"He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.As I proceed further into this, it's going to be difficult for me to choose what verses to comment on throughout the law. I find myself most drawn to those that are either the most starkly clear, or ones that show the changes our "modern morals" have made. This one falls into both categories for me.
First, it's interesting to me how different the Bible would have been if God had given this particular law to Jacob, or before. Would Joseph have been sold by his brothers, knowing this would be the penalty if it were discovered? If so, would Jacob have carried out the sentence when the truth was discovered? The nation of Israel would have been very different if either of those changes had been made; either it could have starved during the famine, or it just might not have entered the land of Egypt.
This leads me to the question of why God waited until now, 500 years after guiding Abraham to the Promised Land, to give his law to the people? What changed in those 500 years where the Law was unnecessary before, but was mandated? Were most/all of these rules part of common culture at the time? Was it that if these had been done before, the penalty for transgressions would have thinned out the people to the point where they were no longer a nation, lopping off whole branches of the family tree? Why not earlier, so that there would be no question of the consistency of God? Unfortunately, this is a question I don't have an answer for, beyond the platitudes Christians use to cover when they don't know something. I really wish I did have an answer, but I don't.
No comments:
Post a Comment