Bible Challenge Days 26-29...oops

Hello friends.

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while.  The good news is I got four hours of overtime last week, which means pay at time and a half!  God understands that I need the money, so here's my review of the last few days of reading I missed.  It does feel good to be caught up now.

I've always found it really difficult reading all the rules in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers.  First of all, there are a lot of rules.  It gets exhausting.  Furthermore, we don't really seem to keep with these rules any more.  I've always asked myself, "Why bother?"  Today, though, I realized that I was missing out on some quite interesting information.  Let me begin, though, with a brief analysis.  Moses goes up to the mountain, receives the law, comes back, and shares it with the people.  I see a clear distinction between the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, and the Covenant Code, or all those rules that come after the Ten Commandments.  The Decalogue deals with broad ideas and details our relationship between God and our relationship with others.  These are big ideas like don't kill, don't covet, don't misuse God's name.  The Covenant Code, however, gets really detailed.  These are things like how long a male slave has before being freed and how long you can pawn someone's coat.  These rules clearly deal with specific situations and have precise boundaries.  Some might disagree with me, but the Decalogue is fluid.  There are no clear lines.  For example, we're told not to kill, but what about war?  God clearly commands them to fight people and kill in war.  The Bible also condones capitol punishment in places.  That tells me that the Decalogue deals generally with how one should live one's life.  Again, I turn to Jesus' summary:  Love God.  Love each other.

So, then, what do I get out of the Covenant Code?  I have heard people say that we don't follow the law of the Old Testament because when Jesus came he erased those rules and established his own.  I don't think that's entirely correct.  I know that in these passages from Exodus God speaks this code, but I remind myself that human beings wrote this book.  The Mosaic Law follows the patterns of law codes from around the ancient world.  I think we must read these as a means of understanding the ancient Hebrew culture.  What they valued. How they dealt with one another.  You can't believe that these codes were actually delivered to people wandering in the desert.  It speaks too much to an agricultural society with classes of people and established wealth.  No one wandering in the desert had a farm.  Clearly, these laws come about later when the people have settled in a permanent home.

What does all of this mean for us?  I'd like to explain by looking at Matthew's Gospel.  In Matthew 23 Jesus speaks of the faults of the Pharisees.

"They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.  They do all their deeds to be seen by others."  

In the footnotes in my Oxford Bible it says "heavy burdens" can mean minute and perplexing interpretations of the law.  Jesus goes on to say they do the things they do to been seen.  Look at us!  We're so pious!  The Pharisees use the law to their own advantage and gain, not for God's glory and God's gain.  I think that's why the Decalogue holds up and the old Code doesn't.  The Decalogue describes human relations--a constant in our nature.  The Code describes situational laws for a specific people at a specific time in a specific culture.  I don't own slaves.  Society today recognizes slavery as an evil, so the laws about slavery don't apply.  I still have to love God.  I still have to love my neighbor.  I don't have to ceremonially wash my hands before dinner.