The realisable best
When interpreting scripture we need to keep in mind that while it comes (ultimately) from the Lord God, it deals with and relates to sinners and not sinless archangels. If we don't keep that in mind we'll sneer at some of what we read (as poor ignorant Sam Harris, the very vocal atheist does) as encouraging low moral standards. We need to remember too that in dealing with sinners God means to save them and not destroy them, that he means to raise them rather than smother them."But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." Exodus 21:23-24
There is much in the OT law that sophisticated moderns are tempted to smile indulgently at, if not to sneer. It's too easy to live in a society created and shaped by the Hebrew-Christian traditions and Scriptures, thoroughly blessed, and then from that privileged position, to stand in sneering judgement on them. It's like so much that is modern and sophisticated, it's a shallow and thankless response.
Away from the Scripture (and yet, not away from it) paramilitaries and other gangsters curse and rage against the law, break and malign the law, kill and plunder in spite of the law and then, when they're caught, they insist on being treated under the terms of the law they abominate and destroy. They sneak behind an authority figure, strike him dead without warning and then whine that police are carrying out a shoot-to-kill policy. (I'm not expressing a judgement on a shoot-to-kill policy.) If the law were as bad as they profess it to be, why on earth would they want to be judged under it? Why would they want authorities to abide by it? It must have something going for it when they prefer not to be judged by their own standards but by the law they despise and rage against.
There are those who respond in this way to the biblical Law about which they are so ignorant. Ignorant not only about what it actually says and means, but about its ultimate goal, the understanding it shows not only about the situations it faces but also about the people it is dealing with in those situations.
T.E. Jessup instructs us well when, speaking of ethical pursuits, he says, "We are to seek that which is appropriate, that is, both good and possible in a society not yet ripe for the full and free exercise of the ideal life." Yes, yes, I know we aren't to water down the will of God but, again, as Jessup has rightly reminded us, "Love sees not only what it could do if the conditions were favourable, but also what it can do under conditions as they are." This is precisely what the Scriptures say God has done.
And G.A. Chadwick insists: people of goodwill and critical ability will recognise that public laws and institutions curb, educate and elevate societies (providing, of course, they are wise and good laws). He also rightly insists that "legislation must not move too far in advance of public opinion. Laws may be highly desirable in the abstract, for which communities are not yet ripe." Many of those who sneer at the biblical laws (as codified) know in their bones that they themselves help to enact laws that don't go nearly as far as they would wish. They recognise that the principle behind a law may be wondrously deep and rich and that the statute will carry people in that direction even though the people are not yet up to the full measure of the principle.
Are we to take 'an eye for an eye' (Exodus 21:24-25), rip it out and isolate it from a covenant founded on grace, sustained by grace and culminating in grace? Are we to suppose that this nation, which was created and shaped to nurture a spirit of forgiveness, kindness and neighbourliness, is urged to demand burning for burning and eyes for eyes? No, these were public sentences to be carried out if and when administrative justice and the needs of the situation required it. There were criminals in ancient Israel as there are criminals in modern society. Like it or not, the innocent and law-abiding need protection and if the law would not defend them, God help them! (And he will!) If circumstances were ideal in this life and in human society there would be no need for laws or punishments dealing with deliberate crime or wilful negligence. As long as our situation isn't ideal "the realisable best will be given cheerful precedence over (the unattainable) ideally best." [It isn't possible for humans always to know when someone is making no real attempt to reach the "attainable". But we trust God to right all wrongs and he can be depended on to do that--Genesis 18:25.]
God's heart's desire was never the rupture of a marriage union or the practice of polygamy, but evil entered human relationships and abuse with it. Since these evils entered, laws were given to regulate them so that the lives of the vulnerable, often divorced women, did not become intolerable (Deuteronomy 24:1-5). The seduction of young girls might well result in their being unable to marry later so the seducer of a virgin was required to marry and provide for her (Exodus 22:16 and other texts on caring for wives).
Laws of retribution not only persuaded the victims that they mattered, they put a limit to the punishment that could be handed out to the transgressor. They saw to it that a hungry man didn't have his hands cut off merely for stealing a loaf or that an angry man wasn't executed for slapping a fellow-citizen. They placed the exercise of judgement in the hands of recognised authorities and sent a signal to other would-be offenders that criminal behaviour wouldn't be tolerated (21:24-25). At its best, punishment is not "revenge"—it is one of the witnesses of the righteous foundations on which the nation is built and by which it maintains itself. People matter! Both criminals and victims! [Note Deuteronomy 25:2-3 about over-punishing.]
A close and fair look at all the covenant texts in this area will show that the OT has much to teach those benevolent bunglers in high offices whose over-Christianized views lack contact with reality-has much to teach them about punishment, rehabilitation and social justice. Some training in Biblical Ethics, especially OT ethics and jurisprudence might do wonders for all of us. You might find this of interest.
