Parents may not have been responsible for the behavior of their children, but owners of large animals were held accountable for their beasts. Animals were not to be “blamed” when they harm humans; however, they were not to be excused, either. An animal that gored or butted had either to be restrained or, if it could not be restrained, destroyed – and its owner held accountable in the most severe manner.

However, note the hint of grace in this statute: a man whose ox gored another to death could be ransomed from death, presumably, if the survivors of the dead person agreed. There is in this, I think, a kind of foreshadowing concerning how we must today, in this age of grace, regard the harsh penalties of the Law of God. By extending a form of grace to those deserving harsh punishments, we do not excuse them; nor do we simply wink at their offense and thus affront justice. Nor do we enter into gracious mitigations of punishment without the participation of those who have been harmed or offended. We simply exact punishment and achieve justice in a different way. However, the nature of the transgression – for example, if such crimes have been habitual or if they persist – frees a society to impose harsher penalties for any subsequent violations of the Law.

T. M. Moore

The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.