Question: Why is the Law of God so harsh?

“Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments…” Deuteronomy 5.29

Harsh punishments, or at least the threat of them, can serve to protect a community against certain kinds of evil by removing or deterring those who would undermine justice and love. While such people may not have the scruples or will to prevent them from treachery or violence, still, the threat of punishment can serve to bridle their wicked inclinations.

The word translated “mind” here is actually, in the Hebrew, “heart.” Even as God was giving His Law to the people of Israel for a second time, He knew they had no heart for it. So disinclined to obey Him were the people of Israel that, in Deuteronomy 28, the space devoted to threats and warnings is three times as much as that devoted to promises and blessings. The Law itself includes language intended to remind the people that certain kinds of disobedience simply will not be tolerated, and the harsh punishments they incur are designed both to protect the community from those who perpetrate such acts, and to deter hard-hearted people from committing them (cf. Deut. 13.6-11).

It’s important to remember that, in ancient Israel, cases were heard and judgments issued in the gates of the local community, in the open air, where everyone could hear and see the proceedings. What would have been the effect on an onlooker of seeing a grown man beaten? Or of participating in the stoning of a murderer?

Hard-hearted toward God as these people were, surely such situations – or the threat of them – would have deterred at least some of the people from the more iniquitous desires and plans. Without such deterrents lawlessness would abound and the social order would unravel, as we see in the book of Judges.

T. M. Moore

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