There is much that is astonishing and good in the Law, so much that it is hard to know where to start. Randomly, I am starting with the Jubilee passages in Leviticus. I suspect that the idea land should lie fallow every so often is a beautiful idea and for subsistence farmers, totally impractical.
The rest though – quite stunning, even if not yet achieving all it might. You may, of people fall on impossibly hard times, take them as kind-of slaves. But you shall never, ever, keep them like that for ever. They must be set free after a fixed term. They always have an absolute right to redeem themselves. They are, and they remain, your kin. You must never forget you are children of one family.
The flaw? Leviticus (these rules are found in Leviticus 25) does not yet see that all people are children of one father. But once one does, then so much would follow from this, if taken seriously. Oh sure, we all know it now, and yet put it back to the Iron Age – quite stunning.
Oh sure – we all know it now. Only – don’t we actually struggle with it? As a church, as a country?
Working Hypothesis 