This is one of those rules that was revised slightly when Jesus came. I’m talking of course about the “eye for an eye” law….
Why would God make a law that He later changes Himself? The only difference of any consequence is the coming of the Holy Spirit, whose arrival changes everything. At the time this law was given the very presence of God was near, but did not live within the people. They feared God, and revered His (perhaps more than we do today) but they didn’t know Him personally in the way that we can.
So, they needed extra motivation from some other source to keep them on the straight and narrow. You would hesitate to harm someone else if you knew that you would suffer the same fate. No one got away with murder, they died as well…and fairly quickly. The lesson would have been stark. In fact, I am stunned as I read that anyone who cursed God was taken outside the camp and killed. That level of devotion seems foreign today…where people curse the Lord, the government, each other, the weather…just about everything; and no one thinks anything much about it. If you don’t believe in God these days you very well could be part of the majority.
For the Christian, no external motivation to remain pure is needed anymore. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and He challenges us daily to correct our attitudes, speech and actions. Nothing escapes His view, He never winks at our sin. For the serious believer in Jesus Christ the thought of disappointing Him is all the motivation we need to alter our course. In fact, our love for God provides the true motivation, we are no longer propelled by fear…love draws us. We are eager to do whatever the Lord wants us to do. Obedience becomes a blessing, and we look for ways that we can be obedient, instead of looking for ways to disobey, like we used to.
There’s something to be said here about the power of the spoken word as well. If you broke someone’s leg, then yours would be broken…but if you cursed God….you died. What you said about God had serious implications, so watch what you say. I think we have forgotten some of this today….we say just about anything.
Also, I have to marvel at the beauty of the Jubilee. God gave the land, and you didn’t own it…you farmed it for Him. Your descendants farmed it for Him…it was His. When you purchased land, you were really purchasing a certain number of harvests. That makes so much sense. I wonder why we ever got away from that. Actually, how could we ever follow that teaching in this country? We took the land by force from others, or we purchased it from those who took it by force. Maybe the idea of Jubilee can’t grow here…that’s too bad.
It makes me wonder about the purchase and sale of property in general. Perhaps we have become too possessive about the whole thing. If we considered ourselves tenant farmers for Jesus, I’ll bet there would be less wars, less starvation and less animosity in general. Heaven must constantly be saying “why can’t these people ever seem to get along with each other?” The effects of sin must go far deeper than we know. Perhaps the very idea that we “possess” anything is a product of sin.
Faithfully,
PR