February 9, 2024

Read to Read …Again

Daily Reading:  Leviticus 24-25

Leviticus 24:20

Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.

“An eye for an eye” this phrase is quoted often. Yet, think about it. You are working with a helper and by some weird happenstance you put their eye out. Under this law, your eye would be put out. Upon thinking about all this would and could mean, it is a very difficult saying.

Praise the Lord that New Testament believers do not live under this law. Jesus did away with this in Matthew five. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matthew 5:38-39 Jesus then goes on to elaborate, but in short, no longer should we seek an “eye for an eye”. We live on a higher level.

There are those though that want to return to this way of retribution. They wish these punishments for others who have “done wrong,” but are they willing to submit to the same? Probably not. We all have it within us to want to punish others yet receive no punishment ourselves.

But it was the Law of Moses and Israel lived under its dark cloud. The next time someone quotes “an eye for an eye” just sit back and wonder. Would they obey all the other Old Testament laws too? Like the seven-year sabbath, or the year of jubilee, or this thing of not demanding interest paid on money borrowed, or making sure to pay every employee every day at the end of the day, or if they borrow a mule and that mule dies that they replace it with another, or any of the others? At the sake of being redundant let it be said again; probably not.

William T. Howe Ph.D.