9
(Exod 20:10 where domestic animals rest on the Sabbath; 23:11 where fallow land provides food
for wild animals; cf. Exod 23:4-5, 19 that reflects concern for lost and overloaded animals and
the perversity of cooking a kid-goat in its mothers milk). Just as God is gracious towards the
poor (Exod 22:27), so also he expects his people to be empathetic to such people as well,
knowing their own humble national origins as slaves before Yahweh saved them (Exod 22:21;
23:9). Still more surprising, and showing the complexity of Gods character, Gods protection
extends also to the life of a thief in that bloodguilt is declared on anyone who kills a thief without
mitigating circumstance (Exod 22:2-3).
From the above, it is clear that a great deal can be deduced about the character of God
through an analysis of his law-speech.
3. Law as Gods Personal Message to Israel Gives Israels Law Divine Authority and Motivates
Obedience.
One purpose of this personal language observed above is to persuade and motivate
hearers to obey. Watts states, "When read together, the divine sanctions join the stories and the
lists of laws in a rhetoric of persuasion to motivate assent and compliance."
20
The narrative
context of the commands of Exodus 20-23 is the exodus story of Exodus 12-18, and the
theophany of Exodus 19, so that "Command is rooted in theophany," and passions the commands
with the motivating emotions of the liberation from Egypt.
21
For example the prologue to the Decalogue links the laws with the narratives: "I am
Yahweh your God who released you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. Do not
have other gods besides me" (Exod 20:2-3). The first clause serves functionally as a
subordinate clause to the second clause.
22
The logic of this is probably thus: "Because I Yahweh
20
Watts, Reading Law, 52.
21
Walter Brueggemann, "The Book of Exodus," in The New Interpreters Bible (vol. 1;
Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 1:839.
22
M. Weinfeld, "The Decalogue: Its Significance, Uniqueness, and Place in Israels Tradition," in