Exodus - Lesson 24

Dr. Carmen Imes 
Exodus 
OT605-24
Property Ownership Laws    
Lesson Transcript

So we're going to continue in this session working our way through the book of the covenant in exodus that started in 20 verse 22 and runs all the way to 23 19 and we're picking up in chapter 22 verse 1. We've already seen laws about worship, laws about managing servants who have become servants because of poverty and destitution, and we just talked about personal injuries either to humans or to animals, and now we're moving into the section that talks about stealing and property ownership. So again, we're just going to work our way through them. It's so interesting to slow down and hear these laws and consider what principle is at work in this law and how might we live this out in our context.

I've not actually ever had the opportunity to teach exodus this slowly before and spend this much time on the laws, so it's fun to be able to slow down with you. So 22 verse 1, whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. This is an interesting law in that the punishment is so much greater than the crime.

If you steal one sheep and you sell it or you eat it, you don't just have to give one sheep back, you have to give four sheep back, and the reason why it's so asymmetrical is to underscore the importance of respecting other people's property. This law is supposed to be a deterrent so that nobody is tempted to just, well, I'll take one this month and I'll give one back next month. Nobody is going to get ahead by taking what belongs to their neighbor with a penalty like this.

If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed, but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed. This one has all kinds of implications for our world today and for protection of property. Notice that property theft does not merit the death penalty and the life of a thief should be protected if possible.

Now if it's nighttime, it's completely dark. You're in ancient Israel, there's no street lights, there's no light pollution going on coming from your town. It's just pitch black and a thief is breaking in at night.

You don't know if he's a thief or a murderer. You don't know what he's doing and you're trying to stop him and if you strike out and he dies, you're not liable because you can't see where you're striking him. But apparently if it happens after sunrise, then defending your property should not involve killing the thief.

That is, you don't conk the guy on the head. Maybe you conk him in the in the shins so he can't run, but you're not going to kill him. And so the principle here is again to uphold the life of the thief.

There was unfortunately a mass shooting in California not so long ago and I saw the video surveillance footage of the one who disarmed the shooter and it was really fascinating how gently he was dealing with the shooter trying to get the gun out of the man's hands without hurting him in any way. I thought, wow, we could use a lot more of that kind of response. He successfully got the gun away.

The man was not able to kill any more people, but he didn't do so by killing the shooter. I think if in any if it's ever possible to stop a crime without killing someone, that should be our priority. Of course in a mass shooting people are dying and so the death penalty does seem merited, but it just struck me how gentle this person was.

Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing they must be sold to pay for their theft. So if someone can't pay up, you don't put them to death. You bring them into a position of debt servitude so that they can make their payment and that brings us back to what we talked about in the previous session about chapter 21 verses 2 through 11.

This is one of the ways that someone might enter into servitude. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession, whether ox or donkey or sheep, they must pay back double. So get your animal back and they owe you more.

Again, you can't just steal something hope they don't notice and okay fine have it back. If you're caught it's going to cost you a lot. 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.

This is a point about being vigilant about your fence line. If your animals are grazing, they don't get to graze on someone else's land. They have to graze on your land and if they graze on someone else's land then you have to replace what they ate.

If a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution. So starting a fire makes you responsible for where that fire goes. These are all property laws and they are similar in some ways to some of the other laws say in the Code of Hammurabi.

The Code of Hammurabi has a law about a bull with a habit of goring. It has laws about what to do if somebody borrows an animal or is like babysitting an animal for one of their neighbors and something bad happens and they're similar in some ways. The Bible is not entirely different and it does not represent a completely different kind of ethic for community life but here all the laws even where they're similar to other nations are being brought into this covenant service.

This is a way of expressing the covenant relationship with Yahweh and we can see his character and what he what matters to God. Starting in verse 7, if anyone gives a neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they're stolen from a neighbor's house the thief if caught must pay back double but if the thief is not found the owner of the house must appear before the judges and they must determine whether the owner of the house has laid hands on the other person's property. In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says this is mine both parties are to bring their cases before the judges.

The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to the other. The principle here seems to be two things. First that those who care for others property are held accountable for it but also that if there's a dispute related to property it's to be decided by judges.

It's not just his word against her word but it's a matter that must be brought before the judges and adjudicated to figure out who is most likely to be telling the truth here. If anyone gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any other animal to their neighbor for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or is taken away while no one's looking the issue between them will be settled by the taking of an oath before Yahweh that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person's property. The owner is to accept this and no restitution is required but if the animal was stolen from the neighbor restitution must be made to the owner.

If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal the neighbor shall bring in the remains as evidence and shall not be required to pay for the torn animal. If anyone borrows an animal from their neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present they must make restitution but if the owner is with the animal the borrower will not have to pay. If the animal was hired the money for paid for hire covers the loss.

This reminds me of my husband's attitude towards borrowing things from neighbors. Whenever we're working on a house project I'm like oh maybe so-and-so has that kind of a saw or that kind of a of a tool we could just go borrow it instead of buying one and his approach is always I don't want to break something while I'm borrowing it and that I don't want that dynamic to be in our relationship let's just go buy it. So he he has I think this principle in mind that when you borrow you become responsible for it and how do we know maybe it's just about to break and if we borrow it and it breaks on our on our watch then we're going to have to pay the full cost to replace it and so he would rather just buy a new one for ourselves of whatever tool that is and I think that that impulse kind of comes out of this way of thinking.

The next section of laws is a bit different. We are changing topics from property laws to social responsibility and you'll see that we still have some things here that involve the death penalty but we're having a wider ranging number of topics so we'll take them one by one. If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her he must pay the bride price and she shall be his wife.

If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him he must still pay the bride price for virgins. Now this passage gets a bit of a bad rap and it's understandable why somebody might come to this and say what if a woman is raped she has to marry her rapist so it's important to see this in its context and what is it trying to do. So here is another casuistic law it begins with if and includes a then so if a man seduces a virgin it does not say he grabs her and rapes her but he seduces her.

They are not married but they sleep together. He is responsible to pay the bride price and marry her. This presumes that she wants to be married to him.

Her father can step in and say nope you do not get to have her and he still has to pay the bride price because he has taken what should have only belonged to the husband. The principle here is that sexual intimacy is designed for marriage and it's not something that can be casually entered into by any two people who happen to be in the mood or happen to like each other. And so this verse 17 gives us the escape route for a woman who is actually raped.

If she tells her father that is not a man I feel safe with and I don't want to marry him then he can say nope you don't you can't have her. Now the reason the father is involved is because fathers always arranged marriage for their daughters. That was their role in this culture.

That's not how things work today in most western contexts. Arranged marriages are not a thing but in a in a context where there's arranged marriage this man cannot just have easy sex. He has to commit to her for life if he wants to sleep with her.

Verse 18 is short and sweet. Do not allow a sorceress to live. There is a death penalty for sorcery.

It's not appropriate, not allowed in the Israelite community. What is sorcery? It's the attempt to access power to get things done or to find out things outside of Yahweh and Yahweh will absolutely not tolerate the seeking of secret knowledge or power outside of himself. And so somebody who does that that's the equivalent of worshiping false gods and so it merits the death penalty.

Verse 19, anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death. This is a fundamental violation of the distinction between humans and animals. Humans are the image of God.

We're designed for each other and for relationship and we are not designed to be related to animals in that way. One could even say it's a form of exploitation of the animals and that's why it's not to be tolerated. Verse 20, whoever sacrifices to any god other than Yahweh must be destroyed.

It undermines the entire project of becoming the nation under God. If someone is worshiping a false god it puts the entire community at risk. Verse 21 kind of turns a corner and brings up a different issue and this next section involves the care for or protection of the vulnerable, 21 through 27.

First of all, do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigners in Egypt. They knew what it was like to be an outsider and now that they're getting ready to come into a land of their own where they can be their own nation, they need to turn around and treat foreigners better than they were treated when they were in Egypt. Verse 22 puts it even more strongly.

Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless, the most vulnerable members of society. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. We've seen this previously in Exodus where God hears the cries of the Israelites as they're being oppressed and he responds to that and now he says if you oppress or take advantage of the widow or fatherless and they cry out, I will hear their cry and then it puts it even more strongly.

My anger will be aroused and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. So there's a death penalty divinely enacted for someone who takes advantage or preys on the most vulnerable members of society and the result of that is that their own family becomes the widows and the fatherless.

So the long and the short of it is that this means that you're supposed to treat other people's other vulnerable members of society as if they're your own family. You wouldn't want this to happen to your wife or to your children so don't do it to someone else's widow or someone else's children. It's a way of creating a sense of community family where the way you treat other people outside your family is just as good as you would want your own family to be treated.

I love it that God takes this so seriously. Verse 25. If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal.

Charge no interest. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear for I am compassionate.

So lending you can't charge interest. That would be to take advantage of the poor and taking a neighbor's cloak as a pledge would be in a situation where your neighbor owes you money. He can't pay and in fact the only thing of value he has is the clothes on his back.

You can take it but only for the daytime and when it gets cool at night you give it back to him because it is exploitative to take collateral that is going to make them shiver. We're talking here the most destitute of neighbors and God says when they cry out to me, I will hear for I am compassionate and you can't just say well he owed it to me. He owes me money.

That doesn't matter. That is not the basis for mistreating that person. Verse 28 brings us back to other issues.

We're out of this section of protection of the vulnerable and there's a few things in a row here that I think maybe are united by the way that they express what belongs to God. Verse 28 says do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people. So blaspheming God or even the ruler that he's appointed is stealing honor that belongs to God.

Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. So you've collected your grain. You've collected your olives and made olive oil or your grapes and you've made wine and you've collected that.

Don't hold back what belongs to God as you bring him offerings. Don't hoard what he's provided. Make sure that you're being freely generous in your worship of God.

And then you must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days but give them to me on the eighth day.

Now these are side-by-side sons and cattle but they're treated differently and that's clear in Exodus 13 which is the ritual legislation where it describes why the firstborn belong to God because God has taken the firstborn of Egypt. So now Israel's firstborn belongs to God and it's made very clear there that firstborn sons are to be redeemed and firstborn animals are to be killed. So this is not child sacrifice just to be very clear and it never was child sacrifice.

God says in Ezekiel, such a thing never entered my mind. That was never part of the of the plan. The firstborn of Israel's sons belong to God and so instead what happens is God takes the Levites in their place to serve as priests or if there aren't enough Levites to provide a redemption for every one of the Israelite sons then they bring five shekels to the sanctuary to exchange for the firstborn.

So the idea is that the firstborn belongs to God so they need to be dedicated to him. Verse 31, you are to be my holy people so do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts throw it to the dogs. So this is interesting it feels a little random here it will be expanded upon in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter 14 has all kinds of laws about eating and it too is tied to this statement you are to be my holy people so that affects what you eat. You're set apart for me in in essence you're going to eat what I eat so that the people of Israel will eat the same kinds of things that get offered in sacrifice to God. They don't eat they don't eat camel they don't eat shellfish and and you don't give camel to God on the altar and you don't give shellfish to God on the altar.

You don't bring pigs to God and you don't eat pigs so there's a there's a symmetry between what God is eating so to speak that with the altar the offerings on the altar and what the people are eating and so he says don't eat the meat of an animal that's torn by wild beasts that's that's the kind of you you're not that desperate and you don't need to to to treat yourselves as scavengers. Live like you belong to me and eat what I've provided for you. Verses one through nine have a variety of other laws that relate to justice and mercy and we'll close with these.

The first is do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. What we'll notice with all all of these in these first nine verses of chapter 23 is that all of them relate to having integrity.

God doesn't want us to be swayed by the promise of money greed public opinion or by our own hatred or prejudice so listen to how those themes come through here. Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.

In other words tell the truth. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give a testimony in a lawsuit do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.

So we'll see in a few verses you're also not supposed to deny justice to poor people but here you're not supposed to give favor favoritism to a poor person. So the state of someone's financial state should not determine whether you find them innocent or guilty when they come to you and there's a decision to be made about their situation. You should just see the truth about what's right and say yes or no.

So not showing favoritism. Verse four if you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off be sure to return it. Don't just be like there it goes.

Lucky him. But if you see that you should go and go through all the work it takes to capture it and bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load do not leave it there but be sure you help them with it.

So a donkey with a load would be right there with the person who hates you and if you see them in trouble stop and help them. Don't let the conflict between you or their opinion of you stop you from being a good neighbor. Verse six do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death for I will not acquit the guilty. If someone is really innocent and you give them the death penalty now you are liable and you should be put to death. Do not accept a bribe for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

And finally an echo of what we saw in chapter 22 verse 21. Do not oppress a foreigner. You yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners because you were foreigners in Egypt so that should change everything about the way that you live.

There's two more sections of laws that are part of the covenant code or part of the book of the covenant from verses 10 through 19 and we'll just touch on them briefly to close out this section. First are the laws about sabbath and there are two kinds of sabbath laws here. First sabbath years and then the sabbath day.

Notice what they're for. For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it and the wild animals may eat what is left.

Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. So letting the land lie foul for the seventh year the sabbath year is a way of providing for those in the community who don't have a good harvest or who don't have good land or don't have land at all. So the poor among the community can come and pick what naturally grows that year because there's always something that that comes up even when it's unplowed.

And then it zooms into the weekly sabbath. Six days do your work but on the seventh day do not work so that your ox and your donkey may rest and so that the servant born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. So again that the reason we have a sabbath is so that your household may rest not primarily so that you head of household can get a break.

Be careful to do everything I've said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods. Do not let them be heard on your lips.

In my NIV Bible that verse 13 is included with the sabbath laws. I'm inclined to think it belongs with what follows as an introduction to these three annual festivals that God is instituting. Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

Celebrate the festival of unleavened bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv for in that month you came out of Egypt.

We read all about the unleavened bread in chapter 12 and 13 of Exodus. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Celebrate the festival of harvest with the first fruits of the crops you sow in your field.

So this second festival is the one at the beginning of the harvest. The first things that come up bring them to me and offer them to me as a sign that I am your provider. Celebrate the festival of in-gathering at the end of the year when you gather in your crops from the field.

Then bring me more to say thank you for this harvest. And then a few more regulations related to these festivals. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the sovereign Yahweh.

Now why the men? Why not the women? We already learned earlier in Exodus that the women are to be included in worship. This is not for men only. This is for all Israelites, young and old, rich and poor, male and female.

However, in this case only the men are required to appear before Yahweh. Once they're in the land and they're scattered in all of its regions, it's not always going to work for women to travel. Sometimes they'll be pregnant, sometimes they'll be breastfeeding, sometimes they'll have infants or toddlers, sometimes they'll be menstruating and it's going to be difficult for them to travel to the temple or the tabernacle.

And so this law is meant as a escape clause or as a compassionate... how do I say it? So this law extends compassion to women for the roles that they play in the household. They're invited to come but they're not required to come. They won't be punished for not going.

Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of Yahweh your God and do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

These are ritual laws that have to do with the types of sacrifices. Obviously since we don't have a temple and we're not bringing sacrifices, they're not as directly relevant but they give us a hint of what's to come in Leviticus chapters 1 through 7 where God gives lots more detail about what is to be brought and how to handle the sacrifices so that he can be properly honored. So that brings us to the end of the book of the covenant.

Any questions? Yeah, so in verse 16 where it talks about the man seducing a virgin, the language there in the Hebrew suggests that that's a consensual relationship between the two people but it's outside of a marriage relationship. And then the father comes along and has the decision of do we want to make this permanent or not? Is that accurate? I think that's fair to say. So the word here means that he's deceptively, he's somehow tricked her into sleeping with him.

So it's hard to say in every situation would be different. How much was she into this and how much was she duped? And that's where I think the father's role, he can come in and adjudicate. Is this a good match or would this be detrimental to his daughter? And so he has, he's supposed to have her best interest in mind and he can protect her from what might be an unhealthy or unsafe relationship.

But the overall idea here is there's no such thing as casual sex in ancient Israel. There's no one-night stands. This is if you're having sex with a woman you're committing to her for life.