Old Testament case law today

CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 22 February 2024

Photo by Carles Rabada on Unsplash

Friends in Christ, following historic Anglican patterns, at the Cathedral, we are committed to the public reading of Scripture, from both Old and New Testaments.

Our preaching generally seeks to expound (i.e. explain and apply) our systematic readings through one book of the Bible. 

The other reading comes from the other Testament. This other reading is not generally selected to complement the sermon passage, but simply to expose us to another part of God's inspired Word, the Bible.

After all, when Paul wrote that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), he was speaking with special regard to what we now call the Old Testament (since the New Testament was still being completed). Timothy had known these "Holy Scriptures from infancy", and Paul said they were "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). 

But often parts of the Old Testament strike the modern person as far removed from our current culture and expectations. This has been the experience of some as we have read Exodus chapter 21 recently. 

We read Exodus 1-20 last year, beginning with the birth and call of Moses, through the plagues and the escape of the Jews from oppressive slavery in Egypt (i.e. the exodus), before God gave Israel the Ten Commands, via Moses on Mount Sinai. 

Where we picked up Exodus this year, in chapter 21, we find a long list of specific individual laws, covering such things as the proper treatment of Hebrew servants or slaves, rules about murder and manslaughter, kidnap and assault, and compensation for personal or property injuries. Some details sound quaint, to say the least. 

We might have many questions. 

For example, if Israel was just escaping from slavery in Egypt, why are they immediately talking about poessessing slaves here? For that, I refer you to an article I wrote a decade ago, published by the ABC, when the Prime Minister of the day wrongly said the Bible presents slavery as a natural condition!

But let me share a few other observations. Firstly I remind you of how the New Testament speaks about the Law of Moses from several different angles... as legal demand, as prophecy and as wisdom. I wrote to you about this in 2022. 

As legal demand, you cannot fail to see that the serious breaches of the Law of Moses deserved death in God's eye, for murder (Ex 21:12), for recklessly-caused agricultural homicide (Ex 21:29), even for attacking or cursing your parents (Ex 21:17).

There are lesser penalties for lesser offences, such as those committed carelessly or even unintentionally. We are reminded here that "eye for an eye" was not designed by God or Moses to stoke vengeance, but to ensure punishment was limited to what is proportional to the crime (no more than a tooth for tooth).

The case law of Exodus 21 can all be seen as applications of the 5th, 6th and 8th of the Ten Commands. So for example, assault is a lesser form of murder, in that it still wishes harm to another person, and perhaps also steals some aspect of their well-being from them.

Clearly today, Christians are no longer living in agrarian Israel, arranged as a political nation, under the direct rule of God. Christians live scattered throughout the nations, after the death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus to heaven, and his gift of the Holy Spirit to all who repent and trust him. Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses.

Indeed, we can be thankful that he took the spiritual death penalty in our place on the cross. I have been reading Leviticus in my own Bible reading, and am reminded of the endless animal sacrifices for sin and atonement prescribed under the Law, which prophesied Jesus' atoning work on the cross. We are not under God's condemnation when we fail spiritually or morally, because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us, in our place. 

One might also observe more broadly the Mosaic Law as wisdom! Much of what we value about much of modern democratic life is not particularly "Western" but Jewish and Christian in origin! The fairly wide academic consensus - see Tom Holland in Dominion - is that the modern world receives its heritage of respect for human rights, consent, and the rule of law with due legal process - features which we can notice in Exodus 21 - in very large measure from the impact of the Judaeo-Christian biblical worldview in particular.

Last Sunday's preaching reminded us that compassion is another wonderful teaching about God from both Old and New Testaments. And compassion calls us to go beyond the letter of the law, to turning the other cheek, to love for enemies, to prayer for persecutors. We offer forgiveness just as in Christ, God has forgiven us. 

So we keep reading the Old Testament, and ponder the application of its wisdom, in our various situations on the other side of the cross! 

Warmly in Christ,

Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney