Reflections on Exodus 23

Exodus 23 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Don't spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.
   
2. Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is dishonest and stands in the way of justice.
   
3. And don't favor the poor, simply because they are poor.
   
4. If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.
   
5. If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn't like you.
   
6. Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court.
   
7. Don't bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won't forgive you if you do.
   
8. Don't accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes.
   
9. Don't mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.
   
10. Plant and harvest your crops for six years,
    
11. but let the land rest during the seventh year. The poor are to eat what they want from your fields, vineyards, and olive trees during that year, and when they have all they want from your fields, leave the rest for wild animals.
    
12. Work the first six days of the week, but rest and relax on the seventh day. This law is not only for you, but for your oxen, donkeys, and slaves, as well as for any foreigners among you.
    
13. Make certain that you obey everything I have said. Don't pray to other gods or even mention their names.
    
14. Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.
    
15. Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded. Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib, because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.
    
16. Celebrate the Harvest Festival each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelters each autumn when you pick your fruit.
    
17. Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.
    
18. Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. And make sure that the fat of the animal is burned that same day.
    
19. Each year bring the best part of your first harvest to the place of worship. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
    
20. I am sending an angel to protect you and to lead you into the land I have ready for you.
    
21. Carefully obey everything the angel says, because I am giving him complete authority, and he won't tolerate rebellion.
    
22. If you faithfully obey him, I will be a fierce enemy of your enemies.
    
23. My angel will lead you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
    
24. Don't worship their gods or follow their customs. Instead, destroy their idols and shatter their stone images.
    
25. Worship only me, the LORD your God! I will bless you with plenty of food and water and keep you strong.
    
26. Your women will give birth to healthy children, and everyone will live a long life.
    
27. I will terrify those nations and make your enemies so confused that they will run from you.
    
28. I will make the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites panic as you approach.
    
29. But I won't do all this in the first year, because the land would become poor, and wild animals would be everywhere.
    
30. Instead, I will force out your enemies little by little and give your nation time to grow strong enough to take over the land.
    
31. I will see that your borders reach from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land.
    
32. Don't let them stay in your land. They will trap you into sinning against me and worshiping their gods.illnesses, to keep the women from miscarrying, and to drive out their enemies ahead of them.

---

In this chapter the legal regulations are completed, regulations are established regarding sabbath practices and festivals to remember God's provisions for them, and God promises a safe journey to the land He had promised them if they follow His instructions. God's promises throughout scripture are conditioned on obedience. We cannot follow our own path while expecting that God will bless us. His blessings are found along the path along which He directs us. Often people blame God for circumstances in their lives when those circumstances are actually a result of their own choices, and their blame of God a result of thinking they can follow their own path and still receive God's blessings and protection. God told the Israelites, "I am going to send an Angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to Him and listen to His voice. Do not defy Him, because He will not forgive your acts of rebellion." (23:20-21)

Prior instructions had been given regarding action against those who harmed others, whether intentionally or accidentally. However, justice is a result not only of taking proper action against wrongdoers, but includes just determination of guilt. It is the determination of guilt that is addressed in this chapter. The Israelites were warned here against unjust actions in court. They included bearing false witness against a defendant, favoring a poor person in his lawsuit, denying justice to the poor, and taking bribes. A strong warning is given not to "kill the innocent and the just" by falsely accusing them in court. (23:7)

Following instructions concerning justice in the courts is a section on sabbath and festival observances. The Israelites were to observe two types of sabbaths. One was a sabbath of the land in which they were to let the land lie uncultivated every seventh year. Besides giving the land a rest it also allowed the poor to glean grains that grew voluntarily during that year. Though not mentioned here, they were to also allow the poor to glean grain from their fields that was left behind by the harvesters. Provision was made for the poor but not for the lazy. Work was involved in gleaning the fields. In addition to the sabbaths of the land, they were to observe a weekly sabbath by resting from their labor every seventh day. This allowed their bodies to refresh and was good for their wellbeing. Three annual festivals were to be observed that reminded them of God's provision in freeing them from Egyptian bondage and of God's provision in their harvests.

The last portion of the chapter tells of God's provision for their safe journey to Canaan by means of a guardian angel God would send "before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared." Furthermore, God told them, "My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out." (23:20, 23) However, they were cautioned not to imitate the religious practices of the people who lived in the land by bowing down or worshipping their gods. They were to "Worship the LORD your God." (23:25) In so doing God promised to bless their bread and water, to take away their