March 1: Personal Rights and Remedies

THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2012

Personal Rights and Remedies

Today's passages cover a number of laws that involve property, contracts, and inheritance.  Since these laws cover a broad swath of civil life, I would like to focus on the overriding principles that God sets forth through these laws.  It is clear that God desires that the Israelites enjoy a well-ordered, self-sustaining society and places a high premium on our stewardship.  God does not wish to restrict the Israelites, but rather to free them to realize their potential as His treasured nation.

 

In these verses, we find four tenets for a well-ordered society:  personal responsibility (via making restitution wrongs); others-mindedness through an obligation to love and protect the poor; the value of commitment through keeping one's word; and honesty in dealing with others.  Our natural selves naturally push us individually and societally towards chaos:  "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."  (Genesis 6:5)

 

Just as natural elements are tending towards disorder, so does human behavior.  Our tendencies lead to contrary attitudes and actions vis-à-vis these four tenets.  In lieu of taking personal responsibility for addressing wrongs or carrying out the right, we assume that others will take care of it.  While the Bible certainly does not condemn wealth in itself, it does speak against our predilection towards selfishly grasping for gain or oppressing the poor to enrich ourselves.  God desires that we would hold to our commitments and therefore represent His faithfulness; instead, we often reject making commitments in the first place and break them for our convenience.  Finally, there are too many examples of business leaders who have perverted the worthy goal of providing goods and services in the pursuit of dishonest gain.  Yet, God has provided an antidote through His common grace and His Word if we would only receive His gift.

 

In the first subsection, we read the principle of making restitution for wrongs:  "When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed.  He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged."  We are to honor others' property:  All property ultimately comes from the Lord; we are merely short-term stewards thereof.  Cf. Psalm 50:10:  "For every animal of the forest is mine,/ and the cattle on a thousand hills."  This stewardship extends to protecting others from the dangerous wiles of our livestock and our homes; we are to consider others' interests first.

 

God also desires protection and compassion for the poor and the enslaved.  God proclaims freedom for indentured servants (at their discretion) after seven years (the number seven points to a completeness).  God desires that lenders not take advantage of the poor, saying:  "If you lend money to one of my people among you is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.  If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body.  What else will he sleep in?  When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate."  In addition, blessing the poor will prove a source, in itself, of blessing for the Israelites:  "Give generously to him [the poor man] and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.  There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."  A society that oppresses its poor does not honor God's will.

 

In all these laws, God calls His people to see and appreciate the value in others and in their possessions.  We have the bases here for modern contract law, which is the very support for all private-sector economic activity.  While all these laws are quite commonsense, and their benefits are largely straightforward, we can sense how challenging it is to honor God in our own strength.  As Paul writes, the law ultimately draws us to God, as we recognize our inability to keep it:  "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'  But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead." (Romans 7:7,8)

 

Furthermore, the law points our need for redemption and forgiveness:  "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:19–24)

 

Let us rejoice in the forgiveness God has offered in Christ Jesus, setting us free from bondage to sin, and the empowering indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, giving us the ability to glorify God in all things.

 

QUESTIONS

1. How may you choose to live differently and intentionally to glorify God in the direction He shared in today's readings?
2. Would you kindly join me in confessing our national and cultural sin in living in opposition to God's stated will here?

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