable manner that did not veer towards
the occult practices of their neighbours.
•
They also gave means for an individual,
or a leader representing the people, to carry out a sacrificial
ritual as a means of reinstating their relationship with the
Lord after they had sinned.
|
Lev
8-10 |
Directions
about the priests
|
Lev
11 |
Laws
about clean and unclean food
There
may be three reasons for distinguishing between food that may
be eaten and that which was forbidden:
1.
Possibly to constantly remind Israel
that they are a special
unique people
2.
Possibly because some foods were used by pagan nations for worship,
3.
Probably for hygiene reasons - that
the forbidden creatures were the most likely to carry infection
and this was one way that the Lord was protecting His people.
|
Lev
12 |
Laws
of Childbirth
•
Procedures to be followed after
childbirth. Because these are often misunderstood we need to
consider these in more detail. Consider:
•
The word ‘unclean' as we use it
in these verses needs to be understood. Sex
is God's idea and so the sexual act and childbirth are God's
design and are not to be seen in a negative light.
•
“A
woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be
ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean
during her monthly period.” (v.2)
•
NB. “Ceremonially unclean” The
word ‘unclean', I would suggest, refers less to any moral or
sanitary state but simply means ‘not in a fit state' to go through
the various rites of the Tabernacle worship.
•
Modern helps
were not available and a woman's period would often be quite
debilitating
•
The Lord in fact excused the woman
having her period, or recovering from childbirth, from having
to attend the ceremonial rites. It was in fact, a relief for
her.
•
“Then
the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her
bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary
until the days of her purification are over.”
(v.4)
•
Again ‘purification' simply means
‘is completely finished with and her body is starting to return
to normal'.
•
The ‘not
touch anything sacred' simply is an embargo on
her going anywhere near the Tabernacle and the required rites.
•
She is excused all this while
she gets over her childbirth.
•
If anything these rules highlight
the special feeling of the time of childbirth and say, “You
don't have to worry during this time about all the ceremonial
things; you just concentrate on recovering.”
|
Lev
13-15 |
Laws
of health & Infections
•
health laws that seek to restrain
infections - guidance for
a clinical procedure |
Lev
19 |
Misc.
Laws |
We
have jumped to chapter 19 because a) we haven't the space to cover
all the laws and b) this chapter provides an interesting gathering
of laws, some of which are the ones that have been derided as I mentioned
at the beginning of this chapter. For that reason we will consider
them separately in outline here and in detail in Appendix 2.
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22.7
Leviticus Chapter 19 - Misc. Laws
v.3
|
About
honour: Respect his mother and father, and honour God through
the Sabbath |
v.4.
|
Avoid
idols |
v.5-8
|
How
to have fellowship with God through an Offering |
v.9,10
|
Leave
last of harvest for the poor |
v.11
|
Don't
lie, steal or deceive |
v.12
|
Honour
God's name |
v.13
|
Be
honest with neighbours and as an employer |
v.14
|
Care
for the disabled |
v.15
|
Be
just and honest |
v.16
|
Don't
slander. care for your neighbour |
v.17
|
Don't
hold bad attitudes about your family, Speak out about wrong
|
v.18
|
Don't
seek revenge |
v.19
|
Do
not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field
with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds
of material.
•
These may be a
reminder that God is Creator and He has made things differently
•
They may have scientific reasons
of which we are not yet aware |
v.20-22
|
Seeks
to provide for the protection of a slave girl while calling
to account the man who takes advantage of her. |
v.23-25
|
Respecting
the land for the first 5 years after entry |
v.26
|
Don't
eat meat with blood in it – respects life
Avoid
occult activities |
v.27,28
|
Do
not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges
of your beard. Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo
marks on yourselves.
•
The reference to hair referred
to the pagan practice of shaping the hair as part of mourning
practices, and the disfiguring of the body and tattooing were
similarly performed in such pagan rights. Anything that was
associated with the pagan practices of the former inhabitants
of the land were to be shunned. |
v.29
|
Don't
sell your daughter into prostitution |
v.30
|
Respect
God through Sabbath observance and use of the Tabernacle |
v.31
|
Avoid
mediums and occult behaviour |
v.32
|
Respect
the elderly |
v.33,34
|
Look
after foreigners living with you |
v.35,26
|
Use
honest weights and measures |
Looking
back over this list of miscellaneous
laws we note the following:
•
Some are about maintaining a good relationship
with God (v.3,5-8, 12, 23-26, 30) and so
•
some are about avoiding false idol
worship (v.4), and