We continue to make our way into the Law of Moses. Today we read chapters 22-24.
I will not get into each of the laws. They are important. I encourage you all to know them. Galatians 3:10 tells us that even under grace, we must know the law and keep the law.
Grace is God telling us He knows we will fail, but that He will forgive us those transgressions if we have put our faith in Jesus Christ.
But, we still must try to know and do the whole law.
I do like how God spells out specific details of how much a person should pay if they steal or harm or kill, etc.
Fires
In 22:6, we read that if a fire breaks out and spreads into a field, the one who starts it must make restitution.
I question how one should judge a government unable to extinguish fires? Especially on a day when citizens pay taxes and expect that protection. Would that not fall under the same guidelines?
If authorities cannot provide protection, leading to deaths, wouldn’t they be found guilty?
How do citizens of a state like that continue to support such a government?
Presence of evil
These are the things which happen when we allow evil to exist within our population. For many years, we have ignored sin and debauchery in our country. We have allowed worship of idols and even foreign gods. We have prostituted ourselves with the occult.
Verse 22:14 tells us not to allow a sorceress to live, yet they advertise their services on television and even some people who call themselves Christians will pay for their services.
I used to love reading the horoscope, but when I became a Christian, the Spirit in me told me it was a sin against God. I never really believed in them, but now I will not even look at one.
A lady I know likes to play with Tarot cards. She thinks it’s fun and harmless, but allowing evil of any kind to entertain us always has a price.
Foreigners
The next point that I want to make is something I mentioned in my book, Moving Ahead: How to Make America Godly Again, and some people on the far right had issues with it.
In Ex 22:21, we read we are to treat foreigners kindly because we were all foreigners at one time.
From a hermeneutic perspective, yes, this was speaking to the people of Israel who God had just brought out of a foreign land, so there were some specifics involved.
I also stated in the book that all nations must have secure borders and be sovereign.
We need to uphold the laws, and we must remove influences of evil from our land. This would include many of the illegal migrants who recently infiltrated our country.
However, verse 22:23 says, “If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” Which means if we are not as compassionate as we can be, (see Ex 22:27) God will not be merciful toward us.
It’s a complex situation. There are definitely some areas where the cleansing is necessary, but many foreigners, even illegal foreigners, provide valuable and needed services to our country.
We have to set up processes to make sure we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Angels
My last point of interest in these verses was the mention of the angel in Ex 23:20.
Some would say that God was promising to send a reward if they did the good works He commanded. Since they failed, almost immediately with the golden calf we are about to read about, God rescinded that promise.
Others say it was the Holy Spirit. That had we kept the commandments, again, we didn’t, He would have sent the Holy Spirit to them to be their guide.
I can accept this more than the idea that the angel He was speaking of was Jesus.
They clearly did not keep the commandments. They immediately and repeatedly sin. We all do, continuously. So, that angel would not be forthcoming.
Therefore, humanity exists with a wall of separation from God.
Therefore, Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Until we placed our faith in Jesus, and the Holy sacrifice He made for us, there was no reason for God to uphold this promise.
Since God forgave us who have faith in Jesus, and applied His righteousness to us. We now can expect that angel to come and guide us.
So the Holy Spirit came upon the people at Pentecost. We had finally achieved the atonement necessary for God to complete that promise.
Have you placed your faith in Jesus? Or are you living without that guidance that God offers?
