Exodus 21:33-22:15 Study Guide: Laws About Property

Community Group Study Guide — Laws About Property
Exodus 21:33-22:15

Study Information:
If someone damaged your property today whether that be your car, home or land you’d likely lean on insurance to handle the damages or some of the social systems in place like the police department and civil courts to pursue damages for loss incurred. Basically, if someone ran into your fence with their car you’d expect them to pay to have it fixed, or that you’d have the civil networks to get it fixed. What about a nomadic wandering people waiting to enter the promised land? What about a society given their values and laws from God? For any community to flourish there needs to be a sense of respect for property and laws in place that guide a proper response for when things go bad.

We’re in a section of Exodus that teaches us about the civil laws for the people of Israel and these laws show us a righteous response for when things go bad and the laws in this particular section all deal with property. These are not laws that we are bound to as Christians today but they do teach us some key things about things like personal responsibility and the need for restitution when we wrong or harm another. 

Restitution for Damage
Exodus 21:33-22:6
We can imagine many scenarios where something we need for our day to day livelihood is damaged and we’re incur a financial loss. Think about your vehicle, work tools or home office. If someone damaged something key to our livelihood we’d not only need it fixed but also to have damages paid. Exodus gives us several examples of the need for restitution or damages when negligence or an accident occurred from digging a pit that harms another’s livestock unintentionally or having your ox gore another person’s ox to there being a field grazed over or a fire that causes damage. You can imagine the frustration of planting a field and depending on that crop and your neighbor let their goats out to graze and you lost all that work. Happens all the time, right?! Well in the ancient world that was a real and serious threat. God’s people were to take personal responsibility for the good of their neighbor even at financial cost to themselves. 

If there was no societal law or expectation and damage was done to your property you’d either be at a loss or would need to take matters into your own hands which means the strong ruled the day. Israel was to be one a place where the poor and destitute were taken care of and sheer force or power or will was not the thing that decided an outcome. What would it be like to live in a society where you can trust everyone to do what was right and restore what was damaged? We should not idealize the ancient Israelites because we know they did not fully follow this law all the time, but we can see God’s heart for us to restore what was damaged. 

Caring for What Belongs to Another
Exodus 22:7-15
Next, the law imagines a scenario where you let someone borrow something like money, your car, clothing or whatever and you either do not get it back or it is not cared for. Maybe you receive it back damaged or it gets lost by the other person. The law again paints a picture of generously helping one another with your property but at the same time a responsibility care for what belonged to another. Likewise, there is an imagined scenario here where something gets lost or trust is breached and you need someone to resolve the case. The law tells both parties to “come before God” and for one to make “an oath by the Lord.” We do not know what this looked like exactly, but there was an appeal to God and a recognition that they were not just wronging a neighbor but were living “before the Lord.”

Christians should not seek to defraud one another but to live in such a way that is just. We can see this in places like 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 where Paul corrected the Corinthians for going to the secular civil authorities with law suits against each other. There may come a time and place where you are wronged and have to fight for justice, but to Paul and the early church, this was looked at as a travesty and instead we should first appeal to godly wisdom in the church to right what was wrong. 

Making Right What Was Wrong
Luke 19:1-10
We are not under these specific laws for restitution right now but as a general principle Christians of all people who desire to make right what was wrong based on God’s call on our lives. The gospel leads us towards righteous living which includes repenting of our sin and seeking the good of those God has placed in our lives. One of the most interesting pictures of righting what was wrong is the story of Zacchaeus in the gospel of Luke. Zacchaeus was a Jew who worked for the Roman government and made a practice of defrauding his own people through a tax collection racket. We’re never told outright that he was skimming off the top, but that is implied in the text. In this story Jesus called to Zacchaeus who wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus from up in a tree. Jesus extended relationship and forgiveness to Zacchaeus and Zachaeus replied with genuine repentance and restitution. Initially Zacchaeus pledged half his money to care for the poor and then said if he defrauded anyone he’d restore it fourfold. Forgiveness from Christ is free and God’s grace cannot be earned, but it will make demands on your life. As followers of Jesus we of all people should want to walk with integrity and generosity in our relationships and especially with one another. 

At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week? 

Discussion Questions:
Read Exodus 21:33-22:15

Generally speaking, what do these laws teach us bout restitution and what to do if you damage someone else’s property? 

The laws here imply that people were to be free with letting one another borrow or use their goods. In a society that lacked resources and Home Depots this seems to make a lot of sense. Do you find that you are willing to lend out what you have to help others? Why or why not?

How do you think a Christian should handle a situation where another Christian has wronged you? What kind of steps could you take to pursue peace with them?