Exodus 21:26-32 (NKJV)

“If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.

“If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. But if the ox tended to thrust with its horn in times past, and it has been made known to his owner, and he has not kept it confined, so that it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death. If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him. Whether it has gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.”

Verses 26 and 27 lay out an important rule, one that obviously was not observed in antebellum America. Mistreatment of slaves is virtually banned; something as minor as knocking out a tooth leads to a total loss of the “asset.”

This is such a great restriction that it changes the concept of ownership. A master does not totally “own” a slave the way he would an ox. Thus does the claim that the Bible tolerates slavery take another hit. The word “slavery” remains, but the practice, as previously understood, doesn’t. This is a significant step forward in human rights.

The rules for oxen seem pretty obvious at first glance. But the rule about an ox that is tended to thrust with its horn in times past is intriguing. The provision that it has been made known to his owner is similar to many things in modern American case law. For example, on-the-job sexual harassment is (except for assault) only actionable when the harassment continues after a warning has been issued. It took a long time for our criminal justice system to sort this out.

The same courts that post the Ten Commandments on their walls could have saved themselves a lot of time by reading the rest of Exodus.

Americans tend to take our blessings for granted. Sure, we pay lip service to how we’re free to worship the one true God and free to tell others about Him. We also recognize that we have a legitimate, stable government that allows us to prosper.

But we don’t seem to realize how extraordinary all that is. The path that got us to this point was filled with twists and turns and narrow escapes. We do pay homage to the military, whose sacrifice and bravery got us through many of those narrow escapes, but do we fully appreciate that it was all God all along?

The long and winding road that led to liberty and justice for all began with the system of laws laid down by God at Sinai. We’ve updated a few details here and there, but this section of Exodus is roughing in the basic structure of western civilization. Praise God from whom this blessing flows.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies