Torah answers for modern life: A call to justice and mercy (Exodus 21–24)

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How can we live out the Torah in the modern world? Are these instructions timeless or do they only apply to the lives of the people who originally gathered at Sinai 3,000 years ago to hear them? How can we apply these instructions to our lives when some of them seem utterly disconnected from the 21st century. 

The truth is that the Torah’s instructions are just as relevant to us today as they were to those who originally heard them at Mt. Sinai because unfortunately, idolatry, cruelty, oppression, selfishness, disrespect for authority, apathy and envy have not gone out of style. Human nature has not changed in the millennia since the Garden of Eden and will not change completely until the New Jerusalem comes down to earth. The Torah is so relevant because we are trying to master our twisted nature with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Does the Torah promote vigilantism, which is taking the law into your own hands? Does the Torah promote slavery? Does the Torah give legal cover so the rich and powerful can subjugate the powerless? 

Raising these questions is really in vogue today. The paradigm that keeps showing up in lots of different conversations is the paradigm of the oppressed, and the oppressor, and because the oppressed are completely powerless against the oppressor, there are those who believe that the “oppressed” are permitted to commit all sorts of horrific things to throw off the chains of the “oppressor.”

In the West, there are those who justify the atrocities Hamas did in the Israeli communities bordering Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. The claim is that the Israelis, who are the indigenous people of Judea, Samaria, Galilee and the Negev, are the “oppressors,” while the Palestinians, who are descendants of the Arab Muslim conquerors of the Holy Land, are the “oppressed.” 

We see in Torah reading מִּשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (“judgments,” Exodus 21–24) that the two primary sins for which God sent the children of Israel into exile was their refusal to free their slaves at the end of their contracts or at the jubilee and their refusal to keep the Shmitah (sabbatical) year and letting the land itself rest. These actions were not merely acts of disobedience, but acts of blasphemy against God. 

What does freeing the slaves and letting the land rest have in common? It’s an exercise of faith to believe that God will bless the land so that it will give you three years of produce to live on when you aren’t planting and tilling the land for two to three years. It’s also an exercise of faith to basically lay off your employees and servants for two to three years and have faith that they will come back to work when it’s time to resume the regular cycle. It takes faith to believe that you won’t go destitute and that the economy won’t just devolve into nothing. 

Show your work: The heart of mishpatim

What is most often the topic of concern is the process governing the settling of some dispute, whether between human parties or between God and the Israelites, or the actual verdict itself. מִשְׁפָּט mishpat is often found in close proximity to other legal terms such as חֹק khoq (H2976, appointment, decree), תּוֹרָה torah (H9368, instruction), צֶדֶק tsedeq (H7406, righteous), and צְדָקָה ts’daqah (H7407, righteousness). 

VanGemeren, Willem A., ed. “מִשְׁפָּט.” The New International Dictionary Of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997.

The 10 Commandments are the basic instructions of life, but the Misphatim and the book of Deuteronomy shows us how to walk out those basic instructions in our daily life, taking what might seem abstract and making then concrete. 

Here are some case laws that put the 10 Commandments into practice: 

• Moshe (Moses) settled the משפט mishpat — case — on Zelophehad’s daughters’ inheritance (Num. 27:5).
• Yehoshua (Joshua) took over משפט before Eleazar the priest and Urim from Moshe (Num 27:21). 
• Shlomo (Solomon) builds a אוּלָם הַמִּשְׁפָּט ulam ha-mishpat (hall of justice), i.e., a courthouse.
• Psalm 119 uses the word משפט mishpat in 22 places together with תורה torah. This could point to decisions that come from God also being as weighty and instructive as His commands and instructions.

There are mitzvot (commandments), khuqot (ordinances) and mishpatim (judgments), and it’s important to discern which you are reading in Scripture. In American jurisprudence, we also have different level of laws: Constitution, laws written directly by Congress, and edicts that come from bureaucratic agencies and the rulings of the Supreme Court. 

Another example of mishpat is that originally legacy passed only through the father, but because of decisions such as that of Zelophehad’s daughters and the later exiles, persecutions, etc., set a precedent so that it became the mishpat or practice of the people of Israel to consider matrilineal descent the primary marker of citizenship in Israel rather than patrilineal descent because there are multiple witnesses to one’s birth but there are usually no witnesses to one’s conception. You may not know who the father of the child is but you will always know who the mother is. 

God says He is going to write His laws on our hearts, but because our hearts are wicked, God has to give us a new heart so we can keep them and know the Lord. We won’t want to game the system or manipulate them because we will know that His laws are always beneficial to us and to the whole world. 

These judgments start out as a situational but there are always underlying legal principles that undergird them. So, we must be careful when reading the Torah to accurately discern whether a teaching is only applicable for a given situation or for all situations. 

Even today, it’s important to figure out whether a higher court’s ruling is “narrow,” only for a given case or specific situations, or “broad,” creating precedent for application of legal principle to other cases.

What are the mishpatim?

The mishpatim are “judgment, decision by arbitration, legal specifications, legal case, legal claim.” 

Here are 13 hues of justice that can come from judicial decisions (litigation and case law), from the direct edict of a sovereign, or from legislation written by representatives.¹

1. Judicial
   1. The act of deciding a case of litigation brought before a civil magistrate (Deut. 25:1; Josh. 20:6).
   2. The place of deciding a case of litigation (1Kgs. 7:7).
   3. The process of litigation (Isa. 3:14; (Job 22:4; Psa. 143:2).
   4. A case of litigation (1Kgs. 3:11; Job 13:18; 1Kgs. 8:59).
   5. A sentence or decision issuing from a magistrate’s court (1Kgs. 20:40; Jer. 26:11, 16).
   6. The time of judgment (Psa. 1:5; Eccl. 12:14).
2. Authoritative
   1. Sovereignty, the legal foundation of government in the sense of ultimate authority or right (Deut. 1:17; Prov. 16:33; 103:19; Jer. 8:7). 
3. Legislative
   1. Justice in all correct personal civil administration.
   2. This justice is primarily an attribute of God (Psa. 37:28; 36:6).
   3. It’s an attribute of the Mashiakh (Psalm 72:1–2).

Bias is a huge problem when it comes to making proper legal decisions. The Torah warns us not to follow the mob, not to favor the rich or favor the poor, when making judgements. This is why the statute of Lady Justice is depicted blindfolded with scales in her hands. 

This is also why the punchline of the parable of the Good Samaritan was so revolutionary when Yeshua taught it. The Samaritan came along and rendered  help. He did not consider the status of the person in front of him. Yeshua was teaching us that we do not play favorites when disbursing mercy.

Epistle to Philemon: Torah truth on master–servant relationships

The letter Paul wrote to his friend Philemon about his runaway slave Onesimus gives a lot of insight into how the Jewish world interacted with the Greco-Roman practice of slavery. 

There are those who claim that Yeshua did away with the Torah, so we don’t need to worry about about what it says about slavery (or anything else). But the truth of the mater is that Paul serves up in a small letter (Philemon 1) a prime cut of Torah wisdom on the master-servant relationship.

When people find themselves in debt, first they sell off anything they have of value. Then when they have nothing left to sell, they can only sell themselves or their children. But the Torah gives strict limits to this practice so the rich can’t take undue advantage of the poor by taking the screws to them just because they are vulnerable. 

We are to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev. 19:18), whether it is our friend or our enemy, whether it’s our boss or our employee.

Paul had no obligation under the Torah to send Onesimus back to Philemon, and the Law prohibited Paul from doing so (Deut. 23:15–16).² This is yet another example of how the “Bible Belt” twisted Scripture to justify what became a fundamental institution of the Confederate States of America.

Onesiumus’ name means “useful” or “handy” and was a common name for slaves in the Greco-Roman world of the first century.³

Paul tells Philemon to receive Onesimus back not as a slave but as Paul’s beloved. Paul uses a pun on Onesiumus’ name to show Philemon how Onesimus was once useless to him but is now very useful to him (Philemon 1:11).⁴

The Messiah Himself did not come to be served but to serve, and He is the one who takes those who are useless and makes them useful. 

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.” He said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

(Matthew 20:20–28 NASB95)

Just as we have been given freedom from bondage, we should also give others the same message so they can be free from bondage, too. 

Summary: Tammy

1. Culver, Robert D. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. ↩︎
2. “The Deuteronomic code requires that runaway slaves be given refuge from masters (Deut 23:15–16). With that rule, enforcement of slavery collapses. By contrast, ANE [ancient Near East] codes make aiding a runaway slave a capital crime (e.g., Hammurabi 15).” (Patrick, Dale. Doob Sakenfeld, Katherine, ed. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.2. 5 vols. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009.) ↩︎
3. Patzia, Arthur G. Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.4. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011. ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎