Content provided in partnership with

LAW AND NARRATIVE IN EXODUS 19-24

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2004 by Sprinkle, Joe M

I. INTRODUCTION

James Watts writes, "Lawyers and judges do not usually read law books from beginning to end like novels. Instead, laws are collected, compared, harmonized, codified, and in general arranged systematically so as to preclude the necessity of ever having to read the whole code through from start to finish."1 As Watts goes on to note, this is exactly how the regulations of the Pentateuch often have been read by traditional Jewish and Christian readers as well as modern critical scholars. The laws of the Pentateuch have regularly been analyzed by themselves without much consideration to the narrative context in which they are embedded.2 Without denying the usefulness of attempts to systemize biblical regulations, this paper stresses the need to read the laws contextually within their narrative and legal-literary frameworks and vice versa.

More Articles of Interest: God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient Near East; Is There a Place for the Ten Commandments?; Now Choose Life: Theology and Ethics in Deuteronomy; Grace in the Midst of Judgment: Grappling with Genesis 1-11; Reflections on salvation and justification in the New Testament

II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAWS AND NARRATIVES

The laws of Exodus 19-24 interrelate with the narratives of the Pentateuch in a variety of ways.

1. The laws are part of the narrative of God's graciously establishing a personal relationship with Israel as distinct from other nations. From a formal point of view, the laws (Exod 20:1-17; 20:22-23:33) are part of, and subordinate to, the narrative of God's establishment of the covenant with Israel at Sinai (Exod 19; 20:18-21; 24). More generally, this address is a continuation of the exodus story (Exod 1-18) in which God graciously initiates a personal relationship with his people, so that Israel will come to know Yahweh as their God (Exod 6:6-7; 16:12).

It is important to note how God first establishes the relationship with Israel by saving them and then subsequently regulates that relationship through the covenant and its laws. In other words, a relationship with God was established not by law-keeping, but as a free gift. Israel's relationship with God originates before the giving of the law in the divine-human encounter between God and Israel at the exodus. Bratcher notes that the "exodus precedes the giving of torah at Sinai. . . . God initiated a relationship with his people by entering history and hearing the cries of oppressed slaves."3 The giving of the Decalogue is prefaced on the assumption that Israel is already "saved" and in personal relationship with God: "I am Yahweh your God who released you from the land of Egypt" (Exod 20:2). The Mosaic law was not, and never was intended to be, the means of establishing a relationship with God. Instead, it was a means of regulating Israel's relationship with God that had already been established, being guidelines for those already "saved." Israel's covenant relationship with God did not come because they were so good, for they were a stubborn people (Deut 9:6). The covenant was not granted to them because they were so great, but because God loved them (Deut 7:7-9). The relationship itself was a matter of grace, not law.

The law, rather than being a means of salvation, was a means of helping Israel to become a "holy people" set apart to God (Exod 19:6),4 for it defines holy behavior. The laws prohibit things that are destructive to Israel's relationship with God (e.g. worshiping other gods, moral breeches that offend God). It promotes things that cultivate a proper relationship with God (e.g. festivals, right kinds of worship activities, righteous behaviors that please God). The fundamental obligation of Israel was to love God (Deut 6:4); the law defines what shape a loving response to God should take. Thus obedience to the law was an expression of faith that cultivated Israel's, and the individual Israelite's, relationship with God. For Israel, a personal relationship with God "places every facet of life under faithful response to God,"5 for which reason the laws cover various aspects of life: moral, social, and religious.

The law's context in the narrative of God's establishing a personal relationship with Israel explains the frequent use of first and second person personal pronouns, "I-Thou" language, in the laws of Exodus 20-23. This personal language thus shows the laws to be more than a list of "do's and dont's." They are part of God's personal message to his people meant to deepen their personal relationship with him.

The narrator introduces the Decalogue (Exod 20:1-17) in the context of the theophany at Sinai (Exodus 19). There God employs "I-Thou" language as he offers Israel a covenant with himself on the condition "if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant" (Exod 19:5). The words introducing the Decalogue, "God spoke all these words saying" (Exod 20:1), links back to Exod 19:5 by supplying some of the commands that God expects of a people in covenant relationship with himself to "obey" and "keep." The words of the Decalogue that follow are full of "I-Thou" language that shows this to be Yahweh's personal address to his people: "I am Yahweh your God who released you from the land of Egypt" (v. 2); "You are to have no other gods besides me" (v. 3); "you are not to make for yourself an image" (v. 4); "I Yahweh your God am a jealous God" (v. 5); "You are not to take the name of Yahweh your God in vain" (v. 6), etc. The "you" in each case is masculine singular, referring to national Israel personified in corporate personality, which as a group had been offered the covenant in chapter 19, though no doubt Israelite readers also applied the second person singulars directly to themselves as individuals.

LAW AND NARRATIVE IN EXODUS 19-24

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2004 by Sprinkle, Joe M

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Reference

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference