Parsha Ponderings: Behind the Details
By Elizabeth Darby Bass, Sabbath Streams Ministries
Parsha Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1 - 24:18
Reading the Torah according to the standard weekly reading schedule, it only makes sense that we would eventually come to the section most of us think of when the word “law” is used. The Torah, aka the Books of the Law, contains the early history of the Jewish people and the commandments that G-d gave through his prophet Moses.
We like reading the history. The great stories about the early patriarchs are encouraging in our walk of faith. The miracles that G-d performed to free his chosen people from their servitude in Egypt are exciting to us. But now we have come to the lists. While most Christians today accept the Ten Commandments (well, minus the one about the Sabbath, but that is a different paper altogether), when the details of the “you shall” and “you shall not” begin, our minds just check out. We usually skim past these lists, assuming they are for times long past. After all, we are not “under the law.”1 Isn’t that what Paul said? But is this really what Paul meant?
It seems a strange concept to me that Paul would think it acceptable for us to skip past so much of G-d’s word and never give it a second thought. And what about what Yeshua taught as He sat on the mountain with his disciples. He said, “So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”2 What does that mean for us today?
Honestly, I don’t have the answers to these questions – but I do have more questions as I have been setting my mind to study the whole Word of G-d. Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I am advocating an immediate strict adherence to what has come to be called a “Torah Observant” lifestyle; especially not the adding in of all the rabbinical interpretations and extrapolations that have built that so called “fence” around the law.3 But I am saying, maybe there is something more here than a list of do’s and don’ts. And maybe, we should be paying attention.
So what does this passage have for me? I don’t have any slaves to set free after six years, my daughters pretty much selected their own husbands and honestly, that “eye for an eye”4 thing seems to be a bit harsh doesn’t it? And yet, it is a part of G-d’s word. So, I look as I read for a theme, for a pattern, for a main message that does apply no matter where I am at in this life. Why would G-d instruct about an ox goring people and about the owner’s responsibilities when it has become a repeated offense anyway?
Maybe it is because these were details that were specifically applicable in the lives of the people of that day. You see, the law of G-d wasn’t given in a cultural void. It was initially given to a people who lived in a particular time in history, with a particular culture, and a particular pattern and style of life. In that culture if a person owed a debt he could not pay, he worked it off as an indentured servant. It was an accepted practice to ‘purchase’ a bride from her father. Oxen were used daily to pull the loads and plow the fields.
But there is a theme that is easy to see in these basic life instructions. The theme in all of these commands was and still is that in each of these types of relationships, respect for one’s neighbor, one’s daughter, one’s servant is required. While I might have expected G-d to directly oppose servitude or slavery and command it away, He didn’t. While I might have questioned the whole practice of selling ones daughter, He didn’t.
What we fail to recognize when we take our modern, “individual’s rights rule” attitude and apply it to the reading of the Torah is that the law of G-d, accepts society as it is, while at the same time making room for righteousness. It reminds me of an old evangelist’s line – “G-d loves you just the way you are. - And, He loves you too much to let you stay that way!”
He wants and desires us to live in righteousness, and that means treating each other with honor. No matter what the cultural context of our life is. What ever relationships we find ourselves in, we can walk in honor with one another. We can respect our neighbor and their property. We can walk in obedience.
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way
While we do His good will
He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey
Trust and obey
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey
Father, Help me get past my mindset and see your word in the way you want me to. Help me to see the principles that will bring righteous living into my life. Help me remember that your character is revealed in me by how I treat others. Help me learn how to walk in honor among my neighbors, my family, my society, that I may represent You well in this world.
1 Galatians 2:16
2 Matthew 5:19
3 For a full explanation of modern Jewish Law (Halakah), visit http://www.jewfaq.org/halakhah.htm
4 Exodus 21:24 (if we read it carefully, it really isn’t what most of us think it is anyway)
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