Reflection for October 9

Laws for the Journey
If the Ten Commandments were written today they would probably be different, argues Old Testament scholar Terence Fretheim. He points out that Deuteronomy revises the Ten Commandments recorded in Exodus: A wife is no longer listed as property and the neighbor is not necessarily male. The law was first given when the people of Israel were on a journey, and it became a compass for their wilderness wanderings. Over time their circumstances changed, and therefore the law had to change too. “Just because laws are from God does not make them unchangeable; the texts witness to a God who makes changes in the law,” so that God can be true to God’s own character and to the relational commitments made to Israel through changing times and places (Christian Century, October 4, 2011, from Word & World, Summer).