The second half of Exodus 22 includes a list of miscellaneous rules for the Israelites to follow in their relationship with the Lord and in their relationships with others. This list contains regulations and penalties for various sexual sins, for idolatry, and for mistreating the poor or disenfranchised.
Our passage today begins with the penalty for committing a sexual sin. "If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride price for virgins." (Exodus 22:16-17) This rule was intended to make a man think very carefully about whether or not he wants to charm a woman into sleeping with him outside of wedlock. Does he like her enough to be legally bound to her for the rest of his life? No? Then he shouldn't engage in sexual relations with her. If he doesn't care about her enough to picture her as his wife and the mother of his children then he'd better control himself. Nowhere in the Bible do we find God blessing the sexual union of two people except when it is within the bonds of matrimony. He's trying here to keep a man and woman from committing sexual sins, from potentially conceiving a child outside of wedlock, and from ending up married to a person who is not the right person for them. If a young man realizes he may have to pay a lifelong price for satisfying his momentary lust, perhaps he'll stop trying to smooth talk a young lady into going to bed with him and will focus his mind on more worthy pursuits. If he cannot control himself then he needs to find a woman he does want to marry and then he can satisfy his physical desires in his own home with his own wife.
But suppose, carried away with his feelings, the man entices the woman anyway and the deed is now done. He can't cast her aside once he's assuaged his passions. He is not to think of women as sex objects or as the means to satisfying his sexual desires. She is a human being with rights, deserving of respect, and once he has had his way with her she will no longer be considered as "eligible" for marriage as she once was. In ancient times and also in the not-so-distant past, many men would refuse to take a woman as a wife if he thought she was not a virgin. By having his way with her and moving on, the man who seduced this woman is damaging her chances for marriage and for a home and family of her own. He's sinned against the woman's parents as well, for they may have to support her for the rest of their lives if they can't find a good husband for her. The young man must step up and marry her, paying the bride price to her father for the loss of the work she did in his household. If the young woman's father thinks the man is unsuitable as a husband for his daughter, he may refuse to let the marriage take place, but the man must still pay the bride price to her father because it could be a long time now before her father can find a husband for her and he will have to continue to support her until that happens.
"Do not allow a sorceress to live." (Exodus 22:18) If a person in the Israelite community indulged in occult practices, the penalty for such practices was death. Witchcraft had to be nipped in the bud as soon as it was found or else it would spread far and wide, leading many into idolatry, perhaps for generations to come. In the New Testament the word translated as "sorcery" or "witchcraft" was the Greek "pharmakeia" which is where we get words such as "pharmacy" and "pharmaceutical". Drugs were used in occult practices, particularly hallucinogenic drugs to produce what the practicians claimed were visions from gods or spirits. In this one verse we find the Lord forbidding all occult practices and all use of illicit drugs. Either of these practices is bad enough on its own, but mixing the two together is especially serious. Just think how many people in modern times have been drawn into cults because they were offered drugs and were kept supplied with drugs and were kept addicted to drugs! How can you leave a cult if you're so addicted to a particular drug that the withdrawal symptoms might kill you or at least make you wish you were dead? Idolatrous occult practices have destroyed many lives. Drugs have destroyed many lives. Satan likes to combine the two when he can. He likes to bind a person with so many chains that even if they want to break free it will appear to be an impossible task. But thanks be to God, no one who turns to the Lord has to break free of chains alone! We serve the One who says, "I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron." (Isaiah 45:2)
"Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death." (Exodus 22:19) Just in the last few weeks I saw an article in my local news where a man had been arrested for having sexual relations with someone's dog. Odd as it may seem, such things have gone on in the past and are still going on. A thing like this is a sin against God, a sin against the laws of nature, a sin against one's own body, and a sin against the animal kingdom. Some of the commentaries I consulted said it was a common practice in ancient Egypt and that this may be why the Lord had to issue a warning to the Israelites who had so recently come out of Egypt. I assume the main reason the Egyptians would have practiced bestiality was to perform various religious rites. Many Egyptian gods were portrayed as animals or as creatures with the head of an animal and the body of a human. Therefore, the warning against practicing bestiality is a warning against idolatry, for the verse preceding verse 19 involved idolatry and the verse following verse 19 will involve idolatry. But whether or not bestiality was practiced in idolatry or whether it was practiced as a sexual fetish or deviation, it always was and still is a sin. It was such a heinous sin that the Lord commanded the Israelites to put to death anyone in their community who committed it.
"Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed." (Exodus 22:20) The penalty for making a sacrifice to a pagan god was death. There is only one God and He alone is to be worshiped. Violating verse 20 is violating the first and most important commandment. It was the first and most important commandment in the Old Testament. It was still the first and most important commandment in the New Testament, for Jesus said so. (Matthew 22:38) It still is the first and most important commandment. If we don't put God first in our lives, and if we don't acknowledge Him as Lord, and if we don't abstain from putting other things or other people in a place of importance before Him, then we are hardly likely to keep any of the other commandments and laws. If the Israelites find anyone among them making sacrifices to a false deity, they are to put the person to death. This is yet another thing that must not be allowed to take root in the nation. To use an agricultural metaphor, what you plant in the ground is much smaller than what comes out of the ground. There's no such thing as "a little bit" of idolatry or "a little bit" of sin. A thing that is planted will take root and spread. That's what the Lord is trying to prevent by telling the people to nip any idolatrous practice in the bud. If they don't, it will take root. It will sprout. It will spread out. It will infect the nation, as indeed we find it doing several centuries later, becoming so prevalent in the nation that the Lord allows the ten northern tribes to fall to Assyria and, about a hundred years later, he lets the two southern tribes be conquered by Babylon. The Bible will make it clear that the downfall is divine discipline for idolatry.
No man can serve two masters, as the Lord Jesus stated in Matthew 6:24. Either God is Lord of our life or He isn't. Either He is God alone to us or we're placing something else or someone else at His level or even above His level in our hearts. Nothing good can ever come from that. The Lord treats idolatry as such a serious crime in Exodus 22 because it is a serious crime with personal, national, and eternal consequences.
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