In Exodus 23, Moses details more of the civil laws God gave to the nation of Israel. They include everything from laws about worship, slavery, personal injury, and property.
T H E B O O K O F T H E C O V E N A N T : God’s instructions on how Israel should live as a nation.
God was calling his people to a higher standard of love and obedience.
- The specifics of the laws we are about to read may have changed, but the nature of the purpose behind the laws has not changed.
Laws about Social Responsibility
- This law does not pertain to rape. The use of the word seduction is taken to mean the girl was enticed but willing.
- The seduction of a virgin was considered an attack on a family possession because her virginity was worth money and the price of it was owed to the father.
- Therefore, the seducer had to pay the bride-price for damaging the girl.
- However, the father did not have to give her to the man as a wife if he didn’t like the man.
- Sorceress is also translated as witch.
- This is the first mention and admonition of witchcraft in the Bible.
- Every form of witchcraft appeals to a power that is not God, breaking the first commandment.
- The practice of witchcraft was therefore an act of rebellion against God, and, as such, was a capital crime.
- This may seem extreme, but bestiality was practiced as a cult among the Canaanites. And God is moving Israel to Canaan where they may be tempted.
- Sacrificing was a form of worship, and the Israelites were to worship one God only.
Laws about Mercy
- mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. Synonyms include grace, pity, charity, humanity, kindness, sympathy, tolerance, generosity.
- Mercy is mentioned over 120 times in the Bible. One of the most known mentions is from the Beatitudes in the sermon on the mount in Matthew and comes with a promise:
- Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- Throughout the Bible, God models mercy, teaches mercy, and calls us to be merciful.
- Mercy, compassion, grace, kindness, sympathy, tolerance, generosity embody a beatitude that would greatly change the nations and our world today.
These next 3 laws about mercy are applied to the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien.
- God sees that they have few natural protectors in society, so they are to be shielded by God because of their vulnerable state.
- Mercy is compassion shown toward someone whom you have the power to harm.
- Citizens of countries have the power to harm foreigners, instead we should show mercy.
- Again, Mercy is compassion shown toward someone whom you have the power to harm.
- The elderly widow and orphaned children are at risk to be taken advantage of, neglected or abused.
- God is concerned for the needy.
- The proper motive for lending money to the poor is to help one’s neighbor and not to make a profit.
- The fact that in this example, someone would have to give their cloak as collateral speaks to the desperation of their poverty. And the lender should have mercy and give it back.
In all 3 of the above laws, we see that God loves his people dearly. His desire is to protect them from abuse at the hands of fellow Israelites. Gods people must avoid any tendency to become like the Egyptians, who oppressed them. Including how they treat each other or foreigners and how they worship which he outlines more in the next 4…
Laws about Worship
- All four of these laws are reminders to the Israelites that their best belongs to God
- The reference to the firstborn was covered in detail in chapter 13
God commanded they Consecrate the firstborn
- To consecrate or sanctify means to be “set apart” for God’s service.
- Every firstborn male, people and animals were to be consecrated for the Lord.
- Why: because God had redeemed the firstborn male and animal on the Passover night.
Laws about Justice
- We don’t have specifics for how the Israelites filed injustices, however, we do know that Moses followed Jethro’s advice in chapter 18 and delegated his responsibility to judge to others.
- Most of these laws are easily understood and point to character qualities that we should strive for today.
- Following the crowd in doing wrong is a very dangerous place to be.
- Basic kindness even to your enemies, is a principle which is also straight from the fruit of the spirit in Galatians in the new testament.
- God’s people were and are called to do what is right, not what feels
- We are to treat others with love whether we love them or not.
- Clearly, God knew they were at risk to the temptation of doing to others what had been done to them by the Egyptians.
- And He warned them often…that God’s compassion and love were to be shown to all.
The Book of the Covenant ends with laws about the Sabbath and an outline of 3 Festivals the Israelites were to celebrate.
· The laws were to prepare the Israelites for life in Canaan where they could and would own, plant and plow land.
· And which should have occurred in short order had they not rebelled and consequently had to wander in the desert for 40 years!
Laws about the Sabbath
- The Law of the Sabbath year: was an extension of the 4th commandment to honor the Sabbath day
- Why: So the poor and the wild animals may have food. Again God is concerned with shielding those who have no protection in society.
- The repetition of thes laws, underscores the importance of these Commands in God’s eyes.
T H E T H R E E A N N U A L F E S T I V A L S . . . Correspond to the 3 different stages in Israel’s agricultural year.
The first is the Festival of Unleavened Bread
- This first celebration corresponds with the Passover Night, the Israelites night of deliverance, and was described in Exodus 12
- No yeast is eaten for a week from the 14th to 21st day of the first month or the month of Abib.
The second is the Festival of Harvest
- This festival will also be called the Festival of Weeks.
- It is held 7 days after the Festival of Unleavened Bread
- It is an offering of the first fruits of the harvest. And anticipates the full harvest to come.
- Which is the subject of
The 3rd festival the Festival of the Ingathering or the Festival of Booths.
- At the time of this writing, agriculture was significant for survival
- This festival was to celebrate the gift of the promised land in Canaan
- And the fruits from that gift that provided their “daily bread”
If you have ever read 1 Corinthians 15:20 and wondered what in the world Paul was talking about. Here you go, he was referring to these 2 festivals as an analogy for Christ. It says:
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
- Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the firstfruit of God’s harvest.
- It is evidence of the full harvest to come, the resurrection of all believers.
Exodus 23: Four Final Laws
- These 3; no yeast, disposal of fat and first fruits provide more detail for the Festivals of Unleavened Bread and the Festival of the Harvest.
- Apparently, the Egyptians has a superstitious rite at the end of their harvest of cooking a goat in its mothers mild and sprinkling the broth as a magical charm on their gardens. They thought this made their fields more productive in the next season.
- It was a practice that God did not want the Israelites to repeat
So much of what God dictates to the Israelites is the undoing of bad habits from surrounding cultures.
NOTE: Is this not true today? What do you have to unlearn? What have you picked up from the culture, your friends, or family that you know God would like you leave behind?
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Feast and Festivals in the Bible
