This is a Christian inspirational site. Bethelstone suggests a touchstone where believers can find inspiration. The daily bible in a year studies will be short and meditative: a bit heavier for foundation principles, a bit lighter for factual content.

Day 33: Exodus 22 - 24 - The Giving of the Law


What followed the giving of the Decalogue was an amazing set of prescripts.

God’s first concern is with the issue of slavery, then murder

Having watched the injustices of slavery for so long, He was determined to set things right. Half of chapter 21 is dedicated to ethics surrounding the treatment of slaves. 

He would not have Israel treat people the way people treated Israel. The departure from Near-East norms on this subject, is clear and abrupt. The first distinction of the Jewish people and it remains to this day, would lie in the way they treat humanity.

Then He discussed the various angles of murder and what distinguished that from “manslaughter” to provide a discernable basis for appropriateness of punishment.

However, he started with the very thing that undid Moses, as in: “If a man smite another man that he should die”. It reveals for the first time that the actions of Moses were wrong in God’s eyes. 

Vengeance is His alone. It is not for us to take the law into our own hands.

I always felt that the exile of Moses was because he had violated Egyptian law, or closer to the truth, that he was a rival threat to the reigning Pharaoh. Whatever, it seemed from the narrative that it was simply expedient that he flee to Midian.

No so. He had wronged God. Fleeing made him safe from Egypt, but left him alone with the real judge of men’s hearts. That is sobering and it evidently led to a harsh reproof that hung over the next 40 years until he stumbled again, as a kind of suspended sentence.

Regulations on theft and other aspects of life

Chapter 22 is full of regulations that I will not go into in detail. It starts with various prescriptions on theft and what constitutes theft. In that context, the taking of a maid’s virginity is classed as de facto theft unless the man takes her to wife, subject to the blessing of her parents.

Very clear judgment was reserved for witches, bestiality and idol worship. It is absolutely abhorrent to God and carries the harshest possible censure.

Once again God revealed His deep sense of the past by instructing Israel not to oppress or offend the weak, the way they were treated in the past. The ethics of God were in such contrast to the ruthless background of the age.

To be honest, the ethics described here are remarkable even in to this age. It was ages before its time and a far, far cry from any perceptions of a ruthless God.

Principles relating to wealth, finance and giving

One intriguing inclusion that would go on to set Jews apart in the world of finance, was the prescript on usury. I personally feel that if we went back to that and forbade any interest on money, we would invest in each other to return fair dividends and so help each other prosper.

That ruling was so noble that Muslims followed it and now tend to take it even more seriously than Jews do. The Jews were always allowed to exact usury from strangers, not from each other, but there were also laws pertaining to debt redemption.

Such fundamentals deserve to be revisited in the present world and may be critical to surviving the turbulence coming on our world. We need to live by a different set of values, although God only articulated a few core principles to ensure broader cultural norms.

One of those cornerstone principles related to the giving of a portion of one’s wealth back to God. It was such a noble principle. Tithing was abused in history and is silent in the New Testament, but giving to God and each other is a timeless value that I honor.

The commandments had not yet been enshrined in stone

In preparation for that God appeared before Moses, Aaron and his firstborn sons and heirs apparent, Nadab and Abihu. For the moment lets ignore what later happens to them.

They built an altar with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes, and sacrificed on that altar as God had instructed, then He sprinkled the blood on the people saying, “behold the blood of the covenant”.

That is described in Hebrews 9, but the writer concludes that the blood of bulls and goats can never cleanse the conscience from the dead works of religion. Instead Jesus offers a better way, saying, “This is the blood of the New Covenant” (Math 26:28, Mark 14:24).

In replacing the blood of the old, with the blood of the spotless lamb of God, He did offered a once and for all sacrifice that removed sin and guilt.

In the dedication made by Moses, God appeared to Israel. It was a very rare revealing in which they saw only His feet, which were like a translucent stone, carefully paved in sapphire. It is way beyond anything we can comprehend, but was undoubtedly magnificent.

After that Moses was told to go up into the mountain, alone. He disappeared into the swirling mists and was there for 6 days before God spoke to him on the 7th. Then, for the ensuing 40 days Moses communed with God in the clouds above Mount Sinai.

The law was about to be cast into stone and sealed as a perpetual covenant with the nation of Israel, as its greatest heritage and an enduring witness to the nations. What a moment. 

(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com