Exodus 21:12-33--The Sanctity of Human Life

The Sanctity of Human Life

12 “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. 13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. 14 But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.

17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

18 “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, 19 then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.

20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26 “When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. 27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

28 “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. 29 But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. 30 If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. 31 If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. 32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

---

While yesterday's passage also fits into this much larger conversation, I wanted to deal with the issue of slavery separate from the issues of manslaughter and murder that are mostly covered in this section of text.  So, if you're reading along with me in the English Standard Version (ESV), there will be no section break here--though I don't believe the entire section is talking only about slaves as its section headings seem to indicate.  Remember that the Scripture is inspired, but the location of chapter breaks, breaks between verses, section headings, footnotes, commentary, cross-references, and even what letters appear in red text are not.  However, I believe (and hope that you believe) that we serve a God who is able to preserve His original meaning of the Scripture through time and translation, because it is the Holy Spirit (the original author of all Scripture) who lives inside of us as Christians and leads us into all truth.  I also hope that we can stand in agreement with Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 when he wrote, "16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV), and that we understand when he wrote this that Paul was talking to Timothy about the Old Testament--probably the Septuagint, though we get some indication from 2 Peter 3:14-18 that the epistles of Paul had been circulated and were also considered to be Scripture.  I just want us to be careful to not approach the Old Testament as if it is "old" and has nothing to say to us today because, on the contrary, it has much to say to us today and Jesus said that all the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament) were alla bout Him.  Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus?  (See Luke 24:27 specifically but I recommend reading all of Luke 24 together for the broader context).

​Our passage today is going to mostly cover expounding on the sixth commandment, though also a bit on the fifth commandment.  Remember that the Ten Commandments were like an "executive summary" of a contract (a covenant) and the full terms and conditions are being spelled out now.  Much is made out of the sixth commandment about how it is translated and does it mean "you shall not murder" only, or does it mean "you shall not kill"?  And if it means "you shall not kill," then why is it that some killing, such as war and capital punishment, seem to be permitted while other killing seems to be prohibited?  Do you remember the covenant made with Noah in Genesis 9?  This will be a return to that covenant--a reminder for all those who had forgotten that covenant that God made with all men.

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”  (Genesis 9:1-7, ESV)

God spells it out in great detail for his people though.  What if the death is accidental?  What if it is intentional?  What if it is caused by negligence?  What if a man kills someone who is breaking into his house?  What if a man's "life" is taken from him in that he becomes permanently disabled (or at least is bed-ridden for a long time)?  Is that the same thing?  Don't we still struggle with these same ethical and moral questions today as society and culture?  God gave us all of His answers to these questions in the Law.

We return again to questions about slaves and servants.  Were they simply property?  Did their lives matter?  Would their lives be regarded the same as the life of a free man or would they be treated the same as an animal, or tool, or piece of property?  God says clearly that they too were made in the image of God and their lives matter--all human life matters--and that anyone who mistreated a slave and causes him to die is guilty of murder unless the the slave lives a day or two and then dies because then they could not be certain that the beating is what caused the slave to die.  

Many of these laws that we'll study today offend our sensibilities because we don't believe that anyone should be slaves and many don't like the idea of capital punishment, especially for moral crimes such as adultery (we'll get there soon) or cursing your father or mother or striking your father or mother.  But remember that parents were God's authority here on earth and how children treated their parents is how they were treating God Himself.  Should man curse God and live or strike God in the face and live?  Even Job's wife knew the punishment for cursing God when she told Job to "Curse God and die."  These laws may offend our sensibilities, but that is only because they were written for a people who did not separate their moral and religious identity from their civil and cultural identity.  Those of us who are Christians are much the same--everything about us is Christian--not just our worship services on Sunday morning or the Scriptures that we read, but the work we do, the way we interact with others in the marketplace and in marketplace of ideas, and in interpersonal relationships like friendships, and employer-employee, parent-child, and yes, even those of us who are citizens of an earthly kingdom who are subject to its rules and authority (see Romans 13).

We even see here the the life of an unborn baby is precious to the Lord and that a person would be responsible for any birth defects or death caused by assaulting the pregnant woman.  Even if the baby is born okay, the person who assaults the woman will be made to pay a fine set by the husband the judge, and each such offense is to be in proportion to the offense "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," and so on.

We also see that any master who abuses his slaves and damages his slave's eye or knocks out his slave's tooth will have to consider any debt that the slave was indenture to pay off paid in full on account of the injury the slave had sustained.

Last, but not least, we see how God instructed His people to deal with animals the injure or kill humans (remember this is part of a covenant that already existed at the time of Noah that I quoted from earlier).  Any animal which takes the life of a man must be put to death and should not be eaten (probably because God understood things like rabies and knew that aggressive animals usually had diseases that could be passed onto humans that ate them).  We also see that the owner of the animal is jointly accountable for the manslaughter caused by his animal as it is assumed that such an owner would understand that he owned an animal capable for attacking men and women and was responsible to put the animal down to protect his neighbors.  There was however an option for the courts to impose a ransom instead for the offender's life--whatever price the deem fair for a freeman and 30 shekels of silver for a slave.

Next time, we will continue to spell out some of the finer points of the Ten Commandments when we when we focus more on the punishments for stealing, causing property damage, or failure to care for another's possessions which you are caretaker, but this portion that continues to spell out the exact details of the Law will continue all the way through chapter 23 and the LORD will then once again ask the people in chapter 24 to agree to the covenant now that they have heard all the terms and conditions.  The last 16 chapters of Exodus will focus mostly on instructions for building the Tabernacle and a record to show that each item was created exactly as God had instructed.  I imagine that I will summarize much of the end of the book of Exodus since we no longer live in a system where we worship in the Tabernacle or Temple, but as I made mention in the beginning of this blog, Jesus is all throughout the Old Testament including in the building of the Tabernacle.  I'll try to keep my blogs on that portion of Exodus focused on the "Christ connection" for you.