Torah Portion: Exodus 21:1-24:18.

What comes into mind when you read the word ‘law’? Do you think of restrictions and limitations? Or release and freedom? This portion follows what we call the Ten Commandments, often remembered as a list starting with “Thou shalt not…”. Yet these commands were given to Israel as a liberating skeleton enabling the movement of walking with the LORD their God, just as our muscles can only produce useful movement as they pull against the frame of our bones. The Laws start with the reminder: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

As we move on to further laws that add flesh to the skeleton, the LORD again refers to servants and slavery, teaching Israel how to live in freedom with new responsibility as masters. Slavery conjures up pictures of the brutality of the slave trade or the forced labour of Egypt. But Hebrew bond-servants were to be freed in the seventh year, although they could choose to remain for life, secure in knowing that they would be provided with all that they needed in return for their work. Do we love our Master so much that we publicly commit our lives to His service, completely trusting Him to care for us?

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself. (Galatians 5:1, 13-14)

God’s laws were given to ensure fair treatment of people, protection of property and a legal system that balanced justice with mercy. They were given to a nation who had been in bondage, under foreign gods. Now they must only serve the LORD, who had delivered them.

The Israelites knew what it was like to live as aliens - so they must not mistreat the foreigners among them. They must not take advantage of widows or orphans - for they knew what it was to have suffered. Over 400 years in the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt (Deut 4:20) refined the Jews so that they were now in a position to show empathy to the vulnerable, living out the command to ‘love you neighbour as yourself’. They were called to be the LORD’s chosen people in covenant relationship with Him – a covenant requiring great responsibility as well as offering great privilege.

The LORD promised to lead Israel and clear their enemies before them so that they could take the land. If they kept to their commitment to serve Him only, He would bless their food and water, their health and fruitfulness. Moses communicated all of the LORD’s words and laws to the people. Their response was: ‘We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey’. If they had continued to obey, they would have remained holy – set apart from other nations. Yet, again and again they took steps to become like others and so faced the Lord’s rebuke. How often do we say “Yes” to the Lord and believe that we will be His faithful servants while our lives remain so much like those in the world around us?

Richard Wurmbrand (‘In God’s Underground’) wrote that there are two kinds of Christians: those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments. Wurmbrand’s faith was tested through 14 years of torture and imprisonment. How will we be tested in this time when so much in our nation is being shaken?

Author: Catharine Pakington