It’s amazing how practical God is! He thinks about everything and wants us to live in His light.
From Exodus 20:22–23:33, we have the fine print of the contract. The Lord provides many details on how the nation should behave. It was their Bill of Rights. He outlines a variety of things: the kind of altars to build (functional, not fancy), dealing with indentured servants, matters of personal injury, property responsibilities, various moral offenses, and special festivals. Three times the people promise that everything God has told them, “we will do” (19:8; 24:3; 24:7). Let me comment on one section regarding slaves (21:1-11). The Lord has received severe criticism, as some charge, for approving of it. We will visit the subject more fully later, but note the following. First, God sets boundaries to many things in the Bible that were not His intended will. He knew sinners would get involved in certain behaviors and, while He didn’t approve, He did set limits in such matters. One example is God allowing divorce in certain circumstances, although as Jesus said, “from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8). Why? Because there are things worse than divorce! Today more women are murdered by their partner (or ex) than by a stranger. Second, there were no prisons in Israel. Either a crime deserved capital punishment, or restitution was paid and everyone carried on with life. But what if you owed a debt or had stolen something and couldn’t repay? Today, people who have suffered loss through crime rarely receive reimbursement. But in Israel the person was indentured, agreeing to work for the victim without salary for a specific time until the debt was paid. Life is not fair, but God is, and He seeks ways to set things right. It may be in time, or perhaps in eternity, but all of God’s books will eventually be balanced.