The First Round of Laws

 Exodus 21-22

            If we see the so-called Ten Commandments as a prologue to the covenant of Sinai, in which the Lord is summarizing what a holy nation looks like, then chapters 21-22 (and Monday’s reading of chapter 23) are further specifications about that the structure of that holy society. Hopefully we can read these laws and see that Israel is to be a just, ordered, and merciful people.

            The first topic is slavery. Our American experience is with chattel slavery where slaves are merely property forever , and it is with a form of slavery that was based on race, pure and simple. We rightly recoil at the thought that slavery existed and that the Bible seems to condone it. Our revulsion is mitigated a little by the reality that in many ancient societies people were slaves, but those slaves were not always but often treated fairly well and became people of substance. (Consider Joseph in Potiphar’s house.) So, I’m not trying to justify an unjust system but I am pointing out that not all slavery was like the American system.

            More on point today is that these laws, which allow slavery, also strive to make it more humane. Note, for example, the limit on slavery for six years. This is partly because one of the main reasons people became slaves was because they had accrued debt they couldn’t repay. Moses’ limit says that people shouldn’t pay for their mistakes forever. Similarly with the refusal to set a female servant free (Exodus 21:7). In a world in which a woman’s standing and care came from her relationship to a man as husband, father, or master, to release her without those protections would be very hard on her. Better, the thought goes, to keep her in her master’s house, where she is fed and cared for, than to release her to social nothingness with no means of support.

            The next section on personal injuries (21:12-36) is likewise interested directed toward mercy. In this case, mercy is shown by limiting vengeance and retaliation. The famous “law of retaliation”—an eye for an eye—is just such an example. It’s really saying, “You may only take an eye for an eye; you can’t take both eyes or a whole head.”

            The final section (22:16-31) continues the theme with its concerns for protecting a violated virgin and taking care of widows and orphan.

            One other thing to note is the concern for a well-ordered society. Attacking or even cursing father or mother is punishable by death (21:15, 17). An attack on one’s parents is to unravel the very basis of a culture, the family. This strikes modern Americans as strange since we see the individual as the basic unit of society, but most ancient societies were more collective in nature, and the family was what counted. The notion of living under authority, whether in the home or in a nation, comes up a lot in the Scriptures. We’ll look for another chance to talk about it more length.