Conquest of Canaan Promised

Story:  Conquest of Canaan Promised

Passage: Exodus 23:20-33

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God promises that Israel will conquer Canaan and He will greatly bless Israel in the Promised Land as long as they obey Him and stay faithful to Him. 

  

Notes:  God promised several things in this passage.  The main point I see is that the success and blessings of Israel would not be their own doing.  Not only could they not take credit for it, but it gave them no reason to worry or be afraid of the nations in the promised land.  God says He is providing an angel to guard them and lead them.  They are to be careful to obey his voice and not rebel against him because he will pardon transgression.  This is because God’s name is in Him.  I believe this means that this angel is God in some form.  I honestly don’t know exactly what this looks like or means, but it appears God personally guided them and protected them on their journey.  If they were to obey though, He would be an enemy to their enemies.  God doesn’t set a condition for what happens next.  He says that WHEN His angel brings them to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Canaanites and He blots them out, Israel is not to bow down to their gods, but rather they are to completely overthrow them and break down their pillars.  First off, God says He will blot these people out.  It is not an if, but a when.  Second, He reiterates again the importance of not following their gods.  Honestly, it would be utterly stupid to start worshipping the gods whose nation was just destroyed and abandoning the God who destroyed them, but God felt He needed to remind Israel anyway.  If Israel serves God, He will bless their food, keep them healthy, keep them miscarrying, and give them long lives.  God says He will throw their enemies into confusion and they will run from Israel.  God says He will send hornets ahead of Israel to drive out the nations in their path.  I don’t know what this means, but it is obvious that this conquest would be blatantly supernatural.  Israel was going to be protected and fought for by an all powerful God.  Why wouldn’t God just destroy them all at once?  Why take so long if He is able to conquer them completely?  He explains it is so that the land will not be overgrown and wild beasts won’t take over.  God is intentionally moving slowly to protect His people in the future.  We sometimes question why God doesn’t just act all at once.  This passage shows that sometimes God just has the big picture in mind, and the very thing that you want gone right now is actually keeping you safe in the future.  God is infinitely wiser than any of us could ever be.  He will slowly drive them out before Israel until they possess the entire land.  God finishes by once again reiterating that they are not to make a covenant with them or their gods.  They are not to dwell in the land because they could tempt Israel to sin.  God is very very concerned with Israel worshipping the native gods.  God is indeed a jealous God.  He does not want His creation to get the praise and worship that He deserves.  The purpose of His creation is to point us to worship the creator.  We are far too easily sidetracked into worshipping the created.  God knew that was our weakness and He commanded Israel over and over and over again to avoid that at all costs.  We will see how they do.

Questions:  Why was God going to destroy so many people?  Why the emphasis on not serving the foreign gods?  What are the hornets God mentions?  Why couldn’t God just wipe out everyone at once and also keep the animals from overtaking the land?

Lessons: I would say the theme of this passage centers around our dependence on God and the proper reaction to His blessing and protection.  Israel was supposed to take a relatively passive role in the conquest of Canaan.  Most of the driving out would be done by God directly in some form.  Israel was to trust that and not serve the foreign gods they find.  As Christians, we are not of this world.  We are strangers making our way to the Promised Land of a New Heaven and a New Earth.  What are some of the foreign gods which easily ensnare us?  It is vital that we do not worship these gods at all!  

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

Story:  Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

Passage: Exodus 23:10-19

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about the Sabbath and feasts.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  I don’t have as much as I want on this one right now.  I might have to add to it later if I think of more.  The first rule God gave Israel in this passage is the Sabbath year.  Every seventh year, they were to not sow or reap.  The fields were to grow whatever would grow naturally and the food would be for the poor and the beasts.  Basically, every seventh year, there was more food for the poor than those with fields.  God again sets the rule of resting on the Sabbath.  The purpose was that on the seventh day, servants, animals, and aliens would be refreshed.  This concept of rest is foreign to our western culture.  We go go go until the job is done.  If we’re resting we’re not being productive and thus we are failing.  God seems to promote a lifestyle of hard work at a slow pace.  It is okay and even necessary to rest every week.  Yes, you had to work hard to survive, but you also had to allow yourself to rest.  We may not work on Sunday in America, but we sure tend to fill our weekends up with activities which keep our weekends from being restful.  The idea is not so much to not work as it is to rest and relax and be refreshed.  God tells them to pay attention to Him and to not even mention other gods.  It wasn’t enough to not worship them; He didn’t even want them discussed.  That is how much He is jealous for the worship He deserves.  There were three feasts God mentioned in this passage.  The first is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  We already have learned about this one.  This was to commemorate their deliverance from their bondage in Egypt and ultimately, it was also foreshadowing our deliverance from the bondage of sin.  The next feast is the Feast of the Harvest.  This was to be a feast of the first fruits of the harvest.  The final feast is the Feast of Ingathering.  This was at the end of the harvest.  I believe that these also have significance in the New Covenant as well.  Most feasts in the law were foreshadowing something in the future.  The harvest is compared to a lot of things throughout scripture.  Sharing the gospel is compared to sowing seed.  There is a sense of you reaping what you sow when it comes to your actions.  The most significant and applicable passage I can think of though is Matthew 9:37, “"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”  People’s souls are the harvest.  The Feast of the Harvest could well be foreshadowing this future harvest of souls and the Feast of Ingathering could be foreshadowing the end of this harvest.  I need to do a little more research on those feasts, but those are my initial thoughts.  God finishes by commanding that nothing leavened is to be included with His sacrifice.  The fat of the feast was not to be left until morning.  There is a sense that sacrifices are to be special and set apart  and there is also a sense of urgency about them.  Sacrifices are to be from the best of the first fruits.  It is significant when you give the best and first of the results of your hard work to God.  It shows humility and shows an awareness that though work was put into this harvest, it is God, and not our own work which caused this harvest.  A goat shall not be boiled in its mother’s milk.  I don’t know the point of this law, but I will add to this later if I think of it.

Questions:  Why the goat law?  What is the New Covenant significance of the Feast of the Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering?

Lessons:  I think we as a culture need to learn to rest.  It seems completely contrary to productivity.  Our culture looks at rest as waste.  This is obviously not how God viewed rest though.  I know for me, rest can help my work be more productive.  It was important to God that His people not be caught up with work.  If they became so busy they forgot God, that would be an issue.  I feel like many Christians in the West today have this very issue.  We need to make a definite effort to slow down and allow ourselves a regular period of rest.  

Laws About Social Justice

Story:  Laws About Social Justice

Passage: Exodus 22:16-23:9

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about social justice.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  These are a variety of rules dealing with justice.  First, if a man seduces a woman of marriage age, he must marry her and pay the bride price.  If the father adamantly refuses to allow the marriage, he must still pay the price.  Sorceresses were not allowed to live.  It was forbidden to sleep with an animal.  Anyone who sacrifices to another god was to be set apart for destruction.  They were not to oppress a sojourner since they themselves were sojourners in Egypt.  We see this theme throughout the bible.  Don’t mistreat someone for a condition you once had too.  If you have been forgiven, you must be forgiving as well is an example we see in the New Testament.  Widows and orphans were not to be mistreated or God would kill you and leave your wife a widow and your child an orphan.  God obviously holds needy dependent people in high regard.  I am thankful for this since I am so dependent on Him that I am only alive because He cares for the needy like me!  If you lend money to the poor, you are not to charge interest.  If you take an item as a pledge from someone who has little, you are to return it before sundown.  In this passage God tells us something about Himself.  He says, “For I am compassionate”.  Here we have the “Old Testament God of wrath” telling us that he is compassionate.  Does that add up?  Yes it does!  He is compassionate to those who need Him and strict with those who try to make much of themselves!  He judges them at the standard they try to give themselves.  If they think they are as big as God, He will judge them at that standard, and they will fail.  If we humble ourselves and recognize our utter need for God, He will show us compassion and love.  The loving/wrathful paradox of God can be explained by His justice.  If we really want to act like we are as amazing as we so often think we are, we need to be willing to let Him judge us by our perfection.  We are not to revile God or curse a ruler over us.  God told Israel that with the full knowledge of the evil kings and dictators they would be under eventually, yet He still commands them to not curse a ruler.  This is an important lesson for us especially with our presidential elections coming up.  No matter how bad our president might seem, we are not to curse him.  God has given him authority over us and we need to respect that!  We are to offer the fullness of our harvest.  Actually, we are not just to offer it, but we are to not delay from offering it.  We are supposed to give freely and joyfully!  After all, our giving is just an outward way to acknowledge God’s hand in our possessions and blessings by giving it back to Him and trusting Him to provide.  The firstborn of animals and people was to be consecrated to God.  Flesh torn by wild animals was not to be eaten.  False reports were forbidden.  You were to be honest in court.  There is a sense in this passage of not going with the flow and standing alone if you have to when it comes to matters of justice.  If no one else backs you up, you are still to give an honest account.  You are to help your enemy.  If you find his livestock going astray or suffering under a burden, you are to step in and help.  Do not kill the innocent.  Take no bribes for it subverts the cause of the innocent.  These rules emphasize honesty, justice, and caring for the poor.  They show that you are not to judge someone for something you once did yourself.  It also introduces the concept of loving your enemy.  By the time Jesus lived, this concept had been all but forgotten.  However, it was in the law the whole time!  From these passages, it looks like God was a God of the poor, oppresses, and needy!  I honestly think it can be summed up as our God is a God of the humble. 

Questions:  This passage is honestly fairly straightforward.

Lessons:  We see in this passage that God cares about justice.  We are not to take advantage of the needy, we are not to convict the innocent, and we are not to oppress those who have little.  These passages after the Ten Commandments focused on worship, the value of life, responsibility, and now justice.  I would say that this is a good look into the qualities and virtues that God finds extremely important!  We could learn a lot by striving to live lives focused on worship and justice while taking full responsibility for our actions and holding life incredibly valuable.  

Laws About Restitution

Story:  Laws About Restitution

Passage: Exodus 21:33-22:15

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about restitution.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  The rules continue with rules designed towards how to pay someone back for loss of property.  First, if an animal falls into a pit, the owner of the pit pays for the animal and the dead animal is his responsibility.  If someone’s ox kills another ox, the two parties sell the live ox and split both the profits, and the dead ox.  If the live ox was known to be prone to violence and it’s owner did not keep it away from other animals, it’s owner replaces the dead animal.  If an ox or a sheep is stolen and sold or killed, the thief owes the owner of the stolen animal four sheep or five oxen depending on what was stolen.  If a thief is caught breaking in and is killed, there is no bloodguilt on the killer.  The passage then says if the sun has risen on the thief, then there is bloodguilt.  All I can figure from this and from reading other translations is that if the thief is caught at night, he can be killed.  But if he is caught in the daytime, there is no reason to kill him.  If nothing else, this probably discouraged nighttime theft and discouraged theft in general.  A thief was to pay for what he stole and if he could not, he was to be sold.  He was to pay double what was stolen.  If a man lets his animals feed in another man’s field, he is to pay back what was eaten from the best of his fields.  If a fire inadvertently is started which burns grain, the man who started the fire pays for everything burned.  If money or goods are given to a neighbor to keep safe and they are stolen and the thief is found, he is to pay back double.  If the thief is not caught, the owner comes before God to find out if it was stolen because of his negligence.  If there is a breach of trust resulting in a dispute of ownership of an item, the case was to be brought before God and the person found to be wrong was to pay double to his neighbor.  This would discourage any dishonesty because if you were the one lying, you ended up losing more than you would gain by lying.  If an animal dies in a neighbor’s care, God allowed an oath to be made in His name that the neighbor was innocent.  The owner was to accept that oath.  If the animal is stolen, the neighbor was to pay for the stolen animal.  If it is killed by beasts, he has to make no restitution.  If a borrowed animal dies in the neighbor’s presence, there is to be no restitution.  I guess this is because it would be known that he was not responsible and tried to save the animal.  If the animal was hired, its death is covered by the fee to hire the animal.  This is the first recorded example of insurance!  These laws can be summed up with one sentence.  If you are responsible for someone else’s loss of property, you are responsible to replace either the property, or the value of the property.  The only other law sandwiched in here which is unusual is the law allowing thieves to be killed at night.  I find it interesting that dishonesty and thievery results in a greater payment than the value of what was lost.  This really discourages stealing and dishonesty by making it riskier to steal or lie.

Questions:  Why were thieves not to be killed in the daytime?  Were there easy ways to utilize loopholes in this system?  Did the culture have enough accountability that these loopholes would not be taken advantage of?

Lessons:  We see the importance of responsibility and fairness.  Even if the loss of property was an accident, it is to be repaid in full.  If you were responsible in any way, you did not have to have had any ill intent to get the punishment.  In the same way, we may not have intentionally intended to rebel against God, but we did, and thus we deserve the full punishment for sinners.  Thanks to His grace, He bore that punishment for us!

Laws About Slaves

Story:  Laws About Slaves

Passage: Exodus 21:1-32

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about slaves.  These will be outlined in the notes below.

  

Notes:  This is an interesting passage.  Does God condone slavery?  Is the Bible at odds with our view of human rights?  This is an issue that is beyond my knowledge.  What I can tell you from this passage is that the slavery mentioned here is very different from what we think of when we think of slavery.  The first rule was that you could only have a slave for 6 years and then you had to let him go free.  He must leave the same way he entered slavery whether it is married or single.  This seems cruel to me if he got married when he was a slave then he has to leave his family behind.  If a slave decides he loves his master and wants to continue serving him, his master would pierce his ear with an awl and he would become his slave forever.  This concept of a bondservant is used in the New Testament to describe our relationship with God.  We are slaves to the Spirit by our own choice.  We are no bound to Him forever.  I could see these laws being abused if a master forced his slave to marry for the purpose of hoping he would not leave when he was freed.  The fact that a provision was made for a slave to choose to serve his master forever shows you that these slaves were not necessarily mistreated.  The rules were different for female slaves.  Female slaves were basically wives to their masters.  If the master was not pleased with her, he could not sell her because he had broken faith with her.  It is his fault not hers.  If she is for his son, he must treat her as a daughter.  If he marries another wife while he still has her as a slave, he is not allowed to diminish her food, clothing, or marital rights.  A female slave had equal footing legally to a wife.  If the master does not keep these rules she is to be freed without compensation.  If a man kills another man on accident, he is allowed to flee and take refuge.  If it is intentional though, he is to die.  Not even an attempt to take refuge at the altar would save him.  Striking your parents was punished by death.  This obvious importance of the parent child relationship is partially because that is one of the relationship dynamics we have with God, our father.  You were also not allowed to curse your parents.  Stealing a man and selling him earned the death penalty.  This in and of itself distinguishes slavery in this passage from the African slave trade.  If a man injures another in a fight, the man who is responsible must compensate the victim for his time until he is healed.  If a man strikes his slave, male or female, and they die, he is to be avenged.  The passage does state that his slave is his money.  A slave seems to be considered property, but property to be respected and treated well.  If a pregnant woman is struck, the responsible person shall pay what the husband decides.  If there is harm, the payment must be equal to the damage.  If a man strikes his slave and causes permanent damage, the slave is allowed to go free.  If an ox gores a man, the ox is killed and not eaten.  The owner is safe unless he knew his ox was a danger and did nothing about it.  This irresponsibility was a huge deal.  In this passage we see that life and parents are held in high esteem.  Disrespecting either was a huge offense and usually resulted in the death penalty.  We also see that slavery was very different from the slavery we once had in America.  Slaves were property, but were not to be abused.  They were to be treated in such a way that they may voluntarily remain serving their masters for life.  A slave was not to be kidnapped and sold and could not serve more than 6 years involuntarily. 

Questions:  Why were people allowed to be property?  Was God okay with the concept of female slaves?

Lessons:  We see in this passage how valuable life is and the parent child relationship is to God.  We need to examine our hearts and make sure that we respect and honor our parents the way we are told to in the Bible.  You may not agree with your parents always, but their position of authority over you was given to them by god whether they know it or not and that position alone deserves your respect and honor.