Exodus 21:18-27

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 21:11

GOD’S DISAPPROBATION OF BRUTE FORCE.—Exodus 21:22

I. One of the great underlying principles and fundamental axioms of the Mosaic legislation was the sanctity of human life. Hence the number of hedges and guards by which it was surrounded.

1. Life is everywhere regarded as the gift of God. It is therefore taken for granted that He alone has a right to interfere with it or take it away.

2. Life is everywhere regarded as given for the express purpose of promoting the Creator’s glory, and fulfilling those duties which He has laid down. To injure or destroy that life, therefore, is to make it fail of the end for which it was given.

3. Life, therefore, is to be protected from—

(1) attacks which would inflict a temporary injury upon it, under the penalty of remuneration for loss of time and medical attendance (Exodus 21:18); or, according to the lex talionis (Exodus 21:22), and which might become

(2) murder, in which case the punishment was death.

4. Life, however, was so precious that even the manslayer, if his crime was accidental, might have an opportunity for clearing himself (Exodus 21:13); thus in the wilderness, anticipating the cities of refuge (Numbers 35; Deuteronomy 4; Deuteronomy 19; Joshua 20)

5. But life was so sacred that even the sanctuary was no protection to the deliberate murderer (Exodus 21:14.) (See 1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28; Leviticus 4:7).

II. This principle, properly applied, means the extinction of all strife, whether between individuals or nations. There may be circumstances under which personal encounter or national war may be justifiable, as when rights are invaded or the helpless oppressed. But, in the great majority of cases, quarrels may be settled by arbitration or mutual concession. At any rate, this grand principle of the sanctity of human life, if acted on all round, would discourage all violence and inaugurate the era of universal peace and good will towards man.

GOD DISAPPROVES OF BRUTE FORCE

I. Because it is beneath the true dignity of man. Such contests as described in the text are the outcome of the animal and lower part of our nature (James 4:1), and reduce man to the level of the beast. But God has given man reason, discretion, self-control; and fighting degrades the man. This applies

(1) to what, by a solemn irony, is described as the “noble (?) art of self-defence;”
(2) to the vast majority of those wars undertaken to gratify an individual’s or a nation’s lust of glory, revenge, or spoil.

II. Because it is unnatural. Humanity is a brotherhood. “God has made of one blood all the nations of men.” Therefore men should be prepared

(1) to make concessions;
(2) to forgive;
(3) to live in peace and unity together.

III. Because it is dangerous—

1. To the victor in the struggle.

(1.) He may disable his adversary, and have to pay a heavy indemnification (18, 19).

(2.) He may have to pay with his life the murderer’s forfeit (Exodus 21:12).

2. To the vanquished. It may mean (a) serious injury, or (b) death.

IV. Because no worthy object is gained. Strength, time, skill, money, and, it may be, life are expended for what? Merely the ascendency of the strongest and the compulsory subjection of the weak.

V. Because it is eminently unchristian. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.”

1. It is contrary to the example of Christ, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again (1 Peter 2:23), and who “did not strive.”

2. It is contrary to the precept of Christ. “Love one another;” “Love your enemies;” “They that use the sword shall perish by the sword;” “My kingdom is not of this world else would My servants fight.”

3. It is contrary to the whole body of Christian teaching. Paul (2 Timothy 2:24; Hebrews 12:14); Peter (1 Epis. Exodus 3:8); James (Exodus 3:13), Jude (Ep. 9); and as for John every chapter in his epistles is against it. This principle applies (I.) To the dogmatist. (II.) To the controversialist. The instrument need not be fist or stones. God disapproves of the employment of—(i.) force of intellect; (ii.) fluency of speech; (iii.) power of lung when exerted against moral principles.—J. W. Burn.

STRIVERS AND SMITERS.—Exodus 21:18

There is in this passage no punishment appointed for the mere striver. He is simply held responsible for any evil consequences that may ensue from the strife. So that he who would be on the safe side, as regards either the being injured or being the cause of injury to another, must learn to “walk honestly, as in the day;—not in strife and envying.” For mental strife stirreth up anger; and this leadeth to physical strife; and this to violent smiting; and this sometimes terminates in death. “He loveth transgression that loveth strife.”
I. The striver who injures his opponent. The man smitten with a stone in a contention, and forced to take to his bed, is entitled to compensation. The smiter must pay for the loss sustained during enforced absence from work, and must also be responsible for all the injured man’s medical requirements. Acts have consequences, and men are to be held responsible for such consequences. On this principle we still proceed in great measure; and especially is this true when the consequences are immediate. Move with caution. Let every deed be the result of prayerful deliberation. Who can tell what the deed of to-day may produce in the far off to-morrow?

II. The smiter who injures his servant. The man who smites his servant or his maid with a rod, and causes death, is to be surely punished. It is plain that capital punishment is not to be inflicted on this smiter; for it is left to the discretion of the judges to award the damages. If capital punishment were intended, it is strange that it is not stated, as in the foregoing passages. Perhaps the term “rod” is here employed designedly; for where an iron was used malicious intention was supposed, and death was the punishment where death was caused. If, however, the injured servant continue a day or two, the striker shall not be punished; for the servant is the master’s money. The master suffers the loss of his servant’s services, and therefore receives sufficient punishment. If the servant or the maid lose either an eye or a tooth, through being struck by the master, then the servant or maid so suffering is entitled to liberty as a compensation. Such is the merciful provision for the slave’s physical welfare. A tooth is but a small price to pay for liberty. Many slaves have risked their lives in order to purchase the precious boon of freedom. Even the physical part of man’s nature is important. A slave’s body is God’s workmanship, and must be treated with respect.

III. The striver who injures a pregnant woman. Very often women meddle with the strifes of husbands or brothers. It is natural that women should seek to separate the contending parties. And if such women get injured in their efforts, we sometimes say it serves them right for interfering. But the Mosaic code did not so affirm; and we think rightly. Strivers should be held responsible for the results of their quarrels. It would greatly alter the condition of things if warlike strivers could be held responsible for the results of their contentions. As the result of the pregnant woman suffering permanent injury we have an enforcement of the law of retaliation. In rude states of society we may proceed on the principle of an eye for an eye, &c; but we may aspire to and work up to a state of society, thoroughly permeated with Gospel principles, where all the members of the state will be members of Christ’s mystical body—when this law shall vanish, and the higher laws of Christian love and forbearance shall be in full operation. It will then be an easy thing not to resist evil, for this will be reduced to a minimum. And, till those Elysian days appear, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.” “If thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

—W. Burrows, B.A.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exodus 21:18. Passion and contention breed very bad events amongst neighbours.

Not only death, but the injury of man, God desires to prevent.
It is just with God that he who wounds must look to the healing of his neighbours.
Security and prosperity of creatures is the end of God’s judgments against violent men. The lives and comforts of the poorest slaves are dear to God, and secured by Him.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON

Homicide! Exodus 21:20. Dr. Leland writes concerning the Spartans, that nothing could exceed their cruelty to their serfs—their helots, as they called them. Not only did they treat them in their general conduct with great harshness and insolence, but it was part of their policy to massacre them on several occasions in cold blood, and without provocation. Several authors have mentioned their kruptia—so called from their lying in ambuscade in thickets and clefts of rocks, from which they issued out upon the serfs, and killed all they met. Sometimes they set upon them in the open day, and murdered the ablest and stoutest of them as they were in the fields at work. But English and American writers have been forced to admit the record of many such homicides in more modern times. Murdered “Uncle Toms” are no myth.

“Ah! for the tale the slave could speak,

Ah! for the shame of England’s sway;

On Afric’s sands the madden’d shriek,

’Neath southern suns the burning day;

Ye sounds of guilt—ye sights of gore—

Away! for slavery is no more.”

Slave-Sorrows! Exodus 21:23. All honour Livingstone’s righteous indignation against the cruelties which he was obliged to witness as he travelled amid the horror of the slave-traffic. On the Luongo, he describes an incident in words which show this feeling. Six men were singing as if they did not feel the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. I asked the cause of their mirth, and was told that they rejoiced at the idea of coming back after death, and hunting and killing those who had sold them. Some of the words I had to inquire about; for instance, the meaning of the words “to hunt and kill by spirit power.” Then the song started afresh: “Oh! you sent us off to the sea-coast, but the yoke is off when we die, and back we shall come to haunt and to kill you.” Then all joined in the chorus, which was the name of each seller. The strain told not of fun, but of the bitterness and tears of such as were oppressed.

“O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit
Might never reach me more.”

—Cowper.

Eye for Eye! Exodus 21:25. Selden says that this does not mean that if I put out another man’s eye, therefore I must lose my own (for what is he better for that?), though this is commonly received. It means that I must give him what satisfaction an eye shall be janlged to be worth. Accordingly, Cruickshank relates the case of a slave, who appealed to a traditionary law which entitled him to freedom for the loss of an eye, in his master’s service, from the recoil of a branch of a tree. Compensation, then, and not retribution, is the essential element in this law. Substitution is here, and not revenge.

“You satisfy your anger and revenge;
Suppose this, it will not
Repair your loss.”

—Massinger.