Sunday: The Code of the Covenant

Daily Lesson for Sunday 24th of August 2025

At Sinai, with the giving of His law, God set the foundation for teaching His people how, through connection with Him, they could live holy lives. But the principles of the law needed to be applied in everyday life, so God gave them additional laws, the so-called “Code of the Covenant.” It was the responsibility of judges to watch over these laws and to apply them correctly.

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“The minds of the people, blinded and debased by slavery and heathenism, were not prepared to appreciate fully the far-reaching principles of God’s ten precepts. That the obligations of the Decalogue might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given, illustrating and applying the principles of the Ten Commandments. These laws were called judgments, both because they were framed in infinite wisdom and equity and because the magistrates were to give judgment according to them. Unlike the Ten Commandments, they were delivered privately to Moses, who was to communicate them to the people.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 310.

Read Exodus 21:1-32. What specific regulations were given regarding Hebrew slaves, homicide, and bodily injuries?

The Code of the Covenant is described in several chapters (Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 23:1-19). All these regulations and laws were issued to stop the avalanche of evil and to build an orderly society.

The slavery laws were special and should not be confused with the vicious and evil practice of modern or medieval slavery. Hebrew slaves were, in fact, protected and valued. In modern and medieval societies, servants and slaves were the property of their owner, who could do whatever they wished with them. In contrast, biblical laws regulated things differently. Servitude was limited to six years (Exodus 21:1-2; Jeremiah 34:8-22), and in the seventh year, all slaves had to be liberated unless they wanted to stay with their master. Masters also had to give them Sabbaths off (Exodus 20:9-10) and provide for their basic needs.

Though, in most of the world, the evil practice of institutionalized slavery has for the most part been abolished, what are ways in which some of the principles of it still exist, and what can we do, in our own limited sphere, to fight against these principles?

<–Sabbath Monday–>