Exodus 21 contains a whole lot of detail that God gives the people to live by. The laws are detailed and down to some pretty unusual situations. For example “if there’s a fight and in the fight a pregnant woman is hit so she miscarries”. What are the odds of that scenario? Yet it is listed here. Who says God doesn’t care about the details? Often we get that feeling, or make that excuse. But scripture shows us over and over that He is a detail oriented God. He does care, and care a lot, about every minute detail. He is not oblivious to what is happening. He has a plan and He knows how things should be. So the reality is we need to be paying attention and listening to His direction. He does care.
This is the chapter that contains the law for how things really got settled: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life”. I am not exactly sure how that all plays out today when one factors in mercy and grace. Thankfully Jesus came and went to the cross or we would all likely be dead in our sin. But the chapter points out clearly that there are correct ways to do things and there is a price to pay for actions that we take. Can we take every command in this chapter literally? Probably not. Nor should we just ignore them and call them obsolete or out dated. We need to ponder the impact of our actions and realize that God is watching and measuring our life. Someday we will account for what we do. Life matters.
