Title: Exodus 23
Content Exodus 23:1-9
Here we are talking about the ordinances related to the trial.
① Do not bear false witness (verses 1-3).
② If you find something lost even in an enemy's beast, return it to its owner (verses 4-5).
③ Justify the case of the poor and do not kill the innocent or the righteous (verses 6-7).
④ Do not accept bribes ((verse 8).
⑤ Do not oppress the foreigner (verse 9).
God is not talking about making a society more livable by the righteous judgment of the world government now with the words of this text. It is a rule given on the premise that we should always protect the weak and treat our neighbors with God's mercy and love, not with our own feelings. This is the image of those who know their situation in the land of Egypt and look forward to God's salvation.
In the end, God did not want to make them believers who do good to their neighbors, but rather seeks other people of God who truly know God's salvation and who discover God's mercy and love through God's covenant people who know the cross. .
Exodus 23:10-19
It refers to the ordinances related to the feasts.
① The field in the seventh year shall not be tilled, so that the poor may eat (verses 10-11).
② On the seventh day rest, let the servants, the strangers, and the beasts also rest (verse 12).
③ Keep all the ordinances and do not even call on the names of other gods (verse 13).
④ Every year, keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), Harvest Festival, and Ingathering (verses 14-16).
⑤ Do not offer the blood of sacrifice with the loaf, and do not leave the oil until the next morning (verse 18).
⑥ Offer the first of the first fruits to the Lord (verse 19).
Now Israel is in the wilderness. Nevertheless, speaking of the ordinances related to the rest of the land, we are not talking about the possibility of entering the land of Canaan, but considering that God has already given the land to us. Then the people of Israel must live according to this word at this moment. Living according to these words now is not a matter of what to do with the earth, but a matter of knowing the heart of Jehovah God.
For six years sow the soil and reap the harvest, but for the seventh year leave it alone, so that the poor of your people may eat. Considering that God makes the poor, these rules show that God does not want religious people who obey certain laws, but human-like humans who know God's heart.
A gathering of religious people is not Christianity. Christianity is the gathering of those who know the heart of God contained in the cross, and Christianity is the church. Therefore, if you are trying to create Christianity through certain acts and laws without knowing God's heart, you must keep in mind that it is simply a gathering of people wearing the skin of religion that has nothing to do with God.
Ultimately, the poor live by God's grace because of God's ordinances. The owner of the land must realize his true nature by giving up farming for seven years and looking after the poor who live on the produce. That is, the poor man is himself. Those who live by the grace of God are themselves.
God tells us to keep the third feast every year. It is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvests, and the Feast of Ingathering. All of these are asking us to remember the grace of God. According to Leviticus, all the feasts of Israel were to have a sabbath in common. The reason we do not work and keep our rest is so that we may realize that it is God's grace that we live in this world, not our strength.
Remembering that they were saved by God's grace through the Passover, and that they were able to enter the land of Canaan, where they have fruit through the Feast of Harvest and Ingathering, is to let them know that it is God's grace. I must confess that I have no merit whatsoever. As a sign of confession, it is necessary to distinguish between “the blood of my sacrifice” and “the oil of my sacrifice” (v. 18). Because that is the only thing that can reveal the reality of God's covenant.
Exodus 23:20-33
The Lord God said to Israel, “I will send my messenger before you to protect you on the road and bring you to the place I have prepared” (verse 20). It is a land that God has prepared and that God has given by grace. Therefore, God Himself protects His covenant people.
To protect his people here does not mean simply to save them from difficulties and to make up for them by making up for what they lack. Looking at the verses that follow, He said that if we do not obey God's leading words, that is, if we do not keep the covenant, He will not forgive our sins (verse 21).
However, he said that if we keep and act according to the word of the covenant, we will be together (verse 22). This is the meaning of ‘Immanuel’. It does not mean that God is with us vaguely, but it means that he will completely separate his people from the world so that we can reach the place God has prepared. The set apart people of God will never cease to be paid (vv. 25-26). Because one day, through his descendants, he will give the real Son of the covenant, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, God's covenant is always the standard. Since the peoples of the land of Canaan live unworthy of the land of the covenant, those who have the covenant have no choice but to conquer and destroy the peoples in the land of Canaan. For this reason, Israel must not make a covenant with the people of Canaan and with their gods.
In other words, the Canaanite way of thinking is against God's merciful heart, and since it is the spirit of living without the need of God's grace, we should not make a covenant. God's covenant is to be fulfilled by God Himself. Therefore, just as Israel needs to be in the covenant (verses 30-31), believers today need to be in Christ.