Chapter 20 ends with the experience of thunder, and trembling people keeping their distance from the mountain. Chapter 21 opens with something much less dramatic: the law. Already, just a scan of it looks boring to read about the laws for slavery, injury, compensation, and property. We already are longing for the glory of Mount Sinai again.
“These are the laws you are to set before them:” Exodus 21 v 1
We are going to read of how God spoke into the everyday life of a community. He will say something about the disputes, and He will show He has His eye on the vulnerable.
Israel has just been delivered from slavery and God now teaches them how a redeemed people are to live. Freedom from Egypt was not freedom to live however they pleased; it was freedom to live God’s way.
God’s holiness has practical consequences. It affects how we treat people.
We can worship passionately on Sundays and yet fail to honour God in our conversations, or our finances, and our relationships.
Our worship has to reach the marketplace.
The God who thundered from Sinai is the same God who speaks into the ordinary details of life.
He is not only Lord of the mountain. He is Lord of every morning.
Missions Paul 