1 “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. (Exodus 21:1, ESV)

20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21 Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. 22 “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (Exodus 23:20–22, ESV)

28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. (Exodus 23:28–30, ESV)

1 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” 3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. (Exodus 24:1–11, ESV)

At this point in Exodus, God asked the people if they wanted to be his kingdom of priests, a holy nation reaching the world (Ex. 19:5-6). They said yes to that covenant invitation, so God gave them the Ten Commandments and—here in our passage today—the set of laws that extend from them.

God called these laws The Book of the Covenant (Ex. 24:7). It lists a wide variety of rules meant to govern Israel once they were in the land of promise. It is not exhaustive—it could not possibly cover every single scenario every Israelite ever found themselves in—but it is extensive. In it, God touched on different aspects of life; they were to run with these laws to shape a society that honored God.

It can be challenging for Christians today to know what to do with the law of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it is sometimes quoted or appealed to (Eph. 6:1-2, 1 Tim. 5:18), while at other times, it is declared fulfilled (Galatians).[^1] So what should we do with the law? It is important to remember that it came after God rescued them, so it was supposed to be a response to God's grace. It is also important to simply appreciate the law code; even if it seems complex to us, there is much beauty in it. But the main thing is that we must always remember that these laws were designed to shape a chaotic multitude of recently released slaves into a society centered upon God. Each dictate was meant to build up ancient Israel, not the modern church. The law was for them and fulfilled by Christ. We can glean lessons from it, but it written for ancient Israel when they came out of Egypt, not the church.

But if these laws exist to shape God's community, are there some pillar concepts that show us the type of community God appreciates? Are there community attributes found in Israel's Book of the Covenant repeated often enough in the New Testament that we can confidently say they should be part of our community, too? I believe so, and I would like to suggest four to you today. Rather than slowly move through hundreds of verses to inspect each law, I think it would benefit us to lift these four elements of God's community out from the law code so that we can appreciate and apply them to our church and individual lives.

1. Will Hold to the Primacy of Love

First, God's community will hold to the primacy of love. Only later did the law tell Israelites to love their neighbors as themselves, but love for others is clearly in mind in the set of laws here in Exodus (Lev. 19:14).

We will talk more about the problem of slavery in Israel in a moment, but there were extensive laws about how to treat servants, such as what to do when they plainly say, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free" (20:5). Doesn't this suggest the good treatment of slaves?
There were laws about how to handle things if your neighbor doesn't properly fence in livestock prone to attacking—goring—people (21:28-32).
There were laws that dealt with how to handle those accused of crimes—God forbade a false report or witness because he wanted their justice system to be as pure as it could (23:1-3).
There were laws that dealt with their treatment of foreigners who came with them or would come to them, along with widows and fatherless kids: they could not wrong, oppress, or mistreat any of them (21:21-24).
There were laws on how to treat enemies—if you found his lost ox or came upon his donkey unable to move because it was over-loaded, you had to help your enemy and his livestock (23:4).
God is portrayed as interested in every relationship—even animals were thought of as God wanted them to have rest along with all the humans on the weekly Sabbath (23:12).
And, of course, there were tons of laws about their relationship with God himself. They were to be a sacrificing, worshipping, non-idolatrous people.

As we've noted, Jesus affirmed that the greatest commandment is to love God and that a close second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40). And Israel's Book of the Covenant gives us a glimpse into what that love might look like to God. To him, love is more than a feeling,[^2] but shows itself through loving actions towards everyone and everything in our sphere of influence.

As James wrote, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Jas. 1:27). Of course, he said that—James knew that "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (Jas. 2:17). He would have looked into the Old Testament law and seen love in action. Yes, these laws do not immediately apply to the church, but the principle of love in action certainly does. James referred to love as "the royal law of liberty" (James 2:8, 12).

Even in Galatians, which had to be written because early Christians were using the law incorrectly, Paul affirmed love in action by saying, "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Gal. 5:13–14, Lev. 19:18). And, of course, Jesus, who had more to say about love than anyone, told his disciples that everyone would know they were his disciples if they had a love for one another as he loved them (John 13:35, 15:12).

The primacy of love was to color the new Israelite community, and it should be the lofty aim of the church for it to color our community as well. Just as the Good Samaritan in Jesus' story did what others wouldn't in caring for a beaten man on a deserted road, believers should care for others (and one another). These laws weren't meant as the exclusive and stiff way Israelites were to treat one another, but a spirit of love was meant to drive them forward, and these laws should've helped them get to their destination. I recently watched a hilarious clip of two young sisters who were coloring together. The younger one asked for the red crayon. The older told her to say please. She did. The older then told her to ask for the crayon and then say please. Finally, the younger girl got out her whole request, complete with the aforementioned "please." The older sister's response? "No, you may not," followed by violent sobs from the younger sister. These laws in Israel were not meant like that—dry and unfeeling formulas on how to technically be a good citizen. Instead, these were laws designed to propel them forward in love for others.

2. Will Highly Value Human Life

Second, God's community will highly value human life. Here is one law among many that reflects this principle:

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:22–25, ESV)

Don't freak out about the eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth thing.[^3] There is little evidence that Israel practiced this law as strict one-for-one judgments, but lots of clues were meant to understand it as a way to either elevate or restrict punishment in equitable ways—the punishment must fit the crime! But the idea of this law, that if a fetal life is harmed due to a man's recklessness in fighting another, it should lead to his (implied) death, is found in other forms throughout the Book of the Covenant. Time and time again, the punishment for striking someone in cold blood was capital punishment—the offender must be put to death (Ex. 21:15-21). Again, I will remind you that this was for ancient Israel, not the modern church or even modern societies, but laws like these do tell us how much God values human life.

God's insistence that his people value life should put Christians out front in the battle for human rights, combatting modern slavery, or defending the unborn. Jesus taught us to be peacemakers, so we are to go above and beyond to struggle not only against evil but also for those who have been hurt by it. Adoption, recovery ministries, compassionate counseling—these are all great examples of things people who highly value human life will do.

This is probably a good place to talk about the presence of laws regarding slaves in the Book of the Covenant. If God was so insistent on the value of human life, why not merely abolish slavery in Israel? It is an important question, so let's consider it here.

First, we need to identify who these slaves were. American history is forever stained with the evils of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Men and women, boys and girls made in the image of God, were kidnapped from their homes and brutally transported to distant lands for lifelong captivity. That is not at all what was happening in ancient Israel.

The issue was not foreign slaves, but Hebrew ones—in other words, they were not enslaving an entire race of people.
The issue was not capturing unwilling slaves but funding willing ones. When people found themselves in poverty, they would sometimes turn to this option as a way to get out of the hole. And even in the Book of the Covenant itself, God told them they were not allowed to kidnap, sell, or victimize a slave in any way (21:16).
Their version of slavery was not for a lifetime but was for a maximum of seven years, more akin to indentured servitude. Again, it was a choice for a season of time.
This slavery did not lead to inhumane practices but provided protections to those rendering service. The Hebrew people had been slaves, so they were meant to act mercifully towards those who needed to indenture themselves.
A lack of social structures such as welfare, a prison system, or bankruptcy made temporary slavery a viable option for many.

For all these reasons, some Bible translations call them "servants" instead of slaves. This is likely too soft of a word to use, but I understand why they've made that decision. The word "slave" means something altogether grotesque and terrible to us.

But we must also remember that these were instructions designed to take the Hebrew people forward from their condition at that time. Given their history and all the cultures around them, slavery similar to indentured servitude was bound to be fairly common, so God put these laws on them to regulate their actions. He did not create slavery "but worked within the cultural framework of that time to begin a longer process of transformation...a process in which God is slowly moving people back toward a standard of greater respect and dignity for all people, not less."[^4]

There is often more than meets the eye whenever we find an unappealing law. But our working concept about these laws is that they were for ex-slaves coming out of Egyptian dominance and influenced by the ancient Near East cultures around them. God used these words to reshape them into something new—a progressive transformation from a mass of disorganized humanity with no good moral compass to something much, much better. This concept should help us whenever we come across laws that challenge our modern moral sensibilities.

3. Will Let Their Story Impact Their Treatment of Others

Third, God's community will let their story impact their treatment of others. This is likely the reason the Book of the Covenant kicked off with rules regarding how to treat slaves. They had been slaves, but there was no choice, fair treatment, payment, or expiration date involved in their slavery. Since God had rescued them from dire conditions for slaves, they were to move forward without creating more dire conditions.

The Lord wanted them to analyze their history and let it impact their treatment of others. He said, "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (22:21). Again, he said, "You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (23:9). He wanted them to make sure they did not pervert the justice due to their poor and let their land lie fallow every seventh year so that those who needed it could eat whatever grew spontaneously that year (23:10-11). In God's mind, Israel's past life as slaves in a foreign land should have made them treat foreigners, slaves, and everyone struggling with poverty well. He didn't want his people to take advantage of their position over others inside the community.

This all sounds like love and the high value of human life, but the point I'm making here is that they should have been motivated to love and value human life because of who they had been. They had been poor. They had been foreign. They had been enslaved. They had been at the mercy of the power of Egypt. And because God had mercy on them, they needed to show mercy and grace to those whose condition echoed Israel's past condition.

This concept is an entirely gospel one. What God has done for us in the gospel of his only begotten Son should deeply inform how we treat others today. Here is one example from the New Testament—the book of Titus is a bit of an instruction manual to the lead pastor on the island of Crete. Paul told him to be sure to teach everyone in the churches there that they needed to submit to rulers and authorities, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect mercy toward all people (Titus 3:1-2).[^5] Then Paul gave the reason he thought this behavior would be fitting:

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:3–5)

So Paul thought that our story, just as the law dictated for ancient Israel, should impact our treatment of others. We were enslaved to sin. God had to rescue us. So we must treat everyone as if they cannot save themselves but need God's mercy and grace just like we did. We are not above anyone but need God's grace and mercy, just like everyone.

Recently, as I returned from an early morning walk, a neighbor down the block from me must've had a window open somewhere. I don't think he knew it was open because he was disrupting the quiet of the dawn with a terrible rendition of classic nineties R&B jam "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe.[^6] It very much made my morning. Why? Because I could see a bit of myself in his awful performance. I, too, have belted away nineties jams from my childhood. I, too, have been guilty of trying to hit notes I have no business trying to hit. I, too, have ruined the morning quiet with a concert from my bathroom.

We, too, were in need of a savior! We, too, needed grace! We, too, needed the precious blood of Jesus to rescue us! Let's treat people like we should. Let's allow our story to impact our treatment of others.

4. Will be Centered on God

Fourth, God's community will be centered on God. Why do I say this? In short, God is the constant thought throughout the entire Book of the Covenant we are studying today.

The preamble to all these laws were directions on how to build an altar for God. Yahweh knew they would both want and need to sacrifice to him, so he gave them instructions on how to build an acceptable altar, which was an anticipation that they would spend time in fellowship with God (Ex. 20:22-26).
At the end of the commands, God was to be prioritized. There, God included rules regarding sabbaths, sabbatical years, and the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering that they were to observe three times each year (23:14-17).
After delivering the entire book, God promised his presence would go before them into the Promised Land if they obeyed his laws. Little by little, he promised to drive out the inhabitants of the land until they increased and possessed it (24:30).
And once Israel heard the entire Book of the Covenant, the leadership went up the mountain with Moses, committed to obeying the covenant, and then beheld God while they ate and drank before him (24:1-11). Later in Exodus, God tells Moses he cannot see his face because no one can see him and live (Ex. 33:20). So when Israel's elders met with God after hearing his covenant, it likely meant they caught a glimpse of part of God—his feet, not face, are mentioned—or that they were seeing the pre-incarnate Christ. Just as the disciples saw God when they looked at Jesus, perhaps these Israelite leaders saw the pre-incarnate Son of God while they ate that meal.

All this is to say that the entire Book of the Covenant was God-saturated and God-centered. Israel had spent enough of their past life centered on Pharaoh's will, slaving away for the empire. Israel was now called to spend their future loving, serving, and engaging with God. Everything they did was done in God's sphere. Their careers, relationships, and decisions were colored by God's presence. They were a spiritual people.

I hope you know how much God wants to be involved with your life. He wants your every move to be made with the consciousness of him. He does not want to be a part of your life, but the One you live all of life within. Peter said believers in Jesus should "live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God" (1 Pet. 4:2). Allow your work, your relationships, and your decisions to be influenced by and centered upon the God who loves you. And the more we, as a community of believers, say yes to Jesus over and over again, the more we move to being a God-saturated and influenced group of people—a people centered on him.

Conclusion

One way you might think of God's covenant with Israel is like a nested digital list entitled "Our Covenant with God."

If you pushed on it, it would expand to two more subheadings—love God and love people. Jesus affirmed this when he said that the greatest command is to love God, and a second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31, Deut. 6:4-5, Lev. 19:18).
If you pushed on "love God," it would expand to four more subheadings—the first four commandments of the Ten (no other gods, no idols, respect God's name, keep the Sabbath).
If you pushed on "love people," it would expand to the six more subheadings—the last six commandments of the Ten (honor parents, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't covet).
If you pushed on any of these subheadings, you will find various laws mentioned here in Exodus and Leviticus.

For example, whenever you read of a more specific law about how to keep the Sabbath in the rest of the Exodus (or the entire Bible), you can trace it back to the fourth commandment, which you can trace up to loving God, which you can trace up to a desire to keep their covenant with God, which would lead them to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So, why keep the Sabbath? Trace it all the way up—to fulfill the destiny the God who rescued us has for us.

So, though Christians are not justified by law-keeping, and though Christ came to fulfill the law, we also want to live out our destiny. As Peter said, we are God's "chosen people, royal priesthood, and holy nation, his own special people, that we might declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Pet. 2:9, NIV inspired paraphrase). So let's center our community on God, let our story impact the way we treat others, highly value human life, and hold to the primacy of love.

Study Questions

Head:

What are the main themes of the "Book of the Covenant" as presented in Exodus 21-24, and how do they extend the Ten Commandments?
How does the sermon interpret the purpose and application of the laws given to ancient Israel in the context of the modern church?
Discuss the sermon's perspective on the primacy of love in the community as outlined in the Book of the Covenant.

Heart:

How do the laws regarding treatment of others, as mentioned in the sermon, resonate with your personal experiences of grace and mercy?
Reflect on the sermon's discussion of human life's value in God's community. How does this influence your feelings towards social justice and human rights?
Share your emotional response to the concept of letting one's personal redemption story impact their treatment of others, as suggested in the sermon.

Hands:

In light of the sermon, what practical steps can you take to demonstrate the primacy of love in your community?
Considering the sermon's emphasis on valuing human life, what actions can you commit to that reflect this principle in your daily life?
How can you incorporate the sermon's teaching on being centered on God into your personal and communal worship practices?

[^1]: Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000)

[^2]: Thank you, Boston.

[^3]: Known as the law of talion.

[^4]: Kimball, Dan. 2020. How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-Women, Anti-Science, pro-Violence, pro-Slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[^5]: It is an instruction manual suited for Christians on how to navigate modern presidential campaign seasons! Seriously.

[^6]: Bell Biv Devoe: Poison Album Review | Pitchfork