Next up, a consideration of how the themes of holiness and justice were embodied in the Law that God gave to Israel. Obviously, the core of this Law is the Ten Commandments, which clearly reflect a concern both with what we think of as “personal holiness” issues (don’t worship idols, don’t blaspheme God’s name, observe the Sabbath) and with “social justice” issues (don’t deprive other people of their lives, spouses, or property). Over the course of the remainder of Exodus, all of Leviticus, a few scattered chapters of Numbers, and the whole of Deuteronomy, these basic principles that are given in the Ten Commandments are fleshed out in greater (often minute) detail. While it is somewhat misleading to suggest any clear or firm divisions in this literature, it is nonetheless interesting to note the following:

• The laws that immediately follow the Ten Commandments and that lead up to Israel’s affirmation of the covenant (Exodus 21–23) are mostly concerned with issues of justice—how to treat servants, how to deal with issue of public violence, how to deal with injuries caused by or inflicted on animals that belong to someone else, how to settle property disputes, treating aliens, widows, and orphans with justice, and providing food for the poor.
• The overwhelming majority of the book of Leviticus, in contrast, is obsessed with issues of cultic practice and personal holiness. It consists of detailed instructions for offering the various types of ritual sacrifices that were necessary to atone for personal sin, as well as laws governing sexual morality, clean and unclean food, purification from disease, regulations for the priesthood, and the observance of feasts and holy days. The scattered legal passages in Numbers (such as Ch. 5–6, 18–19, and 28–29) tend to focus on similar themes.
• Deuteronomy, in which Moses delivers his farewell speech to Israel, recounting both the narrative of their journey from Egypt and the essence of the Law code that God has given them, seems to represent an attempt to turn Israel’s attention back to issues of justice and mercy, thus restoring some of the balance between personal holiness and public justice that was struck by the Ten Commandments themselves. (Indeed, Moses begins the legal instructions of Deuteronomy by reviewing the Ten Commandments in Chapter 5). While Deuteronomy does touch briefly on some of the same issues of purity that dominated Leviticus, it contains several important passages concerning justice and compassion (notably the programmatic statement of 16:18–20, the provisions for the periodic cancellation of debts and servitude in Ch. 15, and the laws concerning compassion for servants, aliens, widows, and orphans in 24:14–22). 

Once again, this division is somewhat artificial, but there is an inarguably strong contrast between the overall tenor of Leviticus and that of Deuteronomy, one that is echoed in the contemporary conservative/liberal divide in American politics and religion. I think it is worth reflecting on some of the possible narrative explanations for this apparent dichotomy. For example, Leviticus, with its focus on personal morality and sacrificial regulations which distinguishes it both from Deuteronomy and from Exodus 21–23, was delivered to the Israelites not long after their exodus from Egypt, where they had lived in the midst of a pagan culture for several generations, and immediately after they had constructed and worshipped a golden idol in the shape of a calf—a serious violation of their relationship with God and a profound distortion of proper corporate worship. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that God wanted to put a heavy emphasis on devotion to Him, purity of thought and action, and propriety in worship and sacrifice. Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy, in contrast, was given following a painful, 40-year lesson on the importance of honoring God, during which the rituals of sacrifice and purification had become ingrained parts of the community’s life. In their new context, on the threshhold of the Promised Land, the Israelites did not need a simple recapitulation of how to behave in their bedrooms and in the tabernacle, but rather fresh instructions for how to live together justly and compassionately in community. In the desert, God provided manna, quail, and water for everyone in equal measure, no one’s clothes or shoes wore out, the pillar of cloud provided shade and shelter by day, and the pillar of fire provided warmth by night. But in their new homeland, people would go without food, water, clothing, and shelter unless they faithfully exercised justice and mercy.

Thus, in light of the narrative, the differing emphases across this body of literature make a lot of sense. But the whole point is that the division is never complete. Leviticus, for all its focus on the minutiae of personal holiness, also contains the law concerning the Year of Jubilee (Ch. 25), the ultimate Old Testament provision for public justice. Deuteronomy, for all its emphasis on justice and compassion, also strongly condemns sexual immorality (Ch. 22) and the eating of unclean foods (Ch. 14). And, in the greatest (and most telling) of ironies, when Jesus was asked to name the Greatest Commandment in the entire Israelite legal corpus, He picked a verse about loving God wholeheartedly from the book about “public justice” (Deut. 6:5), and a verse about loving and caring for others from the book about “personal holiness” (Lev. 19:18). The implication is clear—while God’s people may need to be more forcefully reminded of one side of the coin or the other at different times in their journey with Him, holiness and justice, love of God and love of neighbor, are ultimately and essentially inseparable.

In my next post, I’ll examine what happened to Israel in the Promised Land as they slowly lost their grip on both holiness and justice.