Searching for Wisdom
Many years ago, when I got really
serious about studying political and economic issues from a Christian
perspective, I started in the New Testament. I found some good stuff,
but there was just not enough material there to do the job. The criteria
and principles from which a political or economic theory could be
developed were missing. Jesus made lots of comments with political
implications and his comments about paying taxes are interesting.
He said to them, "Then give to
Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Luke 20:25).
This response was very clever, because
it silenced his critics at the time, but it less clear what it means in
terms of political theory.
Paul and Peter made some interesting
comments about submission to political authorities (Romans 13:1-7, 1
Peter 2:13-17). However, they did not say which authorities are
legitimate and which are not. It is uncertain whether they were giving
universal principles or just acknowledging the reality of their current
situation. These passages do not provide the basis for a political
theory without the support of deeper analysis and reinforcing
principles. The New Testament simply does not provide sufficient
guidance for those attempting to develop a Christian approach to
economics and political theory
I then went back to the Old Testament
Prophets. They were great at pointing out what was wrong with their own
societies. However when it came to understanding what should be, there
was just not enough there. None of the prophets describe an ideal
political and economic system.
I actually had to go back to Exodus and
Deuteronomy to find a complete political and economic system. Even in
these books it is hidden, but a complete system is there. It just takes
some digging out.
Law and Judges
God’s system of government and
justice is straightforward, but effective. It consists of wise judges
applying God’s law. Understanding how judges are raised and how they
operate is relatively easy. The challenge is to identify the universal
laws that judges must apply. The problem is that God’s judicial laws
are mixed up with a lot of other material and scattered throughout the
books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The universal
judicial laws are hidden among instructions about the tabernacle
sacrifices that were fulfilled in Jesus and rules that were only
relevant while children of Israel were living in Canaan. Therefore,
before attempting to apply God’s system of law and judges, we must
identify the laws that that God intends for every human society.
Our challenge is to identify the
instructions that applied only to Israel and distinguish them from
permanent the laws that allow any human society to function peaceably.
Searching through the stuff that is no longer relevant will not be easy,
but we should be wise enough to handle the challenge.
Most Christians give up before they get
this far. They acknowledge the need for law, but just assume that God’s
law is irrelevant. His law is ignored, despite Jesus statement that it
still stands and Paul saying that it is perfect. Rejecting God’s law
and replacing it with human law is foolish. We cannot say that God’s
law is unusable, if we have not attempted to discern which of his laws
are relevant to the operation of civil society in the modern world.
Which Law
The choice is never between law and no
law. The real choice is always “whose law?” Actually, there are only
two options: God’s law or man’s law. Plenty of human law makers are
putting up their hands, but if God is our Lawgiver (Is 33:22) his law
will be better. In a choice between God’s law and man’s law,
Christians should prefer God’s law to human law.
Deciding that God’s law is better
than human law is easy Defining the judicial laws that he wants applied
in every human society is a more challenging task. This is my goal for
this article. I am encouraged by the promise of Psalm 119:97-100.
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
Book of the Law
The first five books of the Old
Testament are called the Torah. This Hebrew word is often translated as
law, but a better translation would be “instruction” or “teaching”.
The Torah contains God’s instruction to the children of Israel about
the way they should live.
A common Old Testament expression is
the “Words of the Law” (Dabar, Torah). Moses was told to write the
Words of the Law.
After Moses finished writing in a
book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this
command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the
LORD: "Take this book of the Law and place it beside the ark of
the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness
against you (Deut 31:24).
He read from this book to the people.
Assemble the people—men, women and
children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and
learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words
of this law (Deut 31:12)
Joshua also read from the Words of the
Law
Afterward, Joshua read all the words
of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written
in the book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had
commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly (Joshua
8:34-35).
Moses and Joshua taught the children of
Israel from the Words of the Law.
Sometimes the Torah is called the “Book
of the Covenant”.
Then he took the Book of the
Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will
do everything the LORD has said; we will obey" (Ex 24:7).
Another title is the “Book of the Law”.
Be very strong; be careful to obey
all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without
turning aside to the right or to the left (Jos 23:6).
The Torah contains instructions for
life.
The Big Box
The five books of the Torah cover a
variety of topics. It includes:
- creation
- history
- exodus
- civil laws
- sacrifices
- tabernacle design
- covenants
- infection control and hygiene
- genealogies
- blessings and curses
- rules for priesthood
- land distribution
The Torah is a big box. A lot of
different stuff is all mixed up together and sometimes repeated. We need
to be clear about which parts have been fulfilled, and which parts
remain in force.
Unworkable Principles
We need a principle of interpretation
to help us decide which parts of the law still apply. Several of the
principles that have been considered do not work in practice.
i) Confirmation in the New Testament
One common approach is to say that only
those parts of the Torah that are confirmed in the New Testament are
still applicable in this age. This appears sensible at first glance, but
it does not really resolve the problem. Some issues covered by the Torah
are not dealt with in the New Testament. That does not mean they are
irrelevant. Often they are not mentioned in the New Testament, because
they are already fully covered in the Old Testament.
ii) Exalting the Ten Commandments
A common principle of interpretation is
to raise the Ten Commandments above other laws. They are the very well
known, but they are not very helpful for deciding what is relevant to
our world. We have no problem seeing murder and theft as crimes, but now
that Jesus has fulfilled the sabbath requirements and created a better
rest (Heb 4:1-11), sabbath breaking cannot be a crime. Coveting cannot
be a crime, because the state cannot see into a person’s heart. That
means at least two of the Ten Commandments cannot be enforced in a
modern society.
The Ten Commandments cannot be applied
directly in the modern world. They hang on many courthouse walls, but
they are mostly ignored. Very few Christians could list all ten, and
fewer still would want them applied. They are not the key that we need.
iii) Land Laws
Some commentators have suggested that
laws connected to land were nullified when Israel lost the land in AD
70. This criterion does not really work, because “connection to the
land” is impossible to define.
iv) No Law
The most common approach is to treat
all biblical law as irrelevant. This view is based on the idea that we
live under grace and not under law. This is appropriate in our personal
lives, but is not relevant to the working of society. All societies need
laws to function effectively. As long as a society includes some sinful
people, laws will be needed to restrain the worst of their behaviour.
Even with the grace of God, no Christian wants to live in a society
without laws.
Useful Principles
Several principles help us to interpret
the Torah.
i) History has a Place
The creation account in Genesis is
really important for understanding the origins of the world. The history
of God’s dealing with the patriarchs and the children of Israel are
important for our warning and encouragement (1 Cor 10:6,11). These parts
of the Torah have not been set aside, but are all still relevant for our
understanding of who we are.
The genealogies are a special type of
history. They help us understand the ministry of Jesus. However, the
genealogies are less important in the modern world, because, ethnicity
is irrelevant for those in Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave
nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you
belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise (Gal 3:28-29).
Through Jesus, all Christians are heirs
of Abraham, regardless of their genealogy.
Modern Jews have a problem with their
geologies anyway. The links with these genealogies have been broken by
the events of history, so they are unable to trace their lineage back to
biblical genealogies.
ii) Israel-Only Stuff
Significant parts of the Torah were
specifically for Israel. Many of these were fulfilled by Jesus, so they
are not binding on Christians. The complete set of sacrifices described
in Leviticus were fulfilled by the cross, so they are no longer
relevant. The animal sacrifices never did provide salvation from sin,
but pointed ahead to Jesus. They had to be accompanied by faith to be
effective (Rom 4).
The tabernacle was replaced when the
body of Christ became the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Aaronic
priesthood has been replaced by the priesthood of all believers. Now all
Christians are all priests and kings through Jesus. The passages about
the priesthood might give some insights into following Jesus, but they
no longer need to be implemented directly.
These laws were specifically for
Israel, so they do not apply this side of the cross.
iii) Leviticus for Israel
Leviticus is not universal. The book
was specifically directed to the nation of Israel. It begins with God
directing Moses to speak to the Israelites.
The LORD called to Moses and spoke to
him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, “Speak to the Israelites...”
(Lev 1:1-2).
The phrase “Speak to the children of
Israel” is used in over half of the chapters of the book (1:2, 4:1,
7:28, 11:1, 12:1, 15:2, 18:1, 20:1, 23:2, 25:1, 27:1). In several other
chapters, Moses was told to “Speak to the children of Aaron” (a
reference to the priests). This indicates that the book of Leviticus was
specifically for the people of Israel
The purpose of Leviticus is confirmed
in the final chapters.
These are the decrees, the laws and
the regulations that the LORD established on Mount Sinai between
himself and the Israelites through Moses (Lev 26:46).
The instructions and requirements
outlined in the book govern the relationship between God and Israel.
They are not universal.
The book of Leviticus was given to the
people of Israel to make them distinctive in the time before Jesus came
and changed things forever. It contains a set of rules and regulations
that would give Israel a unique identity and keep them distinct from the
nations. The regulations do not apply to Christians in the modern world,
because the thing that makes us distinct now is our love for one
another.
By this all men will know that you
are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).
Love is a much better distinctive, but
this was not possible before the coming of Jesus. The Holy Spirit had
not been poured on all people, so Israel had to rely on external
differences to mark themselves off from other nations.
The view that Leviticus
is only for Israel is confirmed in the final verse.
These are the commands the LORD gave
Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites (Lev 27:34).
Sorting the Law
God is our lawgiver. His law is found
in the Bible. However, while some of the laws in the Bible have a
universal application, others are just for Israel. The principles
outlined above are helpful, but they do not allow us to sort out the
judicial laws that apply to all people in every age We need a key to
identify the laws that are still relevant now.
I searched many years for a key to
identifying the universal, judicial laws in the Torah. I have learned to
love the book of Moses. I obtained many wonderful insights into the ways
of God. I identified much that was only applicable to Israel before the
ministry of Jesus. I discovered that Leviticus is exclusively for
Israel. Exodus and Deuteronomy are harder to handle, because they seem
to be a mixture of laws for Israel and universal laws. A key is needed
to separate these two types of law.
Laws for Everyman
Recently I found the key I have been
looking for. That key is a phrase in the book of Exodus. Whereas most
laws in Exodus are addressed to Israel, I noticed that a section of laws
in the middle of the book seem to be addressed to a universal man. They
all begin with the expression, “If a man” (kiy ish). These laws are
not addressed to Israel, but to all men. This set of universal laws
begins at Exodus 21:12 and ends at Exodus 22:17.
This section of law also stands out as
being different, because it is expressed in the third person. Most of
the other laws in Exodus are expressed in the second person, ie you
shall not steal, you shall not murder. Moses used "you",
because he was addressing Israel and announcing laws for his listeners
and their descendents. The Ten Commandments are all written in the
second person, as they were spoken to Israel.
The laws beginning at Exodus 21:12 are
written in the third person, ie if he does something, he
shall receive this penalty. This mode of speech is used to when
referring to someone who is not part of the conversation. It points to a
third person, who is not the speaker (I) and not the listener (you).
Moses used the third person here, because this section of laws are for
all people and not just for those who participate in the covenant made
on Mount Sinai.
In Exodus 22:18-19 Moses switches back
to the second person and stops using the expression “if a man”,
which indicates that he changed back to speaking just to Israel.
Therefore, the commands about witchcraft and bestiality in these verses
are only applicable to Israel. They are not part of the universal
judicial laws.
The third factor that distinguishes the
section of laws between Exodus 21:12 and Exodus 22:17 is that the
subject of the verb is always “a man” or “men”. There is no
definite article, so the reference is not to a particular man, but to
any man. These seem to be laws for all men or “everyman”.
The use of the third person and “man”
or “men” as the subject of the command marks off a set of laws that
apply to all people in all societies everywhere. . These laws are not
just for Israel. The penalties for failure to comply with these laws are
specified in a timeless way. I will refer to them as the Judicial Laws,
as God intends them to be applied by judges in every society and
culture.
The Judicial Laws of Moses cover two
areas of life.
- personal injury
- protection of property
Judicial Laws of Moses
Protection of Property
Exodus 22:1-16 deals with protection of
property. These laws define the nature of theft and specify appropriate
remedies. These laws are all expressed in the same way.
If a man steals an ox or a
sheep… (v.1).
If a man causes a field or
vineyard to be grazed over, or lets his beast loose and it feeds in
another man's field… (v.5).
If a man gives to his neighbor
money or goods to keep safe, and it is stolen from the man's house…
(v.7)
If a man gives to his neighbor
a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe, and it dies or
is injured… (v.10).
If a man borrows anything of
his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it…
(v.14).
The structure of these laws is quite
different from the “You shall not steal” in the Ten Commandments.
The latter is limited to a particular group of people represented by the
word “you”. The statements above are not limited and apply to any
person who undertakes the action specified. These laws against harming
property are universal and not limited to the children of Israel.
Taking something that belongs to
another person is forbidden. The scope is not limited to theft, but
includes any careless action that harms another person’s property.
Breach of contract is also prohibited.
Restitution
Restitution is specified as the remedy
in all situations where personal property is damaged or stolen. The
Hebrew word translated as restitution is “shalam”. It is used 18
times in these verses about property, although this is sometime lost in
the translation. Twice the word is doubled for emphasis. Its basic
meaning is “be safe” or “be made complete”. By implication it
can mean “reciprocate, make amends, end, finish, full, make good,
repay, recompense, requite, make restitution, restore”.
The person stealing or damaging the
property of another must “make good” the harm done. They must “restore”
the situation to the way it was before they committed their crime. The
well-known Hebrew word for peace (shalom) comes from Shalam, so it has a
strong sense of restoring peace to a situation that has been disrupted.
Everything harmed must be put right.
The seduction of a young woman is also
a form of theft.
If a man seduces a virgin who
is not betrothed, and lies with her (22:16).
He has stolen the most precious thing
that she has. Loss of virginity might prevent her from finding a good
husband. The man who has robbed her of this potential must compensate
here financially for what she has lost. He must also compensate here for
any physical or emotional harm as well. He must pay the full cost of
restoring her to the position that she was in before he intervened in
here life.
Personal Injury
The second half of Exodus 21 deals with
protection from personal injury. The modern terms are assault and
murder. Murder is the most serious form of assault. These laws are
expressed in the same way as those that deal with protection of
property.
If a man willfully attacks
another to kill him by cunning… (v.14).
If men quarrel and one strikes
the other with a stone or with his fist… (v.18).
If a man hits his manservant
or maidservant with a rod… (v.21).
If men who are fighting hit a
pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely… (v.22).
If a man hits a manservant or
maidservant in the eye and destroys it… (v.26).
If bull gores a man or a woman
to death… (v.28).
If a man opens a pit, or digs
a pit and does not cover it… (v.33)
If a man's ox butts another's…
(v.35).
These laws define the scope of assault.
The most serious assault is murder. The more common assault is one
person striking another with his fist or a weapon. The definition of
assault includes a careless action that causes another person to come to
harm. It extends to harm done to animals.
These laws against assault are
universal in application. They are not directed to a particular people,
but to all people everywhere.
Justice and Mercy
The remedy for a personal injury
involves two principles:
The justice principle specifies that
the person committing the assault should have done to him what he has
done to his victim. This would be perfect justice, but would produce a
lot of violence.
The mercy principle allows the person
assaulted to make a payment sufficient to compensate the victim for the
injury to his body. The principle is defined here with reference to a
person whose actions have taken the life of another.
If a ransom is imposed on him, then
he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on
him (Ex 21:30).
The Hebrew word for ransom is “kopher”,
which means cover or shelter. The figurative meaning is ransom, price or
satisfaction. The ransom is a money payment that that provides shelter
from the justice principle. The person who has caused another die should
really pay with his life, but the payment of a ransom protects him from
the full consequences of his actions. The offender does not have
physical harm done to his body, but will still have to pay a heavy
penalty.
The family of the victim are better
off, because they receive financial compensation for their loss. The
money paid will improve their lives, whereas harming the other person
would only produce emotional satisfaction. Justice is still achieved,
but everyone still living is better off.
Compensation for Injury
The meeting of the principle of justice
with the principle of mercy is very clear in the case of fighting men
striking a pregnant woman by mistake.
If men fight, and hurt a woman with
child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he
shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes
on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But 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,
bruise for bruise. (Ex 21:22-25).
The justice principle in the second
part of this passage describes what the offender deserves. If the woman
or her baby is injured, justice demands the affliction of a similar
injury on the offender. This is expressed in the commonly used, but
misunderstood, expression: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,
bruise for bruise.” The person who harms another deserves the same
thing done to them.
The mercy principle is specified in the
first part of the passage. The offender does not receive physical
punishment, but must pay full financial compensation instead. If no harm
comes to the baby, he shall pay what the woman’s husband demands. If
the woman or the baby is injured, the compensation will be proportional
to the injuries received. In each case the financial compensation must
be approved by judges after listening to witnesses to the crime.
The financial compensation must be
proportional to the loss. “An eye for an eye” is not a justification
for personal revenge, but is the standard of justice to be applied by
the judges when deciding compensation. They will decide the compensation
for an injury to the eye by assessing the economic value of the eye.
This involves estimating the loss of the income and enjoyment resulting
from the lack of sight, just like the lump-sum compensation provided by
some accident insurance companies. Loss of an eye could be worth
$200,000 and loss of a hand might be worth $170,000, whereas a bruise
might only be worth $1,000.
God could not define just compensation
in terms of shekels, because inflation changes the value of a currency
over time. By linking compensation back to the value of the specific
limb or organ, God has provided a principle of compensation that is
relevant in every culture, regardless of the currency in circulation at
the time.
Exodus provides a humane way of making
compensation to the victims of violence. Modern human justice makes
offenders pay fines to the state, but very rarely provides financial
compensation to the victims of violence. This is a good example of God’s
standard of justice being better than human law.
Limited Justice
The judicial laws of Exodus 22:12-22:16
have just two objectives.
- Protection of Property
- Protection of Human Life
God has specified only two types of sin
for which remedy or punishment can be imposed by a human court. In a
biblical system of justice, judges are limited to dealing with two types
of activity.
- Theft or damage to property
- Physical injury to a human person.
The first type of sin is actions that
harm the property of other people. This ranges from theft to careless
actions that harm to another person’s property. The following are
specifically mentioned in the judicial laws.
- Stealing another person’s property
(Ex 22:1).
- Breaking into another person’s
house (Ex 22:2).
- Allowing animals to wander and
destroy another person’s crop (Ex 22:5).
- Allowing fire to spread and destroy
another person’s property (Ex 22:6).
- Losing money that has been handed
over for safekeeping (Ex 22:7). (This is an important principle for
banking).
- Careless care of another person’s
property that results in damage (Ex 22:10-13).
- Damaging animals or equipment that
has been borrowed. (Ex 22:14-15).
The second type of sin consists of
actions that injure the body of another person. This covers the range
from an accidental assault to murder. The following are specifically
mentioned in the judicial laws.
- Assault (Ex 21:18-19).
- Murder with intention to kill (Ex
21:14).
- Manslaughter (Ex 21:13).
- Assaulting a parent is particularly
serious, because God requires children to honour their parents (Ex
21:15).
- Kidnapping is a serious assault,
because it involves theft of another person’s life (Ex 21:16).
- A serious curse can do as harm a
person’s body more than a blow with a fist (Ex 21:17).
- Assaulting and employee (Ex
21:20-21).
- An innocent bystander being injured
by men fighting with each other (Ex 21:22-25).
- Allowing an animal or machinery to
hurt another person (Ex 21:28-32).
- Leaving a hazard unguarded that
hurts another person (Ex 21:33-36).
- Sexual seduction is a serious of
assault (Ex 22:16-17).
The Bible has no distinction between
criminal law where crimes are enforced by the state in criminal courts
and civil law where breaches are pursued by individuals in civil courts.
The concept of an offence or crime against the state simply does not
exist in the scripture. The only distinction is between sins that affect
property and those that harm the person. God is offended by both types
of sin and his judges are responsible for dealing with both types of
offence.
That’s All
Biblical justice is limited to:
- Theft or damage to property
- Physical injury to a human person.
These two types of offence are the only
ones specified in the Judicial Laws of Moses. There is nothing else.
This makes God’s Judicial Law very simple and easy for everyone to
understand. It means that we do not need a Congress or Parliament turn
out hundreds of new laws every year. We do not need laws books with
hundreds of pages of detailed legislation. All we need is wise judges,
who can decide in any situation, whether a victim was harmed by assault,
or if their property was harmed or stolen.
We do not need hundreds of legislators
to pass laws specifying the penalty for every conceivable crime. All we
need is wise judges who can work out in any situation what would be
necessary to fully restore the victim to the situation in which they
were in before the crime occurred.
The simplicity of these Judicial Laws
demonstrates the brilliant wisdom of God. In twenty-five verses, he
gives a set of laws that will function in any culture in any time. The
laws give provide a standard that allows judges to decide when a crime
has occurred. They are just as applicable in a modern industrialised
culture as in a simple agrarian culture. They also give principles that
allow judges decide the appropriate restitution that should be made to
compensate for the crime in any culture or type of economy.
Human law makers have worked for
hundreds of years and produced numerous statutes, but they have not been
able to produce a system of judicial law that works well. What human law
makers have failed to do, God did three thousand years ago using just a
thousand words.
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
Righteous are you, O LORD,
and your laws are right.
The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
they are fully trustworthy (Psalm 119:97-100,137-138).