The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 -1
The Golden Rule says treat others as you want them to treat you. But this is not possible to legislate proactively. You cannot build a fence, no matter how strong, that will force a person to treat his neighbor the way he himself wants to be treated. Statutes can’t do this. Which means sin can happen.
There are two fundamental ways of ruling people. You can prevent sin, or punish the sinner. Every law you see in the world today is built around the first idea; preventing sin. All of society’s laws exist to protect the guilty from blame; to prevent him from sinning; to hold society accountable for his sins. To love the sinner more than the one sinned-against.
God’s way is simple. Punish the guilty. Protect the innocent. So different from Satan’s way –so much better. In a nation that follows His statutes everyone is safe, knowing that “sentence against an evil work is executed speedily” (see Ecclesiastes 8:11).
No murderer in God’s world is given a chance to be a repeat offender, or to escape from jail, or to kill other inmates and guards. There is no such thing as a career criminal in God’s society. Because life goes for life, according to the law of Exodus 21:23-25 and, in particular, Genesis 9:6.
As I said, you cannot legislate “love thy neighbor”; because no law can wall off every conceivable type of sin. But you can legislate it indirectly; because if you know that you will be treated as you treated your neighbor, then your soul will gradually realize that hurting him hurts you.
When you know if your neighbor falls off your roof and breaks an arm, the law will require your arm to be broken, you learn immediately, what happens to your neighbor happens to you. That in turn teaches you that his welfare is your welfare.
When you know that killing someone while speeding, no matter the reason, will speedily result in your own death, it makes you care very much about his welfare. And that, even to a beast, will gradually lead to the understanding that loving him loves yourself. And that ultimately instills in you the habit, if not the spirit, of “love your neighbor as yourself”.
Thus, the beauty of the lex talonis –the unnecessarily fancy Latin name for the “eye for an eye” law of Exodus 21:23-25 –is that when applied consistently, it reliably trains people to think of their neighbors’ welfare as their own!
Which it literally is; for this law makes how they treat their neighbors their own treatment. Any harm you do to him, whether ignorantly or maliciously, is automatically done to you. So harming him is literally harming yourself. Hating him is hating yourself (Ephesians 5:29). And who does that?
So God’s government does not need to meddle in day-to-day affairs and make blanket rules regarding such trivial things as inspection stickers, burn bans, and health codes because when people are held responsible for their actions, they will never risk endangering someone’s life or health knowing to do so would endanger their own.
That is the only way carnal people can be forced to follow the rule “love thy neighbor as thyself” –because what they do to their neighbor will be done to them. When everyone understands that, everyone will love their neighbor.
SHARING SINS
As I said, these are the two fundamentally different ways of managing carnal people. One way, the state takes the responsibility for a person’s righteousness away from them; they spread the blame for a person’s sin across all of society, rather than settling it squarely on the shoulders of the guilty.
The other way, the state demands the person take responsibility for their own actions. Pay for their own crimes. God’s way, the state expects people to control their carnal impulses and harshly punishes the guilty. “Thus,” says God, “shall you put evil out from among you” (Deuteronomy 17:7).
The world’s way, the state attempts to make sin impossible, and always fails. So they try even harder, in the process removing even more freedoms from everyone, in an attempt to prevent anyone from sinning.
But the real reason why this difference exists may shock you. The reason goes all the way back to the fall of Satan. Satan sinned. God held him responsible for his sin. Satan resents that. Read Job 4:18, where he complains that God accused HIM of folly. But Satan, master debater that he is, has developed an argument: his sin was really God’s fault!
God ALLOWED Satan to sin. God put Satan in a position where he COULD sin. And if sin had been so important to God, why not make sin IMPOSSIBLE? God allowed the sin, and so Satan blames God. And God also allowed Adam to sin –not only that, but allowed Satan to TEMPT him to sin! If it had been so important to God that Adam not sin, He should have prevented it from happening! Or so reasons the devil and this world’s governments and people.
And so in this Earth, where the battle between Satan’s ideology and God’s ideology is waged, Satan’s governments always try to PREVENT sin –at the cost of individual freedom. Satan tries to take away guns, tries to lock up thieves, tries to tighten airport security and, ultimately has to have secret police spying on every act in every life to make sure that no sin happens –and still, he fails to prevent it.
Satan’s state wants to rule your impulses for you. His state wants to take away your freedom to sin, and share the responsibility for your sin among the entire nation, the way he feels God should bear the responsibility for his, Satan’s, sin.
God, on the other hand, gives people the FREEDOM to sin but punishes the sinner. In God’s system, the judge corrects people who have sinned. The priest teaches people that they should not sin. But no one ever PREVENTS anyone from sinning –if they did, it would destroy the purpose of creating righteous character that God has worked so hard to make possible.
God expects our souls to take personal responsibility for our actions; He gives us the freedom to sin, but expects us to choose not to do so. He demands we learn to RULE OUR OWN IMPULSES. God’s way allows freedom for EVERYONE, and only the sinner suffers for his sin. Isn’t that better?
A MORE EQUAL WAY
Most Christians think the OT God’s way of justice is overly harsh. That the God who wrote these laws is a monster. And these laws are harsh –to the sinner. They are very stern to those who won’t take personal responsibility. But no more so than this sinner has already done to his neighbor! In fact, the punishments are precisely as harsh as he has already done to his neighbor!
Most people would tell you Jesus came to Earth to abolish the OT laws because they were too harsh. So read Hebrews 10:28-31. If you broke Moses’ law –the Old Covenant –you died without mercy if two witnesses confirmed it. WITHOUT MERCY! That’s the law the world feels is harsh. But what does God say next?
God says he who breaks the NEW Covenant, the covenant of Christ’s blood, is worthy of MUCH WORSE PUNISHMENT! God says the OT laws and punishments were NOT HARSH ENOUGH! And if you violate the NC, you are worthy of MUCH WORSE punishment than those who violated the OC!
And that is why it goes on to say it is a FEARFUL THING to fall into the hands of the living God! Because God’s laws are inflexibly opposed to those who are careless and negligent, those who bring suffering and unhappiness in the lives of others. But isn’t that what laws are supposed to be?
These laws were meant to be administered without pity (Deuteronomy 13:8), without mercy, without consideration for circumstances. That seems very cruel; and yet… the sinner had harmed his neighbor without pity, without mercy, without consideration for his circumstances. So how is the lex talonis unfair?
Ezekiel 18:29 (NKJV) Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
These laws are not harsh. Locking someone in prison for life without parole –that’s harsh to the criminal. Letting a drunk driver who killed someone’s wife and child go free after a few years –that’s harsh to the victims. Taking away the freedoms from the entire nation in order to avoid putting blame on a criminal few –that’s harsh to all of society.
God’s way of justice is swift, stern, and when necessary, merciless… but it has a very definite purpose: love. Love of the innocent first, but once they are cared for, love even of the worst sinner. And when God’s way is constantly, compassionately, and consistently administered by the spirits of just men made perfect, most crimes will disappear on their own, as everyone is habitually guided to love their neighbor as themselves.
RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED
What is required for an alleged criminal to be condemned? Deuteronomy 19:15. A man is presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty. This is a radical departure from most of the world, where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. Only the USA and certain other Western nations approach justice in this way.
Do you have the right to face your accusers? Deuteronomy 17:7. The accusers are clearly witnesses, otherwise they have nothing to accuse. And these witnesses have to be first in line to administer the penalty. This puts a much greater burden on the witness to be CERTAIN that he is right. He can’t just make wild accusations and then go home, leaving the accused to be dealt with by the state.
The WITNESS must be sure enough of his ground to look the defendant in the eye and speak of his crimes. And must the witnesses agree on their testimony? Mark 14:55-59. In God’s system, the burden of proof is on the accusers –and a great burden is on those witnesses. Why? Deuteronomy 19:16-21.
If a man commits perjury that would cause a man to be executed, when his false witness is discovered the witness is executed instead. THAT is the proper penalty for perjury. If his testimony would cause an innocent man to lose an eye as punishment, then he loses an eye instead. If the testimony would involve a fine, or slavery, or anything else, the false witness pays the price he would have wrongly caused to happen to the accused.
And God specifically commands no pity for the false witness. It is one of the most grave responsibilities to testify against someone, and abusing that for any reason bears a heavy price. In modern courts, a perjurer might pay a small fine or do a few years in jail. In God’s system, he simply pays whatever price his testimony would have caused the accused to pay. How simple! How fair!
But what if the matter is too hard to decide; if it’s a “your word against his”, and it can’t be resolved by the local authorities? Deuteronomy 17:8-9. Notice that this matter goes before the Levites AND the judges. How binding is their decision? Deuteronomy 17:10. What if someone ignores their sentence –whatever that sentence is? Deuteronomy 17:12.
Why do you go before the priests AND the judge? Verse 11. What is the job of the priest? Malachi 2:7. And what does the judge do? Deuteronomy 16:18. So the priest shows what the law SAYS –taking the word from the lawgiver. And then the judge decides how it APPLIES to this situation.
PUNISHMENT
How is God’s sentencing carried out? Privately, or publicly? Deuteronomy 21:21. Who is responsible for carrying out the sentence? Leviticus 24:14-16. Allowing punishments to be carried out behind closed doors insulates people from witnessing the results of their testimony, and the judgments made based on them.
It’s relatively easy to say on the witness stand this person deserves to die. It’s relatively easy for the judge to sign an order condemning him to death, to have someone in some dark chamber somewhere turn a knob or press a button to execute someone. And it’s relatively easy for the executioner to do it, because “he’s just following orders”. In this way, it’s no one’s responsibility, and no one feels too much to blame for it.
But it’s another matter entirely to “let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head”, and have the hands of the witnesses “be first upon him to put him to death”. When you know that will be the result you will think about your testimony and your judgments very carefully before rendering them! And when you DO make a decision, it will be because you are absolutely certain it is the right thing to do.
Why does God do it this way? Let’s take the example of someone who worships other gods secretly in Deuteronomy 13:6-10. After commanding a public stoning, why does He say He did this? Deuteronomy 13:11. It is IMPORTANT that people SEE justice. So they, too, will FEAR to serve Baal. What is the beginning of wisdom? Psalms 111:10. How do men depart from evil? Proverbs 16:6.
When children see adulterers put to death, they will think long and hard before doing it themselves when they grow up. When murderers know that justice is swift and stern, there will be fewer murders. “Thus,” says God, “shall you put evil out from among you” (Deuteronomy 21:21, 22:21, etc.).
DEATH PENALTY
Is the death penalty Christian? Is it Biblical? You already know there is a big difference between the OC and the NC. As has been mentioned many times, those under the NC have no right to execute anyone for their crimes because our own obedience is not yet full –therefore we have no right to cast that first stone to execute someone.
But what does Paul say –did he favor the death penalty? Romans 1:32. Notice Paul says the JUDGMENT OF GOD is that people who do such things –a long list of capital sins precedes, back up read Romans 1:20-31 to see all of them –people who do those things are worthy OF DEATH. This is NEW TESTAMENT, PAUL, saying this.
In Romans, no less, where so many people turn to DISMISS the laws of God! How do so many people own Bibles and not know that such things are worthy of DEATH? In the same book, a verse which everyone knows but no one reads in this light, Paul says “the wages of sin is death”. How then, can Christians be opposed to the death penalty?
In the Old Testament, a huge list of sins carried the death penalty; including, but not limited to… adultery (Leviticus 20:10), rape involving betrothed or married women (Deuteronomy 22:23-27), all forms of homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), or bestiality (Exodus 22:19), kidnapping (Exodus 21:16)…
All forms of witchcraft (Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:27), Sabbath-breaking (Exodus 31:15), hitting or cursing your parents (Exodus 21:15, 17), murder (Leviticus 24:17), serving other gods (Deuteronomy 13:6-9), prophesying falsely in God’s name (Deuteronomy 18:20)… etc. In short, breaking any of the first seven commandments carried an automatic death penalty. The last three did not usually carry the death penalty, although there are exceptions. As always, the punishment was made to fit the crime.
When God is running the Earth, these are the terms by which the Kingdom of God will be governed. As a king or priest in the Kingdom of God, you will be on the front lines administering these laws and executing these judgments.
This is why it is NECESSARY that you understand the laws of God; how they work, when they apply, WHY they are so necessary to a nation’s happiness. Because after all, what were the laws of God intended to create? Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
When properly administered, these laws will create a nation that is a brilliant example of peace, prosperity, and happiness –and all nations will come seeking to learn how this was accomplished (Isaiah 2:3).
WRONGFUL DEATH
Wrongful death is responsible for many modern laws. Seat belts, safety stickers, gun control, reflectors on bicycles, drinking and driving, medical malpractice, disclaimers on literally everything you buy. And all of these laws are un-necessary when God’s simple laws are enforced. In this case, Leviticus 24:17-22 and Exodus 21:23-25.
So let’s apply that to specific situations. Suppose one day your dog gets out and kills your neighbor. What punishment does God describe? Exodus 21:28. The dog is put down, and you are not to blame.
But now let’s say that same dog is known to be vicious, and has escaped in the past and attacked people, and you did not make every effort to secure your fence or get rid of the dog. If the dog gets out and kills someone, what is God’s judgment? Exodus 21:29.
If your dog was sweet all its life, then suddenly went insane, tore through your fence and killed someone, you’re not to blame. You had every reason to believe your dog was no threat to anyone. On the other hand, if you knew it was vicious and you were simply too lazy, proud, or stubborn to do anything about it –then if it kills someone, your life goes to pay for theirs.
When people know these laws will be enforced, when they know THEIR LIFE depends on the quality of the fence around their vicious dog, that fence will be well built or they will shoot the dog themselves. They won’t be blinded to its viciousness by their pride. It simply won’t be worth the risk to keep such an animal around.
But what if it is a poor family and your dog killed their provider? Is the family forced to go hungry now? Will your death fill their bellies? Does God offer any alternative to vengeance? Exodus 21:30-31. The key is protect the victims.
They, through no fault of their own, lost their breadwinner. Money cannot replace them, but without them to earn a living, their family will continue to suffer probably for the rest of their lives. So God’s judgment is that you, who through your carelessness allowed this to happen, must pay ANY ransom the victims place on you. Good luck finding justice like that today!
All this is saying is that you are responsible for your actions. And for the actions of anything you own. If you raise pit bulls, knowing they are violent, you had better make sure they are thoroughly fenced in –because life goes for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The damage your animals do to others will be done to you.
Now supposing we both have cows. And suppose our bulls got in a fight and yours killed mine –who is to blame? Exodus 21:35. So in that case, we split the damages –selling both animals and splitting the proceeds. But if you know your bull is mean, and mine is not, and yours kills mine, you’re to blame. In that case, your live ox (which, being alive is worth more) goes to pay for my dead ox ( Exodus 21:36). Again, the victim is protected.
The specific instances don’t much matter here –that’s what the judge is for. What matters is that the victim is protected, and the person responsible pays the price. If you dig a hole and don’t fence it off and your neighbor’s cow falls in, you pay full price for the cow ( Exodus 21:33-34). If you build a deck and don’t build a railing and someone falls off, the same rule applies –life for life, eye for eye (Deuteronomy 22:8).
DRINKING AND DRIVING
Much of what we just said applies here, but it’s an excellent case in point. Some people can drive perfectly well after drinking for hours, other people are unsafe on the road dead sober. But the government legislates how much drinking is allowed, in an attempt to use statutes to make the roads safe for everyone.
This is their job, and frankly, as an American I’m glad they do it because our people cannot be trusted to rule themselves. But speaking as an ambassador of God’s kingdom, laws against drinking and driving are the wrong way to go about solving this problem.
Because ultimately, laws can’t stop there. Soon there are laws against having alcohol open in the vehicle –even if the driver isn’t drinking. Then laws about having alcohol in the vehicle at all. Laws about alcohol in the presence of a minor, laws about certain days and times of day when you can’t buy liquor, or towns and counties that outlaw it altogether. And of course, all those laws already exist.
And ultimately, it doesn’t stop anything. At best, it slows it down. God’s way would stop it. And, as always, God’s way is simple! Instead of taking responsibility for sin AWAY from people by more and more laws, give responsibility BACK to them, FORCE it on them. Apply the fundamental laws of God’s system of justice –punish the guilty.
If you apply “life for life, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” to drunk driving, it means that if someone goes out, gets drunk, drives home and crashes into your car killing your wife, his life goes to pay for hers. Or if your arm is broken, his arm goes to pay for yours. If your life is ruined, his life is ruined to repay you.
Is that harsh? Think about it. You had no choice in the matter. You were driving along, minding your own business. He CHOSE to get drunk. He then CHOSE to get behind the wheel. He then CHOSE to drive home. What happened to you was the result of a series of bad choices HE MADE, and God holds him RESPONSIBLE for those choices.
Why shouldn’t HE? Why shouldn’t the driver, as the only one who COULD have made different choices, pay a price at least equal to the price his selfish choices cost you? Why should the price he pays for his sin be any less than the price he forced you to pay for his sin? Did he show you mercy with his choice?
Now suppose a drunk driver killed your wife. Her life is ended, yours will never be the same again; he would probably serve a few years for involuntary manslaughter, maybe have his driver’s license revoked for awhile, then move on with his life; he would no doubt feel guilty from time to time, but more often than not, he would drink and drive again, later to rob some other family of a loved one. Is that way REALLY more fair, more loving, than making him pay for his crime?
Most of us have seen this system in action; this is not justice. It pities the guilty and ignores the innocent. But God’s way promotes TRUE FREEDOM. EVERYONE is free to drink all they want. But if they hurt someone, drunk or not… life for life, eye for eye. This is why it is called the law of liberty (James 1:25, James 2:12).
This empties the jails and greatly diminishes the size and scope of the police forces and the tax burden they impose. It all but eliminates repeat offenders. Most important of all, it teaches personal responsibility –the strength of a good soul –and it teaches people to reign in their impulses and restrain themselves. And when they do that, society won’t need to do it for them.
When you KNOW that drinking and driving might very well cost you your LIFE… you’ll think very carefully before you ever start to drink. And even drunk, the knowledge will be in your mind when you get behind the wheel. And if you’ve seen people executed for taking the risk you’re about to take… drinking and driving fatalities will go from happening once every 48 minutes, to once every few decades.
The most important rule of Godly love is love the innocent more than the sinner. The lives of the people who are wronged by sins such as drunk driving are never the same. But in the name of “love”, today’s system of “justice” often gives the sinner a mere slap on the wrist compared to the suffering their sin caused the innocent. True love, and true justice, puts the innocent before the guilty.
AVENGER OF BLOOD AND CITIES OF REFUGE
God’s rule “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and life for life” applies no matter what the circumstances –whether it was premeditated murder, drunk driving, or you were swinging an ax and the head came off and killed someone by mistake.
But we ignored a major part of God’s justice system for accidental homicide –manslaughter. There clearly is a difference between murder and manslaughter. God’s law requires payment for both acts, but since the second was clearly an accident, the slayer is not without recourse.
First though, let’s be clear –if he had taken better care of his tools, the ax-head might not have been loose. If someone else had been in the woods that day instead of him, the man wouldn’t be dead. So ultimately, he is still to blame even though it was an accident –ultimately, the rule in Genesis 9:5-6 applies.
But still, there is a clear difference between a loose ax-head and murdering someone because you didn’t like his haircut. So read Deuteronomy 19:1-7. Here God commands Israel set up “cities of refuge”, equally spaced in Israel, so “slayers” can flee there.
A slayer is the word the Bible uses for people who accidentally kill someone (as opposed to a murderer). Car accidents, hunting accidents, work accidents, that sort of thing. Anything that kills someone whom they had no motive for killing.
But verse 6 also mentions an “avenger of blood”, whom we’ll come back to in a moment; and also says this man was not worthy of death “because he hated him not in the past”. Murder carries the automatic death penalty from the state, as you already read.
However, unintentional murder –manslaughter –carries no state death penalty. If you didn’t mean to kill someone, God’s government –the state –can overlook your sin and does not lay the death penalty upon you. HOWEVER, whether you meant to kill him or not, that man is dead because of you.
Your action took away their loved one, and God’s law protects the victims and allows their family to lay the death penalty upon you. Rather than let this man go free as our judicial system might, leaving the victims no recourse, God allows the victims to exact vengeance from the man who killed their relative!
BUT! Rather than leave the slayer no hope, God sets up these cities of refuge where the slayer is safe from retribution. What happens there? Deuteronomy 19:9-13. Now read the other version of the command in Numbers 35:9-15.
When you arrive in the city of refuge, there is a trial to determine whether you are a murderer or not (Verse 12). What happens if you are found guilty of murder? Numbers 35:16-20. And who shall kill him?Numbers 35:21.
If you are indeed a murderer, then you are sent back to your own town to face the punishment for your crimes there (Deuteronomy 19:11-12), unless the avenger of blood –a close relative –finds you and kills you first.
But what happens if you are found innocent, guilty only of owning a poorly maintained ax? Numbers 35:22-25. And what if the slayer ventures outside the city of refuge before the death of the high priest? Numbers 35:26-27. And after the high priest dies, then what? Numbers 35:28. Can a murderer or slayer try to buy off the victims? Numbers 35:30-34 (BBE does a great job with these verses).
The person guilty of manslaughter caused innocent blood to be shed –it was unintentional, to be sure, but if that person hadn’t been there, there would have been no death that day. So to make God’s books balance, that man can be killed by the avenger of blood unless he gets to the nearest city of refuge immediately.
Now the avenger of blood may not wish to take vengeance. It is his right to do so, but not his obligation. God considers this man innocent of sin towards Him, but the victims have the right to exact his life if they wish, because he still sinned against them.
Bottom line, as BBE translates Numbers 35:33 “there is no way of making the land free from the blood which has come on it, but only by the death of him who was the cause of it” –and it should be mentioned there is no hint of an insanity plea in the Bible.
Today, victims have no recourse. No way of “making the land free from the blood which has come upon it”. God’s way changes all that, and while at first it seems shocking and harsh… the end result is a people who, of their own free will, choose to protect their neighbors’ welfare as if it were their own, because the beauty of the law of God is… their neighbors welfare IS, legally, their own welfare.
PERSONAL INJURY
If you sell a defective ladder and someone falls off on a rock and looses a tooth… so do you. This will make you very careful in your testing process, to ensure that your ladders are SAFE. You won’t need OSHA looking over your shoulder. You will take responsibility for your own quality, knowing the responsibility for any fault in your equipment will rest solely on your shoulders.
You’ll be VERY sure your ladders are reliable and thoroughly tested before they leave your factory, knowing that if you build a defective ladder and someone hurts himself, that’s your fault. But on the other hand, people who use the ladder will also be held responsible for their sins.
If you build a good quality ladder and some fool abuses it, using it for something you never intended, and hurts himself… that’s his own fault. There need be no special warnings about every conceivable abuse printed all over the ladder. A righteous judge makes the sinner responsible for the sin.
So you judge –who is the sinner? The person who used the ladder as a make-shift diving board and hurt himself… or the person who made a good ladder, but didn’t think to warn people not to use it for water sports?
It all comes down to two things; find the person responsible, and have them pay the victim for the loss they suffered. If your animal gets out and eats your neighbor’s pasture, or if it breaks out of the fence and destroys someone’s vegetable garden, what happens? Exodus 22:5. Out of the BEST of your own you will pay them back.
If you borrow something from your friend and it breaks, should you replace it? Exodus 22:14. What if your friend was there helping you with his tools when one broke? Exodus 22:15. What if you rented it? (Same verse).
A similar concept is burn bans. Today we do not have the freedom to decide when it is safe to burn and when it isn’t. It doesn’t matter if our area got rain and the rest of the county didn’t. It doesn’t matter if we live in a swamp, or have our own fire truck; if the county pronounces it unsafe to burn, we are required to follow that. We don’t have the freedom to decide when it is safe to burn.
But God makes no such blanket rules. When everyone knows the guilty will repay the victim, there is no need for such rules. For example, if a fire consumes a half-dozen houses in a neighborhood, who is responsible? Exodus 22:6.
This means people will be VERY careful when and how they start a fire. There will be no need for city or county “burn bans”. If it is unsafe to burn, people won’t burn, knowing that to do so could bankrupt them if the fire gets out of hand. On the other hand, if it is “burn ban weather” and someone wants to have a fire and take appropriate safety precautions, that is his right.
And if he misjudges the situation and he can’t control the fire, he will pay for all damage; remember, there is no insurance in this righteous world! It will come out of his own pocket, and if he can’t pay, he will be sold as a slave to pay for the damage.
It is vital that he has the FREEDOM to choose whether it is safe to burn or not. That is the only way anyone will ever learn to judge for himself! But while he is learning that, it is important for his neighbors to know that if he makes a mistake, they are protected no matter what. God’s way makes sure both things are done.
THEFT
Today if someone steals from you, IF they get caught, you are unlikely to ever see a dime back. The prisoner, IF convicted, will spend a couple of years in jail –which your taxes will help pay for –and then be out, probably to commit future crimes. More than likely having learned new tricks from fellow criminals in prison who taught him better ways to steal.
How would God handle it? Exodus 22:1. So if someone steals an animal from you and kills or sells it, he has to pay it back four or five times over! But if the animal he stole is still alive and he still has it, how much does he have to repay? Exodus 22:4. For all other thefts, what is the repayment? Exodus 22:9.
Notice that in God’s system the victims are protected. They are recompensed for the wrong they suffered, paid back –with damages –for the hurt the thief did to them. But what if the thief has no money to pay the fine? Does he then go to prison? Exodus 22:3.
If someone steals from you and can’t pay the price, they are sold into slavery to pay you back. The victim is protected no matter what. You are SAFE in God’s system of government from theft. When the thief is caught, you will get justice!
But that doesn’t mean the thief is treated unfairly. He sinned, he brought this upon himself, and he must make restitution to his victims. That doesn’t mean God’s system is unmerciful. After working as a slave to pay back what he stole –probably learning new honest trades in the process –how long must this man remain a slave? Deuteronomy 15:12.
And is the slave sent away penniless, left to beg or return to his thieving ways? Deuteronomy 15:13-14. After serving his sentence, working for his masters to pay back his debt, he is sent away with food, money, and enough for a good start on life. Hopefully, rehabilitated!
Rather than spending his sentence locked up with other prisoners complaining about how unfair life is, left with little to do in prison all day except talk about how not to get caught next time, this person has been a productive part of society the entire time! And has been associating with law-abiding, hard-working people rather than hardened criminals!
But now let’s back up and build on this a bit more. What if, while someone is robbing you, you grab a knife and kill him? Have you committed murder? Exodus 22:2. But what if you are walking down the street the next day and catch him, struggle and kill him? Exodus 22:3.
Stealing is not a death-penalty offense in the Bible. The wages of theft is not death under Moses’ law. The wages of theft is to repay double to those whom you have wronged. If you kill him while he is stealing from you, that is self-defense and justified under OC law (not under NC law, for God commands us to “turn the other cheek”).
On the other hand, if you kill him in cold blood the next day, it is murder. You would be exacting a penalty far greater than the law requires. There are many other laws about theft in the Bible; Exodus 22:1-15 is the largest collection of them.
The point is, when a shoplifter knows when he is caught he will have to repay double what he stole, he will think double. When a cattle rustler knows he will have to repay five times over, the idea won’t be so tempting. When they know that if they can’t repay, they will become slaves for six years, the world will have fewer thieves.
SLAVERY
Before we move on, let’s mention slavery here. Is it wrong? Aren’t “all men created equal”? Yes, they are! Read Acts 17:26. Slavery by race is a sin. However, slavery as a punishment for a sin you can’t repay is an excellent system of justice.
The Bible makes little difference between the word “slave” and “servant”. There are servants who are bought with money (what we call slaves) and servants who are hired for wages –what we call employees today.
You can see the distinction in who may eat the Passover in Exodus 12:44-45. Servants bought with money are treated as part of your household. Yet these are not slaves in the sense we understand the word, because they are sometimes even made heirs of your estate (Genesis 15:2-3).
Slavery is really the wrong word for this, since it connotes lifelong, generational slavery in the modern world –and that really is a terrible thing. But being sold in the Bible generally meant being sold as an indentured servant. Not really as a slave, in the modern sense.
God has specific rules involving the purchase, sale, and treatment of slaves. Along with a way out of slavery in most cases. First, read the basics of slavery in Exodus 21:1-6. No Israelite could be a slave longer than six years, and the seventh he was to go free (though there is an exception for voluntary slavery that can go no longer than the 50th year in the jubilee cycle (Leviticus 25:50-55).
However, if he didn’t want to be freed, he could voluntarily choose to remain a servant, if he liked his life there –which shows that slavery in God’s system can’t have been too unpleasant, if some would choose to remain that way forever!
So if you owed someone money you were sold as a slave until it was paid off OR until the 7th year. So no one could screw up more than about 1/10 of their life at a time, no matter how stupid they were. Wouldn’t that be better than 20 year, 50 year, lifetime sentences in prison?
Wouldn’t you choose to be a slave for 6 years than a prisoner for 10? In fact, selling yourself into slavery was considered a viable way out of poverty (Leviticus 25:47-50). So clearly, what God meant by the word wasn’t that bad!
Because slaves are protected in God’s system –see Exodus 21:16 20-21, 26-27. In Exodus 21:32, God puts an average value at 30 shekels of silver –which as you probably noticed, and not coincidentally, is the same price Judas received for betraying Jesus (Matthew 26:15). Because Jesus was sold into slavery for us, to work off our debt.
Thirty shekels was a substantial price, probably something like 6 months’ gross income for a middle class citizen, enough to buy a small piece of property (Matthew 27:3-10). Which makes sense, because when buying a slave, you’re essentially buying six years of labor at once.
Another passage on slavery is Deuteronomy 15:12-18. A few general facts about servants are scattered around the Bible, such as Proverbs 17:2, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, Colossians 3:22-4:1 –there are others, but I think that captures the general idea. As always, it boils down to “love your neighbor as yourself”, and treat your servant well, knowing that you were a servant in Egypt (OC) or that you are servants of God (NC).
Because bottom line, we were all slaves to sin –just as a thief who cannot repay is a slave to his master for six years. And we were bought from that slavery by God, bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20, Leviticus 25:55), thirty shekels, to be exact, and so buying convicted criminals with a price can’t be a sin.
It’s not done in today’s society of course, and we should be thankful of that because this society would have no such righteous laws protecting the slaves –but in a proper system, indentured servitude has its place, primarily to replace prisons as a just punishment for sin.
But this way is better than prisons, because this sort of bondage provides financial remuneration to the victims and rehabilitates the sinner –also doubling as a half-way house when his sentence is up, for he is sent away with clothes and food and money and the honest trades he learned as a servant!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
There is one last part to God’s protection for slaves and criminals. As you read earlier in Deuteronomy 15:12, Hebrew slaves go free after serving you for six years. This appears to be after any period of six years being released the seventh year, rather than being released on a specific year in a seven-year cycle.
Otherwise, thieves could steal something just before the year of release, get caught, not be able to pay, and be slaves for one whole day –and then go free again. Which hardly seems fair to the victims, as God’s system always is. So it appears to be a period of six years, starting when they are sold as slaves.
However, there is also a specific cycle of years that involves the forgiveness of debts, which you can read in Deuteronomy 15:1-3, 9. Every seventh year in this cycle, all debts are forgiven –imagine a world where banks couldn’t hold mortgages on properties for generations!
Imagine where the national debt couldn’t continue to grow every year for a century! The strangle-hold banks have on societies today could never have happened in the first place in God’s system. Which is why God hates the charging of interest so much! (Proverbs 28:8).
And in that seventh year, the nation has a refresher course of the entire law of God read to them during the Feast of Tabernacles –see Deuteronomy 31:10-13. Also, in that same seventh year the land is not plowed or pruned or worked at all (Exodus 23:11).
These are specific years in a cycle of years, called the land Sabbath in Leviticus 25 which, although it’s rather long (55 verses) you should read all the way through because it’s all about this subject. Here, I’ll call your attention to the high points.
The land Sabbath has many agricultural benefits which I won’t go into here, but it is obviously very important to God. So important, in fact, that if a nation doesn’t observe the land Sabbath, God sells the people into slavery and leaves the land empty until it “catches up” on its rest (Leviticus 26:43, 2 Chronicles 36:21).
In God’s world, land cannot be sold. You cannot lose your family home to the bank, or sell it, or lose it in a poker game. It is a heritage possession Leviticus 25:23-28. And if you do “sell” it to someone, it amounts to a 50-year lease at most, because of the Jubilee.
These land Sabbaths/years of release happen every seven years in a solid cycle, until 49 years have passed ( Leviticus 25:8). And in the 49th year, on the Day of Atonement, a “jubilee” is proclaimed and all slaves go free, all properties revert to their rightful owners, all debts are forgiven, and all the foolish mistakes of the former generation have been undone.
It is difficult to convey the differences this would make in a society, so I’ll leave it to your imagination. But not planting requires faith, which you can see in Leviticus 25:20-22, and requires you to trust God to provide for your needs for almost two whole years.
There is a great deal more to learn from this pattern, but that’s another lesson. I will however point out, this is an exact pattern of the plan of the holy days –these seven weeks of years are the same as the seven Sabbaths you count between the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost; and the Jubilee is the exact pattern of Pentecost, where all debts are forgiven, all sins are forgotten, and God dwells with man.
I will also point out that we, as a species, were sold into slavery to sin by Adam; and for 6,000 years we’ve been trying to be made free from that slavery. Jesus came to free us from that slavery, but we won’t be released until we are resurrected at the return of Christ at the end of 6,000 years from Creation!
Just as every seventh day we are all free from work and take our rest, and just as all slaves were set free from physical slavery every seventh year, we will be set free of spiritual slavery at the seventh millennium! Notice the three types of the Sabbath; the day, the year, and the thousand-year cycles!
I will also point out that all these disconnected laws, however odd they seem, all fit together to convey a better understanding of the law, the plan, and the nature of God. And if you think about it long enough, you might even understand what those seven Sabbaths in between the first resurrection and Pentecost represent…