Social and Religious Laws

When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins. You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live. Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction. You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans. If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate. You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people. You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. You shall be people consecrated to me; therefore you shall not eat any meat that is mangled by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs. (Exodus 22.16-31, NRSV)

Don’t try to get what is not yours.

Treat those who have no one to take care of them as if they are yours to care for.

You see God has placed us all here to be God’s hands and feet and to be the protector of those who can not protect themselves.

Give to God what is His and make sure you use what God has blessed you with to help those who need help.

Laws of Restitution

When someone steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, the thief shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. The thief shall make restitution, but if unable to do so, shall be sold for the theft. When the animal, whether ox or donkey or sheep, is found alive in the thief’s possession, the thief shall pay double. If a thief is found breaking in, and is beaten to death, no bloodguilt is incurred; but if it happens after sunrise, bloodguilt is incurred. When someone causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets livestock loose to graze in someone else’s field, restitution shall be made from the best in the owner’s field or vineyard. When fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, the one who started the fire shall make full restitution. When someone delivers to a neighbor money or goods for safekeeping, and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, then the thief, if caught, shall pay double. If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall be brought before God, to determine whether or not the owner had laid hands on the neighbor’s goods. In any case of disputed ownership involving ox, donkey, sheep, clothing, or any other loss, of which one party says, “This is mine,” the case of both parties shall come before God; the one whom God condemns shall pay double to the other. When someone delivers to another a donkey, ox, sheep, or any other animal for safekeeping, and it dies or is injured or is carried off, without anyone seeing it, an oath before the Lord shall decide between the two of them that the one has not laid hands on the property of the other; the owner shall accept the oath, and no restitution shall be made. But if it was stolen, restitution shall be made to its owner. If it was mangled by beasts, let it be brought as evidence; restitution shall not be made for the mangled remains. When someone borrows an animal from another and it is injured or dies, the owner not being present, full restitution shall be made. If the owner was present, there shall be no restitution; if it was hired, only the hiring fee is due. (Exodus 22:1-15, NRSV)

Basically, from all of this, we get if you do wrong to your neighbor you need to pay them double. So, in short, don’t wrong your neighbor.

Love your neighbor and don’t take their stuff. Do for them as you would like others to do to you and protect their stuff as well as you protect yours.

The Laws Concerning Property

When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on the owner, then the owner shall pay whatever is imposed for the redemption of the victim’s life. If it gores a boy or a girl, the owner shall be dealt with according to this same rule. If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall pay to the slaveowner thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal. If someone’s ox hurts the ox of another, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead animal they shall also divide. But if it was known that the ox was accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not restrained it, the owner shall restore ox for ox, but keep the dead animal. (Exodus 21:28-36, NRSV)

If you have an ox and it is known to gore than keep it locked up or on a leash…

Ok most of us don’t have oxen nor do we dig pits. So what does this say to us?

If you have property and it does damage to others, then you need to make restitution for that. You need to be aware what you and your property are doing to others and control that. So that the lively hood of others is not damaged.

Simply put Love your neighbors and do what is best for them.

 

The Law Concerning Violence

Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death. If it was not premeditated, but came about by an act of God, then I will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee. But if someone willfully attacks and kills another by treachery, you shall take the killer from my altar for execution. Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death. Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death. Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death. When individuals quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or fist so that the injured party, though not dead, is confined to bed, but recovers and walks around outside with the help of a staff, then the assailant shall be free of liability, except to pay for the loss of time, and to arrange for full recovery. When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property. When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth. (Exodus 21:12-27, NRSV)

This is a passage that gets quoted a lot, with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But do we use that passage correctly?

Do we understand what it means?

It means and this whole passage attests to, you can seek no more from a person than what they took from you. If a person cut off your hand, you can not kill them, or take their arm. The most you can do according to this passage is take their hand. The same hand. If they took you non-dominant hand, you can’t take their dominant hand, you have to take their non-dominant hand.

It is for justice. And not divine retribution. You can not take more than was taken from you.

It is not about getting even in the way we think of that today, but a way to make sure that people pay for what they have done by doing to them what they did to someone else.

Justice.

Are you just in your dealings in the world?

The Law Concerning Slaves

These are the ordinances that you shall set before them: When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. But if the slave declares, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person,” then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money. (Exodus 21:1-11, NRSV)

You shall keep the Hebrew slave for 6 years, but in the seventh year, he shall be set free! No long-term slavery. Unless he chooses to after he is released.

Then the master takes him to the post and drives an awl through his ear and gives him a ring and he becomes the master’s slave for life. The male slave likes his place there so the master puts a ring on it!

That is what I tell people happened to me, that I loved serving God, that God pierced my ears!

Has God pierced your ears?

Commandments to Honor Others

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:12-16, NRSV)

This is the first 5 commandments or words from the second tablet which is all about the horizontal relationship. We think these words or commandments are about how we are to act towards God, or how we are to live for God. Really these commandments or words are about others. They really are not about your life. They are not to be followed so that you can have your best life here and now. These guidelines or words are given so that you can help others have their best life now.

Do not steal, do not kill, do not bear false witness, do not commit adultery, all of these are things that hurt others. By doing them you are tearing another down. We are to lift others up out of the muck they are living in.

When Jesus said, Love your neighbor as yourself” He was quoting Leviticus 19:18. This is not a new concept and was instilled in God’s people from the start. Yet it is the hardest thing for us to do because it is about focusing on making someone else’s life better, not our own.

How can you be a spreader of God’s love and work to make the world a better place?

Sabbatical Year and Sabbath

For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips. (Exodus 23:10-13, NRSV)

6 days God worked in creation and on the 7th day God rested. So it is with us, we work for 6 days and on the 7th we should rest.

And we are also told to let our fields rest every 7th year. Work them for 6 but the 7th let them go and allow those who are in need to feed off of their crops.

Do we do this?

Do we rest?

Do we rest the land?

The Law Concerning the Altar

The Lord said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the Israelites: “You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.” (Exodus 20:22-26, NRSV)

Do not make silver or gold idols, or use those things to build an altar. Build an altar out of the earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings.

So what is your altar made from?

The People Feared God

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.” Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. (Exodus 20:18-21, NRSV)

Do not be afraid for God has come to test you and to make you fear Him and will not sin.

So if you are afraid to come close to God, you are not alone. But God is not a God that should be feared for what He will do to us, God should be held in awe, or reverence, which is a holy fear.

This is the fear parents want their children to have of them. Not that you want your children to be afraid of you, so they know they can come and talk to you about issues and what is happening, but you want them to respect you and wonder what might happen if they do not follow the rules. That is what God wants from us. Awe and respect.

The People Consecrated

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.” When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses: “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, “Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman.” On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder. When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to the Lord to look; otherwise many of them will perish. Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them.” Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.’“ The Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them.” So Moses went down to the people and told them. (Exodus 19:7-25, NRSV)

Some of these readings are hard to understand. Like here we have the Lord saying to Moses to go and get Aaron and bring him up the mountain with you, but if you let anyone else come up the mountain the Lord will break out against them. The Lord speaks of Himself in the third person…

We would not do this, as it is not proper for us to do that. But the Lord can because the Lord can do whatever the Lord wants!

But here in this reading the Lord also consecrates His people. He washes them and makes them His.

All who are a part of the Israelites is a part of His people.

We too can be a part of that people. When God washes us and consecrates us for His work, then we are His people.

How do you do the work of the Lord?