One of the Crowd?

This Friday we will continue our survey of the laws given to Moses by looking at what the New International Version of the Bible calls "Laws of Justice and Mercy".

Interestingly, some of these are about individual attitudes. They are not all things that can be legislated, but instead they are sometimes issues of conscience:

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong."

We all know how hard that can be!

Sometimes it is suggested that in the Sermon on The Mount Jesus refers to the letter of the law and challenges his hearers about what is in their hearts. But there are hints of that here in the Old Testament.

What do you prefer. A clear law that says in black and white "this is wrong", or a commandment that speaks to your heart?

Comments please!

What Not To Wear?

Tonight (20th June) we are looking into the mysterious world of priestly garments. Turn up to find out more!

Boiling Baby Goats?

A good meeting last night with an extraordinary range of topics. R.T. picked some especially unusual Old Testament laws for debate, in particular the command that the Israelites should not boil a kid goat in it's mother's milk - a command which occures three times!

Someone pointed out that the command is very specific - that it does not forbid using milk, just not the mother's milk.

A brief survey of opinions on the net suggests that the context was the local Canaanite religions, who used the practice as a superstitious way of ensuring prosperity, and so the Lord was telling the Israelites to be distinctive.

Here are some examples:

Adam Clark and other historical commentators bring out that boiling a kid in its mother’s milk was a prosperity ritual among the Canaanites—the Eternal was telling the people in the "promised land" to give firstfruits and tithes if they wanted prosperity, and not to follow a Canaanite practice.
http://www.servantsnews.com/sn9712/s71211.htm

Canaanite ritual, according to excavations at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), called for sacrificial kids to be boiled in milk, but the damaged Ugaritic text does not clearly specify mother's milk. If it were so, then it is understandable that Israel was being prevented from copying pagan idolatrous ritualism.
Another option suggests that the dead kid was being boiled in the very substance which had sustained its life, hence the prohibition.
Until more archeological information comes to light, the specific religious or cultural reason remains as supposition.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080319201240AAkIPzO

What's Happening This Friday? Blasphemy!

R T writes : (see comment on the last post)

"Such gems as "do not cook a young goat in its mothers milk" - although that has some significance as you will hear!

No blasphemy - what do you consider to be blasphemy? We are not told the punishment for blaspemy in Exodus 22.

Plus I have done a little research into The Churching of Women which we touched on last week."

7.30 for 8pm as usual in the usual place.

P.S. - That's not a picture of R.T. by the way...

Understanding Holiness in The Old Testament Law (more exciting than it sounds)

Last night we looked at just four laws from Exodus and wrestled with why God gave these specific instructions. Simon explained that the law takes the form of an ancient Middle-East treaty. See http://www.aracnet.com/~wing/suzerain.htm for example.

But what's all this stuff about clean and unclean and not touching certain things - or even women at the wrong time of the month (some of the guys could see other reasons for keeping away...)?


It seems God was trying to help the Israelites understand holiness and the seriousness of sin. These diagrams may help...


This is the basic Old Testament understanding:

How do things change? By sacrifice or sin:

This is of course a picture of what will have it's greater meaning when Jesus comes:

Everything In Scripture Is There For A Reason

Last week we made the effort to look carefully at some of the (apparently) obscure laws in Exodus 21 and discovered just how brilliant and ground-breaking they are, setting the pattern for modern UK lawmaking, including lex tallonis, causuistry, case-law, and recognising the difference between murder and accidental homicide!

The "story" continues this week in chapter 22. Come and find out more!

Meanwhile... the passage last week seems to sanction the death penalty, albeit in a society where imprisonment was nearly impossible. Is capital punishment still appropriate today? Comments please.