Have you still remembered the first time you read the Old Testament in the Bible? Guessing some parts of it could be quite confusing and hard to understand for most of us.
Take Numbers 15:32 as the example:
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.
It’s kinda shocking when seeing this message in the Bible. Just wonder why it’s so cruel and intolerant of such a small mistake? Where is love God teaches us from this story?
But as time passed and more I learned and thought, starting to understand why God commanded Moses to treat that violator in such a way. As the period of time Moses lived is quite long time ago, value that most people hold and the way they live their live can be quite different and uncivilized compared to what it’s now. Without a proper rule to discipline people, all would actually suffer. God always wants to give the best to us, but God is also the God of justice and wisdom. If we haven’t reached the conditions to a better life, even the blessing is given, we still can’t understand and control it. And that could lead to a disaster. The story of how a spoiled child consumed all fortune their parents made when they turn to adult is quite common to hear from time to time. This can be an analogy to help us understand why the law in that time is so strict.
The best law is the law that can resolve the problem, guide people to live a better life and grow. And that comes from what value people hold and what condition they’ve met. Take Singapore and Norway as the example, their system and law is quite different, one is so tolerant and the other is so harsh, but we can see both country’s people all live in a certain high standard of life. Then how we can say which one’s law is better? It really depends on what conditions people have reached. If all people are self-disciplined, trust among people is high and all pursue higher goals of making each other better, then the law giving more space to people can possibly be a better approach as this way can make people more creative and system more efficient. In contrast, if the trust system isn’t high enough or there are many uncertain potential harmful factors existing, then the law with more regulations would be necessary.
Many factors would influence how people behave and that leads to how the law is designed. And how the law is designed can also influence how people behave.When seeing the law we dislike or like, thinking more and finding out the context behind it instead of judging it too fast can be a better approach to give us a more clear view of seeing this world.
