2. Egypt gave to the Hebrew mind the example of a well digested system of judicial procedure, established courts and forms of trial; laws put in force by the aid of judges, witnesses, and the systematic execution of penalties.——Remarkably the last quarter of a century has brought to light documentary evidence of a judicial trial in Egypt as far back as the age of Moses, developingthe most finished method; well digested forms of procedure; a state trial, conducted with great dignity and decorum; and the whole proceeding put on record so carefullythat this original document is before the world in perfect preservation at this day.[42]
3. Egypt gave to the children of Israel the example of a national life based on agriculture, as distinct from and indeed opposed to the wandering, unsettled life of the shepherd. The nomadic mode of life, perpetuated by necessity to this day in the deserts of Arabia, in which individual right to the soil is unknown and no family has a fixed home, each living for the time where its flocks may chance to find herbage and water—this had been the style of the patriarchs before Jacob went to Egypt. It was not the best for social and mental culture. God had a better life for his people prospectively in Canaan, and their residence in Egypt introduced them to it and gave them a preparation for it. It made subsistence less precarious; blended the cultivation of the soil with the care of flocks and herds; provided for a denser population; greatly enhanced the opportunities for social culture and for such a religious system as that of Israel. In a word it provided for a much higher Christian civilization than could have been possible under the strictly nomadic mode of life. To Egypt, the nation was indebted for the example and for the training into this agricultural mode of life.
4. In another important respect, the example of the national life of Egypt was a preordained training for their own national life in Canaan:—it was that of a people providing for their own wants; living within themselves; maintaining substantially non-intercourse with other nations, and for the most part excluding foreign commerce. Such was Egypt during the residence of Israel there, and such God wisely designed Israel to be in her promised land of Canaan. As to Israel in Canaan, the purposes of this policy are obvious—protection from the contaminating influences of idolatry,not to say also from the contaminations of luxury and wealth.
5. In Egypt, the priests were the learned class of the empire, and held the highest responsibilities in the civil and judicial as well as the religious life of the nation. A system essentially the same was introduced into Israel, the priests and the Levites holding the same place in the nation which they had seen held by the priests in Egypt.
6. It is a very noticeable fact in the history of the legal life in Egypt, that though magic arts were in a sense tolerated and indeed were resorted to by the king in his emergencies, yet their influence in society proved to be so pernicious as to demand legal restraint. We have the record of a man indicted “for many crimes and wickednesses committed through his magic arts and writings, such as paralyzing limbs, empowering a slave to do audacious things,” etc. The decision of the court in his case reads—“For his various abominations, the greatest in the world, he is condemned to death.”——It will be remembered that the Mosaic law held all practice of magic arts to be a penal offense, punishable with death (Ex. 22: 18 and Lev. 20: 27).
7. In some points the spirit of the Mosaic code was so greatly in advance of the Egyptian as to stand related to it, not in the way of imitation or even modification, but of direct opposition. It held squarely the opposite doctrine and put forth statutes of an opposite character. Thus, the Egyptian code legalized slavery, and had its special law for the reclamation of fugitives. Among the recent discoveries in Egyptian antiquities “A warrant for the arrest of fugitive slaves” has been brought to light. From the tone of this warrant and from other evidence, collateral, it is inferred that slave-holders were obliged by law to register them in a list kept by government and disputes with regard to ownership must be brought before the judges. The rights of the master in his slave were not absolute. It was not by virtue of orders direct from the owner that search was instituted and arrest made, but by the authority of a high functionary of government, to whom the case is reported and who issues his mandate. Thus the government itself put forth its hand to recover a slave who had escaped from any citizen.——It wastherefore specially pertinent that the law of Jehovah to Israel should plant itself on ground precisely the reverse of this:—no reclamation of fugitives whatsoever. Thou shalt not do what Egyptian slave-holders were authorized by the highest authority of the kingdom to do—force back the escaped fugitive to his unendurable bondage.
In the line of their religious institutions Israel stood related to Egypt in numerous particulars, borrowing some things for the adornment of its tabernacle from Egyptian art; and on the other hand, guarding by stringent prohibitions against many Egyptian usages associated with idolatry. These points will be in place after we have considered the religious institutions of Moses.
II. The second proposed historic question, viz. How far have the best civil codes of all history and how far has the world at large been indebted to this Hebrew code?—opens a field of inquiry quite too wide to be fully canvassed within our prescribed limits. A few hints may be useful perhaps to guide the further inquiries of the reader. The following points are put comprehensively and suggestively:
1. Moses sought to impress it upon his people that this system far surpassed that of any other nation. “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me.... Keep, therefore, and do them, for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of all the nations who shall hear of all these statutes and shall say, Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people, for what great nation hath their God so nigh to them as the Lord our God is to us in all that we call upon him for? And what great nation hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day”? (Deut. 4: 5–8.)
2. The Hebrew system surpassed all others, especially in this—that it gave to human government and law the sanction of God’s authority, and enforced them upon the human heart and conscience by this most impressive and benign of all influences.