An Intro - Exodus 21

After receiving the Ten Words or Commandments, chapter 21 goes into to more rules. TB notes that by the time of Christ, the Pharisees observed over 600 additional laws in order to be considered observant. I don’t know if all 600 were accepted by the general Israelite population or how they got to that point, so I guess we’ll see. He also notes that the setting forth of these laws in the first 5 books of the Bible is appropriate because all 5 of these books combined is called the Torah, which being interpreted means “Law.” TB devotes an entire lecture (about 45 minutes) to the topic of why ancient Hebrews obeyed this law and it was interesting, but I don’t know how much I want to get into it here.

He says that ancient Hebrews did not give too much energy to the topic of what happens after death. This was interesting considering that they had lived in Egypt for 400 years and Egypt had an obsession with the after life and what all that entailed. So the Hebrews would have had to either ignore that aspect of Egyptian culture or would have given it up very quickly in favor of a “nothing” philosophy. It also made sense though because in Alma when he’s writing the letters to his son Corianton in Alma 39-42, Corianton has all these questions about what happens with the atonement and after death and in the resurrection and Alma doesn’t know initially. An angel has to come and explain everything to him while he’s writing these letters in order for him to be able to know what the doctrine is, so it would make sense that this might not have been a common topic of discussion in ancient Israel when Lehi left Jerusalem.

As far as I understood, TB was suggesting that the Hebrews were obedient to all these hundreds of commandments because they believed that this life was the only time that they would interact with God so it was the only time they had to demonstrate that they were obedient to God. He compared it to modern day Christians who do everything with the belief that all the good we do will be rewarded with blessings and salvation in the next life. Whereas, the Hebrews believed that being righteous and obedient in this life was the only way to gain God’s favor. They believed that dying early was God’s punishment for disobedience or that bad fortune was God’s punishment, that’s why they were obedient to all these laws.

The IM gives pretty extensive context for all these laws within the perspective of the gospel. There are multiple scriptural references that explain, “the law of Moses was a ‘preparatory gospel’ that included the principles of repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments. It was a ‘very strict law’ of ‘performances and ordinances’ designed to keep the Israleites ‘in remembrance of God and their duty towards him.’ The law of Moses was highly symbolic, being filled with types and shadows, all of which pointed toward Christ and His future Atonement. The law of Moses was added to the gospel, not given as a substitute for it. The law of Moses was given as a schoolmaster or tutor to bring Israel to Christ. The law of Moses is understood through the ‘spirit of prophecy’ or ‘a testimony of Jesus.’”

It's pretty easy to look back at the ancient Israelites and think that they were weak or disobedient or rebellious by nature or something like that. In fact, that’s the narrative that I heard growing up, that they had to have all these laws and wandered in the desert for 40 years because they were just so naturally wicked that God had to constantly punish them. Now that I’m older and I know more, I think that’s a pretty harsh way to look at a group of people who lived in completely different circumstances than I do. Looking back throughout human history, it took thousands of years for any group of people to shift their beliefs into anything mainstream.

Any truth has to actively fight against the inherent greed and selfishness of human nature to usurp power, deceive, and exploit in order to get gain. Additionally, not only do people who are open to the truth have to fight against corruption, there are the physical demands on our lives that dominate almost every aspect of our existence. So basically, there are the physical requirements for us to live like food, water, shelter, and safety that takes almost all of our time and energy to address. Then with whatever little bit of room remaining in our lives, wicked people fill it with lies and manipulation and violence in order to control people for power. With that in mind, it is no wonder that it takes thousands of years to shift any kind of religious belief system. So maybe we should cut ancient people some slack.

If we truly believe that God knows all, then we would have to accept that He is the master psychologist, so if He is saying that people need to be given and expected to obey over 600 laws at some point in time then we have to accept that He’s correct about that. If the laws “change” for different groups of people at different times, then we can accept that the purpose of these laws are the same (our salvation) but that the timing and circumstances are different and so we need different rules. Totally different sets of circumstances that the ancient Hebrews lived with vs. what we live with today, so it would make sense that our instructions are different.