Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 21:12–14; 22:5; 23:2
“Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.
“If anyone grazes their livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in someone else’s field, the offender must make restitution from the best of their own field or vineyard.
“Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, . . .”
CONSIDER THIS
There's a funny phrase often deployed in contracts law. It says, "The big print giveth, but the little print taketh away."
Sometimes, that's how people think of the biblical law—like there are the Big Ten, and then there's the minutia. It's easy to think thoughts like, Well, most of this no longer applies, so what's the point of studying it? Here's my take. It is the Word of God. The Word of God always reveals the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of God always points us toward the will of God.
There's another phrase often bandied about in courtrooms and board rooms. It says, "The devil is in the details." What I love about Exodus 21, 22, and 23 reveals just the opposite: The Lord is in the details. That said, rather than spending weeks, we clearly don't have to give detailed treatment to these chapters, I wanted to offer a brief story and comment.
I remember one evening when our family was out on a walk through the neighborhood. As we approached some neighbors in their front yard, my oldest son (who was about seven at the time) walked up to their friendly Labrador Retriever he often greeted. As he reached out to pet the dog, it snapped at him, sinking its canines deep into his arm. He still has the bite scar to prove it. It traumatized David and shocked us all—especially the owner.
I immediately remembered an obscure learning from law school. They called it "The One Bite Rule." In most places, if a dog bites someone for the first time, the owner is not liable for the injury. However, if the dog bites someone after this, the owner is liable for the damages from the personal injury. Where does this kind of wisdom come from? Well, Exodus 22, of course!
“If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death." (Ex. 21:28–29)
Shall we call it "The One Gore Rule"? The law then goes on to make provision for the payment of damages instead of the loss of the owner's life and then goes further to deal with the scenario if the loss of life occurred with a son or daughter or a slave.
Take some time and read these chapters of what can be so easily dismissed as "no longer binding" or "arcane minutia," and you will find scores of antecedents and precursors to present-day property law, personal injury law, and criminal law. The Word of God reveals the wisdom of God, which points the way to the will of God. No, modern-day courts do not cite statutes from Exodus, though they stand on the foundations given by God and inscribed by Moses on Mt. Sinai.
At a later time, I politely shared the law and suggested to the owner of the dog he would be wise to consider euthanizing the dog, though I didn't insist on it. Sure enough, several years later, I learned the dog had found another victim—the son of a good friend of mine living in a different city—biting him on the face this time. I politely informed them they had the dog and its owners "dead to rights."
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
Thank you for the way we see the wisdom and the will of God imparted in the Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Thank you for both the depth of justice and the breadth of mercy articulated in the statutes. Thank you for revealing the depth of your care for all people by investing yourself in the details of our everyday lives.
We receive your deliverance for our broken ways of executing justice without mercy—which is not just. We receive your deliverance from our broken ways of extending mercy without justice—which is not merciful. We receive your deliverance into the indivisible union of justice and mercy, which we behold in your life, death, and resurrection. Thank you for the cross, where you took our just penalty on yourself and transformed it into the mercy of eternal salvation. May our lives reflect such miraculous love.
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for my good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
