Exodus 23. Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. ² You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, ³ nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

• Basically don’t lie. Stop false rumors. Be honest in court, even if everyone else is not.

⁴ “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. ⁵ If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

• Be kind! Our feelings about one another should not stop us from doing the right thing.

⁶ “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. ⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. ⁸ And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

• Treat people justly in court
  • v. 6 Don’t deny justice to the poor.
  • v. 7 Stay away from false accusations and don’t condemn the innocent.
  • v. 8 Don’t accept bribes because they corrupt judgment.

⁹ “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

• The Sabbath wasn’t just a weekly command but more like a principle of living
  • Israel’s failure to observe the Sabbath years was connected to the exile.
  • 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 connects this with the 70-year exile. They missed 70 Sabbath years (which is 1 year every 7 years=about 490 years).
  • Leviticus 26: 34-35  ³⁴ Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. ³⁵ All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

¹⁰ “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, ¹¹ but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

• We already know every 7th day was a Sabbath day, but also every 7th year will be considered a Sabbath year.

¹² “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

¹³ “Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.

• They were to thank God for their Sabbath, no one else.

¹⁴ “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. ¹⁵ You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶ You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. ¹⁷ Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.

• Three Festivals mentioned: (More in Leviticus)
  • Feast of Unleavened Bread
    • In spring
    • remembers the Exodus and leaving Egypt in hast
    • no leavened bread for 7 days.
  • Feast of Harvest (Weeks/Pentecost)
    • In early summer
    • celebrates the firstfruits of the harvest
    • a time of thanksgiving.
  • Feast of Ingathering (Tabernacles)
    • In fall
    • marks the end of the harvest
    • remembers God’s provision in the wilderness.

¹⁸ “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

• No leftovers showed respect. Sacrifices to God weren’t casual meals; they were sacred, not to be treated like leftovers or common food.

¹⁹ “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

• ‘You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.’ has confused people and it is mentioned 3 times in the Torah
  • to this day kosher law separates meat and dairy completely, even going so far as having separate kitchens in certain buildings.
  • Some say it was a pagan magical spell.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

²⁰ “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

²² “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

• This messenger:
  • Israel must obey his voice
  • Will not pardon Israel’s sin
  • YHWH name in him
• Because of the last bullet, most Christians suggest this is the Angel of the LORD, or pre-incarnate Jesus.
• I am wondering if this angel is the same angel referenced in Isaiah 63:9 references  “… and the angel of his presence saved them…” or in Exodus 32 and 33.
  • There is also Exodus 14 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them….

²³ “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, ²⁴ you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. 

• They are called not only to refuse worship of other idols but to destroy them as well.

²⁵ You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. ²⁶ None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. ²⁷ I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. ²⁹ I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. ³¹ And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ³² You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

• “Listen for blood”. This is how Dr. Carmen Imes deals with this hard passage
  • It at first reads very much as genocide. But when we slow down and re-read the chapter and “listen for blood” – we don’t see any. We see that they are asked to demolish their ‘gods’.
• Why can’t they try to convert the Caananites? (Dr. Imes says ‘It’s not a go and tell, but a come and see)

Here is what who does what in Exodus 23 (from https://bibleproject.com/classroom/exodus-overview-carmen-imes/sessions/21):

What does YHWH’s messenger provide for the Israelites?

• Protection on their journey (Exod. 23:20)
• Guidance to the promised land (v. 20, 23)
• Ongoing instruction (v. 22)
• Leadership in battle (v. 23)

What will YHWH do for the people?

• Oppose Israel’s enemies (v. 22)
• Wipe out Israel’s enemies (v. 23)
• Throw nations into confusion (v. 27)
• Drive out the nations (v. 28-30)
• Establish Israel’s borders (v. 31)
• Give the people into Israel’s hands (v. 31)

What are the Israelites supposed to do?

• Do not bow down to or worship their gods (v. 24)
• Demolish the gods and their sacred stones (v. 24)
• Worship YHWH (v. 25)
• Drive out the people from before you (v. 31)
• Make no covenant with them or their gods (v. 32)
• Do not let them live in the land (v. 33)