This will be a comparatively short post tonight, because A) it's late, B) I'm not likely to get much sleep anyway and C) lists of laws are, for the most part, pretty dry stuff.
A few of them did stand out, however.
First off, despite what Christopher Hitchens would have had you believe, many (most, in fact) of these laws make perfect sense, and are both equitable and benevolent, despite being from The Bible.
Like how in yesterday's readings there was the statute differentiating (essentially) between first and second degree murder, (Wait... don't we do that too?) or in today's when it gives a stiffer punishment for stealing an ox than a sheep.
Another aspect of these laws is that they go beyond mere legalism and actually codify being nice to people.
"You borrowed something and it got stolen? Did you catch the thief? Yes? Alright, then you're fine. No? Well, let's take a look, but you should probably pay something."
"You've farmed for six years and gathered everything from your fields? Alright, this year, don't touch it. Whatever grows there goes to the hungry."
Finally there are the best laws, which also happen to be the ones that are hardest to follow, and fly in the face of everyone who tries to set up a hard-and-fast dichotomy between the vengeful/wrathful/every-man-for-himself-and-screw-the-enemy God of the Old Testament and the "love thine enemy" God of the New.
4 "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 "If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.
Doesn't get much more "love thine enemy' than that, and we're still wayyyy deep in the Old Testament. It doesn't say "don't steal your enemy's ox". It doesn't say "don't lie if your enemy asks where his donkey is". You have to actively return it to him/her. You are legally obliged to be a good Samaritan in this case.
See? These four would've been locked up back then, too...
Maybe God's a bit more complicated than a simply "NT/OT" understanding of Him implies. The really revolutionary thing about Christianity and Judaism is that God is precisely not a set of abstract rules or personality traits. He's not part of the Greek/Roman pantheon where everyone is a one-dimensional anthropomorphization of some aspect of life/humanity. There's a relationship there with Someone, not something and someones tend to be a lot harder to fit in boxes than somethings.
No comments:
Post a Comment