[Note: For the last several weeks, we have explored case studies found in the Torah and how they point to the overall characteristics of God. In the next couple of posts we will look at how the New Testament views the Torah. We will conclude our series on the Torah at the end of October as we celebrate the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah (or Rejoice in the Torah) and wrap up our brief walk through the Torah. Stay tuned for our next series, to be announced shortly!]
You have likely heard Mahatma Gandhi’s famous phrase, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
The sentiment behind Gandhi’s statement is certainly true. It is, however, an example of how we often misunderstand the purpose behind certain parts of the Hebrew Bible, and especially the Torah. In a rather difficult portion of the Torah, Moses declares to the people of Israel:
Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.1
While these laws seem rather crude, even barbaric to modern sensibilities, they served an important purpose for Israel. You see, the point of “an eye for an eye” was not as a warrant for ever increasing further violence, rather it was meant to set a limit upon the retribution that could be enacted. These laws were meant to curb violence, not proliferate it.
Imagine, for a moment, the condition of ancient Israel. You have left an approximate 400 years of slavery in Egypt. All you have known is violence at the hands of cruel masters forcing hard labor upon you. Then, you are saved! The Exodus brings deliverance. But, this marginalized people group once under the stern control of one of the most powerful empires in human history is now free, though, with their freedom comes challenges. We see in the wilderness wanderings of Israel that there is a lack of cohesion at times, an urge to rebel against Moses’ leadership and return to the status quo in Egypt. Even more than this, Israel is in need of law and order, especially at this moment. Meandering through the desert, with no land to call home, these nomadic tribes required instruction to order their lives and keep God’s people from descending into anarchy.
This is precisely what laws like these provide. Rather than allowing for a system of wanton retaliation for some perceived or real slight, God steps in to restrict the ways in which Israel can punish injustice. Perhaps even more fundamentally, Yahweh establishes a legal system to begin with. Instead of permitting open violence to erupt between tribes, the elders and judges must preside over such cases, with the most important of which being heard by God’s appointed spokesman, Moses.
In fact, these principles are still fundamental aspects of the American legal system. While we may not follow the letter of the Torah in these cases, our legal system is based on the idea of crimes being punished commensurately with the crime itself. Petty theft should not warrant life in prison, but taking a life likely results in someone losing their life as they know it (whether through a life sentence or the death penalty). This law functions the same way, to ensure that a crime is punished in a manner that befits the deed itself.
Ancient Israel, as with all societies until quite recently, did not have the benefit of a prison system. While there are many valid critiques to mass incarceration in the U.S. in particular, this is a relatively recent problem in human history. For most societies throughout the ages, prison has not been an option. It certainly was not for Israel. Particularly as a nomadic people group at this point in their history, any injustice had to be dealt with quickly. While the concept is disconcerting to many modern Western minds, a just society requires judgment. If evil cannot be judged as such, then it will be allowed to flourish amongst the people. Here God calls Israel to judge evil for evil and to enact justice. That justice, however, cannot go beyond the bounds of what the guilty party has done.
These laws are another example of those that obviously cannot (and are not meant to be) applied in their entirety to modern life. Particularly in a nation that has immeasurable resources, these laws make a poor case for the death penalty being necessary in a modern society. Yet, this was the situation Israel found itself in.
Even in these dire times, however, we see that God not only restricts Israel’s capacity for violence but also provides safety for those who may have committed what we today would call manslaughter. If one reads, “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death,” it would be easy to assume that this blanket statement would apply to any such case. This underscores the importance of reading the Bible, and even more specifically the Torah, as a unit. God, in his mercy, provides for the individual caught in this. Likely fearing for their life, Yahweh commands that they be given asylum. In Deuteronomy 4:41-42 we read, “Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life.” This practice is unprecedented among Israel’s contemporaries and demonstrates how within the laws of the Torah itself there is a response to the changing context and needs of the community. Before Israel entered the land of Canaan (as they are about to in Deuteronomy) such cities of refuge would have been impossible. Yet, as the circumstances changed so too did God’s law. Just as with the daughters of Zelophehad, the Torah is not a perfect encapsulation of every situation that may arise in Israelite society. Instead, it is wisdom for Israel to meditate upon as they seek to be the image-bearers of the God who reveals himself and his character through it.
The full picture of God’s perfect law was yet to come, but it pointed Israel (and points us) toward Him.
We’ll begin our next part of our series with how Jesus expands upon the Torah in the famous Sermon on the Mount.
Leviticus 24:17-22 (ESV).