I’m sure that we are all well aware of how coarse and inhumane our culture is. People in many cases treat each other very badly. People are violent. They curse at each other, threaten each other, make false claims about others, harass each other. Some of them rejoice when those who have a different opinion are murdered.

I suppose it’s sinful human nature that leads so many people to live in conflict. People who are not reconciled with God find it hard to live at peace with others.

When people live together, conflict is bound to result. But God’s intent for Israel was that his people would live together in peace and harmony. If everyone in the nation adopted a humane set of values, people would get along a lot better. If everyone loved his neighbor, people would not be in conflict all the time.

The passage we are looking at today contains a set of rules or regulations that helped Israel live at peace among themselves. Israel was just about ready to conquer the PL, and Moses wanted to remind the people about the proper way to live in society.

The rules and regulations we see here help people maintain good relations with one another by treating others well. One of the marks of a healthy society is that the citizens treat each other with respect and dignity. Each person recognizes that each other person is made in the image of God and deserves fair treatment.

In this section, Moses highlights a set of commands whose intent seems to be to protect human dignity. Moses demands that the Israelites treat each other with mercy and justice. They must treat each other humanely, with love, concern, and good will.

These rules do not pertain to us directly, but they show God’s concern that his people treat each other humanely, mercifully, and justly. This is how we love our neighbor—this is how we ought to treat one another.  This is how we fulfill the command to love one other.

Moses mentions several potential situations in which Israel should demonstrate respect for the dignity of others. Some of these situations apply more directly to us than others, but we can learn from each of them.