These verses remind me of the Proverbs in some ways.  There is a great deal of wisdom in them.

So many of these things are not applicable to today.  It’s not that I am “picking and choosing” what to believe in the Bible.  I believe all of it.  I believe God gave these instructions through Moses to the people for a specific purpose — they needed boundaries and guidelines for their long journey through the wilderness.  He sent an angel to go before them, and he sent terror ahead of them to drive out the people…but not all at once, because then, according to these verses, wild animals would overtake the promised land and then attack the Israelites.  There was a specific logic to these rules.

Then Moses gathered the elders and they all had a meal — within sight of God himself!  Can you imagine eating a meal at the base of a mountain while the Lord himself in all his glory is near?  I don’t know that I could eat even one bite!

I don’t have many insights today…except that our criminal justice system could take some (NOT ALL) pages from the wisdom of requiring a thief to repay double or triple or quadruple the value of whatever it is that he stole.  That might be a deterrent!