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.
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