The Law and Life / Part II
Posted by Bronwen Manning on April 1, 2009 under History | 
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“Blessed is the man [whose]…delight is in the law of the Lord” Psalm 1
Part Two: Israelite Law
Religion is Law 
Essentially Israelite religion is following a set of codes. The legal precedent is set at Mount Sinai with Moses and the laws given by God, then we begin to learn the legal parameters of life in the Israelite camp as they live with the tabernacle, and we see the growth and establishment of judges as they settle in the Promised Land, and finally we see responsibility given to the Kings of Israel to uphold and establish law in their kingdoms. Ultimately though through the legal laws seen in narratives, wisdom literature and poetry it is the God of Israel who is the highest judge and protector of the Israelites. In fact in Psalm 82 the God of Israel is pictured in a divine council ruling and showing his ultimate authority even over the other “gods” that the world believed in.
Abusing the weak is Abusing God 
Since the God of Israel is the watchman for the poor- anyone who abuses the poor is acting against God himself for he is the one who “maintains the widow’s boundaries” when others would use her poverty and weakness to encroach (Prov 15:25). In the same vein of thought those who choose to help and be a friend to the friendless are blessing and maintaining the Kingdom of God- those who give bread to the hungry will be blessed (Prov 22:7) and those who lend to the poor will be repaid (Prov 19:17); God himself is the guarantor of these promises.
The Plan Gone Wrong
A story is recounted in the times of King Zedekiah of Judah and the prophet 
Jeremiah when the land came under a great threat and the people of Jerusalem were besieged within their own city. After much time the food ran out and those who had slaves released them from their service. It was done in such a way that it looked like everyone was following the commandments of the Lord- following the law of Liberty that says after a specific time you must release your slave from service. But why did Zedekiah cause for all the slaves of Jerusalem to be released at the same time? The simplest answer is that it was in the best interests of the Masters; by releasing the slaves they no longer had the heavy responsibility to feed and protect them in that terrible time of siege. The prophet Jeremiah records this event in Jeremiah 34- he initially commends the initiative to release slaves, because it seems to follow the law- but then he realizes evil was at the root of the action when the Masters take back their servants into slavery when the siege is lifted. Through the mouth of Jeremiah God says, “You have not obeyed me by proclaiming Liberty” but rather by using the law in an abusive way they had transgressed the covenant that God made with them when he rescued a nation of slaves from Egypt (Jeremiah 34:17).
The law is the foundation code to life but this story illustrates that even the law can be used as an evil tool when applied against the spirit of the law. Releasing all the slaves in Jerusalem in a time of siege is not an act of charity, it is a death sentence. Those who proclaimed "Liberty" knew that it was really death and not life that they set into motion- and as Proverbs recalls true law brings only light and life (Proverbs 6: 23)
And thus the story of Jeremiah’s prophetic activity would have ended had it not been for the intervention of the king’s eunuch, an Ethiopian by the name of Eved-Melech. He went before Zedekiah and said, “My Lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city”. (Jer 38:9)
