Old Testament Laws Changed Society
But Did Nothing
To Change Basic Human Nature
Before we start, a few preliminary facts are in order.
- The term Old Testament law refers to the legal codes specifically mentioned in the books Exodus through Deuteronomy.
- According to Jewish scholarship, there are a total of 613 laws.
- The Ten Commandments provide the legal framework and every Old Testament law can be categorized under one of these ten.
- The Ten Commandments were focused on two areas, both of which were relationships: the relationship we have with God (four commandments) and the relationship we have with humans (six commandments). The fact that these laws were relationship driven was confirmed by Jesus in His discussion about the two great commandments (love God, love your neighbor – Matthew 22:34-40).
- All 613 laws, in one way or another, targeted abuse. We aren’t to abuse our relationship to God and we aren’t to abuse our relationship to family, friends and neighbors. Even neglecting mold in one’s house, which had nothing to do with the ceremonial service, endangered the lives of others, a type of abuse (Leviticus 14:33-53).
- When specific Old Testament laws were applied in individual cases, the outcome was the equivalent of case law. The intent of case law remained the same, reduce abuse.
Now to the discussion.
Old Testament Law Made The Situation Better, Not Perfect
It’s important to note that the law could change the situation, could move society in the right direction, but could never make it perfect. It’s also true that it could do nothing to change basic human nature.
Obeying the law changed the way individuals related to each other. It did nothing to change human inclinations.
But even changes to the situation were limited. Any culture can change but only incrementally, and the people of the Exodus struggled to abide by the laws they did have. Human nature was a big obstacle to making those changes.
Before changes could solidify, there had to be a change a mind (repentance). The heart couldn’t embrace the new till the old had at least been seen for what it was, a failure.
And even when that happens, human nature still resists the change. How many know they need to change their diet, even know how to change it and in what it needs to change but still fail to do so?
Laws moved the perspective from a selfish orientation to an others oriented view point. Laws can change our understanding of how things should be but it does nothing to change the way we are. As Paul said:
We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14)
Paul knew the law. He studied it his entire life, but he failed to live up to it perfectly thus proving that the law was good, and influences the way we act, but does nothing to change our underlying nature.
The law could make us better off. It does nothing to make us better.
That’s an important understanding because some people obey the law to prove how good they are. That isn’t what Paul understood.
Rather than be motivated only by self interests, laws were guiding the Old Testament community to an awareness of and consideration for others, even though it didn’t change their nature. It made the situation better, not the person.
Laws Are Situational Not Eternal
Old Testament law was written over three thousand years ago and was appropriate for that culture. It corrected the specific problems of that day, not ours. It corrected abuses that commonly occurred then.
Its primary aim was reducing abuse and imbalance, not making everything perfect. It addressed the way we managed relationships, but did nothing to change our inclinations.
It was focused on a new normal. The old normal was brutal. Obeying Old Testament law produced more constructive, humane actions, although those actions were far from what we view as acceptable today.
No one reached a perfect spiritual state through Old Testament precepts. And there’s also the fact that no one followed the law perfectly, at least according to Paul (Romans 7:18).
The point is we can be better, yes! Perfect, no!
Was the law inspired? Yes!
But were the instructions eternal? Did they represent holiness in the sense of perfection? Were they to be applied exactly to every community in every era that followed?
Hardly!
Referring to the Old Testament culture as abusive and imbalanced, if anything, is an accurate way of describing the communities of that day. The world then was perilous. Navigating the dangers wasn’t easy and the best way to get ahead was to stay on top of those around you.
That’s why communities routinely raided each other. Diplomacy wasn’t a concept.
Getting advantage over your neighbors was the only play in town. That’s why the men of sodom routinely raped any visitors of significance. The new guys needed to know who was in charge.
That isn’t a very neighborly way to be but it was the common approach then.
The Old Testament Was A Legal Journal
The Old Testament, particularly the first five books of the Bible, was not a personal how-to guide on how to settle offenses. It was more like a legal journal referenced mostly by judges.
Two facts bear this out. One, literacy rates were low. It is true that literacy was encouraged by the very nature of Israel’s religious practices but it is also true that the number of people who could read and write in the Exodus was minimal.
That’s why the priests were commanded to teach the law. Not every individual, priest or not, had a personal copy of the Bible and few were literate enough to read it anyway.
I doubt Pharaoh spent a lot of money educating Jewish slaves.
Moses could read, think and write but he was an anomaly. Very few were privileged with those skills.
But there’s a second fact to consider. Even if a large number of Israelites were literate, very few had access to Bible documents.
Reproduction of these documents was slow and tedious (all of it done by hand), writing materials and implements were in limited supply and difficult to produce, and there is plenty of proof that copies of Bible books were protected rather than dispersed.
Judges, however, had access and they were the individuals to whom Israelites went to have personal grievances settled.
Remember, too, that there was little in the way of law enforcement. They had no police, jails or prisons.
That made judges very important. They, more than any other, led the way in maintaining law and order and without a judge no individual could just read the Old Testament and then take action against an offender, that is if they could find a copy to read.
Walter Kaiser in Toward Old Testament Ethics says eye for an eye:
Was never intended to give to individuals the right to work their own private justice and revenge for their own injuries…These laws were given to civil magistrates as precedents to guide them in cases of civil disputes. p 72
We understand that even better now. If you attempted private justice today, you would be quickly slapped in jail.
The Bible, especially the legal books, give judges very clear authority in deciding legal matters.
Love Your Neighbor Would Have Had Little Hearing
Many think the New Testament is a contradiction to the Old. Jesus clearly and forthrightly stated that we should love our neighbor, even our enemies but that idea was seminally represented in the statues of the Old Testament also.
You can’t learn to love and appreciate your neighbor before you’ve developed boundaries like not coveting what they have.
Old Testament communities had been raiding, destroying and dominating each other for centuries. For them, the only way to succeed was to destroy the competition. A simple Love Your Neighbor command wouldn’t resonate.
That idea was foundational to Old Testament law but the only way to get it across was to break it down into specific statutes like the Ten Commandments. And they had to learn how to implement these laws with the people next door before they could employ them with the countries across the way.
Human nature was no different in the Old Testament than it is now. Neighbors could just as easily be enemy-like as neighborly. Anyone could be suspect. Trusting your Old Testament neighbors was neither wise nor the norm.
Loving your neighbors would have little hearing in groups who were accustomed to dominating each other.
The world of the Old Testament cycled through the rising and falling of nations/city states as they competed. Egypt rose to power over several centuries but that power was, in part, founded on the ability to subjugate all other communities. The status quo wasn’t equitable. Financial equilibrium between nations wasn’t the goal.
Egypt was, of course, destroyed almost overnight in the Exodus but was given ample opportunities to back down before that destruction occurred. Even that exchange (authored by God) represents a change from the normal conquer or be conquered approach of ancient communities.
People in the Old Testament were more accustomed to smash mouth theology. Providing simple instructions to be nice wasn’t going to fly.
Laws Were Not Eternal
Laws will never change human nature and human nature is unfortunately sinful. It is true that laws, whether Old Testament, New Testament or common, are aimed at protecting the rights of individuals from those who would abuse those rights.
Laws were intended to correct behavior, not nature. When observed, they made the situation better but did nothing to change the basic nature of humanity.
Humans do what they feel like doing and those feelings, unless shaped by better, higher mores, can be harmful.
That nature is what motivates humans to find ways around legal restrictions. The pain of being penalized for bad behavior may obstruct actions in the moment but given enough time, one may find a way to abuse “legally.” That is the reason laws must be revisited and changed on occasions.
Since we naturally tend to find loopholes, it is necessary to change laws to correct for the workarounds.
Judges Were Prominent Early In Israel’s History
In Exodus 18:13 the Bible says Moses took his seat (implying an official, legal act) and spent the entire day judging issues between the people. An entire day. It had to be exhausting. But this shows that the act of officially making judgments was already in place. The people expected this and apparently complied with the system.
In response to the exhausting nature of this situation, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law who had just joined Israel for a visit, advised Moses to appoint a system of judges to spread the responsibility.
Again, this wasn’t something new. Adjudicating disputes was something they had always done and now it was being expanded.
Not only did Moses follow Jethro’s advice, in Deuteronomy 18:16 Moses gave instructions to appoint judges and officials in every town. There are also plenty of warnings throughout the Bible against judgers showing partiality or taking bribes (Deut. 16:18-19).
The fact that God warned judges not to be partial is proof that humans tend to be partial and that knowing the law and being bound by legal constraints in no way changes that natural tendency. Every judge had to respond with reason, not emotion. The way each felt had no bearing on any cases being heard.
So the Old Testament wasn’t a set of instructions one person could read and then act on without consideration by those in authority. These regulations guided those with legal authority in deliberating over individual cases.
What we understand from this is that legal responses to offenses aren’t determined by one person reading a text (journal) and then taking action. Instead, actions are predicated on deliberations with and by those in authority. The kind that takes place in court rooms today.
That understanding changes everything about the way Christians should approach the Old Testament today, or it should.
Similarities And Differences
The best word to describe the difference between today’s cultures and those of antiquity is excess.
The sins and abuses were the same. Rape, theft, lying, extortion, etc. are present in every era but the extent to which these occurred and were allowed varied.
Justice, as a concept, isn’t new to the modern era. In fact, our ideas of justice are based on the foundations laid by the thinkers of antiquity.
- The Code of Ur-Nammu was established in the 21st century BC. Other codes were established earlier but Ur-Nammu is the earliest written version codifying justice.
- Hammurabi’s Codes established in the 18th century BC focused on retributive justice. It was rough around the edges and is offensive to our modern sensitivities but it illustrates an awareness of the concept.
- The Republic, the first systematic philosophical discussion of justice was written by Plato around 375 BC.
The Old Testament represented an expansion of legal concepts like justice and righteousness as they applied to the culture of that day, not ours. It would be impossible to super impose the specific Old Testament rulings to our situation.
We can’t say for sure why the Old Testament prohibited wearing clothes woven from different materials (Leviticus 19:19, Deut. 22:11) and if we can’t explain why with certainty, then we can’t impose the idea strictly.
Old Testament Law Was Corrective
How you answer the question: what is the purpose of law? will go a long way in helping us get a practical handle on how to manage the law in our lives.
The primary purpose of law is neither justice nor righteousness. It’s also not perfection.
When you read the Bible, one clear fact emerges. The law can never make us right and that truth applies to every legal system: Ancient codes, Old Testament law, Medieval law, Modern law, Common Law, etc.
There is no system of law that can convert us from sinners to saints.
Following the guideline offered in legal structures can make us better, can help us avoid tragedies, but there is a lot space between evil and perfect. The best we can do is fit somewhere in the middle.
You can do better in the future than you did in the past and still be far away from perfection.
The New Testament is not technically a legal document but it clearly influences our understanding of law in general.
Jesus did two things to help us understand better. He came to fulfill the law, thus satisfying the demands of justice, and He offers a new nature than enables us to do better than a sinful nature would allow. He liberated us from the oppression of trying to satisfy the demands of an ever changing legal master.
Everyone should respect the law. No one can obey it perfectly.
Perfection is static. There is no end to the depths of wrong.
Obeying the law is a good thing to do but without Jesus, that has little impact on your standing before God.
Obeying the law means you haven’t done the wrong thing but you can still be as unrighteous as the next person.
The Main Point Of The Law
First of all, let me explain where I’m going with this topic.
My thinking here is that Old Testament law was designed to serve one primary, overarching purpose. That is true of all legal systems. In our contemporary world, we often talk about “Law and Order” meaning we have laws and those laws are aimed at producing order.
We shouldn’t hesitate to think of biblical law in the same way.
Biblical law, like contemporary law, focused on many areas including spiritual, social and personal life but what was the main goal? The laws covered a wide range of ideas, both spiritual and practical.
Scholars have isolated some 613 laws from Old Testament text. Not everyone agrees on the exact number of laws or that each of the 613 were actually laws, but the number is widely recognized as a starting point.
Some of those laws were prohibitive (365); others were prescriptive (248). Some things were disallowed, others were required.
Obeying those laws didn’t make you a better person but it did make both you and society better off by reducing abuse.
Old Testament Law Was Intended Specifically For A Nation Of Believers
One big difference between the nation to whom the law was delivered, Israel, and the nations of today, is Israel was to represent God to the world. They were to be God’s specially chosen nation.
And the Old Testament script was telling them how to reflect God’s presence and leadership in their lives.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well. Israelites, like all other people, have sin natures and even when they try, like the rest of us, they tend to fail. We all do that and Israel is the prime example.
As great a nation as they are, as accomplished as their people have been, they still can be faulted. If they, as great as they are have fail points, we shouldn’t think of ourselves personally or nationally as any better.
We all need a Savior.
Israel was the first representation of God’s people collectively. They, as a group, were to be a reflection of the wisdom and goodness of God.
Collectively representing God is still important today, but rather than through a nation, it’s done by individuals who live according to the spirit of biblical teachings: love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
The Primary Goal Of Old Testament Law
I mentioned the two things Jesus did in response to the law but what was the real purpose of those laws? Why were any of these laws written?
Based on what the Bible says, there are two purposes.
One purpose was to teach us something about human nature. We are sinners and that fact is verified every time we compare our lives and leanings to what the law actually requires.
It may seem like a negative thing to say that you, I and everyone else are sinners but is it really? Being a sinner is a problem that is only made worse when we deny it or aren’t aware of it. In that regard, the law serves a very important purpose. It illuminates the problem.
Self awareness, the ability to see yourself as you really are often breaks down when it comes to our fail-points (our sinful nature). The law helps solve that problem. The idea that you are living up to the law sufficiently to gain acceptance before and with God is a delusion the law was intended to correct.
And secondly, when we make the effort to live by the law, it makes society a better place. Even thought it does not change my personal inclinations, in whatever way it redirects those inclinations, it reduces abuse.
That’s one great thing about Israel. Israelites fail also but, historically, as a whole, they have been dedicated to following what they believe is the law. That effort hasn’t made them perfect but it has made them a great example to the rest of the world.
Culturally, Israel has produced a large number of highly influential scholars and contributors. At least 220 people of Jewish descent have won Nobel prizes. That’s huge!
One fact in making that possible is their allegiance to what they understand as Old Testament law. They don’t believe in Jesus. They don’t accept the New Testament, but they do adhere to Old Testament law, both the spiritual and practical issues, and they have accomplished more as a community than Christians have as a whole.
No one can be saved by following the law. In fact, no one can change their basic nature by following the law but attempting to understand and follow the law can make us better thinkers and more capable contributors.
The law is both spiritual and practical. It influences our relationship to God and to this world. We need to understand that.
Religions Blind Eye
But do the super religious get this. Maybe not.
At this point, we need to ask several questions.
Were laws designed to focus all of our attention on the Lord? Were they designed to protect us from unknown dangers? Were they designed to make us more socially agreeable?
In other words, were they naked rules to follow blindly, or were they intended to make us think?
The thinking part is important. How many times do people get into trouble because they don’t take time to deliberate?
All of these ideas are true but we still need to identify one main theme threading through all the laws. For me, that theme centers on abuse. All of these laws were designed to reduce the amount of abuse that occurs naturally in human relationships.
The one thing humans were designed to do is change. And we change continuously throughout life. From the moment of conception to the moment of birth we are developing viability, the ability to exist in this world without uterine support. Once born, we begin to develop the ability to produce and contribute.
That process can be stimulating or stifling depending on the actions we take and how those actions affect those around us.
The more we are abused, the less we produce. The more we abuse, the more we dampen the productivity of others and the less we focus on becoming the constructive, contributing person God intended us to be.
We understand that, however, only when we stop seeing the law as a set of strictly religious rules and realize there is an element of practicality here. The law can’t change my basic nature – only Jesus and salvation can do that – but it can make me a more focused, productive individual.
THINK!AboutIt
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