Exodus 22:16–31

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word, have a little bit of coffee and we grow in our love for the Lord together. This year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. So glad to be with you. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll jump into a bunch of a bunch of different laws, right? There's, uh, it'll be a fun one to get through. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll pray. Let's pray. Well, Father, you are a generous, gracious, amazing, loving God. Father, we pray that we would follow after you, that we would trust you and that your spirit would lead us into all truth. Be our teacher, Lord, we pray in Jesus's name. Amen. All right.
So we are going to wrap up Exodus chapter 22. Exodus chapter 22, whole bunch of little laws, instead of kind of reading it and then going through each step, we're going to read and talk, read and talk, read and talk, read and talk, and then kind of talk about overall principles as we do that and how they apply to our lives. So when we get into these sundry laws, right, it's, it's often like that where it's easier to deal with it individually and then kind of talk about it as a whole together at the end. So why don't we go ahead and work on it together now. If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride price of virgins.
What is this one talking about? Well, this is a marriage covenant, a marriage contract. Right. And so in a marriage covenant, especially in the ancient Near East, there's a dowry system. And so if you want to marry a woman, you're going to give her a certain dowry. A father is to then use that in trust for his family. Now, at the same time, though, if if there's a young man and a woman, they're not betrothed, they have premarital sex.
He's got to pay the bride price. Right? Because that act of sexual union was this sign of the covenant relationship between the two, that the two would become one flesh. God was marrying them and they've entered into that sign without the covenant between them. And so this is also, you know, he's going to pay the bride price because even if he wants to marry, the father is able to say, whoa, whoa, whoa.
This is not a good deal. This is not going to be good for her. This is not OK. He's still going to pay the bride price. Right. She might. It's the reality of the society they live in. Some men might not want to marry her. because she's already known another man. And so it's a care for the women in the society. It's also a care for the institution of marriage in that society. Well, verse 18, continuing on with this theme of what is good for the society.
You shall not permit a sorceress to live. This might sound harsh but it's a capital punishment for those who are going to deal with the doctrine of demons. He says you're not allowed to let them live. To go and do sorcery is to play a harlot with a foreign god and with demons and so he says you're not to let them live. We would see this that Saul would in the first part of his kingdom would be zealous for this. but then would eventually go to the witch at Endor. It's not good, right?
Verse 19, whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. Now here, this is interesting. There's two capital punishment laws put together, right? And this one is directly regarding the different kinds, right? There is a perversity that God says is in bestiality. He would talk about this twice in the book of Leviticus.
And to lie down with an animal, whether it's a man mating with an animal or whether it's a woman being mated with an animal, it doesn't matter. Either of them are wrong. And the Lord here says it's a capital punishment. Why? Because it's saying. That I know better than God. And I'm I'm I'm going to fulfill my own desires, even with an animal. And the Lord says that type of perversity can't be amongst my people.
And here as well, a third capital punishment. Verse 20, he who sacrifices to any God except Yehovah only, he shall be utterly destroyed. This is now we've gone from verse 18 from sorcery, verse 19, bestiality, verse 20, idolatry. And the Lord is saying, these three, right, this is going to rip apart a society. This is wrong for people. It's going to hurt them and it's going to hurt the community. And so if they're worshiping, going and sacrificing to other gods, they're not my people and they're to be destroyed.
This word for destroyed here is the word that God will use in the book of Joshua, where it's saying that they're utterly set apart to God for destruction. Because they've acted like the Canaanites in the land that he's giving them. And then verse 21.
You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Here we get the law for strangers. They were strangers, they were sojourners in the land of Egypt. And so as they're in the land of Canaan, when strangers come to them, they're not to oppress them. They knew what it was like to be oppressed when they cried out to God and he heard them. He says, you're not to act like that. You're not to go and become like the pagans. Not to do sorcery, bestiality, idol worship, or oppression. These are marks of pagan societies. And he's saying, that's not what my society is going to be like.
He's dealing with real people in real situations saying, this stuff's going to come up. And you're just striving for holiness. And then he goes on in verse 22. and my wrath will become hot and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.
Again, there to be a, he's setting up a society here. There's some places where this is just the real politic, right? It's just the reality of sinful people coming into and creating a new nation. There's going to be sinful problems. But here he says, when, When there's an orphan or there's a widow, you are not to deny them justice and you are not to oppress them. And if you do, it'll be lex talionis. It'll come upon your own head. He says, I am desiring a people who will be of equity. And then verse 25 through 27, speaking of equity.
If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a money lender to him. You shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious. This is the laws against usury, right?
They're not allowed to charge interest. This is one of those things where you see people charging exorbitant amounts of interest all over the place. And this is actually a huge development in the Israelite law code compared to say the code of Hammurabi, where if the beginning of agricultural interest rates was 25%, right? And here it's saying not at all for other Israelites. If you're going to do business, it's not going to be with charging people a whole bunch of interest.
And so that's again, this idea of equity, right? You can charge them a date, right? You can charge them these things, but you're not, you're not to be like the slave holding money lenders. But then it's also interesting that he says, right, if you ever do take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, your friend says, Hey, I need to borrow your ox for the day. So that's fine. That's fine. Why don't you give me your garment as a pledge. He used to want that garment back, but you got to give it to him at the end of the day. Well, what's the, what's the point in this, right? It's because God says he's got to sleep in it.
This would be similar. It's one of the things I don't like about in our society is car title loans. There's poor people who will be absolutely destitute for money and they'll go and they'll get a small loan. maybe 500 bucks, a thousand bucks, 2000 bucks. I don't know. Something, something small and no, not that that's remarkably small. That's, but the point is it's way less than the value of the car, but they'll hand their title over to this, this lender. And then if they're short paying 200 bucks, the lender will take their car. Now they can't get to work. You can't get to work. You can't make money. You see the downward cycle of this. If you can't make money, you lose your job, you lose your job, you lose your ability to ever get that car back.
It's catch 22. It's, it's one of those systems that the Lord here says you can't take somebody's essentials from them. If you're going to hold that as pledge, it's a one day pledge. So you better make sure that they're actually able to pay it back in one day.
You don't want them to suffer because of this. Okay, in verse 28, you shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. This is tying together the first commandment and the fifth commandment. You're not to revile God. You're not to look down your nose upon the God of Israel.
Because when you do, there's a waterfall effect. When you revile the God who created you, You will also down the road start reviling those leaders he's placed over you. See this in society all the time, right? When, when people in godless society start throwing away their idea of respect for God, the respect for others authority wanes quickly. I'd like to suggest to you, I think that's a big thing we're seeing in American society right now. We wonder why children seem to be the tyrants of the home. Well, have the parents cast off a sense of obscence, respect, reverence for God.
You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. Likewise, you shall do with your oxen and your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day, you shall give it to me.
This is this idea of the firstborn being the Lord's, right? He's the one who spared the life of the firstborn, both human and cattle on the Passover day. And he's the one bringing them into the land of milk and honey. The fields are actually his. He's giving it to them. He's leasing it to them. He's, he's blessing them with it. But they owe him the firstfruits. Why? Because he's their God, he's their master, he's their Lord. So they're to bring him the firstfruits as that sign of respect and allegiance and love. And then verse 31, he shall be holy men to me.
You shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs. If you if you're an Israelite, this is one of these holiness codes, right? If you're an Israelite, you're walking through the field and you see a deer and it's been ripped up by a mountain lion, you're not to eat that. Let the ravens pick at it. Right. Let the eagles come and eat it. But not you. Right. Why? Because you're supposed to be clean, holy unto the Lord.
And so a few things theologically to work through here, right, is that we see that, especially as you get to like verse 31, ceremonial laws in this, right? We teach about a threefold division in the law, right? There's moral law, there's civil law, and there's ceremonial law. Ceremonial laws are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, right?
That's what the book of Hebrews gets at. The civil laws were peculiar to Israel. And we look at them and we try to figure out the general equity. What was the underlying principle of it that we can look at and it can apply to our lives? And then the moral law, what absolute moral truths that apply to our life? We can find those in places like the Ten Commandments. And so here we find mostly civil laws, but they're underpinned with many moral, or sorry, with many ceremonial aspects.
And so what's kind of the general equity of these things? We find equity in fairness in lending money and how we treat people with marriage. We find moral obligations when we think about Sorcery. And when you think about this idea of bestiality and perversion, right?
The Lord desires a people who are holy to him. And in that sense, these things are still true in our lives. I still think it's wrong for people to sleep with animals, for people to mate with animals. Why? Because this is a violation of what God has made us to be. I still think it's wrong for someone to fornicate, to have sex with someone before they're married. Why? Because it's a sign of the covenant of marriage. The equity of these things still hold true. And they're reiterated time and time again in the New Testament, right? Let there not even be a hint of sexual immorality amongst you. We're not to follow doctrines of demons. And so these things still apply to our lives, but they apply to our lives in Christ. They apply to our lives as we see Jesus Christ having kept each and every one of these and having shown us a way of holiness.
Not a way to become his people because of righteousness, but a way to follow him and the holiness that he has led us into because he's poured out his spirit in our hearts to serve the Lord, to love him and walk in his ways. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have freed us from the curse of sin and that you have shown us the path of life. Father, we pray that you would please, by your Holy Spirit, apply the underlying principles of these things to us, that we would walk before you, that we would be a holy nation, a chosen people. redeemed and bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Let us be lovers of justice, of equity, and of mercy, for you are gracious. In Jesus's name, amen. May the grace of God be with you. May you bask in the glorious grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.