Many scholars call the next few chapters the most pivotal section of the Old Testament. The Israelites, called before a trembling and smoking mountain by loud trumpet blasts, were about to receive something unique in all history: a stone document to be deposited in the most valualge piece of furniture in the nation, the Ark of the Covenant. What made a stone tablet so valuable? The "covenant" it summarized was sacred, signed by the finger of God himself.
Ane yet someone who simply turned to Exodus and started reading the contents of the covenand might have trouble understanding all the fuss. The covenant begins with the familiar Ten Commandments. It proceeds from there to rules on cursing parents and knocking out teeth, oddly mixed in with rules on interest rates and cooking young goats in their mother's milk. What is so special, after all, about the laws and instructions described here?
Since we don't normally communicate on stone tablets today, the question, "What made a stone tablet so valuable?" might better be rephrased, "What makes a piece of paper valuable?" Seen in that light, our society, like the Israelites', stakes an awful lot on certain pieces of paper. Take just three examples: a constitution, a birth certificate, and a marriage certificate.
Constitution
Resting in a helium-filled bronze case in the Library of Congress, the U. S. Constitution is arguable the most valuable single piece of paper in the entire country. At a moment's notice it can be lowered into a fireproof, shockproof safe. But dollars alone barely hint at the Constitution's value; its real importance comes to light in a marble building down the street, where the Supreme Court hears hundreds of legal |
