Today we continue on with a list the Lord gave to the Israelites regarding how they are to behave toward Him and toward their fellow man. Most of the items in our passage today involve showing fairness and compassion to others.
"Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt." (Exodus 22:21) This verse is quite relevant for what's going on in our nation today with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, for this verse has to do with how to treat those of a different race or background or religion. We are not to treat someone differently just because their skin is a different color than ours. That is a sin in the eyes of God.
Once the Israelites form a nation and a society, they will be trading with and interacting with people of other cultures. Some of those people will want to live and work among the Israelites and they are not to be treated as if they are less valuable than the Israelites or as if they deserve fewer rights than the Israelites. While the Israelites lived in Egypt they were considered inferior to Egyptians. The pharaoh (or a whole dynasty perhaps) in power during Joseph's day treated them kindly for Joseph's sake and perhaps because Pharaoh himself was of Hyksos heritage as we discussed in our study of Genesis. The Hyksos were a Semitic tribe who came to power in Egypt for a time and if this was Pharaoh's background then he would have been predisposed to viewing the Hebrew people more as equals than as "unclean shepherds" as native Egyptians would have regarded them. But for the majority of their sojourn in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob were looked down upon. For a good portion of their time there they were oppressed into slavery with most of their rights taken away from them. They were treated differently simply because of their race and background. They were not inferior to the Egyptians or to anyone else on earth, but because they looked different and because they served a different God and because their occupations and customs were different, the Egyptians were prejudiced against them to the point of being afraid of them. The Egyptians' response to their irrational fear of the Hebrew people was to subjugate them. The Lord wants the Israelites to always remember how they were treated in Egypt so they will not treat anyone else the same way.
"Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to Me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless." (Exodus 22:22-24) The Lord is concerned for the poor and disenfranchised. Widows and orphans were easy prey for unscrupulous people. Instead of trying to work with them and instead of having mercy on them when their male head of household/provider died, creditors in ancient times often threw them out onto the street or seized them and sold them into slavery. Wicked judges in those days would take bribes to rule against a widow or orphan in a legal case. The widow couldn't afford to bribe a judge but her accuser or creditor could, and a judge of poor moral character would pervert justice. People without compassion might allow widows and orphans to starve to death in a time when there was no Social Security or SNAP programs or WIC programs. It wasn't uncommon in ancient times for a widow or orphan to beg on the street corners. The Lord warns the people if they start to behave toward widows and orphans as many of the cultures around them behave, He will allow war to come against their nation. King David, while writing one of many hymns of praise to the Lord, extolled His concern for widows and orphans, saying, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling." (Psalm 68:5) Something is very wrong with the person who has no pity for the needy. God warns the people if they begin to find themselves turning hard-hearted toward the plight of widows and orphans then they need to get their hearts right with Him. If they do not, He will take action.
"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. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate." (Exodus 22:25-27) If a needy Israelite asks to borrow money from a fellow Israelite, the one who lends is to do it without asking it to be paid back with interest. I don't believe the Lord is forbidding the charging of interest on other types of loans, such as business loans or home loans or auto loans. He's talking about when a person is needy and comes to someone for help to get through a tough time. For example, suppose my next door neighbor is laid off work and can't buy groceries for his family. And he comes over to my house and asks for enough money to buy groceries until his unemployment checks start coming in. If I have the money to lend, I'm to lend it without asking for interest. My neighbor is to pay back the exact amount he borrowed, whether he pays it all back at one time or in installments. The Lord is making this law regarding charging interest to the poor so that no one takes advantage of them. A greedy lender might charge exorbitant interest rates and a person who is desperate might agree to such a loan because he needs the money right now to put food on his table.
Regarding the giving of a cloak for a pledge, a person might hand a personal object over to another as a guarantee he will perform a certain task. A cloak might be used for that purpose, but people used their cloaks like sleeping bags, so the person holding the cloak is to return it at night for the Lord says the owner of the cloak will have nothing to sleep in. Again I feel He is speaking of the poor. A wealthy man would have more than one cloak. A wealthy man would probably have fine sheets and blankets for his bed and wouldn't even have to spread his cloak over himself at night. The Lord is trying to prevent the poor from being mistreated. If a person holds another's cloak and refuses to give it back at night for the poor person to stay warm, the Lord says He will hear from heaven and act on behalf of the one being mistreated.
"Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people." (Exodus 22:28) Ah, this is yet another verse that's quite relevant for what we see going on in our nation and in our media! Many are loudly and publicly cursing the name of our president. We are not always going to like our government officials but the Lord calls us to show respect for the office they hold. Sometimes I'm happy with the way a presidential election turns out and sometimes I'm not, but cursing the name of the president is a sin in the Lord's eyes according to verse 28. The Apostle Paul backs up what we just read in verse 28 in the book of Romans when he reminds us it's our duty to the Lord be responsible citizens and to respect the government, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." (Romans 13:1) Does this mean our rulers are always good people? No. God sets up rulers and deposes rulers according to His purposes. The Pharaoh of the exodus was not a good man but the Lord said He placed him on the throne to serve His purposes. (Exodus 9:16) The prophet Daniel, who was taken captive to Babylon after Jerusalem was conquered by the pagan king of Babylon, pointed out that God selects rulers and the eras of their reign. God is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations. Daniel wasn't necessarily happy with the foreign kings he served under during his lifetime in Babylon but he respected the Lord's right to raise up or throw down leaders or nations. "He changes the times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others." (Daniel 2:21) Whoever is at the helm of a nation is there by God's design. The leader may be a good person or a bad person, but God doesn't allow presidents and kings to arise by accident. He has a purpose for every good leader and for every bad leader. He lets them reign for a time and a season according to His plans. Keeping this in mind, we are not to curse the names of our leaders. To do so shows disrespect for the Lord.
"Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats." (Exodus 22:29a) The people made offerings other than sacrifices. They made offerings from their fields and vineyards. Later, when the priesthood is established, we'll see that the priests doled out to the needy from these offerings that were made at the wilderness sanctuary and at the temple after it was built. If people withhold these offerings from the Lord, they'll be withholding goods from the needy. In our day the offerings we make at church usually consist of money, although volunteer work with our churches is very important too, but our offerings are used to help needy church members and needy people in our communities. If we don't make offerings then there are going to be people who aren't helped.
All of the instructions the Lord gives to man are for the benefit of man. Every commandment and law is given for a reason. We need these rules to know how to relate to the Lord. We need them to understand how to relate to others. We need to use them as a blueprint for forming societies and running nations. These rules help us keep law and order and these rules help keep us compassionate and humane. The heart of God's laws is love. Pretty much every time we find the Lord Jesus criticizing anyone's behavior in the gospels is when they have lost the heart of the law. He often criticized the religious leaders at Jerusalem for keeping the law to an obsessive degree while feeling no compassion for their fellow man; for example, by letting someone suffer on the Sabbath in order to keep the Sabbath by not performing any good deeds. They felt the doing of goods deeds on the Sabbath was work and they wouldn't lift a finger to help the needy on the Sabbath. Jesus' enemies found fault with Him for performing miracles of healing on the Sabbath, to which He replied, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" (Luke 6:9, Mark 3:4) The Lord gives us commandments and laws and instructions for our own good and for the good of those around us.
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