In Exodus 19, Yahweh promised that “out of all nations” (5) the Israelites would be for him “a holy nation” (6). But holy in what way? According to Exodus 21 it’s holy in practical terms, in very much down-to-earth things that happen to imperfect people in close community. 

But why in verse 16 should “Anyone who kidnaps another – and either sells him or gets caught with him still in his possession – be put to death”? That seems a bit drastic, but there’s a clue in Deuteronomy 24:7, because “Anyone caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite, and has treated him violently or sold him, is a thief who needs to die to purge such evil from among you.” 

A kidnapper is classed as “a thief.” And that makes him evil on two counts: first if all, it’s contempt for God and his clear command to not steal (Exodus 20:15). And secondly, it’s contempt for God again, in treating a person made in his very own image as mere property for personal benefit or abuse.

Such contempt for a human being is utterly evil in Yahweh’s sight, and no nation, family or community should remotely tolerate it for a second. And he placed this law between the two laws requiring death for a child who treats his parents with contempt, which surely gets the point across that for any community to survive and thrive it has to “purge such evil from among you.” Stop it in its tracks. Make absolutely sure there are clear and serious consequences, so that “All will hear of it and be afraid” (Deuteronomy 21:21).

Fear of consequences, therefore, is vitally necessary as a deterrent to evil, or as Exodus 20:20 phrases it, “to keep you from sinning.” Imagine a society with no consequences for stealing, or a culture that allows or even encourages kidnapping people to sell as slaves. Nations turning a blind eye to such practices are horrible places to live in. No person or property – or business – is safe. 

So what’s the cure? According to the wisdom of Yahweh in Exodus 21, it’s the death penalty. Because in practical terms, what other solution is there for incurable evil? What can anyone do about a person who has no conscience, no intention or even desire to change, views God and people with contempt, and has absolutely no understanding or even interest in the practical holiness in Exodus 21 of “Being responsible and accountable” either?….(next blog)

It would have to be something hugely serious to justify putting a child to death. Exodus 21 provides that justification: it’s when a child “attacks” or “curses” one of his parents (15, 17). So this wasn’t a young child, it was a child fully capable of carrying out a violent physical or brutal verbal assault on an adult, but worse still, on his very own parents.

Deuteronomy 21:18 also explains that this wasn’t an occasional thing that happened, or a moment of rage that blew over. It speaks of “a stubborn and rebellious son who won’t do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won’t obey.” So this is a child, maybe in late teenage while still at home, whose attitude toward his parents has become one of total and constant defiance and contempt. In front of his parents or behind their backs he is always – in Jesus’ own words about such a child in Matthew 15:4 – “speaking evil” of them. He hates his parents so much it would only be a small step to “striking” them or “attacking” them with intent to injure, or even kill.

He’s also of an age, according to Deuteronomy 21:20, that he’d become “a glutton and a drunk.” And also of an age, according to Leviticus 20:9, that because of his constant, unchanging evil attitude, “his blood will be on his own head.” He’d brought this on himself, not only by deliberately flouting his parents’ teaching, dishonouring the family name and making life utterly miserable for them, but also by making light of Yahweh’s clear command in Exodus 20:12 to hold one’s parents in high regard at all times, and especially into the parents’ old age when, in that society, aged parents were hugely dependent on their adult children to care for them.

Imagine, therefore, being a parent and in Deuteronomy 21:19-20, having to “forcibly bring their son before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, ‘This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won’t listen to a thing we say. He’s a glutton and a drunk.’ Then all the men of his city (21) shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.”

So, what justified the killing of a child was removing an evil that could not be removed otherwise. Even the people who loved him the most couldn’t make a dent in his attitude. What purpose did it serve, then, in allowing such an incurable menace to live? But Yahweh was very much into “Holiness in practical terms”….(next blog)

Two verses in Yahweh’s second set of rules in Exodus 21 are deadly serious about respect for parents. In verse 15, for instance, “Anyone who attacks his father or mother must be put to death” and in verse 17, “Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”

But why would smiting or cursing a parent warrant the death penalty for a child? There’s a clue, first of all, in why Yahweh was setting up these rules in the first place. He was building a nation like no other. Crucial to that purpose was “obeying God fully” (19:5-6), because if the Israelites were super careful about following his “decrees and laws,” other nations might wish they had a God that close to them making them “wise and understanding” too (Deuteronomy 4:6-8). 

Which is where the attitude of children to their parents comes in, because it’s through the parents that the wisdom and understanding of these “decrees and laws” would be taught and passed on down through the generations. And the health of the entire nation depended on just that happening, on each generation of parents teaching the laws and each generation of children obeying them. Breaking that cycle in a family would not only be going against God’s purpose of Israel becoming “a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), it would also be going against his authority (5). 

But could a young child be held responsible for that, who in a moment of frustration has a tantrum and lashes out with arms and legs to resist being restrained – or lets loose with a screaming fit yelling at his parents “I hate you, I wish you were dead”? Would that lapse of uncontrolled childish emotion be reason enough for a young child to be put to death? 

But what if Yahweh wasn’t aiming his laws in Exodus 21 at young children? There’s a clue that he wasn’t too, in Exodus 20:12, in the fifth commandment, “Honour your father and your mother.” It was written to people who also understood what “murder” and “committing adultery” meant (the next two commandments) – and were capable of murder and adultery too, meaning adults, not youngsters. 

These were adult children capable of independent thinking, the crucial direction and maturing of which would have come from their parents. So continuing to honour and respect their parents, therefore, would effectively keep adult children on track with what their parents had taught them. But in Exodus 21, “What justified killing adult children?”….(next blog) 

Yahweh’s second set of rules in Exodus 21:12 to 36, meets the need for justice, because it too is right at the top of the inevitable issues that nations, communities, families, schools and workplaces face. Which is understandable, because no matter how determined we are as humans to keep things humming along nicely without upset or incident, unfortunate and sometimes devastating things happen.

Which is when the need for justice is crucial, because if anyone feels that proper justice hasn’t been administered, and there’s no indication that justice will ever be done, things can escalate very quickly into bitterness, revenge, endless feuds, hurt that never heals, and even all out war.

Justice, then, needs to be done well and quickly, but what principles does good and fair justice operate by? There’s a clue in verse 12, that says, “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death” – which justice surely demands – “However,” verse 13, “if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place of safety I will designate.” 

A key principle in effective justice, then, is noting the difference between circumstantial and intentional. Circumstantial is when bad things happen that nobody intended. A person trips on a curb, for instance, and in his forward lunge to catch himself his head collides with a ladder up which a person is cleaning out a blockage in the eavestrough and down both he and the ladder crash breaking the neck of a passerby – every unfortunate stage of which was purely circumstantial.

On the other hand, verse 14, “if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately….put him to death.” Justice, therefore, separates the circumstantial from the intentional. It’s like a child growing up in a home where her Dad has three jobs to feed the family, so he wasn’t there when she needed his support and wisdom through her turbulent teenage years. She felt she’d suffered because of it, but instead of accepting it was circumstantial and Dad had no choice but to do what he did, she accuses him of deliberately hurting her, which in her mind then justified wrecking his life in return in some way.

And this to Yahweh was a great danger, so to prevent such misunderstanding causing break-ups and hostility in families, he got “Deadly serious about respect for parents”….(next blog)

In Yahweh’s first set of practical laws in Exodus 21:2-11, he’s dealing with the Israelites having lived so long in the Egyptian culture that they knew little else. It would seem quite normal, therefore, that some people are masters and others mere slaves. So when they left Egypt, is it any surprise that the Israelites took on the same master/slave culture?

But could Yahweh have allowed it to happen as an illustration of the inevitable issues that would face all nations? Egypt, for instance, had become a great nation in wealth, stability and power, but much of it on the backs of the Israelite slaves after Joseph died. Which seemed to work just fine, though, having a managerial class who ran the show, and a vast working class who did their bidding. 

The issue with that, however, was the constant danger of the working class waking up to how they were being used and abused, and because of their vast numbers grabbing whatever opportunity came their way, like the approach of an invading enemy, to turn on their masters – which was exactly what the Egyptians feared the Israelites would do (1:8-10). 

And what nation through history, basing its success on the managerial/working class structure, hasn’t experienced the possibility of a revolution when people see their government leaders as self-serving and corrupt? Again, it’s an inevitable issue all nations face, that rotten leadership leads to horrible things happening, especially when the ruling class refuses to listen to the cries of its people, and prefers instead to crush any opposition or threat to its policies and ideologies. But in Exodus 21:2, Yahweh also accepted masters buying servants, which sounds like a continuation of the managerial/working class structure with its inevitable issues, so why would he do that?

Because in any society on whatever scale, whether a nation, a community, family, school or workplace, some people just end up leading because of their natural strength, wisdom or charisma, or by being bullies. And how those leaders operate shapes the lives of everybody else. It’s amazing how much influence these leaders have, and how dependent everyone else is on them. So it’s crucial that those who inevitably end up in leadership positions know the rules of leadership that work, which is what Yahweh put into place as early as Exodus 21. 

Those who find themselves in positions of leadership, therefore, know what to do – which first and foremost is caring and providing for the vulnerable. But right on its heels is “The vital importance of justice”….(next blog) 

The very first Mosaic law in Exodus 21 set the tone for the care of women, taking into account the cultural customs of that time – that included a father “selling his daughter as a maid-servant” (7). To our ears that may sound a bit harsh, but what could a family do back then if they hadn’t got the money to pay off a debt, or the wherewithal to support a grown-up daughter or provide for her future?

There was a solution, however, and that was to sell her into a household that could afford to take care of her, either as a servant or because the “master has selected her for himself” (8). There was an obvious danger, that she might be treated badly and even abused, but Yahweh took care of that by instituting a law that held the man who bought her totally responsible for the full duty of her care, whether she was his servant or his spouse. That way, no woman would be treated as mere property. Nor would she have to fear abuse or neglect.

But what if the man realized the woman he’d bought for a wife wasn’t such a good purchase after all (8)? Well, since “he’s broken faith with her,” verse 8, he can’t just dump her to fend for herself, nor can he sell her on to a foreigner who didn’t know her. Nor can he hold on to her either. He is duty bound by Mosaic law to let her “be redeemed,” bought back by her own family, with no future obligations to him at all.

If, on the other hand, the man had purchased the woman for his son, she now has all “the rights of a daughter” (9). And those rights she did not lose either if the son wanted to marry a second woman. Under Mosaic law he would still be totally responsible for providing his first wife with “food, clothing and marital rights” (10), as if they were still married. And if he wasn’t prepared to do that she could “go free, without any payment of money” (11), and without any further obligations to him either.

However odd these customs may sound to our ears, Yahweh’s way of dealing with them was to guarantee a safety net in that culture for vulnerable female servants or when a husband took a second wife. It also made men seriously think twice before treating a woman as mere property to be used or discarded.

So Yahweh was setting up something utterly unique in Israel, in making the care of women a top priority. But was he also showing by this example “The inevitable issues all nations face”?….(next blog)

Several generations of Israelites had grown up in a society that had no heart. The Egyptians had “used them ruthlessly,” Exodus 1:14, placing “slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour” (11), which had “made their lives bitter” (14). 

The Egyptians had also created a system that was impossible to resist, or even protest against. Even the possibility of a threat was enough for the Egyptian king to order a culling of all newborn Israelite boys. 

But into this society of brutal, icy-hearted madness the seed of a new society was sewn, in two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah (15). Told by the king to kill all newborn Hebrew boys, they “feared God” instead and “let the boys live” (16-17). “So God was kind to the midwives,” and he not only increased their own families, but because of them the entire nation of Israel “became even more numerous” too (20-21). Thanks to two brave ladies with a heart for God – and for their nation’s baby boys – their entire society survived and wonderfully began to create more people in Israel with a heart too.  

Like the Hebrew mother of a “fine baby boy” born in Exodus 2:2. No way was she going to give him up, but to spare his life she had to hide him until it was impossible to keep his presence secret from the prying eyes of the Egyptian police. So she made a waterproof basket for the child and tucked him in “among the reeds along the bank of the Nile” (3). 

Two more ladies then came to the boy’s rescue – Pharaoh’s very own daughter first of all, who saw the basket, had her slave girl bring it to her, and on seeing the baby “she felt sorry for him,” even when suspecting the baby was “Hebrew” (5-6). And then the bravery of the boy’s older sister who’d watched the whole scene unfold and risked her life in approaching Pharaoh’s daughter and asking her, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” (7). 

All these women with a heart, which led to the boy who became Moses (10). Not surprisingly, then, he had a heart too, because on going out to see how his own people were doing, his blood boiled at their conditions – and so much so he killed an Egyptian overseeing them. Despite being an Egyptian prince, Moses’ heart was with his own people. 

A society with a heart, therefore, was birthed by the love and bravery of four women. No wonder, then, that Yahweh instituted “The care of women in the Mosaic law”..(next blog) 

In Exodus 21:1, Yahweh tells Moses, “These are the laws you are to set before them,” and when the Israelites obeyed these laws “fully,” Exodus 19:5-6, “then out of all nations,” Yahweh says, “you will be my treasured possession, and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

By the application of these laws, then, the Israelites would be the most skilled people on the planet in the art of living. As “priests” they would also teach it, and as a “holy nation” demonstrate it. And in Yahweh calling Israel his “treasured possession,” that’s how much he prizes those who bring his laws to life in their world and their circumstances.

The Israelites, for instance, had grown up in an Egyptian culture of masters and slaves. But rather than have the Israelites start from scratch and try to create a completely different culture, Yahweh gave them laws for living within that culture, because that’s where the differences in his ways of living would really begin to show. The Egyptians, for instance, were brutal in their treatment of foreign captives and labourers, including the Israelites themselves, so Yahweh designed laws for the Israelites that would stop them doing the same thing.

Like the first law on his list in Exodus 21:2, which says, “After six years service a servant shall go free, with no financial penalty.” But if the servant says in verse 5, “I love my master” and wants to stay as his servant, his choice would be honoured too (6). No one, therefore, was stuck as a servant forever with no chance of a new life, but nor was he let go if he felt welcome and secure in his present position. 

Where in Egypt or in any of the surrounding cultures would that be top priority? But it was to Yahweh, because it would beautifully show the contrast and improvement in the culture that his laws made, which in Deuteronomy 4:5-8 was exactly what Yahweh had chosen Israel “out of all nations” for. 

Is there also a clue here, in Yahweh making this the first of his laws for Israel, that the most pressing (and depressing) problem in any culture in any age would be the strained relationship between masters and servants, or in our day the relationship between the ruling elite and the working class? But in the Israelites Yahweh had a solution for that: it was always there in his laws, that lived fully create “A society with a heart”….(next blog)

In Deuteronomy 4:1, Moses cries out, “Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I’m about to teach you….that the Lord my God commanded me (5) for you to obey in the land you’re about to occupy.” 

And in verse 6, “Make sure you carefully follow them too, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples in that land, so that when they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’”

Imagine being told that and comparing it to their lives back in Egypt. What chance did they have back then of wowing other nations with their wisdom when they were stuck in the clutches of a tyrannical regime that considered them enemies of the state and a danger if allowed to survive, that felt utterly justified, therefore, in killing all their boy babies? And what was their everyday life like too, being mere slaves, and if they protested the regime came down even harder on them? They lived in constant fear, reduced to just surviving, with no prospect of escape.

And yet here they were, free of all that, and being told that even with their miserable background of knowing nothing but toil and hopelessness, and having no skills beyond making bricks for the Pharaoh’s vanity projects, they would become so “great a nation” themselves that other nations would be impressed enough to want to check them out.

So what, then, would make them so great? Moses answered that with two questions, the first in verse 7: “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” Good point, because it was the Israelites crying out to God directly in Exodus 2:23-25, that got their rescue from Egypt started. He answered their cry, showing he really was that near to them. And a lot of non-Israelite people took note of it too, who left with Israel in the Exodus (Exodus 12:38).  

And then Moses’ second question in Deuteronomy 4:8 – “What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” What would really catch the attention of others would be the wisdom and understanding the Israelites gained from the highly practical set of laws Yahweh had given them in Exodus 21 to 24. Because these laws would make them “Skilled in the art of living”….(next blog)   

In Exodus 20:22-23, Yahweh has Moses tell the Israelites, “You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from heaven: ‘Don’t make gods of silver and gold and then set them alongside me.’”

Not an easy thing for them to do, though, because in Egypt they’d grown up with all sorts of gods and goddesses, over 2,000 of them, to provide for their every need. That was the culture: if there was a need, create a god or goddess to take care of it. But now the Israelites were being told in verse 2, that “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Don’t then,” verse 3, ”have any other gods besides me.” In other words, they needed no other God than him, because from now on he, and he alone, would provide for all their needs.

And he’d dramatically proved his point by “bringing judgment on all the gods of Egypt,” Exodus 12:12, which he’d done by each of the plagues he’d inflicted on Egypt representing a god the Egyptians idolized, and their gods had been powerless to stop him. So he demonstrated his obvious superiority over their gods. And then he explained why he’d done it too, in Exodus 20:4-5, when he told the Israelites to “not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on earth, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Jealous in the sense that he wanted to be their provider and no one else. 

And from that point on he set about proving he could be their total provider, by first of all putting on a fearsome display of his power at Mount Sinai (20:18), and following it up with a promise in verse 24, that “Wherever I cause my name to be honoured, I will come to you and bless you.” On any future occasion, then, wherever and whenever he showed his power again, realize that it too was entirely for their benefit. Or put another way, trust him to provide, knowing he had the power to do so, and he would make his presence and provision very real to them.

Their trust, therefore, was hugely important, which they could show by “making an altar of earth (or pile of stones) for me and sacrificing your burnt and peace offerings on it” (24-25). Nothing elaborate, no cut stones using tools, and no steps up to it either (26) – so nothing impressive made by human hands that could be idolized like the gods of Egypt. 

Because what Yahweh was creating in Israel was belief in him, with no elaborate man-made rituals or buildings required to get him to provide. And not only was it his power he wanted them to trust in, it was making them into “A wise and understanding people” too….(next blog)