Exodus 23
Exodus 23:1-33 (NLT)
1 “You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand.
2 “You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you are called to testify in a dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice.
3 And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.
4 “If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner.
5 If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help.
6 “In a lawsuit, you must not deny justice to the poor.
7 “Be sure never to charge anyone falsely with evil. Never sentence an innocent or blameless person to death, for I never declare a guilty person to be innocent.
8 “Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe makes even a righteous person twist the truth.
9 “You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.
10 “Plant and harvest your crops for six years,
11 but let the land be renewed and lie uncultivated during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest whatever grows on its own. Leave the rest for wild animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves.
12 “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working. This gives your ox and your donkey a chance to rest. It also allows your slaves and the foreigners living among you to be refreshed.
13 “Pay close attention to all my instructions. You must not call on the name of any other gods. Do not even speak their names.
14 “Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honor.
15 First, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib, for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. No one may appear before me without an offering.
16 “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest, when you bring me the first crops of your harvest. “Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields.
17 At these three times each year, every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the LORD.
18 “You must not offer the blood of my sacrificial offerings together with any baked goods containing yeast. And do not leave the fat from the festival offerings until the next morning.
19 “As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the LORD your God. “You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20 “See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you.
21 Pay close attention to him, and obey his instructions. Do not rebel against him, for he is my representative, and he will not forgive your rebellion.
22 But if you are careful to obey him, following all my instructions, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you.
23 For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, so you may live there. And I will destroy them completely.
24 You must not worship the gods of these nations or serve them in any way or imitate their evil practices. Instead, you must utterly destroy them and smash their sacred pillars.
25 “You must serve only the LORD your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness.
26 There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land, and I will give you long, full lives.
27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and create panic among all the people whose lands you invade. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
28 I will send terror ahead of you to drive out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites.
29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply and threaten you.
30 I will drive them out a little at a time until your population has increased enough to take possession of the land.
31 And I will fix your boundaries from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the eastern wilderness to the Euphrates River. I will hand over to you the people now living in the land, and you will drive them out ahead of you.
32 “Make no treaties with them or their gods.
33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, you will be caught in the trap of idolatry.”
The dictates given to those who represent Him to the world represent so much of God’s heart. Uncompromised honesty, even when the twisting of truth might benefit the poor, reflects His hate for lying in Proverbs 6:16-19. His understanding of the need for rest and celebration would bring refreshing and intentional bonding of community and culture to His people. In honor of His servant leaders, there would be honor for Him. To share worship with other gods of other people would corrupt and disable worship of Him, moving them from the position of safety and provision under His care. By obeying Him, they would be established as His very own dominating and ruling people in the land He gave them.
Though the law would become a weight too great to bear, perceived as a threat of punishment, it was meant to describe God’s involvement in every detail of life. It was to fulfill this purpose that Jesus came, to make it possible to show God’s heart from a passionate reflection of knowing Him personally as His own child. Rather than just an endless list of impossible dos and don’ts with punishment for even the slightest infraction, the required actions that reflect His righteousness and holiness would come progressively from hearts that worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. What is so revealing in the details of a law that would touch their every movement (to be endlessly augmented in the Talmud) is the reality of how much the truth of worship will affect every movement of the new creation in Christ. It will never be a segregated portion of life designated for isolated moments to pacify the Almighty. But it will occupy the passion-driven motive of every thought and action for a loving and merciful Father God. Obeying and serving His heart will be for the reward of knowing and pleasing Him rather than to avoid punishment from Him. Every action will be affected to reflect His glory, but from the inside rather than the outside.