His statutes
Judgments, Judgements, Old Covenant,
Sinai covenant. Moses, legal ruling, legal decision, Abraham
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"I will put My
Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My
judgments and do them." (Eze 36:27).
Exodus 21:1 helps us
pinpoint His Judgments.
"Now these are the
judgments which you shall set before them."
The following 2.5
chapters list regulations that explain His Law, the Ten Commandments (Hos 8:1, Ps 78:10, Deu 4:13).
It should be easy to understand that His judgments are part of His law.
However, there is no statement in Exodus 20-23 about any statutes. How
do we identify His statutes?
Deuteronomy 4:14
indicates that immediately after speaking the Ten Commandments God gave Moses
statutes [Heb. choq]
and judgments [Heb. mishpat],
not just judgments. So, what are the statutes God gave that went hand
in hand with the Ten Commandments, His covenant?
We could, in
considering Deuteronomy 4:14, assume that everything
following Exodus 21:1 was a judgment. This is the way most of us would
probably understand the text. This may indeed be so. On the other
hand, God doesn't seem to be very concerned about exactly which regulation is
a statute, which is a judgment, which is an ordinance or which is a command. We should ask: does it really make any
difference?
The end of Leviticus
18 seems to mix at least three categories of regulations. After
detailing various prohibited sexual unions, verse 26 seems to equate these
regulations with statutes and judgments.
"You shall
therefore keep My statutes [chuqqah] and My judgments [mishpat] ,
and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation
or any stranger who dwells among you".
One would think
the regulations in Leviticus 18 would easily fit into a single category,
since they are so similar. However, they are apparently lumped together as
both statutes and judgments with no distinction between the two.
To complicate matters,
verse 30 refers back to these same regulations and seems to indicate that
these instructions are an ordinance(s) (Heb. mishmereth). There are
also two slightly different Hebrew words both typically translated 'statute(s)'
in English. One, chuqqah the other choq. There seems to be no correlation
between any particular group of regulations and one of these words.
Apparently the first of these words is a derivative of the other. So
perhaps it shouldn't be a big surprise that the distinction is not crystal
clear to us.
What is the legal
score-keeper to do? It seems the Creator is interested in obedience,
not necessarily in facilitating the organization of the various regulations
being given, into tidy little groups. It seems unlikely that the
Creator intends us to understand that there is a significant difference
between these categories.
The instructions in
Exodus 20:23-26 were given after the Creator spoke the Ten Commandments, but
before the 'judgments'. For those that must categorize things we could assume
they are statutes, since they are not listed after Exodus 21:1, which seems
to start the judgments section. Alternatively, the reference to
"My statutes and My judgments" may be intended as a parallelism.
That is, His statutes are His judgments. In other words, His statutes
are based on a higher law. They are not just arbitrary unconnected
demands. A judgment is a ruling based on existing higher law. Of
course, that higher law would be the Ten Commandments. Once a judgment
is made, it effectively becomes a statute on which other judgments can be
made.
In the Pentateuch the phrase 'My
statutes' or "My judgments" shows up in only a few places. If one
searches for these exact phrases, they are found almost
exclusively in Leviticus 18-20, 25 & 26. The one exception is
Genesis 26:5 that describes Abraham as faithful to
"My statutes".
Leviticus 18 clarifies
prohibited sexual relationships. This is part of
distinguishing the holy from the profane. Of course, the Sinai
covenant required that Israel 'be holy' (Ex 22:31). Leviticus 19-20 & 25 add
detail to help clarify what is profane and also clarifies a few other things
that were covered in Exodus 20-23.
So, in these chapters
where God emphasizes the need to "keep My statutes and My judgments"
there is a very close connection with the instruction given in Exodus 20-23.
For the most part it simply adds detail. Leviticus
26 uses the phrase 'My statutes',
but isn't actually detailing specific regulations.
Leviticus 26 lists blessings and curses depending on Israel's obedience. This was not intended by
the covenant of Exodus 20-24. There were really no national curses in
the Sinai covenant. Obedience was assumed.
There are references
in Deuteronomy to 'His statutes' and 'His judgments'. However, these seem to be general
references rather than specifically associated with
new regulations. Particularly before Deuteronomy 11:8,
any reference Moses makes, or closely associated regulation cited, is
directly connected with something in the Sinai covenant.
The first eleven
chapters of Deuteronomy are mostly an account of Israel's journey from Egypt
to where they are in Moab. Moses is taking great pain to make sure Israel
understands those guidelines are to be followed. He even goes so far as
to repeat the Ten Commandments, but there is no new laundry list of His
statutes or His judgments before chapter 12.
Chapter 12 through
26:15 does include numerous regulations. Many of these are new with no
precedent in the Sinai covenant. Some have a connection with the Sinai
covenant, but may or may not have been part of the original intent.
These must each be pondered on their own. These are not referred
to as His statutes or His judgments, but 'these statutes' or 'these
judgments' or the statutes/judgments that Moses spoke that day.
The timing of the
instruction in Leviticus 18-20, 25 & 26 is critical to understanding the importance
of this and nearby instruction. The episode of the golden calf was a watershed event. With that event the Creator
was ready to wipe out the bulk of Israel and start over with Moses and his
family (Ex 32:10). After fasting 40 days on Mt. Sinai, Moses came down the
mountain with the original tablets of the Sinai covenant. Once he
realized that Israel had made the calf, he broke the tablets and fell on his face fasting another
40 days (Deu 9:16-18).
Moses was able to calm
God's anger, but many died. Moses moved his tent 'far from the camp'
and met the Creator there. His tent there was called the tabernacle of
meeting (Ex 33:7). It is likely that it was in this 'tabernacle of
meeting' that a large chunk of Leviticus instruction was given after the golden
calf (Lev 1:1). Alternatively, the official tabernacle was also
referred to as the tabernacle of meeting. It was completed
even later (Ex 40:2, Num 7:89).
Shortly after Moses
was able to save Israel from destruction, God called him back up to Mt. Sinai . As Moses met God there, he was still pleading for God to
accept Israel as His people and dwell among them as was His original intention
(Ex 34:9, 25:8). In response, God indicated He would 'make a
covenant' (Ex 34:10). He continued, "Observe what I command
you this day" (vs 11). He then went on to
reiterate some of the Sinai covenant. Indeed He indicated that "according
to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel"(vs 27). That was history, recorded in Exodus
20-23. However, Moses was there on Mount Sinai another forty days (vs 28).
It is not detailed in
Exodus 34 what Moses did for the bulk of that forty days. However, when He
went down the mountain, his face shone "and he gave them as
commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai"
(vs 32). This is not referring to the statutes and
judgments of Exodus 20-23, but obviously to instruction received this latest trip
up the mountain.
This latest
instruction evidently also included a large chunk of what is recorded for us
in Leviticus. Specifically Leviticus 25-27 are indicated to have been given 'on
Mount Sinai' (Lev 25:1, 26:46, 27:34).
Although the beginning
of Leviticus indicates the instruction came after Moses set up the tent of
meeting outside the camp (Lev 1:1), the exact timing of the rest of this
instruction is not perfectly clear. It is reasonable to conclude
it came at or after the time of Leviticus 1:1. The account of
Exodus 34 indicates that God was still very interested in Israel abiding by
the original covenant He made with Moses and Israel. It should be no
surprise that more of what was intended by the original covenant might be detailed
after the fiasco of the golden calf. They obviously 'didn't get it',
i.e. the covenant they just made in Exodus 20-24. Hence the strong
exhortation of Leviticus 18-20 to obey "My statutes and My judgments".
Although technically not a part of the Sinai covenant, it seems apparent that
God felt just as strongly about this instruction as He did about the
instruction in Exodus 21-23:19.
So, while one cannot
add to a covenant, it is easy to understand that the emphasis in Leviticus
18-20 and 25 to "obey My statutes and My judgments",
indicates that this instruction was fundamental to the way of God and
intended in the words of the Sinai covenant. It is simply what one
wanting to be holy, do justly and respect the under privileged should have
understood. It was given quickly after the episode of the golden calf to
clarify the Creator's intention in His Law of Exodus 20-23.
Other instruction
given about this time should also be carefully considered. Our Creator
doesn't necessarily make it easy to discern all the details of His way.
He seeks those who are zealous for Him, not everyone who happens to be along
for the ride. The whole Law of Moses should be treated with great
respect. Extra special care should be taken to be sure instruction with
basis in the Sinai covenant, the Covenant of the Lord, is carefully followed.
"Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I
commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With the
statutes and judgments" (Mal 4:4).
"So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words
of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the
Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: 26 "Take
this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD
your God, that it may be there as a witness against you" (Deu 31:24-26).
"Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that
is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to
the right hand or to the left" (Josh 23:6).
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within
you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." (Eze 36:26-27)
God made a new law at the
behest of Moses for Israel on Mount Sinai after the Sinai covenant was
confirmed. It included statutes and judgments, some of which were fundamental
to His Law and some of which were not. This law was especially for
Israel in the Promised Land, although it contained the fundamental law of
God, His covenant, too. Israel didn't have the mentality, to obey the
law of God. The spirit of God goes hand in hand with obedience to the law of
God, including His statutes and His judgments.
We might ask the
question, "which comes first, the spirit or the obedience?" Can
someone keep the Law of God if they don't know clearly what it is? The
answer to this involves the final New covenant.