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EXODUS 21–23

Week 5, Day 4

I am struck by the simplicity and directness of these laws, and by their mercy, too. If at times they seem severe, the severity is on the side of the injured. It seems almost taken for granted that there will be respect for truth; without it, witnesses are meaningless and the whole structure of the law collapses. Undergirding everything in these laws is a sense that life is lived under the hand of God. All justice and judgment is in the end dependent on this conviction and on the quality of life that comes from it.

There is a restraint on power. In a world where slavery was practiced, these laws limited the slave owner; if he broke a slave’s tooth, the slave was set free in compensation for the tooth (21:27). At a time when women were subservient, protections were nevertheless provided (22:16-17). Perhaps the most helpless in society were the aliens, but they were to be treated fairly because “you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (22:21). And as for the poor, lend to them and do not take interest; and if the surety for your loan is your neighbor’s cloak, don’t keep it at night, for “in what else shall that person sleep?” (22:25-27).

And above all, there shall be justice. You shall not side with a majority (23:2), nor take a bribe (23:8), nor shall you even in pity be partial to the poor (23:3). Your fairness shall extend to the land, allowing it to rest every seventh year (23:10-11).

PRAYER: Give me regard, O Lord, for your commandments, so that I am fair to my fellow human beings and to all creation; in your name. Amen.

Find four or five examples of biblical laws dealing with common things that have their basis in a sense of justice or of divine purpose.