Old Testament Ethics

What do we learn about the OT from the road to Emmaus?

The entire OT points to and speaks of the coming of Jesus in some way!

It's super important for Christians, Jesus himself thought so.

The First Four

Right living towards God

The First Four

1. Only worship God.

2. No idols or graven images.

3. Don't take God's name in vain.

4. Keep the Sabbath.

These commands all deal with worship of God--they are specially revealed to Israel.

The Last Six

Right living towards others.

The Last Six

5. Honor father and mother.

6. Do not murder.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Do not steal.

9. Do not bear false witness.

10. Do not covet or envy.

These commands are essentially universal and deal with public life and social trust.

Holiness

The unifying theme of OT ethics.

• Holiness means "set apart" -- Israel is to be set apart for God to reflect his character to the world.
• Treatment of slaves (Dt 15:12-18), women captured in war (Dt. 21:10-14), and the poor (Lv 25:25-29).
• Most fundamentally, Israel's holiness was to be shown through their worship of God--Yahweh.
• Israel was strictly forbidden from the worship practices and idolatries of other pagan nations.

Journal #17 (11/20)

Read Leviticus 17-22 and answer the following questions.

1. What themes do you see repeated? What words or phrases keep coming up?

2. What do the laws given here seem to be mostly based on?

3. Give an example of a moral, civil, and ceremonial law from the text.

4. Why do you think that scholars refer to this section as "The Holiness Code?"

5. Do you think this text applies to us today? If so, how and what parts? If not, why not?

OT Ethics as Social

• While much of the Law is aimed toward the individual, the ultimate aim of the Law is to structure a society that is just, and that reflects God's character to the nations.
• This can be seen clearly in the portions of the Pentateuch that deal with economics and personal possessions.
• See Leviticus 25...

OT Social Ethics--economics

In Leviticus 25 we see civil law like:

• The law of redemption--rescuing of the extremely poor by family members through sale of land or themselves
• The law of gleaning--leaving crops in the field unharvested for the poor
• The Year of Jubilee--redistribution of the land to its original owner every 50 years

These examples demonstrate the radical social nature of OT ethics, especially with respect to care for the poor.

Justice and OT Ethics

“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. (Dt. 24:17-18)

• The exodus is the central event of the Old Testament for Israelite identity, so the idea of justice is inescapable in the OT.
• Israel, who had been rescued from slavery and poverty, was called to treat the poor and vulnerable in their society likewise.

Justice and the Pentateuch

10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

Justice and the Pentateuch

• The laws in the Pentateuch (gleaning, Jubilee, redemption, usury) were structured to protect the interests of those who couldn't protect themselves, particularly the orphan, the widow, the sojourner, and the poor.
• This was an extremely important part of demonstrating God's just character to the nations, of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
• Because God is just, and rescued Israel, so Israel was to reflect his justice to the world.

The Prophets and Justice

• The prophets link justice to doing right, religious observance, imitating God, being a light to the Gentiles, and the coming Messiah and his kingdom (more on this in the NT).
• Injustice is a sign of a society that has given itself over to idolatry

26 For wicked men are found among my people;

they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.

They set a trap;

they catch men.

27 Like a cage full of birds,

their houses are full of deceit;

therefore they have become great and rich;

28 they have grown fat and sleek.

They know no bounds in deeds of evil;

they judge not with justice

the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,

and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

21 How the faithful city

has become a whore,

she who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers.

22 Your silver has become dross,

your best wine mixed with water.

23 Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow's cause does not come to them.

Prophetic Texts: Journal #18

Read:

• Isaiah 1:11-17; 42:1-7; 58:5-8; 61:1-2
• Jeremiah 22:13-17; 5:26-29
• Ezekiel 22:6-13
• Amos 2:6-8; 4:1; 5:11; 8:4-6
• Micah 2:1-3; 3:1-4, 9-12; 6:6-8
• Malachi 3:5

As you read these passages, take note of anything related to justice.

What do we learn about God's desire for justice and his feelings toward evil and wickedness from these texts?

The Prophets and Natural Law

• While the Law is central for OT ethics, the prophets often appeal not to the Pentateuch or the Decalogue, but to natural law.
• This means that the prophets think that many aspects of social justice should just be self-evident because of the way God has made the world.

11 For behold, the Lord commands,

and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,

and the little house into bits.

12 Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow there[a] with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood

The prophets and natural law

11 For behold, the Lord commands,

and the great house shall be struck down into fragments,

and the little house into bits.

12 Do horses run on rocks?

Does one plow there with oxen?

But you have turned justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood

Amos 6:11-12

How does this text support the idea of a self-evident natural law that should guide social justice?

The prophets and natural law

H.G.M Williamson on prophetic ethics and natural law:

"If we adopt a legalistic approach to social justice, we may conclude that we have not 'broken the law'; there will not be the breaking of any one biblical command that can be laid to our charge. But such an approach would exalt a passive lfe of self-satisfied pietism above the biblical trumpet call for justice and righteousness in imiation of the divine king, an abdication of Christian responsibility to love in a transformative manner, a denial of the basic biblical principles on which our faith is supposedly grounded. We shall almost certainly make mistakes as we seek to practise a proactive life of implementing social justice where we are and as best we can according to the vision that God has given in scripture and the church. But that must not be allowed to become a barrier. If we fail to do so, we may end up ourselves by running horses on the rocks and ploughing the sea with oxen."

Wisdom in the OT

Essential qualities:

1. Wisdom begins with the fear of Yahweh

2. Concerned with the general order and patterns of living in God’s creation

3. Provides discernment for the particular order and circumstances of our lives

• Universal in nature, for both communal and individual living, for kings and peasants.
• Applicable in any situation because it is rooted ultimately in God’s order

4. Grounded in tradition

• Like any education, knowledge of right living is acquired through wisdom tradition

Proverbs 1

1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

2 To know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight,

3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,

in righteousness, justice, and equity;

4 to give prudence to the simple,

knowledge and discretion to the youth—

5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,

and the one who understands obtain guidance,

6 to understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction,

and forsake not your mother's teaching,

9 for they are a graceful garland for your head

and pendants for your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you,

do not consent.

11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;

let us ambush the innocent without reason;

12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,

and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

13 we shall find all precious goods,

we shall fill our houses with plunder;

14 throw in your lot among us;

we will all have one purse”—

15 my son, do not walk in the way with them;

hold back your foot from their paths,

16 for their feet run to evil,

and they make haste to shed blood.

17 For in vain is a net spread

in the sight of any bird,

18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood;

they set an ambush for their own lives.

19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;

it takes away the life of its possessors.