It is worthy of special notice under this head that we find in this code a considerable number of statutes with no penalty attached which human hands were to inflict. God reserved the infliction of the penalty to himself. The fear of his displeasure, coupled with his promised rewards for obedience were the only forces coercing obedience to these statutes. They were left upon the conscience of the people, and upon their fears and hopes under a system in which God’s hand in providence was often made most palpable. For cases in point I may refer to the laws against usury and requiring favors to be shown to the poor;—as for example (Deut. 15: 9, 10): “Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying—The seventh year, the year of release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother and thou givest him naught, and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be sin upon thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing the Lord thy God will bless thee in all thy works,” etc.
The moral power of this invisible force upon the heart and conscience of the people we shall be able to appreciate more justly if we carefully study the words which stand (Ex. 23: 20–25), i. e. at the close of the first catalogue of the “statutes and judgments.” It seems to come in here legitimately as a moral force to induce a conscientious and careful obedience to these statutes. “Behold” (calling special attention) “behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice anddo all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to thine enemies,” etc.——This angel, bearing authority to pardon or not pardon sins, and of whom the very God could say—“My name is in him” could be no less than really divine. Name in Hebrew usage as applied to God involves and implies his real nature—his essential attributes. Corresponding to this view of “the angel” in this passage is the injunction to “beware of him and to obey his voice”; and also his power to forgive sins—“for who can forgive sins but God only”? This passage therefore affords decisive proof that the personage who manifested himself to Israel in the pillar of cloud and of fire; whose presence abode in their tabernacle; whose voice they heard in this holy law—was truly divine, and yet was mysteriously distinct from the speaker—the “I”—of this remarkable passage. Truly he was God, manifest—if not precisely in human flesh—yet in palpable forms, in tangible demonstrations, in voice of power and tongue of flame; in the luminous pillar; in perpetual agencies of protection and of supply as to earthly need; and, not least, as their Ruler and their Lord whose voice in these statutes it behooved them to hear and obey as they would hope to be blessed in their national life and in any desirable prosperity. Hence it was both practicable and wise under this Hebrew system to leave some statutes upon the naked conscience of the people with no attempt to enforce obedience save the appeal to this invisible Presence.
These remarks will naturally suggest to the thoughtful mind a train of inquiries of this sort:——How can we account for it that the books of Moses allude so very rarely to the future state of man’s being—to heaven and to hell? Had even the best men of those times any definite belief in the future life and in its retribution for deeds done in this? How happens it that both the law and the rewards or penalties of their civil code, and indeed of their religious code as well, make so much account of present retribution and so little of the future?
These points will be treated more conveniently and in a more satisfactory manner after the religious code shall have been examined and after we have surveyed the history of Israel in the wilderness—i. e. at the close of the present volume.
There are two historic questions pertaining to this civil code of the Hebrews which have sufficient interest to justify a few moments’ attention; viz.
I. How far was this system indebted to Egypt?
II. How far have the best civil codes of the most civilized nations of all subsequent history been indebted to this Hebrew code?
I. As to the possible relations of this Hebrew code to Egyptian life and jurisprudence, perhaps the word “indebted” is too strong. It is by no means intended to disparage the divine originality of this law or of any and every feature of the system. I assume two things:——(1.) That Moses, “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” may have had intimate personal acquaintance with very many things in civil jurisprudence which the Lord taught him in and through his Egyptian life rather than by immediate and independent revelation:——and (2.) That the people became familiar with some valuable usages and customs connected with Egyptian law and Egyptian life, and by this means were prepared to receive and adopt them under this new code and in this new style of life in Canaan, when, without this previous culture, these laws and usage could not have gone into operation so readily if at all.
The Hebrew code and its system of jurisprudence—as also the entire Hebrew national life—were benefited by the Egyptian in the following points:
1. The example and silent influence of a full civil, written code of law. That Egypt had such a code admits of no question. The Hebrew patriarchs, prior to the sojourn in Egypt, had nothing of the sort. Their life in Egypt therefore gave them their first lessons—their first ideas, of a complete code of written law. We shall be in small danger of over-estimating the value of these lessons and ideas in their bearings upon a higher civilization.