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The parashah for this week’s Sabbath is entitled Mishpatim, which means “Judgments.” It covers Exodus 21:1–24:18.
These were the first laws God gave His people after the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. These laws provide practical application of the Decalogue in daily life. They are called “judgments” or rulings. They are not so much laws regulating conduct as they are laws regulating punishment for misconduct.
Since Adonai freed His chosen people, Israel, from the house of slavery in Egypt with great signs and awesome wonders, it seems fitting that Adonai begins this additional set of laws with the topic of slavery – as if to say to the Israelis, “Though you will allow an institution called slavery, it cannot be anything like what you experienced in Egypt.”
Hebrews often became slaves because of poverty and sometimes through crime (that is, their punishment was to become a slave). Hebrew servants were to be treated differently than the usual slave.
If a slave was not married, the master could give him a wife. If that wife bore sons or daughters, she and her children would belong to the master. After the slave completed his years of service, he would be set free.
However, if the servant plainly said, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,” the servant was then marked in the ear and would remain in the household for life.
Adonai says in Leviticus 25 that those who sold themselves would become free, even if there was no kinsman-redeemer or anyone to buy them back. On the Year of Jubilee, they and their children became free. This is because the Israelis are God’s servants – servants whom He brought out of slavery in Egypt. “I am the Lord your God!”
The Law also gave special protection to female servants, ensuring that their masters did not abuse them or deprive them of their rights.
Many of these judgments concern injury to a person. Injuring someone had to be punished in a manner corresponding to the injury. The principle of retribution runs throughout these laws: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
In verse 16 of this chapter, Adonai makes kidnapping – whether of an Israeli or a non-Israeli – for the purpose of enslavement a capital crime. Striking one’s father or mother, or even cursing one’s parents, was punishable by death.
The price of a servant was thirty shekels of silver, which also reminds us of Yeshua’s servanthood, as He was sold for thirty pieces of silver.
Chapter 22 contains clarifications of social duties and obligations, it covers theft, trespass, borrowing, sexual immorality, witchcraft, idolatry, and various other matters.
Verse 28 addresses blasphemy, declaring that speaking against God, rulers, or parents was punishable by death.
Chapter 23 describes the judicial system in ancient Israel. Like our court systems today, it depended on just laws, honest judges, and faithful witnesses.
God’s laws were just, but they could be deliberately misinterpreted by an unjust judge or corrupted by a lying witness. Judgment was not to be influenced by numbers, money, personal feelings, or social status.
When it comes to applying the Law, God does not want the wicked to be justified. Yet when it comes to saving lost sinners, God in His grace justifies the ungodly.
He can do this only because the penalty for our sins was borne on the cross by Yeshua our Messiah.
The worship of God and living in the land were inseparably connected. Israel’s religious festivals were tied to the agricultural year in a series of “sevens.”
The seventh day was the Sabbath, and the seventh year was the Sabbatical Year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated for seven days after Passover.
The seventh month began with the Feast of Trumpets and included the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.
The weekly Sabbath reminded the Israelis that they belonged to God and demonstrated His care for the health of both man and beast, as well as the “health” of the land.
The Sabbatical Year provided even greater opportunity for rest and restoration.
Passover speaks of the death of Yeshua our Messiah, the Lamb of God. The Feast of Firstfruits is a picture of Messiah’s resurrection,
The Feast of Tabernacles reminds us of His coming again and of His future kingdom of joy and fullness.
The puzzling statement about boiling a kid in its mother’s milk relates to a pagan practice associated with idolatrous fertility rites.
Moses connected this law to the harvest festivals because that was when such pagan fertility rituals were practiced.
God promised His people victory, assuring them that His angel would go before them and help them defeat their enemies if they faithfully obeyed His commandments. Their possession of the land was purely an act of God’s grace.
In the previous chapters, God laid out the ordinances required to live a righteous life before Him. God provided those ordinances, but the people needed to respond. That response comes in
Exodus 24:7: “Then Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’”
Wonderful words – but sadly, they would not fully come to pass.
Israel did conquer the Promised Land; however, they did not completely destroy the cities and idols of the godless inhabitants. Over time, God’s people made peace with their neighbors and learned to worship their false gods and goddesses.
This led to discipline in the land and eventually captivity away from it.
What can we learn from Parasha Mishpatim? Before we judge Israel too harshly, we must ask ourselves how much God’s people today are compromising with the gods of this world – money, pleasure, comfort and success – and how many temples are being erected in our nation today to false gods.