Day 17: Biblical Law
If you have ever tried to read the Bible from the beginning, you may have noticed that at 69 chapters into the story (at Exodus 19 to be exact), the story slows way down to make room for the laws given to ancient Israel. And there are over six hundred of them! Why are they in the story? Are Bible readers supposed to follow them or respond to them in some way? And how do they relate the New Testament part of the story when Jesus shows up? These are huge questions that we will explore in today’s video, but here are some helpful starting points:
1. The Old Testament is not a law book. Rather, these laws given to Israel constitute the terms of their covenant relationship with the God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The covenant ceremony is found in Exodus 19-24, where we find the 10 commandments, plus 42 other commands that illustrate the principles of worship, justice, and community life that Israel was to follow. 2. These laws were given to appoint Israel as a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:4-6), a contrasting community that would represent God’s presence and character to the surrounding nations. 3. The covenant was consummated as God prepared a miniature Eden to inhabit when he took up residence among his people (i.e. the tabernacle in Exodus 25-31, 35-40). 4. As the story picks up again, we find a pattern of narratives alternating with sections of more covenant laws. And these narratives usually involve the Israelites breaking the covenant laws they just received! This begins with the story of the golden calf (Exodus 32-34), then the rebellion of the sons of Aaron (Leviticus 9), the worship of the goat idols (Leviticus 17), and then the constant rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 11-21). This pattern is part of the Torah’s communication strategy, which is to show that these laws offered ancient Israel a way to live by God’s will, but they consistently failed. This is why Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30-32 predict their ultimate failure and exile from the promised land. Moses also says that God would have to recreate their hearts if they were to ever be God’s faithful covenant partners. There’s a lot to unpack here, but these hundreds of laws are part of the way that the Torah’s storyline points forward to the same future that Israel’s prophets announced (see Jeremiah 31 or Ezekiel 36-37). It’s only when humanity is renewed by God’s creative Spirit that we are able to truly love God and trust his wisdom. This is the story that Jesus was stepping into when he said that he came to bring the Torah to its fulfillment (see Matthew 5:17-48), and that loving God and one’s neighbor fulfills the Torah (see Matthew 22:34-40). And this is the same story carried forward in the work of the Spirit among Jesus’ followers (see Galatians 5:13- 23). So the laws actually play a crucially important role in the biblical story, but it requires a macro view to see how it all fits together and leads us to Jesus.
Exodus 20
EXODUS 20
2“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3“You shall have no other gods before me.
4“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the
fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold
him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all
your work, 1obut the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it
holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that
the Lord your God is giving you.
13“You shall not murder.
14“You shall not commit adultery.
15“You shall not steal.
16“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s
wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything
that is your neighbor’s.”
18Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20Moses said to the people, “Do
not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. 24An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your
peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. 25If you make me an altar of
stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. 26And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’
Leviticus 16
not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the
linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
6“Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the
Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9And Aaron shall present the
goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not
die. 14And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he
shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
15“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16Thus he shall
make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the
bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.
20“And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat.
21And Aaron shall lay both his
hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. 23“Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them
there. 24And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and
make atonement for himself and for the people. 25And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his
clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.27And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was
brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28And he who
burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
29“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native
or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. 31It is a
Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s
place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of
meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34And this shall be a statute forever for you, that
atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Leviticus 25
and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a
shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not
sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You shall not reap what grows of itself in
your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of
solemn rest for the land. 6The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for
yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the
sojourner who lives with you, 7and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in
your land: all its yield shall be for food.
the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9Then you shall sound the
loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you
shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10And you shall consecrate the
fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall
be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you
shall return to his clan. 11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall
neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed
vines. 12For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the
field.
13“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14And if you make a
sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
15You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and
he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16If the years are
many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the
price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you.17You shall not
wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
18“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and
then you will dwell in the land securely. 19The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat
your fill and dwell in it securely. 20And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh
year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21I will command my blessing on you
in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22When you
sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old
until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
strangers and sojourners with me. 24And in all the country you possess, you shall
allow a redemption of the land.
25“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest
redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26If a man has no one
to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to
redeem it, 27let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to
the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28But if he does not
return to his property.
29“If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of
its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30If it is not redeemed
within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the
buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31But the
houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the
fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.
32As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in
the cities they possess. 33And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption,
then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee.
For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of
Israel. 34But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for
that is their possession forever.
support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with
you. 36Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may
live beside you. 37You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your
food for profit. 38I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to
give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not
make him serve as a slave: 40he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a
sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41Then he shall go out
from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to
the possession of his fathers. 42For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the
land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43You shall not rule over him
ruthlessly but shall fear your God.44As for your male and female slaves whom you
may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are
around you. 45You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and
their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be
your property. 46You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a
possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people
of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.
becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a
member of the stranger’s clan, 48then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of
his brothers may redeem him, 49or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a
close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem
himself. 50He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to
him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of
years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker.
shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53He
shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him
in your sight. 54And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children
with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. 55For it is to me that the people of
Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I
am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 11:1-32
to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the
Lord has destroyed them to this day, 5and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did. 8“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your
fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.10For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.
11But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 13“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;1 7then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the
heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. 18“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and
you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24Every place on which the sole of
your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you. 26“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. 29And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount
Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in
the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh? 31For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.