Understanding the Laws: Context and Significance in Exodus

"Because as we enter the second half of the book of Exodus, course material is a little different from what we've been doing so far anyway. In fact, let me say this. I love studying the Bible. I do. And if you were to start all the way back to the very beginning with the book of Genesis, and then just start reading straight through the Bible, you would find in the book of Genesis 50 chapters of action-packed narrative. And, you know, there are some genealogies in Genesis that make some people bored. But, you know, they're actually kind of fascinating." [00:03:37]

"And at that point, it is just blazing narrative. I mean, it's just all so exciting. And that's where we've pretty much been for these 18 episodes as we've gone through Moses's birth and call and confrontation with Pharaoh and all the plagues and the escape through the Red Sea. And then we're out into the wilderness by chapter 16. And then you have the crisis of water and food. It's just thrilling stuff. I mean, I find it thrilling, but others do too. You know, they do. It's the kind of stories that they make movies out of." [00:04:34]

"And we enter the second half of Exodus. There's 20 more chapters. And suddenly you're reading what feels like an ancient law code because that's pretty much what it is. I mean, right after the 10 commandments, there's 42 more laws. And they are very specific. And then there's very specific and detailed blueprints for the tabernacle, which is not part of the law per se, but it is written in the form of commands. You know, like, you shall make the ark as a box, this many cubits, this length. Do just as I command you. And so even though it's a blueprint, it's kind of stated in terms of legal requirement." [00:05:31]

"And after that, there is a very little brief, short narrative of Moses actually doing all those things. And then they finished the tabernacle. And Moses can't go in for crying out loud. I mean, God shows up, comes to live in the tabernacle, and Moses can't go in. And so now we got to solve that problem. And how that problem is solved is by a block of nine chapters of ritual laws. And it is like a priestly tech manual of how to do the different types of sacrifices. It's all about sacrificial rituals and then appointing the priesthood. And then the priests are appointed and everything's great for a minute. But then the priests, they blow it big time because they take upon themselves their father responsibility to offer incense in the tabernacle. And that doesn't go so well for them, which might be an understatement because, well, because they die. They all die. And so then there are dead corpses in the holy place, which, as it turns out, is one of the main ways that things become ritually impure, which has been covered maybe in previous chapters somewhere. I think I might have zoned out. But so naturally, what follows after that are six more long chapters about ritual impurity, impurity, and to how to make things pure after they've been made impure. Then, there is this whole block of laws about Israel as a whole, not just priests, but how Israel can have moral ritual purity." [00:06:11]

"And so to be totally blunt, as exciting as the first half of the book of Exodus is, and it really is. The second half is kind of the opposite. The second half of Exodus is where people's New Year's resolution that this is the year they're going to read straight through the Bible, it often gets stalled out right here and dies, because it is tough, tough reading. And so, my dear friends, if we are going to make it through this, we've got to change our approach for these chapters a little." [00:08:18]

"Because how you're going to make sense of these laws, a lot of it is how they fit, how these tedious, tedious laws fit into the larger narrative context and where they fit in the plot of the overall storyline of the Old Testament and ultimately, you know, the whole Bible. And I know I'm being a little sarcastic, and I do apologize because I don't mean to be disrespectful." [00:08:47]

"But I guess what I really am saying is that we're going to now switch to a more, theological approach to the study of Exodus, and we're going to mostly be exploring the why. The why. Why are these laws here? Why were they important? And what can they teach us? And most importantly, how do they fit into the overall redemptive story of the Bible?" [00:09:10]

"As I was doing research on those crazy laws that I told you about at the beginning of the episode, I found it interesting what the reasoning had been for the study of Exodus. And I found it interesting what the reasoning had been for the why these kind of esoteric laws got put on the books in the first place. I mean, it's pretty clear, I think, that only eating chicken with your hands, that law in Gainesville, was just a tongue-in-cheek publicity stunt. But where I could find the backstory of some of the others, it was really quite enlightening." [00:09:31]

"And that brings me back to the law I told you about in Jonesboro. Remember, the one in Jonesboro where it is against the law to say, oh boy. And so, that sounds crazy, right? But not so much when you hear the reason why it was placed into law. Because it wasn't using, oh boy, like we would say, oh boy, I can't wait till this weekend because my family's going to have a birthday party and there's going to be cake and ice cream and clowns and ponies and games. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. That's not how they were using, oh boy. No, it was, oh boy, you know, in the derogatory, derogatory use of the word boy in reference to African Americans. And it goes back to the time right after the Civil War when many of the former slaves were homeless and they had no income. And sadly, they had little or no food. And to make matters worse, they were living in this region where there was" [00:10:12]

"But sometimes, sometimes when the richer gentlemen came to town, they would want their horses cleaned, and so they would call out to the slaves to come and clean their horses by saying, oh boy, oh boy, and then the former slaves, many who were gathered there hoping for some work, some of whom hadn't eaten in days, they would fight over who got to clean the horse that would earn them enough money to eat for the night. Well, you see, the fights were all part of the entertainment for the whites. The white gentlemen, if I can use that word, who had gathered around, and so as a result of these fights, many of these former slaves were killed, and others were seriously injured, and finally, just because of all this, the city of Jonesboro passed a law saying that these wealthy people could no longer come to town and call these former slaves by saying, oh boy, and so as Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story." [00:11:12]

"And while we aren't going to cover every single law, and mostly we're just going to look at categories, I think what we will find is that there is more to them than we might realize. There are things going on that aren't obvious. And so we will have to take a first glance." [00:12:51]