The Law and Wisdom
September 19, 2021
Apparently I’ve been reading the Old Testament wrong. Sunday I described the Law as God above Mt. Sinai, shouting down commands, “do this, don’t do that,” and so on. I knew it was a bit of an exaggeration, because the Psalms make it very clear how life-giving the Law is, and God shouting down rules is hardly “sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119.103).
But I didn’t know quite how wrong I was. For instance, if you read the Code of Hammurabi, that most exalted of ancient legal documents, it will only take a moment to feel immense differences between it and the Law. It starts with a lengthy and impersonal description of Hammurabi. It’s a mind-numbingly dull piece of heraldry. And then it gets into a lengthy and impersonal presentation of rules and regulations—“if anyone this, if anyone that.”
Just start reading Exodus 20 or 21, and you’ll quickly see what I mean. In the first place, “The Law” is the Pentateuch, or first five books of the Old Testament, and you’re a good bit in before “The Law” gets down to actually giving laws! And by the time you’re into the laws, proper, you’re engaged in this story about God and his people. The laws don’t exist in a vacuum, nor are they given into a vacuum. They are a key moment of a particular story.
Nor are the laws impersonal laws (at least usually). They’re short stories. “When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt,” (Ex. 21.2). This law was written for a particular people in a particular place, but as I read it I am invited to step into the story it imagines—I have money and need some help around the house, so I buy a slave. But I don’t get to keep the slave forever. It’s more like a rental. Why? Every other culture allows you to buy slaves and keep them. Why do I have to be different? What is God saying about the nature of humans, that they cannot be fully owned?
Here’s another point—the Law is not merely a set of rules to follow. It is given to grow wisdom in the reader. This is why it’s not something to simply read and obey, but is something to meditate on, reflect on, and be formed by. Why is God calling us to live this particular way? What does this say about God? What does this say about us as the community of God or humanity in general?
The Old Testament is God showing us himself and ourselves, rather than simply telling us. There are moments of clarity orienting us through the journey (Ex. 34.6-7, Jesus, and so on), but the rest is largely snippets of wisdom—pictures that need placed in a collage, or small chunks of colored glass that need put together to form a mosaic. The Old Testament is not some impersonal collection of writings to memorize and obey. They are writings to memorize and reflect on “when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise,” (Deut. 6.7). Only then will we know God and wisdom.
—John Coffey
