Lesson #27

EXODUS 23
Lesson #27
THE LAW OF LOVE, PROVISION, AND PROMISE

• Memory Verse: Exodus 23:25

• In our study of the book of Exodus, we are in the midst of various ordinances pertaining to the Law of Moses.
• We are going to see in this chapter that the Law of Moses gives greater weight to certain aspects of crime in society than we do in this New Testament age. Just as we observed in the last chapter of Exodus, the Law tells us what God values as important, even though our laws today may not reflect it.
• We learned in our previous lesson that love fulfills the Law. (Mar 12:29-31)
• Therefore, we are going to see how love should be the motivating factor in man’s behavior toward others. Even though the Law of Moses lacked love on the surface, we are going to dig deep for it because God’s character is love, and it is His character that is behind the Law. We will see that if man operated with a motive of love, he would do exactly as the Law of Moses indicated.
• Read 1Cor 13:4-8a

• “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.Charity never faileth…”
• This is God’s law of love by definition. We are going to use this definition to explain the ordinances of the Mosaic Law.
• First I want to explain the word, “charity” in the King James Version of the Bible.
• When the translators of the King James Bible chose the words they would use to put the text into English, they decided not to use the word, “love” because the word, love, is too broad and has too many meanings. We have brotherly love, sexual love, parental love, affection, passion, etc.
• The translators wanted a word that would convey the idea of love, but that contained a selfless motive so that the reader of 1Cor 13 would understand that it is only the Christian who can do this kind of love guided by the Holy Spirit. They chose the word, “charity”.
• Read Exo 23:1-9 Various and different aspects of the Law concerning man’s responsibility:
• Man’s responsibility to man:
• False reports and accomplices in crime: (1-3, 7-8)
• This ordinance, and the one in verse 6, is a more complete expression of the ninth commandment concerning swearing falsely to pervert justice.
• The context refers specifically to a court of justice.
• A person who perverts justice by giving a false report so that the guilty criminal escapes justice is guilty before God of breaking God’s law of love.
• Justice should be equal and blind to social class or wealth (3)
• A person who follows another in a crime is just as guilty as the criminal. (2)
• Specifically, this ordinance says that a godly person will not follow a multitude to do evil. That refers to gangs, riots, protests, and public demonstrations against law and order.
• A person who persuades another with money to join him in a criminal activity, is guilty before God for breaking God’s law of love. (3)
• Also, the person who takes bribes for his testimony perverts justice and gives the person an unrighteous reputation. (8)
• The problem of bribery was common in the Middle East, and carried the death penalty in other countries, but there is no penalty given in the Mosaic Law for bribery. (Deu 16:18-20)
• =1= God’s Law of Love:

• “Charity…Doth not behave itself unseemly; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity,…”

(1Cor 13:5-6)

• Read Mat 18:7-10
• Jesus said that man is responsible for his influence on other people if that influence is for evil and crime.
• Why does God hold people to such a high standard of responsibility for the actions of other people?
• We come back to the law of love. If we love other people, we will want God’s very best blessings in life for them. Therefore, we will not do anything that will jeopardize the blessings of God in his life.
• Man’s responsibility to another’s property even when the person has not assumed that responsibility, (4-5)
• In our previous lesson we discussed man’s responsibility for restoring a person’s property that he had borrowed, if that property had been damaged or destroyed by accident or by negligence.
• In this chapter, we see God extend the care of another’s property to the believer even when he has not agreed to assume that responsibility, and even if that person is an enemy.
• In other words, the believer should always be aware of caring for another person’s property even when the owner of it is negligent or an enemy. Why?
• Love takes on the responsibility for others and for their property even when it is inconvenient.
• =2= God’s Law of Love:

• “Charity…is kind…”

(1Cor 13:4)

• “Charity…seeketh not her own…”

(1Cor 13:5)

• “Charity…Beareth all things…

.” (1Cor 13:7)

• Read Mat 5:44

• Read Exo 23:10-12 The law of the Sabbath Year and the Sabbath Day:
• We have previously discussed the Sabbatic System in our study of Exodus (Lesson #12).
• God told the people to work the land for 6 years. On the seventh year, they were not to work the land.
• God tells them the purpose of the Sabbath year of rest: (11)
• In the seventh year, the poor could gather whatever crops grew there. This was God’s welfare system to provide for the poor so that they would not need to sell themselves as bond servants.
• =3= God’s Law of Love

:

• “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”

(1Cor 13:4)

• “Charity… endureth all things.”

(1Cor 13:7)

• The Israelites never kept the Sabbath year for lack of faith. God promised that He would supply three times the usual amount on the sixth year. (Lev 24:20) However, even when the nation was prosperous, the people were too greedy to keep the Sabbath year rest.
• Therefore, the Babylonian captivity was a forced rest for the land that paid for the number of years they failed to keep the Sabbath year. (2Chr 36:17-21 Jer 34:14-22)
• God reminded the people that the land belonged to God. Man was supposed to be a steward of the land, not the owner. (Lev 25:23)
• Just as the seventh year was to be a year of rest, so was the seventh day.(12)
• Remember that the Sabbath “rest” was a prefigure of provision and grace in Jesus Christ. He is our Sabbath rest.

• Read Exo 23:13-19 The Law of worship and the Feast Days:
• We have already seen that the Israelites were not to take God’s name in vain, nor worship other gods. However, this ordinance says that they were not even to mention the names of other gods.
• You will notice how strict and restrictive God is with a people who were so prone to idolatry.
• If they observed this ordinance, they would never worship another god even by accident.
• This ordinance was also to keep them from intermarrying with pagan people because the marriage contract included the mention of the gods involved.
• Worship by means of the Feast Days: (Lev 23)
• In our study of the Sabbatic System in Lesson #12, we discussed how the Feast Days of the religious calendar given in Lev 23 were related to the Sabbatic System.
• We discussed how Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophetic aspects of the first four Feast Days at His first coming:
• The Passover (Crucifixion)
• The Feast of Unleavened Bread (In the tomb)
• The Feast of Firstfruits (Resurrection)
• The Feast of Pentecost (Day of Pentecost)
• The last three Feast Days wait their fulfillment in Jesus’ second coming:
• The Feast of Trumpets (The rapture of the church)
• The Day of Atonement (The event of the second coming of Christ)
• The Feast of Tabernacles (The millennial kingdom of Christ on earth)
• Three of these feasts are mentioned in Exo 23.
• In Exo 23, God says that every adult male was to be physically present in the congregation of worship at the three Feast Days.
• This provision would insure a national unity of worship and a national identity.
• They were to fulfill this provision of the Law at the tabernacle.
• When they constructed the temple much later under King Solomon, this meant that they had to travel to Jerusalem three times every year for worship in the temple for the following feast days:
• The Passover
• The Feast of Pentecost (called the feast of harvest in verse 16)
• The Feast of Tabernacles (called the feast of ingathering in verse 16)
• In verse 19 the Israelites are told not to boil a baby lamb in his mother’s milk.
• The reason for this ordinance is that it was a common pagan practice among the Canaanites.
• As a result, we have a similar statement of laws in Exo 34:26 and Deu 14:21 that concern the Jewish diet that said they were not to drink milk with any meat.

• Read Exo 23:20-33 Promises and Conditions
• The promise of the Angel to bring them to the promised land:
• Who is the angel that will keep them in the way? (20) How do we know?
• The Angel is Jesus Christ. We know it because scripture tells us it is He:
• Read 1Cor 10:4
• Read 1Cor 10:9-10
• What do we learn about Christ from this passage in Exo 23?
• He is to be feared, respected, obeyed, and not provoked. .

• “Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.”

(21)

• God’s name is in Him.
• The name of God that Moses was given at the burning bush was the name, “I am”.
• Jesus Christ is the “I am” in the gospel of John.
• Because this is the beginning of the period of Law in the book of Exodus, blessings were conditional under this covenant given to Moses. Therefore, we can relate specific conditions that must be met to reap the corresponding blessings that God promised..

The Promise	The Condition
Their enemies will be God’s enemies (22)	Obedience to all that God commands (22)
Jesus Christ will bring them into the promised land and destroy the inhabitants of the land (23)	They must not worship pagan gods. (24) They must fight against the inhabitants of the promised land. They must destroy the idols.
God will bless their food and water (25) God will remove sickness from them. Their animals will be fruitful. (26) The fear of God will go before them so their enemies will flee (27) God will send hornets to go before them to drive out the enemy. (28)	They must serve God (25)
Gradually God will drive out the inhabitants of the promised land until the people increase to possess the land (29-30)	They must not make any covenants with pagan gods.(32) They must not make any treaties with pagan people. They must not live with pagan people in the promised land. (33) They must not serve pagan gods.

• Did the Israelites keep these conditions? No.
• Joshua made a treaty with the Gibeonites (Jos 9) instead of destroying them which violated God’s command.
• The idolatry of the pagans infected the Israelites so that they forgot God.
• As a result, God removed them from the promised land when He permitted the Babylonians to take them captive to Babylon.
• Did God keep His promises? Yes, even though God said it was a conditional covenant in which they had to fulfill their part.
• It was the unbelief of the Israelites that limited God’s more complete and more abundant provision.
• In verse 27, God said He would send fear before them.
• When Joshua surrounded the city of Jerico, it was fear that brought the victory. (Jos 2:9, 11 Jos 5:1 Jos 9:24)
• In verse 28, God said He would send hornets before them. This may have been literal or it may have been symbolic.
• If it was meant to be symbolic, it could refer to the Egyptians who invaded the Hyksos people in the promised land, shortly before the Israelites entered the land under Joshua.
• The hornet or bee was a sacred symbol of Egypt.
• Summary and Application:
• We have seen how we can apply the Law of Love from the New Testament to these few ordinances of law. In reality we could apply this same Law of Love to all aspects of the Mosaic Law.
• Even though the Mosaic Law does not speak of love, God’s perfect justice is based on God’s character of love.
• In other words, God provided the Law for the benefit of the people because He loved them and wanted to bless them.
• For the New Testament believer, it is love that should guide us in our decisions as we deal with people.
• It is because of God’s love that He promised to provide for His people by bringing them into their own land and providing for them through a system of perfect justice for rich, for poor, for widows, for orphans, for all people.
• It is because of God’s love that He was faithful to His promises even when the people were not faithful to Him.
• If we are to learn from their mistakes, we must learn faithfulness and obedience!

HOMEWORK
EXODUS 24
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Exo 23
• As we have studied some aspects of the Law, in which of the following aspects do you fail to express God’s love to others?
• Lies and being a false witness.
• Taking part in crimes or excusing crimes.
• Taking bribes.
• Responsibility for the property of others.
• Showing love to enemies.
• Pray and ask God to help you express more love in all these areas of life.

• Preparation for Exo 24
• Read Exo 24:1-11
• Of what significance is it that God told the people to worship afar off? (1)
• Of what significance is the sprinkling of the blood on the people?
• Read Exo 33:20
• Read 1Joh 4:12
• How do you explain that the people saw God when other scriptures says that no man has seen God and lived?
• Read Exo 24:12-18
• Of what significance is the 40 days and 40 nights? (18)

• Memory verse: Exodus 24:17