Exodus 21-23: The Book of the Covenant

My Summary
This section contains the laws of the Book of the Covenant. These are specific social and cultic laws governing life and religion in Israel. Many of these laws look forward to when Israel will be in the Promised Land and most of them expound upon the general principles given in the Ten Commandments.

Random Historical Things
1. The Hebrew word translated slave, servant, manservant and maidservant is the same word. The word can serve across a wide range of meanings. It can mean anything from a household servant to an actual slave. Slavery is a difficult topic in the Bible especially because of the experience of racial slavery in the United States. Slavery in Israel was different in that it was almost always voluntary and not permanent. One could sell themselves into slavery if they owed a debt. All Hebrew slaves were freed after seven years. Even the provisions given for a family to sell their daughter into debt was with the understanding that she would eventually become the wife either of her master or his son. These verses specifically forbid kidnapping someone and forcing them into slavery. Also the laws in these verses give rights to slaves which were unheard of it other cultures of the time. Other cultures were only concerned about slaves because of the financial loss of the master while God provided protections for the slaves as people. So God worked within this cultural institution and placed boundaries around it to make it as just as possible. There is much else that could be set about this subject, but for the space of time I will leave it at that.

2. If a master gave his slave a wife who was also a slave, the slave was not allowed to take her with him like he could if she had been his wife before he became a slave (may have to read that sentence twice). However, this did not mean that he was separated from them for life. Now that he was free it would not take long for an industrious worker to save enough to purchase the freedom of his family.

3. It may seem strange to mention bestiality in the midst of warnings about idolatry, however, often bestiality was practiced in order to gain favor with the gods in other cultures.

4. Ancient law codes like this were common among many ancient cultures. The most famous is the Law Code of Hammurabi. Many Sinai laws are similar to laws in the Code of Hammurabi. Women and poor people, however, were given many more rights in the Sinai Law. The Code of Hammurabi also provided different sentences depending on what social class had committed the crime while Sinai law provided the same sentences for rich and poor.

And So What We Have Learned Applies to Our Lives Today...
What I am going to do for the application is split up the verses into each section and talk about what we can learn for today. Although these specific laws and penalties do not apply, we can learn a lot about what is important to God and how seriously He takes certain things.

Laws on Slaves: 21:1-11
These laws set important rules concerning those who work and the ones who they work for. Today this would be equivalent to employers and employees. These verse affirm the rights and responsibilities of both. Workers should labor well for their masters and masters should treat their employees well and honor the terms of their contract.

Laws on Injuries to People and Animals: 21:12-36
These laws show the consequences for harming those whom God has breathed life into. This section contains the infamous "eye for and eye" and "tooth for a tooth" statements which Jesus seemed to repudiate. However, Jesus was repudiated the lack of grace shown by the Pharisees to their community. Jesus was not abdicating the right of civil government to punish murder. All of these cases required a court to be involved, God was not giving the Israelites permission for personal revenge. Personally we should practice grace and mercy and return good for evil. The government does have a special decree from God, however, to punish evil and that may include punishment up to and including death.

Laws on Property: 22:1-17
This section affirms the right of private property. Those who steal not only must return what they took, but they must return double or even triple what they took. This section also affirms the right of people to defend their home, however, it does not give the right to kill an intruder if it is obvious that they are just stealing and intend no harm. Even thieves have the right to life. This section also shows the responsibility to care for the things we borrow from others. Finally we see the importance of abstaining from sex until marriage.

Social and Religious Laws: 22:18-23:9
This section contains many principles. The first principle is to not serve anything but the Lord. However, one of the main points in this section is difficult to swallow for upper middle class conservative capitalist Americans. Because we are afraid of being a church that helps the poor and has no gospel or theology, often we become churches with lots of theology but ignore the poor. There is no doubt that God desires us to assist the poor and needy even to the point of not charging interest for the loans we offer them. Included in the category of the needy are immigrants, poor people, widows and orphans. Yes God does name immigrants in this category. Perhaps we need to do some soul searching about the way we view the poor and needy since God took it so seriously with Israel. One caveat God gives is not to take the side of the poor in a dispute simply because they are poor. Do not show favoritism to rich or poor. Finally God commands not to take bribes, not to go with the crowd agaisnt what is right and to help even those you dislike.

Laws for Religious Feasts: 23:10-19
These festivals were meant to help Israel remember what God had done for them and to celebrate what God was continuing to do for them.

Instruction to Obey God: 23:20-33
God implores Israel to remain faithful to Him and promises that He will be with them and they will be succesful if they keep the laws of this covenant He is making with them. Many commentators believe that the angel talked about in this passage is Jesus Christ because of there are divine attributes ascribed to Him yet He is clearly a separate person from God. In the next chapter God is going to ratify this covenant with Israel.