Exodus Chapter 23

1  “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2  You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, 3  nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. 4  “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5  If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him. 6  “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8  And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. 9  “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

1. The laws mentioned in verses 1-9 deal with what common principle?

A list of miscellaneous laws, which includes the protection of equitable and impartial justice for all. False testimony, un-discerningly following a majority, favoring one over another, and accepting bribes, all contribute to the perversion of true justice. Judgment should not be swayed toward the rich or toward the poor. Judgment and justice should be exercised fairly. The Romans depicted justice as a woman, tender but also blindfolded. She was no respecter of persons and held a sword in one hand and scales in the other. The sword meant that when the judgment was handed down, there would be the execution of the penalty. The scales meant that justice would be fair. Judgment should be exercised without respect of persons.

 

2. Why should I have to help the animal of somebody who hates me?

The attitude of impartiality was to include the helping of another with his animals regardless of whether he be friend or foe. If no help was given, his livelihood could very well be adversely affected, which was a situation others in the community could not allow to happen.

Love your neighbor as yourself didn’t start in the New Testament. It threads its way through the entire bible. Doing the right thing needs to be as impartial as justice. You do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

10  “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11  but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. 12  “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

 

3. It’s inefficient to not use your land every seventh year, don’t we need those crops to support ourselves? It seems to me just an excuse to be lazy every 7 years.

The land needs to rest also. Constantly pulling  nutrients out of the soil without giving it time to replenish is a bad farming practice. Soon the land begins to yield less and less. This was partly responsible for the dust bowl in the 1930’s in our country. In the 7th year anything that grew on the land was to be given to the poor. It’s not good to work 24/7/365. Even God needs a break.

13  “Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.

4. Why is God so concerned with what we say?

Matthew 15:11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Matthew 12:3…..out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

 “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16  You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD. 18  “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. 19  “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of theLORD your God.

5. What is the purpose of these feasts?

   

Feast of Unleavened Bread. Celebrated  from the 15th through the 21st days of the first month (usually about mid March to mid-April; see note on 12:2) at the beginning of the barley harvest; it commemorated the exodus.

Feast of Harvest. Also called the “Feast of Weeks” (34:22) because it was held seven weeks after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was celebrated on the sixth day of the third month (usually about mid-May to mid-June) during the wheat harvest. In later Judaism it came to commemorate the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, though there is no evidence of this significance in the OT. In NT times it was called “(the day of) Pentecost” (Ac 2:1 [see note there]; 20:16; 1Co 16:8), which means “50” (see Lev 23:16 The Feast of Weeks, also known as Harvest (Exodus 23:16), Shavuot (Hebrew), the Day of Firstfruits (Numbers 28:26), or Pentecost, was a festival of joy and thanksgiving celebrating the completion of the harvest season.

Feast of Ingathering. Also called the “Feast of Tabernacles” (Lev 23:34; see note on Zec 14:16) or “Booths” because the Israelites lived in temporary shelters when God brought them out of Egypt (see Lev 23:42–43 and note on 23:42). It was celebrated from the 15th through  the 22nd days of the seventh month (usually about mid-September to mid-October) when the produce of the orchards and vines had been harvested; it commemorated the desert wanderings after the exodus. –end of the year. End of the agricultural year, which began in the fall

God is continually telling his people, “remember”. Remember where you came from, remember what I did for you, remember who is providing for you, remember you can trust me. These feast or holidays are times to focus on these things, just like Memorial Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

6. What does it mean “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.”? Aren’t we always before the Lord?

Yes God in omnipresent, (present everywhere), but during this time He came and appeared in the The Shekinah Glory, at this time on the mountain top, later in the tabernacle holy of holies, then in the temple. 3 times a year all Israelite men were to come to where God was. Now we are the “temple of the Holy Spirit”, so are always before God.

“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.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.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 sacred pillars.

7. Who is this Angel?

 

Who is this Angel? Other Scriptures shed light on the answer. First Corinthians 10:4 says, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” First Corinthians 10:9–10 continues, “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” It is the Lord Jesus that they were to obey. He is definitely the one in view here. McGee

25   “So 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 No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

27   “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and 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.29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, 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.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.”

8. Sounds  like a good idea to me, why not just follow the Angel into the promised land?

They didn’t trust God. They were afraid of the giants who lived in the promised land.

9. How big was this area God was giving them?

I will fix your boundary. God gave both broad and more detailed geographic descriptions of the Land. Even limited demarcation of borders was sufficient to lay out the extent of their possession. It would extend from the Gulf of Aqabah to the Mediterranean and from the desert in the Negev to the river of the northern boundary.

·         ESVN………….ESV Study Bible Notes

·         MSBN…….MacArthur NASB Study Notes                     

·         NIVSN…..NIV Study Notes.

·         JVM ……………..J Vernon McGee,

·         ACC ……………. Adam Clarke’s Commentary

·         BN ……………..Barnes Notes

·         WBC…………….   Wycliffe Bible Commentary

·         CN …… …………..Constables Notes

·         IC………………….Ironside Commentary

·         NET……………….Net Bible Study Notes.

·         JFB…………..Jamieson  Fausset  Brown Commentary

·         VWS……………..Vincent Word Studies

·         CMM………….Commentary on Matthew and Mark

·         BDB………….. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)

·         Darby………..John Darby’s Synopsis of the OT and NT

·         Johnson………Johnson’s Notes on the New Testament.

·         NTCMM…………..The New Testament Commentary:  Matthew and Mark.

·         EHS………………….Expositions of the Holy Scriptures

·         CPP…………………The Complete Pulpit Commentary

·         SBC…………………Sermon Bible Commentary

·         K&D……………….Keil and Deilitzsch Commentary on the OT

·         EBC…………………Expositors Bible Commentary

·         CBSC……………….Cambridge Bible for Schools and College

·         GC……………………Guzik Commentary

·         RD……………………. Robert  Deffinbaugh

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