In English we use words in a variety of ways, so was the same true in Hebrew?
Read Exodus 21:24 and Matthew 5:38 and journal your thoughts
For so many of us, we really struggle with some of the ideas of the Old Testament, and for many this verse out of Exodus 21:24 is one of them. We have a hard time with a God of grace and mercy demanding such a heavy punishment.
What’s interesting is that when you look into the culture this phrase what a Jewish Idiom (something taken figuratively, not literally). Essentially it is simply a way of saying that the punishment must fit the crime. In fact, in the ancient Jewish culture, they were not known for taking out these literal sort of punishments on each other, but they had a standard by which the punishment would fit the crime. This was usually done by something as simple as a fine.
We see this again in Matthew 5:17-18, especially verse 18 when Jesus talks about the smallest letter or stroke of the pen will not disappear from the Law. The Hebrew language is filled with these little pen strokes that held tons of value, so if one was changed then a lot could have been changed. So what Jesus is saying here is that the Law will remain down to the most minute detail.
Today meditate on how God used the language of their culture to speak truth to them.
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