Lawrence Boadt gives a good summary of the
section of the Bible that begins with Exodus 19….
The first part of the Book of Exodus moves from Israel’s slavery through Moses’ struggle against the
pharaoh to freedom and the dangerous
journey to the sacred mountain of Sinai in only eighteen chapters. The
remaining twenty-two chapters of Exodus, all twenty-seven chapters of
Leviticus, and the first ten chapters of Numbers describe a single stay at this
mountain where God made a covenant with Israel. The covenant is thus the
central event of the Pentateuch.[1]
Richard Elliott Friedman points out helpfully
that:
There is a formal similarity between the Israelite
covenant and international legal documents of the ancient Near Eastern
countries. The treaty documents, dictated by regional kings (suzerains) to the
local city kings (vassals) who were subject to them, formalized the
relationship between the two. They regularly included a specific group of
formal elements…. The Sinai covenant here exhibits striking parallels to this
legal structure, containing the key elements:
- Introduction: I am YHWH your God
- Historical Prologue: who brought you out of Egypt
- Prime Stipulation: You shall have no other gods
- Other Stipulations: You shall not make a statue; you shall not bring up the name of YHWH, your God, for a falsehood; remember the Sabbath; honour your father and your mother.[2]
The ten commandments (ten words or ten things)
are followed by many other laws. One can see why these ten, amidst the plethora
of other commandments, became the most “popular.” In short, they are the most
memorable. The ten commandments are apodictic (like the kind of guidelines a parent gives to a child), whereas the other laws are case law (if someone does such and such then this is how you should deal with it).
Furthermore, the ten commandments are summed up, both in the Hebrew Scriptures,
and by Jesus, in one word: love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself.
Joy Davidman, in her commentary on the Ten
Commandments, writes:
Saint Augustine phrased the Christian law as: “Have
charity and do what you like.” The modern materialist often makes it simply:
“Do what you like,” and then rushes off to ask his psychoanalyst why he no
longer seems to like anything. Whereas the Pharisee, alas, tends to invert
Augustine into: “Neither do what you like nor
have charity.”[3]
As much as we try to universalize the ten commandments, they do have a very particular historical setting. For example,
these commands are obviously addressed to adult males in the Israelite
community, who are in turn responsible for guiding their household. (See the
fourth commandment.) The ten commandments also assume the institution of
slavery. (See the fourth commandment again.) These commands are also given in
the context of polygamy being acceptable. (See Exodus 21:10.) Furthermore, what
the New Testament calls fornication is no problem as long as the man who
seduces a virgin and has sex with her before marriage pays the appropriate
bride price to her father (Exodus 22:16-17). Obviously, there are some aspects
of the Torah that we do not follow and would, in fact, think detestable today.
Friedman has this helpful note regarding
slavery….
The Torah did not bring about the end of slavery by
abolishing it. It established principles regarding slaves’ dignity, rights, and
treatment. And these gradually contributed to humans’ own rejection of slavery
in much (though not yet all) of the world. This is a crucial point itself: that
some of the laws of the Torah command things outright, while others lead humans
to grow and change themselves.[4]
What other ways might the Lord be wanting or allowing us to grow and change that are not spelled out in the Torah?
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