More Life-Giving Laws of God

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Exodus 23:1) “You shall not raise a false report; do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness."

God continued to give what He called "judgments" to Moses to give to the people.  These followed and perhaps more completely explained the Ten Commandments He had already given in the hearing of all the people.  This one sounds like a repeat of the ninth commandment not to bear false witness against your neighbor, but it goes a little further in depth.  The original word translated as "raise" was "nasah" and does mean "raise or lift", and may mean being the first to raise or bring up an issue, but I saw more when I looked in depth at the meaning of the original word.  The scripture goes on to say not to put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous or false or unjust witness.  You are not to start a false report and you are not to be a party to it with the wicked.  In this case of lifting or raising a false report, the meaning might be more completely defined by some of the word's other definitions--"carry, support, advance".  The meaning then becomes "don't spread a false report."  Some of the old commentaries I read believe that putting your hand with the wicked literally meant something like putting your hand on the Bible to swear, although their gestures were probably more like putting the hand under the thigh or raising their hand to heaven.  Regardless of whether it was literal or figurative, or whether the actual meaning intended was to first raise or to support, when you combine it with the ninth commandment not to bear false witness, it's pretty clear that you don't start a false report and you don't join with the wicked to spread it.

(2) “You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shall you speak in a cause to turn aside after many to pervert justice."

The main gist of this is that you don't follow the crowd to do evil, and you don't turn aside from the truth to follow the crowd to speak evil, perverting justice.  The first part of the scripture is pretty clear, don't follow the crowd to do evil; but the second part was a little more difficult to decipher.  Don't speak in a cause, don't testify in a case, to turn aside after many, or to follow the majority, to pervert justice.  Interestingly, the original word translated as "turn aside" above is "natah", and is the same word also translated as "pervert" above.  The complete range of meanings for the word is "turn aside, bend away, stretch out, incline, influence, thrust away, overthrow, pervert".  You don't bend the truth to follow the crowd, and in so doing, pervert justice.  I can't help but think about the recent events in the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting death of a young black man by a white police officer, where "hands up, don't shoot" became the rallying cry, and was not at all representative of what really happened.  The slogan served a cause many wanted to advance, and many turned aside from the truth to follow the crowd and give a completely false witness report of what actually happened to fit the mantra of the crowd.  In that case, it turned out that many were being threatened into giving false testimony, or just not coming forward to tell the truth.  You can certainly see in this event and the ensuing riots the wisdom of God's judgment not to follow the crowd to turn aside from the truth, perverting justice.

(3) "Neither shall you show partiality to a poor man in his cause."

Just as you weren't to follow the crowd with the popular opinion just because it was popular, you were not to show partiality to a poor man just because he was poor.  The same rules of justice were to apply to all, regardless of their position in life.

(4) “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again."

This judgment was surely an example of how to love your enemies.  Not only were the people to love their neighbors as themselves as Jesus summed up half of the Ten Commandments (Mark 12:31), but they were expected to do good to their enemies, as Jesus would expound on later in the New Testament:  "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

(5) “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping him, you shall surely help with him."

In the same spirit of loving and helping your enemies, if a person saw the donkey of his enemy lying down under its burden, unable or unwilling to rise up again, and although he might be inclined in his heart to pass on by and not help his enemy, he was commanded by God to indeed help him with his animal.

(6) “You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his cause."

As you were not to give partiality to a poor man just because he was poor, you were not to look down on him and pervert justice in his cause because he was poor and perhaps not able to buy his way out as his rich opponent might be able to do.

(7) “Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not justify the wicked."

In fact, you were to keep yourself far from a false matter.  Be careful not to kill the innocent and righteous.  How many times in history has it seemed there needed to be a scapegoat; there needed to be someone responsible, so that an incident could be wrapped up and put behind?  God warned not to kill the innocent, for He would not justify the killer.  It sounds to me like even the law and the courts had better be careful not to sentence an innocent man.  It is why we look for reasonable doubt before pronouncing death on an alleged criminal.  It would be better to let a guilty man go free than to let an innocent man die for something he did not do.  Besides God not justifying the wicked who killed an innocent man, I believe the scripture may also mean not to worry about possibly letting a guilty man go because there was not enough proof to convict him, because God would not allow him (the guilty man) to go unpunished.  Vengeance is God's (Romans 12:19).

(8) “And you shall take no gift, for the gift blinds the wise and perverts the words of the righteous."

The word gift is meant to mean a bribe.  It's funny; when I was transcribing this verse, I accidentally wrote "bind" instead of "blind".  Doesn't a bribe indeed bind one to the briber?  The recipient of the bribe then owes the briber something, and thus judgment becomes perverted.  When I go back and think of it as merely a gift, with no supposed strings attached, would that gift not possibly sway the recipient to give more weight to the giver of the gift than he might otherwise be entitled?  Accepting gifts will pervert the words of the righteous, and will therefore pervert judgment, anyway you look at it.

(9) “Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Once again God repeated His commandment not to oppress a stranger because His people, better than anyone, knew what it was like to be an oppressed stranger in a land not their own.  I can't help but think of our illegal immigration problem today.  Our government seems to lean over backward to give over and above to the illegal immigrant rights that should not be legally his.  That's not what this law of God was intended to do.  They were in no way to oppress the foreigner, but he was welcomed as someone who wanted to live in peace among and eventually assimilate into the land of God's people.  It is said that in those Biblical times, the stranger was not allowed to inherit land, "yet they must have justice done them, must peaceably enjoy their own, and be redressed if they were wronged, though they were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel." (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible).

(10) "And six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, (11) But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and with your oliveyard."

Here was the institution of what was called the sabbatical year.  As the seventh day was the sabbath rest, so the seventh year should be a sabbath rest for the land.  First, the land was to rest from plowing and sowing so that it would become more fruitful afterwards.  Then God said it was so that the poor of the land might eat, and what they left, the beasts of the field might eat; this applied to all their fields and vineyards.  My first thought was that the poor could only count on this food once every seven years, but then I remembered that in the seventh year, servants were freed.  Servants were most often poor people who had been sold (often by themselves) into slavery, so as they were released, so was the land from farming, and those poor people were allowed to harvest whatever grew in the seventh year for themselves.  By the fact that God made it a point to say that what was left after the poor gathered what they wanted, was to go to the animals, suggests that God would provide an abundance in this year of rest, to feed both the poor and the animals.  As far as feeding the people whose land could not be sown and harvested during this seventh year, Leviticus 25:21 said that God would command His blessing on the land in the sixth year and it would bring forth produce enough for three years.  This law taught the people to rely on God for their needs, but also made them realize that the land was not really their own, but God's, and He provided for the poor and the beasts of the fields with it.  Besides nourishment, God was also giving rest.  By following the law of the Sabbatical Year, the people were reminded to think about the poor, the slaves, the strangers, and even the animals.

(12) “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed."

In keeping the sabbatical year, the people were reminded not to neglect the weekly sabbath.  They were allowed to work six days, but the sabbath day was to be a day of rest for them, their animals, and all people, including the sons of their maids, and the strangers among them, so that all might be refreshed.

(13) “And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth."

The original word translated as "circumspect" was "shamar" and it literally meant "to hedge about", meaning to guard, making a hedge of protection around.  In all that God had said to the people, they were to guard their hearts and make no mention of any other gods.

(14) “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: (15) You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty)."

Here God instituted (or reinstituted, as the case may be) three yearly feasts in His honor.  The first was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover, when they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, as God had previously commanded them to do in the month of Abib, their first month, in memory of the time God brought them out of Egypt.  At this and the two following feasts, the people were not to appear before the Lord empty-handed.  There is not a great deal of detail in exactly what these offerings must be, as there will be later in Leviticus.  We know that the Passover feast had already been instituted by God.  As far as the offering required at this first feast, I can only assume at this point it was some free-will offering as a token of their respect and gratitude to their Lord.  The offerings for the next two feasts will be greatly detailed later in Leviticus, so either this scripture does not yet detail it for the reader, or perhaps God is just introducing these feasts now and required just the little He asked in the following verse:

(16) "And the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labors from the field."

The second feast to be held in God's honor was the Feast of Harvest, or Pentecost, as it would become known.  This occurred at the time the people were beginning their harvests, and to this feast they were to bring the first fruits of their labor which they had sown in their fields.  The Feast of Ingathering, or later known as the Feast of Tabernacles, was to be at the end of the year when the people had gathered in all their crops.  "At the end of the year" can be looked at two ways.  As it was in the fall, it could only be counted as the end of the year by the civil year, and not by the new sacred year that God had instituted in Exodus 12:2, with Abib, or Nisan, being the first month of the year.  Perhaps it could be viewed as the end of the harvest year, or the end of the year as pertaining to their required feasts, for they were required to keep the three feasts in the spring (Passover), summer (Harvest or Pentecost), and fall (Ingathering or Tabernacles), and no feast was required in the winter.

(17) “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord. (18) You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning. (19) The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk."

At these three feasts, all males were to appear before the Lord.  As noted before, these men were not to appear before the Lord empty-handed.  Surely referring to the Passover, they were instructed not to offer leavened bread with the Passover lamb, nor allow any of the lamb to remain until morning.  The first part of verse 19 likely refers to the Pentecost, when they were to offer the first of their first fruits to the Lord.  The reference to boiling a kid in its mother's milk may refer to an ancient heathen custom of boiling a kid in its mother's milk at the end of their harvest and sprinkling that milk on their fields and gardens to make them more fruitful the next year.  God forbade this superstitious and idolatrous practice which may have also been considered cruel, as it took a baby before its time when it was supposed to be left with its mother (Exodus 22:30) and boiled it in its own mother's milk which was designed for its life and nourishment in its first seven days.  Regardless of the exact reason for this prohibition, it is certain that God's people were to be above superstition and such wanton lust.

(20) “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. (21) Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him."

God told Moses to tell the people He had sent an angel to them to help keep them in the way of the Lord and to guide them to the place He had prepared for them.  This was obviously no ordinary created angel messenger of the Lord, for the people were warned to beware of Him and obey Him.  They were warned not to provoke Him because He would not pardon their transgressions.  No ordinary angel had the power to pardon transgressions.  God said His name was in this angel.  Many have speculated that this could only be Jesus Christ, who was with God from the beginning, and I have often thought this way, too, when it was a very special empowered Angel of the Lord mentioned in scripture.  While it may indeed be, could it not rather be the Holy Spirit of God, that third member of the trinity, that Spirit of God and of Jesus Christ, that is One with them?  I would think He would have authority to pardon transgressions.  God said His name was in Him.  Jesus said that He and the Father were one, and that all power was given to Him (Matthew 28:18).  He additionally said in Matthew 9:6 that He, Jesus, had power to forgive sins.  John 16:13 said that when the Holy Spirit came, He would not speak of His own, but only what He heard (obviously from the Father), as He would declare not only truth of things past but also of things to come.  All power was given to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was One with the Father, speaking only through Him and able to speak whatever the Father told Him, so I think it is feasible this Angel of God could have been either Jesus or the Holy Spirit.  Whoever it was, God made it clear this Angel had His full authority.

(22) “But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (23) For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off."

The people were promised that if they would obey this Angel of God and do all that God Himself spoke through this Angel, then He would be with them to fight their battles and save them from their enemies.  God's Angel would go before them to bring them into the nations of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and the Jebusites, and cut them off from being a nation, giving the land to His people.

(24) “You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their images."

God's people were warned not to be tempted to do any of the idolatrous things that the people of these lands did.  God not only commanded them not to worship these idols, but commanded them to completely destroy them.

(25) "And you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. (26) There shall nothing suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days."

If the people served only their Lord God, He would bless all their provisions and keep them healthy.  "Nothing" would suffer miscarriage or be barren, suggesting both the people and all their livestock, making them greatly increase in all their numbers of both people and livestock.  God would fulfill their full number of days, meaning no one would die prematurely.

(27) “I will send My fear before you, and I will destroy all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. (28) And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you."

The people of the lands to which God's people would come would be afraid of their coming and would turn their backs as in fleeing.  God would destroy the people of the lands to which they would come.  I don't think it means totally destroy as in killing them all, otherwise there would be no one to drive out.  "Hornets" can be figural as the root means "strike down".  So whether they were struck down or driven out, the Hivites, Canaanites, Hittites, etc., would be destroyed as nations.

(29) “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against you. (30) Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land."

The Lord let the people know in advance, that in His mercy, He would not drive all the people of those other lands out all at once because the land would become desolate and the wild beasts would be allowed to grow in number against them.  He said little by little He would drive them out, to give His people time to increase.  Isn't that often the way of the Lord, to give just what we need when we need it?  This would also keep His people on their guard and dependent on God to do the next little bit as they needed it. 

(31) “And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the river; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you."

God named the boundaries of the land He was giving His people.  Most of the old commentaries pointed out that this full amount of land was not completely fulfilled until the days of David and Solomon.  On the west side the land went to the Red Sea; on the east side it went to the sea of the Philistines, which was the Mediterranean Sea; to the south was the desert of Shur or Arabia; and to the north was the river Euphrates.  This was the promised land that the Lord promised to His people as He delivered its inhabitants into their hand as they were driven out from before them in degrees, not all at once.

(32) “You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. (33) They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

God warned the people that as they conquered the people of these lands, they were not to make covenants with them or their false gods.  They were not to make allies of these people, but were to always consider them their enemies, and their gods, false idols to be rejected.  They were not to allow these people to remain in the land, unless of course, I would imagine, they renounced their idolatry and assimilated with God's people.  God understood and passed that bit of wisdom on to His people that if they did ally themselves with these pagan people and compromised their worship to include their false idols, that it would become a snare which would eventually cause their ruin and destruction.

I can't help but think again about America's current struggle with illegal immigration.  We have leaders that tell us our country has always been a nation of immigrants; therefore we should welcome these illegals with open arms.  Indeed, God always warned to be kind to the foreigner, but the foreigners, if they stayed, were expected to renounce their ways and become one with God's people.  Oh, I can hear the arguments now--that we are NOT a nation of Christians under God and that all people should be allowed to worship their gods as they wish and live according to their customs.  While that is true of our country's freedoms (I use that word loosely), weren't immigrants traditionally supposed to renounce their citizenship and become Americans?  That no longer seems the case.  Rather than a country of united Americans, we have all these smaller groups of Americans--black Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, gay Americans etc., fighting against each other.  While it may be true that a secular country with true religious freedom cannot force God onto its citizens, it is surely death to the country that rejects the one true God.  We are watching the sure decline and destruction of our country because it has chosen the ways of death rather than the life in God's ways.

These laws and judgments of God in the past few chapters are common sense laws, just and humane, and mean life, security, and happiness, for those who follow them.  God's laws are not a set of rules from a prude who doesn't want anyone to have any fun!  They are all about life and life more abundantly!  As God said in Deuteronomy 30:19-20a:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days....”