`The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul`, sings David in Psalm 19. `Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long… My soul is consumed with longing for your laws!`, sings Psalm 119. Really?
Many of us think of the old testament law as pretty grim. But actually, the instructions God gave at Sinai contained a justice and wholesomeness like nothing else of their time. There’s lots about generosity, for example. Every third year your tithe goes to feed the immigrants, the fatherless and the widows, as well as the Levites in `fulltime ministry` (Deut 14:29). (And other years, you can use your tithe to buy food and drink and have a big party in and with God’s presence, v26!) Don’t be too thorough at harvest time, says God, leave some there for the poor (Lev 19 and again Deut 24). Indeed anyone is allowed to eat grapes or corn from anybody’s field, just don’t put any in your basket to take away (Deut 23:24).
Then there’s lots about protection of the weak – widows, orphans, immigrants (`The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself`, Lev 19:34); and especially the poor. Don’t charge them interest, says God (Ex 22:25). If you take their cloak as pledge for a loan, return it by nightfall (Ex 22:26: `What else will he sleep in?`); don’t take someone’s means of livelihood as a pledge (Deut 24:6), and protect their dignity – don’t go into their house to get the pledge (v10). And then there’s the really big one – jubilee (Lev 25): every 50 years there was a joyful moment when the trumpet was blown and everyone could return to their ancestral property – which not only made for community stability, but meant that no one could ruin their family forever, or fall too far. A marvellous idea – with contemporary political implications…
There’s a surprising amount about compassion for animals; even wild animals (Ex 23:10) and wild birds (Deut 22:7). Don’t muzzle a working ox, says God, let it feed (Deut 25:4). If you see an overloaded donkey, help it (Deut 22:4); and make sure your own donkey gets a rest (Ex 23:12). And this extends to `the donkey of someone who hates you`: if you come across it wandering away, bring it back to him; and if it falls because it’s overloaded (your enemy’s fault), `Be sure you help him with it!’ (Ex 23:4).
There’s lots more about justice: laws insisting on `honest scales and honest weights… I am the Lord your God` (Lev 19:36); laws insisting on equality before the law, outlawing `favouritism to the great` and, equally, `partiality to the poor` (Lev 19:15); laws insisting on justice for workers, with weekly rest days (Ex 23:12), and prompt payment before sunset particularly if they are poor or immigrants (Deut 24:15). And there’s the famous regulation keeping the newly-married husband from having to go to war in his first year of marriage: `For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married!` (Deut 24:5). We read so many of these with a deep sense of wholesomeness. It’s good to see what God cares about, and we see underlying, thought-provoking principles that deserve careful reflection as to how they might be worked out in our very different situation. `All Scripture`, says Paul, including these, `is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness`; and perhaps we’re beginning to see why the Lord commanded Joshua to meditate on the Law day and night as a direct route to being `prosperous and successful` (Jos 1:8)!
Of course as we do so, we may also find laws we really struggle with. Last time we looked at some of the reasons; one factor I didn’t mention then was the very strong laws drawing a line around Israel’s national worship-assembly. These seem to be another example of the foundational imaginative training God wanted to give His people regarding His absolute holiness: in the worship at the centre of God’s chosen nation, holiness must be seen to be totally uncompromising. As we read some of these, we remember thankfully how God taught that first lesson about holiness over and over again in the old testament, but then in the new testament He built on that foundation to reveal a different side of His nature: `The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ` (John 1:17).
But let’s finish this week with two verses from Exodus 21 with very practical implications. First, 21:22-23, which seems to speak to the abortion issue: there are extremely serious penalties if men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and serious injury results. But `serious injury` to whom? Presumably not only to the woman, otherwise the rule should protect any woman whether she was pregnant or not. So while we wouldn’t build our whole approach to abortion on this verse, it does seem to give very strong protection indeed to the foetus; which, again, has political implications.
Then 21:7-11 may be very important indeed for our approach to divorce and remarriage. The situation they describe isn’t totally clear, but they seem to be (again) regulating a less than ideal practice, where in exchange for money a father might arrange a place for his daughter. That money seems to be a dowry or bride price, because `broken faith` in v8 implies that a firm commitment was involved in its payment: either the man who paid the dowry is getting to know her, deciding whether to marry her (`selected her for himself`, v8); or he has chosen her with a view to an arranged marriage for his son, in which case, says v9 firmly, she must have `the rights of a daughter`. So this is not just a concubine. (`Marital rights` in v10 likewise implies that a marriage is in view.)
If that’s so, it’s very important practically for our whole understanding of divorce. Often Bible Christians see adultery as the only biblical ground for divorce and remarriage. But David Instone Brewer argues that the whole environment of Jesus and his disciples was one where everyone agreed, from vv11-12, that if a husband did not provide his wife with `food, clothing and marital rights`, then this neglect or abuse was a breaking of the marriage vows sufficient for divorce (which in that culture meant remarriage). Then it follows for us too that, besides adultery, extremes of neglect, abuse or abandonment are equally biblical grounds for divorce and remarriage. Maybe; have a look at the comprehensive site www.divorce-remarriage.com and decide for yourself. Let no one say Exodus isn’t practical…
