Lessons From the Mosaic Law - Part 3 (Exodus 22:16-31- 3917)
We've been going through the book of Exodus, and we've come to the part of Exodus where God lists various precepts commonly referred to as the Mosaic Law. Some of these laws might strike us as being out of date, and yet, at the same time, as I have already pointed out in the series, our whole judicial system is based on Judeo-Christian ethics and law, so the underlying moral lessons for us are still valid. So not every law might apply to us, but the principals involved underpinning those laws still teach us valuable moral lessons.
Remember the Ten Commandments were given just back in Exodus chapter 20, and beginning in chapter 21, verse 1, it says, 'Now these are the judgments,' and the judgments start there. It then goes on for several chapters giving us various applications of those commandments. The first part of those deals with damage to people, and they are an extension, in some cases, of 'thou shalt not kill.' The next section deals with destruction of property, and we looked at that section in relation to “Thou sahlt not steal”.
In this session, we're going to come to the third part of my four-part series, looking at lesson we can learn from the Mosaic Law.'What we're going to do is take this third section. So, turn with me, if you will, to Exodus chapter 22, and I'm going to start at verse 16. Now, rather than read the whole passage at once I'm goihen meaning. The first part of this passage deals with premarital sex. Then, he's going to deal with idolatry. Then He's going to deal with social sins, and then he's going to finally deal with spiritual sins. So, let's start with the premarital sins, which is chapter 22, verses 16 and 17.
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. 17 If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.
(Exodus 22: 16-17)
What it says is the man enticed the virgin. Now, the Hebrew word translated ‘seduce’ means to persuade or entice. So, this is not a rape. It's two people, and they're not married, and they have sexual relationships. So that's the whole point, they're not married.
This is an extension, a wider application, of the 7th commandment that says, 'Do not commit adultery.' In other words, as I've mentioned before, the commandments are the broad framework, and then as we get to the judgments in chapter 21 and for the next several chapters, there are case studies and specific cases that are really an application of what is stated in the Ten Commandments. So, this goes a beyond adultery and deals with premarital sex. At any rate, if they have a sexual relationship, then he is to, according to that part of this verse, pay the bride price for her to be his wife. That's the dowry, which they did in those days. If you were going to marry a young lady, a man was going, he had to pay her father this bride price, and it was pretty steep, by the way. And if he had relations with this girl, he then had to pay the dowry and marry her.
However, verse 17 says, 'But maybe the father doesn't like this idea.' So, looking at verse 17, if her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride price of the virgin. So, if the father said no, you can't have her, he still had to pay the dowry. And as I mentioned, it was substantial, and now that was probably because in that day, if she were not a virgin any longer, the possibilities of her being married were greatly reduced. So, the father was given the dowry even if he did not allow them to get married. So you could see, if nothing else this might stand as a strong discouragement to use seduction or pre-marital sex as a way of manipulation as you might end up paying for something your not goin to get in the end.
Now, like I said, we're not under those ancient laws, so this does not apply to us directly. It did apply to the ancient Israelites. But let me talk about that for just a second. As I mentioned, this is not rape; it's persuasion. There are other passages in the Pentateuch, the Mosaic Law, that indicate that premarital sex is sinful. Those passages are in Deuteronomy 22, verses 13 through 29. But let me comment about how you might apply this today. Would you say if two single people had premarital sex that they should get married? I mean, isn't that what verse 16 says? Is that a good idea always? And my answer to that would be no, not necessarily. And I would say that first of all, based on verse 17, even the Mosaic Law recognized that it didn't have to happen, so you don't have to, even if you were living at that time.
The other thing I would say is that we're not under the Mosaic Law, and it may not be a good idea for those two to get married. Suppose, for example, one of them is a Christian and the other is not. Then, in that case, the Scripture says that they shouldn't get married.
So, I think it's rather interesting that this discusses premarital sex and talks about marriage but doesn't demand it and, in fact, includes a way to get married. So just because they had premarital sex does not mean, ipso facto, they have to or should get married.
Alright, that's the first law in this section, this third section of case law begins in verse 18 and goes down through verse 20. And all of these verses deal with idolatry. These cases are related to the first commandment: 'You shall have no other gods before me.' So, this is an expansion and application of that commandment. So, let's look at the first, verse 18:
'You shall not permit a sorceress to live.'“ Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death. “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.
(Exodus 22: 18-20)
So, the first question is, what is sorcery? Well, it's witchcraft, it's nothing more than just plain old witchcraft. They claim to have supernatural powers by means of spells, magic, or knowledge that came from evil spirits. One author, I read says, 'it is fore telling the future or controlling others by demonic power.' And I think, if there's a modern parallel to this, it might be the fortune teller down the street. We have such people in a nearby holiday resort to where I live in the UK, Tarot readers and Physics ply their trade with booths along the seafront. I guess if you went into that one, you would get your fortune told, verse 18 says, 'You will not permit such a person to live.' It was capital punishment.
This is a very serious sin. Why? Why is it so serious? Because who should we be looking to for direction and guidance and how to live our lives? The Lord. So, by going to a witch, you are putting the witch in the place of God, and He takes that very, very seriously. This type of so called ‘magic’ constituted an attempt to override God's will.' And that's my point, that this is being practiced in place of God and, therefore, becomes a very serious sin. Alright, I said this all-included idolatry because verse 18 talks about sorcery, and verse 20 talks about idolatry, and sandwiched between them is bestiality. I'm calling this little subsection 'idolatry' because 18 and 20 talk about that, but I don't know how bestiality fits that topic, but it's sandwiched in here between idolatry, so I called it 'idolatry.' But verse 19 says, 'Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.' Now, here's why it's included in idolatry. It doesn't sound like it on the surface, but here's what happened.
In the ancient world, the Canaanites and the Mesopotamians attributed their gods to this, and they practiced this in the worship of their gods. So, at the time, this was part of idolatrous worship in the Canaanites, which is where the Israelites are headed." So, whereas some of the law codes-imposed death penalties for having sex with certain animals, it actively encouraged it with others. The Mosaic Law prohibited this practice completely. If you just read the passage, it seems like sorcery, bestiality, and idolatry are separate topics, but they are really all interconnected, in the context into which these precepts were written. Verse 20 explicitly mentions idolatry itself: 'He who sacrifices to any God except the Lord shall be utterly destroyed.' So, in all three cases, the punishment and penalty was death—capital punishment. You're putting something in place of the Lord, and therefore the penalty is death.
So far, we've looked at two topics: idolatry, which determines what's right and wrong; and laws tend to be rigid.
The next section I'm calling 'social' because it has to do with people's relationships to other people. And I'm using the word 'social' for that. It begins in verse 21 and goes down through verse 27.
'You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.'
(Exodus 22: 21)
Now, this is a wholly different thing this doesn't directly apply to any of the Ten Commandments. But right in the middle, it talks about your relationship to other people, and it starts out with your relationship to strangers. It says you shouldn't mistreat or oppress a stranger. The Hebrew word translated 'mistreat' means to treat violently or do wrong to. So 'mistreat' is not a bad translation, but I want you to understand that it could be something as simple as just doing wrong to a stranger or maybe even doing something violent. The word translated 'oppress' means just that: to squeeze, to press. So, it means doing something that puts a lot of pressure down to the point of oppressing the stranger.
The commandment is that they were to refrain not only from doing evil in this verse, but later, they were commanded to do good to strangers, as mentioned in verses 26 and 27. Not to mention a whole slew of verses in the New Testament that would say something like that. But notice why you should do this. He says, 'You should not mistreat a stranger because you were once a stranger in Egypt. You should not mistreat somebody who's oppressed because you were once oppressed in Egypt.' The point is, you should understand this. You've been through it. Isn't that interesting? Most of the laws just bam, bam, bam—do this, don't do this. God said, 'Do this, don't do this.' He comes to this, and he gives a reason: 'Don't do this because you understand these people. You were once in that situation.' So, you understand this. I thought that was rather interesting.
Alright, so he deals with strangers. The other social relationship he deals with is widows.
Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.
You're not to mistreat widows, you shouldn't take advantage of people without fathers or husbands because they were already without protection. In that society, the man protected the wife, the husband protected his wife, the father protected the children. So, if they were widows or orphaned children without fathers, then you were clearly instructed not to mistreat them in any way because they were vulnerable.
Now, if you go through the Mosaic Law, you will discover there are many occurrences of the idea that widows are to be protected, particularly true in Deuteronomy: 14:29, 16:11, 14, 24:19-21, 26:12-13. I don't expect you to remember all of those, I'm just giving them to give you the idea that this is mentioned over and over again in the Mosaic Law. Then, he says this in verse 23:
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: 23-24)
This is a really fascinating verse. One of the first things that strikes me is that God said, 'I'm going to do this.' Now, in a lot of the Mosaic legislation that we've already looked at, it says, 'You shall not permit them to live; you should put them to death.' Now, all of a sudden, He says, 'But if you mess with somebody that's a widow or fatherless, and they pray to Me, I'll hear them and I'll come deal with it.'
I thought all that was very, very interesting. Men are appointed to punish other violations, but in this case, God does it directly and based on strict judgment.
Alright, we're talking about relationships with one another—strangers, widows, fatherless. The next category is lending money.
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.
(Exodus 22: 25)
Now, we're looking at your relationship to people. So we've looked at strangers, widows, fatherless, and now we're looking at the poor. The issue in this case is lending money, but it's clearly a class of people called the poor. And what He says is this: if the person among My people, in this case meaning the Jews, and you loan the person money, you shall not charge interest. Really fascinating, in chapter 23, verse 20, it will say that Israelites could charge interest to the Gentiles. The Jews could charge interest to the Gentiles, but not to their own people. Very, interesting. There's another category, and this has to do with lending money only. It's a slightly different issue.
26 If you take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering your neighbour has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Now, I assume we're still talking about poor people and the security deposit, it says, was a garment, and you would return it to him before night, which seems to indicate that this was a garment that kept him warm at night. He says, 'Give it to him so he can be warm at night, so the next morning he'd have to give it back as a security deposit. He's already said in this passage, 'If people cry to Me, I'll hear, and I'll come down and deal with it.' That was the widows, remember? Now, he says, 'If a poor person is deprived of even being warm at night because of you, and he calls to Me, I'll hear and from what He just said, 'hear' means He'll act, but it doesn't specify how. Interesting, right?
Another point is He explains why: 'For I am gracious.' So, essentially, He implies that you should be gracious too. It doesn't explicitly state that; it says, 'I am gracious, I'll take care of it.' But isn't the message that you should have taken care of it, so I don't have to? Shouldn't you be gracious?"
Here are two reasons why you should abide by these instructions.
First, you can relate to them as you've experienced similar situations. Second, because 'I am gracious,' you should have shown the same grace. When I studied the Book of Genesis, I shared a Jewish legend about Abraham that illustrates this point well.
According to the legend, one evening, Abraham noticed an old man approaching his tent, tired from his journey. Following Middle Eastern custom, Abraham hurriedly welcomed him in, washed his feet, and offered him food and drink. The old man started eating without praying or giving thanks. Surprised, Abraham asked, 'Don't you worship God?' The old man responded, 'I worship only fire and no other God.' This angered Abraham, and he forcefully expelled the old man into the cold night. After the old man left, God asked Abraham, 'Where is the old man?' Abraham replied, 'I forced him out because he didn't worship you.' God answered, 'I have tolerated him for 80 years, despite his disrespect. Couldn't you endure him for one night?' This legend, created by the rabbis, conveys the point from Exodus Chapter 22 that God is gracious, and we should emulate His grace.
Now, let's move to the next section, which explores spiritual sins. The previous sections discussed premarital sex, idolatry, and social sins. Spiritual sins refer to our direct relationship with the Lord.
“Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.
The word translated blaspheme here means to revile, belittle or disregard. The instruction is clear: don't disrespect or curse the Lord or the ruler. The ruler is likely considered God's representative, highlighting the importance of this relationship with God. This law emphasizes respect, preventing any disrespect towards God or rulers. Unfortunately, our society has reached a new low in this regard. Regardless of whether we agree with political leaders previously we have traditionally respected our leaders in this country. However, the absence of fear of God has led to a decline in respect for authority.But it extends beyond political leaders to classrooms and even the police. Respect is diminishing, reflecting the diminished reverence for God. Some have referred to this era as post-Christian, where Christianity no longer holds the influence, it once did.
The law dictates that we should revere God and respect leaders. This encapsulates the message.
The subsequent verse deals with sacrifice. It states,
29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats.[g]
“You must give me the firstborn of your sons.
(Exodus 22: 29)
According to the Mosaic law, farmers were required to give the first produce of their harvest to the Lord. However, they had the option to redeem it by paying a price. The purpose was to teach a lesson about God's primacy. Similarly, the firstborn son was to be dedicated to the Lord but could be redeemed with money. Dedication occurred when the son turned eight days old, as mentioned elsewhere.
30 Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days but give them to me on the eighth day.
The firstborn sons, first produce, and firstborn animals were all to be consecrated to the Lord. Sons were dedicated on the eighth day, while animals were to stay with their mother for seven days, then offered to the Lord on the eighth day.
31 “You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.
This closing section concerns our relationship with the Lord. It instructs not to eat meat torn by beasts in the field but to discard it for the dogs.
This law is intriguing. If you found an animal, such as one of your sheep, killed by another creature like a lion, you were forbidden from eating it. Consuming an animal torn in the field was deemed unsuitable. It could have carried diseases, and the flesh might not have been properly drained of blood as required by the Mosaic law. The law underscores that as holy people devoted to God.
To conclude, this entire section emphasizes our relationship with the Lord. We are to be set apart and holy. Not consuming animals killed by beasts demonstrates our dedication to God's instructions and serves as a protective measure for His people."
Alright, how are we doing? In one sense, this passage is very simple. Various Mosaic laws pertaining to our social and spiritual relationships teach us that if we do what is right, we will be blessed. One of the reasons given is because the Lord is gracious. So, one of the things I walked away with from this passage was, you know, do the law, that's right. But some of the laws have to do with being kind and being gracious.
Those of you who have heard me teach for years have heard me say this before. That's the sum of the Bible. The Old Testament says God is holy, and clustered around that are the concepts of righteousness and justice. The New Testament says God is love, and clustered around that are concepts of mercy, grace, and kindness. And that's the essence of what God is trying to produce in us. The New Testament says Jesus was full of grace and truth. And that's embedded even in the Mosaic law. So, you come to this passage, and in one sense, it says, do what is right. And in the other sense, right in the middle of it, is, and be gracious. Be kind, be compassionate with people. If you do those two things habitually, you're being conformed to Christ, because He was full of grace and truth. The trick is, the tough part is when do you be gracious, and when do you practice righteousness, and that's why you have to have wisdom. Because what is right is loving, what is lovely is right. But it takes wisdom to know how to exactly pull that off in some cases. Those are the great virtues of the Bible: righteousness, graciousness, wisdom and love.
The other thing I gleaned from this passage is why you should do all of that. Do this because He is gracious, be gracious because He is gracious.
The second reason you should do this is because you were once in Egypt yourself. You got to do this because you been there, not knowing or caring about the Lord, yet he still was gracious to you. If you just look at yourself and have any spiritual sense, you're going to recognise that.
I'd like to add a third. And that is this: in the middle of this passage, he talks about the kind of people you ought to be gracious to. He talks about the oppressed, he talks about widows, he talks about the fatherless, he talks about poor people. He talks about people who might be cold at night. I think embedded in the passage, is that you will want to do this if you just have the proper view of people. If you see their need and see people as God sees them then you will want to be gracious. I
f you realize the Lord is gracious, you would do what He says. If you realize you've been there, but for the grace of God, you might be there again one day and if you see the need of people, you would do this. In this passage, we can be reminded if we choose to see it the moral fabric of our society and our relationship with God and with one another.