Exodus Chapter 23

• Exodus 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

To false accuse, to lie and bear false witness is an evil that is serious. To be accused when one is innocent is a terrible evil. God forbids it in every way. This is one law that is supposed to be in force today. It is cruel, unjust and evil to accuse anyone falsely. It's also one of the original ten commandments of the law.

• Exodus 23:2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

This rules out the old lynch mobs. When a multitude is stirred up to do evil it usually turns out that the victim is innocent. It is hard to have a fair trial when people's anger is stirred up to the point of mob violence. It usually takes only one person who begins to speak and agitate others to gang up on one person. God's way is never in a hurry and rash. It is better to make sure of one's guilt than to condemn an innocent man. If we have to hurry up and execute someone, it is always unjust and may even be urged on by the one that is truly guilty so that no one will no longer look for the real perpetrator of the crime.

• Exodus 23:3 Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause.

Judgment must be fair. Guilt or innocent must be determined by the facts, not by one's status in this life. Whether rich or poor judgment must be just and equal. If a poor man is guilty of a crime, his punishment should be the same as if the rich man is guilty of the same crime.

• Exodus 23:4 If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

This would come under, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Even if it is one's enemy, we are to go that extra mile and do them good.

• Exodus 23:5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.
• 6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.

As the poor is not to be favored in judgment, neither are they to be discriminated against because they are poor.

• Exodus 23:7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

God sees all things and He will bring judgment if the innocent and righteous are slain.

• Exodus 23:8 And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.

This is God's law against bribery. The rich could get away with anything if they were allowed to give gifts to judges and magistrates. The poor could not give anything. This happens many times. How many among the poor can afford expensive lawyers? Someone who is rich and famous and could afford the most expensive clever lawyers in the world may be more likely to get off scot free than a poor person but I've seen it happen to the opposite extreme if the rich person is someone who is a threat to a political party that happens to be in power. Party politics also causes the innocent to be falsely accused.

• Exodus 23:9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

God commanded Israel to show kindness to strangers reminding them that they also were strangers in a land that was not their land.

We can apply this to the church. We are commanded to preach the gospel to all whether it is a stranger or someone we know. We are to show kindness in sharing God's word with them.

• Exodus 23:10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
• 11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.

God not only provided a rest for the land so that the land can be replenished and be nourished to bring forth better fruit in the next year but also uses this rest to provide for the poor.

• Exodus 23:12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Man and beast needs rest from labor. If God had not have made this law, servants and slaves would never get any relief. If an employer or slave owner does not observe a day of rest within seven days, he will answer to God.

• Exodus 23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.

There is a Satanic spirit behind every idol, false god, false religion, false teaching, and we must be very careful not to acknowledge any other god besides God and His Son, Jesus the one who is our Christ. Worshiping Jesus is the same as worshiping God. God knows that Satan will harm. They may display a fake type of love and acceptance but true colors of those that are evil will eventually be made known.

The fruit of the spirit that comes from God is:
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance which is self control.

• Exodus 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
• 15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
• 16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.

The feasts are given to Israel to remember God and what God did for them at certain times.

• Exodus 23:17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
• 18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
• 19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

They were not to offer in sacrifice a mother who is still nursing a young kid. This shows us God's compassion for the young that needs nourishment from its mother. There is another explanation of that verse though and that is when they kill and young lamb they are not to use the mother's milk to cook it in.

• Exodus 23:20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
• 21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

This angel is not a created angel but the Son of God, which we know now as Jesus or Yeshua. Proof of that is here:

• 1Corinthians 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
• 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
• 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
• 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

I love it when the New Testament confirms the old and the Old Testament is confirmed in the New.

• Exodus 23:22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
• 23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
• 24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

They must destroy any idolatry they see in the land God gives them for if they don't it could later destroy their children. Idolatry destroys the soul because the evil spirits accompanying those idols is out to destroy its worshippers. To abide in the true and living God is the only safe place to be. Anything outside of Him will steal, kill and destroy our eternal souls.

• Exodus 23:25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

A nation that fears God and is thankful for God's blessings will have less sickness and have an abundance of provisions.

• Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

The righteous may have trials and tribulations but they will be restored if they remain faithful to God. The exception to this would be those that suffer lose for the gospel's sake. In their case, their reward is in heaven and in seeing the souls they won to Christ in heaven with them. .

• Exodus 23:26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfill.

The faithful will always have cattle and have sufficient for their needs.

• Exodus 23:27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

Their enemies are those that hate God and desire to destroy those that trust in God.

We must keep in mind that these laws are primarily for Israel of that day before the gospel was given. The moral laws still apply today but some laws were only for Israel as they were about to enter into the promised land.

The church was never commanded to destroy anyone for any reason. We are to spread the gospel to all people, whether they are good or evil. If any reject the gospel, God is to bring judgment, not us. We are not to kill or harm anyone. We are in a different dispensation. The church is never to use force or take over governments until the time Jesus returns literally and in person. Much evil and reproach to the gospel has come from the false church thinking that they are the new Israel and returning to the law which Jesus Christ fulfilled. I say false church because no true believing church of God will persecute anyone.

• Exodus 23:28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
• 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
• 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
• 31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

Israel has not yet recovered all their land since they lost it years ago but it will be given back to them by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

• Exodus 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
• 33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

Here we see the reason that Israel was not to allow those that served other gods to dwell in their land. God said that they would influence Israel to sin against God. This happened many times in the Old Testament when except for the faithful who resisted, Israel would be influenced by those that served other gods. God sent judgment in every case.

Other gods are not innocent toys. They have an evil spirit behind them that will steal, kill and destroy souls.

The church needs to get icons, idols and statues out of their buildings because an evil spirit is behind them. It is a spirit that deceives them and even gives them a good feeling so that they think it is God when it is not God. True religion is not a religion of feeling but of faith in Jesus Christ. Feelings will come but faith is based on what God's word says, not on our feelings. DC

Exodus 24

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