The Righteousness of Responsibility Text: Exodus 22:10-13
Introduction: God's Law for Real Life
We live in an age that is allergic to distinctions. Our culture wants to flatten every mountain and fill every valley, not in the glorious way the prophet Isaiah meant, but in a drab, egalitarian revolt against the created order. They want a world of gray, where there are no sharp lines between right and wrong, true and false, male and female, or yours and mine. But the law of God is a sword, and it cuts. It makes distinctions. It creates order by separating one thing from another. And nowhere is this clearer than in the case laws of Exodus.
Many modern Christians, when they encounter a passage like the one before us, are tempted to skim past it. What does a dispute over a dead donkey in the ancient Near East have to do with my walk with Jesus? The answer is, "everything." Because the God who gave us the gospel of grace is the same God who gave these laws of justice. His character does not change. These laws are not arbitrary regulations for a primitive tribe; they are applications of God's unchanging righteousness to the nitty-gritty realities of human life. They teach us what it means to love your neighbor in practical, concrete terms. This is not abstract piety; this is barnyard righteousness.
The Mosaic code is a case law system. This means God gives us specific cases, and from these cases, wise and godly judges are to extract the principle, the general equity, and apply it to new situations. This is the foundation of our own common law tradition, a heritage we have largely squandered. God doesn't give us an exhaustive, multi-volume legal code that anticipates every possible scenario. He gives us representative judgments that teach us how to think like He does about justice, property, responsibility, and integrity. He is training His people to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation that knows how to judge rightly.
In these four verses, we are given a master class in neighborly responsibility. We see three different scenarios involving a borrowed or entrusted animal, and each scenario has a different outcome. God is teaching us to make careful distinctions about guilt, negligence, and circumstances beyond our control. This is the kind of practical wisdom that builds a healthy, trusting, and just society from the ground up. If we cannot be trusted with our neighbor's ox, we cannot be trusted with the affairs of a nation.
The Text
“If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is injured or is driven away while no one is looking, then an oath before Yahweh shall be made by the two of them that he has not laid hands on his neighbor’s property; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution. But if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. Now if it is all torn to pieces, let him bring it as evidence; he shall not make restitution for what has been torn to pieces."
(Exodus 22:10-13 LSB)
The Unseen Calamity and the Oath of Integrity (vv. 10-11)
We begin with a situation where the facts are hidden from human eyes.
"If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is injured or is driven away while no one is looking, then an oath before Yahweh shall be made by the two of them that he has not laid hands on his neighbor’s property; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution." (Exodus 22:10-11)
The scenario is straightforward. One man entrusts an animal to his neighbor for safekeeping. This is a basic function of a healthy community. You watch my flock while I go to town, I'll watch yours next week. But while the animal is in the neighbor's care, something goes wrong. It dies, gets hurt, or disappears. The crucial detail is that it happened "while no one is looking." There are no witnesses. The owner comes back and his ox is dead. The caretaker says, "I don't know what happened. I found him this way."
In a litigious, godless society, this is a recipe for a nasty lawsuit. The owner suspects foul play or negligence. The caretaker insists he is innocent. Without witnesses, how can justice be done? Our modern system would bog down in depositions, accusations, and exorbitant legal fees, likely ending in a bitter stalemate or an unjust ruling. But God's law provides a swift, clean, and righteous solution: an oath before Yahweh.
The caretaker is brought before the Lord, likely at the tabernacle, and he swears an oath. The substance of the oath is that "he has not laid hands on his neighbor's property." This means he did not steal it, kill it, or misuse it for his own gain. An oath in Scripture is not a light thing. It is an act of worship where a man calls God Himself to be the witness and the judge. He is saying, "God saw what happened, and I am calling on Him to vindicate my words and to curse me if I am lying." This is the highest court of appeal.
Notice the effect of the oath. The owner "shall accept it." The case is closed. The caretaker "shall not make restitution." Why? Because in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the community is to operate on the assumption of integrity, an integrity sealed by the fear of God. This law builds a high-trust society. It teaches men that their word matters, and that their ultimate accountability is not to a human court, but to the living God. It is a sin to refuse to take such an oath when lawfully required, because it is a refusal to appeal to the ultimate standard of truth.
The Case of Theft and Culpable Negligence (v. 12)
The second scenario introduces a different standard of responsibility.
"But if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner." (Exodus 22:12 LSB)
Here, the animal is not just dead or missing under mysterious circumstances. It has been "actually stolen" from the caretaker. In this case, the caretaker is held liable. He must make restitution to the owner. This strikes us as odd. Why should the caretaker be held responsible for the crime of a third party, a thief?
The principle here is one of culpable negligence. When a man accepts the responsibility of caring for his neighbor's property, he accepts the duty of providing reasonable protection for it. The law assumes that if a thief was able to steal the animal, the caretaker was likely negligent in his watch. Perhaps he left the gate open, or fell asleep on the job, or did not secure the animal properly. He did not exercise due diligence. While he did not commit the theft himself, his lack of care created the opportunity for the theft to occur.
This is a high standard, but it is a righteous one. It teaches us that responsibility is not passive. Loving your neighbor means actively protecting his interests when they are under your care. It is not enough to say, "I didn't personally harm your property." The question is, "Did you diligently protect it as if it were your own?" This law incentivizes vigilance and discourages carelessness. It reinforces the value of private property and the seriousness of the trust placed in us by our neighbors.
An Act of God and the Role of Evidence (v. 13)
The final scenario provides a crucial distinction from the previous two.
"Now if it is all torn to pieces, let him bring it as evidence; he shall not make restitution for what has been torn to pieces." (Genesis 22:13 LSB)
In this case, the animal has been killed by a predator, "torn to pieces." The assumption here is that this was an overwhelming force, an "act of God," so to speak. A shepherd with a staff is not expected to fight off a lion or a bear single-handedly, though David famously did. The law recognizes that there are circumstances beyond a man's reasonable control.
But notice, the caretaker cannot simply say, "A lion got it." His word is not sufficient here, nor is an oath required. The law demands proof: "let him bring it as evidence." He is to bring the torn carcass, or what's left of it, to the owner. This physical evidence serves as a silent, impartial witness. It corroborates his story. It proves that the animal was not secretly sold or negligently lost. It was violently killed by a superior force.
This is the foundation of all rules of evidence. Justice requires facts. Where there are no human witnesses (as in verse 10), an appeal is made to the divine witness through an oath. Where there is physical evidence, that evidence must be presented. This protects the caretaker from false accusation and it protects the owner from a fraudulent story. It closes loopholes for liars while protecting the diligent man from liability for things he could not prevent. God's law is eminently practical and just. It distinguishes between misfortune and negligence, and it establishes objective standards for determining the difference.
The Gospel of Restitution and Responsibility
So what does this ancient case law about livestock have to do with us? As with all of God's law, it points us to our sin, and it points us to our Savior.
First, we must see that we are all caretakers. God, the ultimate owner of everything, has entrusted His property to us. He has given us our lives, our families, our talents, our possessions, and His creation to steward. And we have been catastrophically negligent. We have not guarded what He gave us. We allowed the thief, Satan, to enter the fold. We left the gate of our hearts unlocked. Through our sin and rebellion, that which was entrusted to us has been stolen, injured, and killed. We are liable, and we owe a restitution we could never hope to pay.
Second, we see the predicament of our guilt. Like the man in the first scenario, our sin was often done with "no one looking." We are experts at hiding our tracks. But there are no hidden things before the God with whom we have to do. And when we are called to account, we cannot honestly swear an oath of innocence. We have indeed "laid hands" on our neighbor's property, and more than that, on God's holy law. We have coveted, we have stolen, we have been negligent stewards. The evidence is all around us and within us.
Into this hopeless legal situation comes Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate Good Shepherd, the one who was not negligent. When the wolf came for the sheep, He did not run. He laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). He stood between us and the predator. And on the cross, He Himself was "torn to pieces" for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5). His mangled body is the evidence presented before the Father. It is the evidence that the overwhelming force of God's righteous wrath against our sin was met and satisfied. He brings the evidence of His own death to prove that the debt has been paid.
And because He made the ultimate restitution, paying a debt He did not owe, we who are in Him are freed from the debt we could not pay. He takes our ultimate liability. But this grace does not make us irresponsible. It does the opposite. Because we have been forgiven such an immense debt, we are now freed and motivated to be the kind of faithful, diligent, and honest neighbors this law describes. We can be trusted with our neighbor's ox because Christ has secured our souls. We can deal honestly, work diligently, and speak truthfully, not to earn God's favor, but because we have already received it, lavishly and freely, in the gospel.