Question: What do you mean by “Law”?

“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.” Exodus 21.1

Immediately upon giving the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Lord instructed him in building an altar to the Lord, undoubtedly to guide the people in giving proper thanks to God for this great gift of Law (Ex. 20.22-26). Then God turned His attention to the “rules” by which the people of Israel should live together in love for Him and one another.

Exodus 21, 22, and most of 23 outline the broad parameters of the justice God requires of His people. These “civil laws” are added to and expanded throughout the rest of Moses’ writings, but they are given here in order to help the people get organized for their 11-day journey to the land of Canaan (Deut. 11.2), and for beginning to live within the covenant promises of God there.

The civil laws of Israel address the practice of justice, which is nothing more than the expression of the character of God – love, wisdom, mercy, holiness, etc. – in social situations. These laws are given in the form of “case law”, as we would define it today, and are to the Ten Commandments as civil law in America is to the Constitution. The Ten Commandments tell us what God requires, the civil laws teach us how to work out the requirements of love for God and neighbor in social situations, and how to restore justice to a community when the peace of the community has been disrupted.

The civil laws are instructive, but they are not exhaustive. It fell to the elders and judges of the communities of Israel to understand all the Law of God and to be able to reason together before the Lord, situation by situation, as to how the Law guided them in the application of justice (cf. Ruth 4).

The civil laws would have had specific application to situations they described specifically. However, their real value is that they teach a way of thinking about justice and how to understand the revelation and will of God that continues to be important for us today. The civil laws encode principles of justice that remain valid today. Paul appealed to the civil statutes of Israel in helping the church in Corinth understand how to deal with a problem of sin and how to care for those who minister to them (cf. 1 Cor. 5, 9). Even today we acknowledge the wisdom of these statutes, for while we may not build railings around our roofs to prevent folk from falling off (since we rarely use our roof tops for social gatherings, as was true in ancient Israel – Deut. 22.8), still we recognize the importance of enclosing our swimming pools with fencing and keeping our sidewalks clear of ice in the winter.

Those who shepherd the flocks of the Lord today will serve their members best by being steeped in the Commandments and rules of God, and by thinking and praying together concerning how to apply these to the wellbeing and flourishing of their congregations.

T. M. Moore

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