Have you ever wondered why there are so many rules in life? I am sure that the Israelites thought the same thing. Chapters 22 and 23 in Exodus are rules that the Israelites are to follow. In my Life Application Bible it states that there are several objectives for having these rules which are “(1) to protect the nation, (2) to organize the nation, and (3) to focus the nation’s attention on God.” I think these laws were to keep order among the Israelites and to make things right when a law was broken.
I was reading a commentary that made me realize that motivation was taken into account throughout these laws although there were some exceptions as follows:
18 “Do not allow a sorceress to live.
19 “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death.
20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.[e]
As noted in the verses above, there were some things which God had no tolerance for no matter what the motivation was.
Another law reminds the Israelites to treat the widows and the poor with kindness and by disregarding this law the consequence is very severe. We are to help the less fortunate.
22 “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.
We don’t need to travel very far to see people around us that need our help and I believe that it doesn’t always have to be monetary. I have to remind myself to watch for moments that I can help and to be thankful for what we have.
In Chapter 24 Moses is called to see the Lord. What an amazing moment it must be for Moses to be able to speak with God.
After reading these chapters it reminded me that laws are in place for our good even if we don’t necessarily like them.
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22:21 Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
23:9 Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
A few times the Israelites were reminded of where they came from, in order to have compassion for the foreigners amongst them. We also need to be humble and not think of ourselves better than we actually are.
The same verses that Nathan pointed out stood out to me too. We should not forget our past and where we came from because we are no better. But since we now know better, we should have the desire to want to help the foreigners out.
Chapter 23 verses 1-3: "You must not pass along fake rumours. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand. 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. And do not slant your testimony in favour of a person just because that person is poor."
In our secular environments at school, work, or even the local grocery store, how many times have we followed the crowd because we wanted to "fit in"? Or how many times have we told a story slightly different depending on who we are talking to? We need to be careful who we spend our time with. It's a lot easier said than done, but we often need to be the ones who stand out in order to do what's right.
We can sin by not doing something we should, by doing something we shouldn't, by doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, and by doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. All these specifics served to draw attention to the fact that we can never be sinless and are in need of a saviour.
The same verse stood for me as it did for Conrad and Nathan:
9 “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
I think about this as our province begins to welcome Syrian refugees and our mindset to these new people. I think we can be very closed minded when it comes to immigrants and yet God reminds us that we are to treat all people fairly.
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