Exodus 23

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:01utc

We turn again to Matthew Henry for the outline of this chapter: "This chapter continues and concludes the acts that passed in the first session (if I may so call it) upon Mount Sinai. Here are I. Some laws of universal obligation, relating especially to the ninth commandment, against bearing false witness <v. 1>, and giving false judgment <v. 2-3, 6-8>. Also a law of doing good to our enemies <v. 4-5>, and not oppressing strangers <v. 9>. II. Some laws peculiar to the Jews. The sabbatical year <v. 10-11>, the three annual feasts <v. 14-17>, with some laws pertaining thereto. III. Gracious promises of the completing of the mercy God had begun for them, upon condition of their obedience. That God would conduct them through the wilderness <v. 20-24>, that he would prosper all they had <v. 25-26>, that he would put them in possession of Canaan <v. 27-31>. But they must not mingle themselves with the nations <v. 32-33>."

I. Some laws of universal obligation vs. 1 - 9 These commandments elaborate upon the ninth commandment. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (ch. 20:16). The emphasis is not only upon the negative but also on the positive. Vs. 4, 5 state: "If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it."

These commandments are given within the framework of the nation of Israel. After all, Israel had been ordered to exterminate the people who inhabited Canaan. I have searched for an Old Testament reference to the verse that Jesus quotes in the Sermon on the Mount: "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy."[ 1 ] To my amazement I could not find any. There are some particular injunctions against the Amalekites and Ammonites because of their actions against Israel, but there are no general suggestions to hate. The book of Proverbs shows us what God wants our attitude to be toward our enemies. "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice." "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.[ 2 ] From vs. 5 it is clear that the enemy is not someone you hate, but someone who hates you. The Hebrew word is sane which means "to hate, to be hateful." The context of this section is judicial. The words "justice" and "lawsuit" are used frequently in these verses. God wants justice to be impartial and compassionate.

When God gave this commandment to Moses, He must have had in mind the greatest perversion of justice: the condemnation of His Son Jesus Christ. Vs. 2 says: "You shall not follow a multitude in doing evil" (NAS). Jesus was sentenced to death because the leaders of Israel played on the sentiments of the crowd. We read in Matthew: "But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed."[ 3 ] And Luke tells us that Pilate tried to argue with the crowd but decided he could not win. We read: "'What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.' But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand."[ 4 ] This shows us what peer pressure can lead to. Majority vote is not always the expression of the will of God. Democracy and the Kingdom of Heaven are not identical.

Having worked as a Western missionary among primitive tribal people in Irian Jaya, I have become acquainted with the Asian tendency to give priority to relationships over ethics. As Western Christians, we believe that morality is absolute: stealing, murder, adultery are always bad. We feel that a father should hand over his son to the police if he is a thief or a murderer. (Adultery is no longer a public offence in Western society). In most Asian cultures, and probably in Africa as well, offenses are dealt with within the tribe or clan. The clan relationship is given priority over the moral issue. That is why a murderer may be accepted and protected by his family. Relationships are more important than issues.

In Israel the tribal relationship was very strong. But in the verses we are studying the Lord indicates that ethical absolutes are to take priority over relationships. This is emphasized particularly in vs. 9: "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt." Aliens, most of whom would have been Egyptians (!) would fall under the same justice as any other Israelite. At the time this commandment was given, the memory of the Israelites of justice in Egypt must have been very vivid. It is very doubtful that, in a court case, an Israelite would have received justice if his opponent was a Egyptian. I have seen examples in the Indonesian judicial system of citizens of Chinese extraction being denied justice on the basis of their ethnic background. The Bible teaches that absolute moral issues cut across cultural boundaries and clan relationships.

Another obstacle to the carrying out of justice is social standing. The most common tendency would be to deny justice to a poor man. There are examples in our modern society which would indicate that justice is not a matter of right or wrong but of the price paid to the lawyer. Vs. 6 says: "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits." But one can also get carried away by pity, as is indicated in vs. 3 - "do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit." God's justice is absolute.

Several years ago I heard a very interesting sermon by a lady missionary working for Wycliff Bible Translators in the Philippines. She talked about the subject of the priority the Filipinos would give to tribal relationships over moral issues. She made the astute remark that we, as Westerners, should not be too quick to pronounce judgment, because our justification was also on the basis of a relationship with another Person and not on the grounds of the morality of our acts. We are justified by our relationship with Christ. We should not forget, however, that in this relationship justice has not been bypassed, but our justification is based on the legal payment Christ made for us in His death on the cross.

Vs. 7 implies that final justice reaches beyond the boundaries of life on earth. We read: "Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." The fact that man may escape punishment on earth does not mean that he will escape for good. There is the awesome picture John paints for us in Revelation of "a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."[ 5 ] There is no flight from the presence of God and His justice.

Vs. 8 says: "Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous." The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about bribes. We read in Proverbs about the righteous man: "He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is."[ 6 ] Also, "A bribe is a charm to the one who gives it; wherever he turns, he succeeds." "A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice."[ [ 7 ] And: "A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath."[ 8 ]

Bribes appeal to man's greed, and greed is a defense against the feeling of insecurity in life. The tendency to build defenses with money is an indication of a lack of trust in God's provisions for us. Jesus deals with this in His very clear and beautiful exposition in the Sermon on the Mount. He says: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."[ 9 ] And the writer to the Hebrews admonishes us by saying: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' "[ 10 ]

The problem with bribes is not only that it shows a lack of faith in God's provision for us, but it also brings us under the power of the Evil One. Bribes are baits. Abraham recognized this when he refused the gifts the king of Sodom wanted to make him after his war with the confederacy of Kedorlaomer. We read in Genesis the following account of the encounter: "After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). The king of Sodom said to Abram, 'Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.' But Abram said to the king of Sodom, 'I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ' 'I made Abram rich.' ' "[ 11 ]

No man is immune to temptation. One of the great scandals in the Netherlands a few decades ago was that Prince Bernhard, the husband of Queen Juliana had taken a bribe from the Lockheed company. He was married to one of the richest women in the world! Abraham understood the danger and, even before he was tempted he took an oath never to accept anything as a bribe. We may think that money will give us independence, but it enslaves. Mammon wants to be served. And Jesus says: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."[ 12 ]

The law on the Sabbath year is connected to the preceding verses in that it implies greed. Farmers tend to get out of their land what is in it because it means income. To let land lie fallow for a whole year means a tremendous loss of income and loss of money means loss of security. The Pulpit Commentary says about the Law of the Sabbatical year: "Days of rest, at regular or irregular intervals, were well known to the ancients and some regulations of the kind existed in most countries. But entire years of rest were wholly unknown to any nation except the Israelites, and exposed them to the reproach of idleness."

The law on the Sabbath year was meant as a test of trust to the people of Israel. God wanted them to trust Him for their needs. He gave them guarantees that they would not starve to death if they let the land lie fallow every seventh year. He also foresaw their concern and worry. That is why we read in Leviticus: "You may ask, 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?' I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in."[ 13 ]

God also foresaw that His children would miserably fail in this test. Evidently, they never kept the law on the Sabbath year. God warned them of the consequences of their disobedience. Elsewhere in Leviticus we read: "I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 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. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it."[ 14 ] And the neglect of the keeping of this law is given as, at least, one of the reasons for the captivity. We read: "The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah."[ 15 ]

We note that obedience does not only bless the person who obeys but also others, even the animal world. Vs. 11 tells us: "Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave." David says: "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life."[ 16 ] What follows us is to the benefit of others. It is the blessing we leave behind us when we pass. The same is expressed in another psalm; people who know the Lord are a blessing to others: "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools."[ 17 ]

Another interesting side benefit of the keeping of the Sabbatical year is the blessing the wild animals receive. "The wild animals may eat what they leave." Normally, a farmer would keep wild animals away from his fields. They are destructive and harm the crop. During the Sabbath year God blesses them. He protects endangered species, but only after man has been blessed. The poor have priority over wildlife.

Just as in connection with the giving of the manna, as we have seen in chapter 16, we find here, also, a suspension of the curse. Adam had been told: "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground."[ 18 ] The painful toil is suspended for a whole year. Man can wipe off the sweat of his brow and rejoice in the Lord. It is a Sabbath in the real sense of the word. Fellowship with God is described with the words of the KJV: "in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."[ 19 ]

These commandments are no plea for laziness, but it is obvious that God does not want His children to be workaholics. He wants us to be able to work and to be able to relax. It has been my experience that I accomplish more when I turn the scheduling of my activities over to the Lord. Fellowship with Him means entering into His rest.

Seemingly, the life of Christ contradicts this dictum. He exhibited an, almost, feverish zeal to finish His task. He said to His disciples: "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work."[ 20 ] And when the Jews accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath, He counters with: "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."[ 21 ] We have to see His attitude, though, against the background of sin in the world. Jesus had come to save the world from sin, not to relax and enjoy the Father's creation. The Sabbath year, as well as the Sabbath day, was a pointer to the time to come, when redemption would be complete. Jesus worked so that we could enter into His rest.

We are, presently, in a war situation in which we cannot take days off. We are under attack, and we fight back. The goal of our warfare, however, is to achieve peace. The life of a child of God is a strange paradox of laboring and resting. But if we engage in strenuous activity, it should not be because of anxiety for the future. And that is why most people work so hard. People who do not worry about the future, but trust the Lord for sustenance, will be able to relax and they accomplish more.

This brings us to the seventh day of the week: the Sabbath. From Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary we copy the following regarding the Sabbath: "Sabbath … the practice of observing one day in seven as a time for rest and worship. This practice apparently originated in creation, because God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh <Genesis 1>. By this act, God ordained a pattern for living-- that man should work six days each week at subduing and ruling the creation and should rest one day a week. This is the understanding of the creation set forth by Moses in <Exodus 20:3-11>, when he wrote the Ten Commandments at God's direction. Meaning of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a means by which man's living pattern imitates God's <Ex. 20:3-11>. Work is followed by rest. This idea is expressed by the Hebrew word for Sabbath, which means 'cessation.' Sabbath rest also holds promise of the ultimate salvation that God will accomplish for His people. As certainly as He delivered them from Egypt through Moses, so will He deliver His people from sin at the end of the age through the Great Redeemer <Gen. 3:15; Hebrews 4>."

Everything that can be said about the Sabbath year goes for the Sabbath day also. In the Old Testament it was a commandment to keep the Sabbath. In the New Testament the Sabbath is an invitation. Jesus says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."[ 22 ] There is no commandment to cease from activity on the seventh day in New Testament. In spite of what people say, Sunday is not the Sabbath. It is the first day of the week or, if you want, the eighth day, but not the seventh. Nine of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament are repeated in the New. The only one omitted is the Sabbath commandment. Yet, when I grew up in the Christian Reform Church in the Netherlands, breaking the Sabbath by doing work on Sunday was considered a very serious offense. This attitude had nothing to do with celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was the reason that the early Christian started to gather on Sundays. Often, people who keep the Sabbath on Sunday know very little celebration of the resurrection in their lives. Some keep the Sabbath, and everything they can lay their hands on (!)

Paul calls the Sabbath a shadow of the reality in Christ. In Colossians we read: "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."[ 23 ] This is no vote against observing rest on Sunday and setting aside that day for worship services, but it shows that the law that imposed Sabbath rest upon people is no longer in force. Our Sabbath rest in Christ is from the inside out.

The Pentateuch gives several reasons for the keeping of the Sabbath. In ch. 20:11 the reference is to creation. "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." In Deuteronomy it is redemption. "So that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." And, here, in vs. 12 we read: "So that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed."[ 24 ] In connection with chapter 20, where the Ten Commandments are given, we have already seen that the reference to animals is unique in the law-giving of Antiquity. Here the animals are mentioned even before man. God wants all His creatures to be refreshed. Evidently, God sees the whole of creation as one: man and beast are linked together, both in the bondage of sin as well as in the promise of redemption. Paul captures this truth in Romans, where he says: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."[ 25 ]

Vs.13 sums it all up: "Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips." The essence of all the commandments is to love God; "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,"[ 26 ] or, as Jesus puts it: "If you love me, you will obey what I command."[ 27 ] Not invoking the names of other gods is part of our love for God.

Vs. 14 - 19 contain the commandment to celebrate three feasts for the Lord each year. Fellowship with God has a festive character. The apostle Paul recognizes this when he says: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival."[ 28 ] Strangely enough, the Passover celebration is not mentioned in ch. 23. The three feasts which the Israelites were ordered to keep were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of the First Fruits, and the Feast of Pentecost (the Harvest Feast).

Any reference to sin is absent from these feasts. The Feast of Bread without yeast is the feast of "sincerity and truth." It is the feast of the redeemed life. Jesus emphasizes this in the inauguration of the Lord's Supper. In Matthew we read that Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. The lamb that represented the sacrifice which He was about to bring on the cross was on the table in front of them. Yet, He did not take the meat of the lamb and said: "Take and eat; this is my body," but we read: "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body,' "[ 29 ] The Lord's Supper is not a celebration of the Passover, but of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is the feast that is celebrated seven days. The Passover was a "once for all" event. It happened once. It could be commemorated, but it could not be repeated. But the Feast of Unleavened Bread was an every-day experience. It stood for a life of sincerity and truth. We are saved once for all when we enter life through the narrow gate. But for the rest of our lives we walk the narrow path of the sanctified life, the life without the yeast of sin.

The three feasts are not given in chronological order. The Feast of the First Fruits is mentioned after the Harvest Festival. We could say, though, that the order of the feasts follows a spiritual calendar. It is the calendar of our experiences, or of a growing awareness in our spiritual life. We realize that we ought to live a life of sincerity and truth. But we, inevitably, come to the point where we realize that we don't have what it takes to live this kinds of life. Only the power of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit, will enable us to live a life that is acceptable to God. This discovery is, what Dr. A. B. Simpson called "The crisis of the deeper life." And, finally, we understand that the life God wants us to live is the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the center of the Feast of the First Fruits.

The phrase "No one is to appear before me empty-handed" in vs. 15, obviously, belongs to the following verse regarding the harvest, not to the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. God wants us to take the blessings He has given us, as He gave abundant harvests to the Israelites, and return them to Him. We will only enjoy blessings if we give them up. Remember, the consecration of a part to the Lord implied that He has the right to all.

The implication of the fact that we are not allowed to appear before the Lord empty-handed in connection with the Feast of Pentecost is tremendous. We tend to see ourselves as sinners, who are saved by grace through the blood of Christ and who have nothing to bring to God which would be of any value to Him. In the three festivals mentioned here, the question of sin and redemption is not even referred to, except indirectly. We saw already that in vs. 15 the Passover lamb is not even mentioned in connection with the Exodus from Egypt. The stress is on the holiness of life, exemplified in the eating of the unleavened bread.

Regarding the feast of Pentecost, the fruit has to be presented to God as a token that the harvest belongs to Him. We remember that Cain's sin was that he by-passed the need for having his sins pardoned and brought the fruit of his labor to God, which was unacceptable to Him. Here, the Israelites are commanded to do the very thing for which Cain was condemned. The difference was that atonement had taken place and God does not go back to it, as we do ourselves. We feel ourselves incapable to fulfill the demands of God's laws, but Paul tells us that, as far as God is concerned, the matter of acceptability has been taken care of by the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."[ 30 ] The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost means that we can appear before the Lord with our hands full of the blessings He has bestowed upon us, and He will accept us.

In Leviticus there are seven feasts mentioned.[ 31 ] Besides the observance of the weekly there are the three feasts, we find here in ch. 23. Added to them are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. All of these were to be celebrated in the seventh month of the year; respectively on the first, the tenth and the fifteenth of that month. The Feast of Tabernacles was to last for seven days.

Vs. 17 says: "Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD." The verse does not specify at which occasions this appearance had to be. We would get the impression that it would be at the three feasts mentioned above, but this is not specifically mentioned. It seems that the observance of the Day of Atonement would require the presence of the people at the tabernacle, or later at the temple in Jerusalem. How strictly the Israelites observed this commandment, we do not know. Most of these observances must have been forgotten, for we read that Hezekiah sent invitations to the Northern Kingdom to come and celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. Most of the people of the Northern tribes refused to come, but: "Some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD. A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month."[ 32 ] And we read about Josiah's celebration of the Passover: "Not since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem."[ 33 ] This does not mean that the feast was never celebrated but, evidently, it had not been observed too seriously.

This section is concluded with the admonition of vs. 18 and 19: "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." Except for the last one, none of these commandments are new. The same words are repeated in ch. 34:25,26. The Israelites had been told already that yeast, that is any reference to sin, could not be part of the sacrifice. The implication is that atonement for sin could not be made by someone who possessed a sinful nature. Only the perfect Lamb of God, who was without blemish could atone for the sins of mankind. It is also clear that God did not want any trace of corruption in what was sacrificed to Him. Fat that was kept till the next day would spoil. In ch. 34:25 it is the Passover Lamb that is not to be kept overnight. We read: "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning." The principle is the same since both commandments refer to the body of Christ. Even in His death His body knew no decomposition. That is why Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, quoting from the psalms, says: "Because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay."[ 34 ] This prophecy was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. So the prohibition to keep fat for a sacrifice overnight, or to keep any of the Passover Lamb overnight refers to the resurrection from the dead.

The next commandments regarding the bringing of the first fruits fit in the same category. But the mention of cooking a young goat in the milk of his mother is puzzling. Jewish tradition has speculated about the meaning of this. In practice, it means that beef cannot be consumed together with dairy products. One cannot order a roast beef sandwich and a glass of milk in a kosher restaurant in Jerusalem. I tried it once. There must be more involved than compassion for the mother goat who provides the milk. She wouldn't know about it anyhow. So, why is this prohibition given? Some commentaries presume that the reasons are humanitarian. But a more logical explanation seems to be that it was a heathen custom to cook a young goat in the milk of his mother and sprinkle the milk on the land to implore the blessing of the god of fertility upon the fields. So this commandment would be directed against idolatry.

The Pulpit Commentary takes the view that it is a prohibition against cruelty. It is "protest against cruelty, and outraging the order of nature, more especially that peculiarly sacred portion of nature's order, the tender relation between parent and child, mother and suckling." But, as we said above, the goat would not be any the wiser.

Adam Clarke seems to me more logical in his comment.: " 'Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.' This passage has greatly perplexed commentators; but Dr. Cudworth is supposed to have given it its true meaning by quoting a MS. comment of a Karaite Jew, which he met with, on this passage. 'It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid and boil it in the milk of its dam; and then, in a magical way, to go about gardens and orchards; thinking by these means to make them fruitful, that they might bring forth more abundantly in the following year.' After all the learned labor which critics have bestowed on this passage, the simple object of the precept seems to be this: 'thou shalt do nothing that may have any tendency to blunt thy moral feelings, or teach thee hardness of heart.'' Even human nature shudders at the thought of causing the mother to lend her milk to seethe the flesh of her young one!" The prohibition is also found in ch. 34:26 and in Deuteronomy.[ 35 ]

In vs. 20-23 God tells Moses that they will be guided by an angel on their way to Canaan. We read: "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared." We may presume that this angel is the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state. He is the One, Who, according to the writer to the Hebrews, would "lead many sons to glory."[ 36 ] These verses have a different tone from what we read in ch. 33. In vs. 2 and 3 of that chapter the Lord said to Moses: "I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." There, God is angry with the people because of their sin with the golden calf. Moses answers, therefore, in vs. 15, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." In the latter case it is, obviously, not the presence of Christ that would go before the people, but an angel, one of God's created beings.

It seems strange that God says these things to Moses here since the presence of the Lord had been with them all the time in the form of the cloud and the column of fire. These words put the journey through the desert in a historic perspective. It shows that God does lead many sons to glory through the guidance of our Lord Jesus Christ and that Israel's journey through the wilderness is an allegory of the pilgrimage of the Christian through this world on his way to Heaven.

Another strange thing is that God tells Moses that the angel will not forgive the people when they sin. We read in vs. 21: "Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him." It would seem that the angel would forgive, especially since God's Name was in him. This also seems to contradict what God says to Moses when He reveals His glory to him. Moses heard Him say: "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation" (ch. 34:6-7). Knowing how God deals with our sins, in punishing them in Jesus Christ, we understand what is meant. God does not overlook sin. The fact that God's Name is in him guarantees God's righteousness; His holiness and love met in the cross.

In order to understand God's animosity toward the inhabitants of Canaan we have to remember that the conquest was not a matter of a tribal warfare. The Bible gives only sparse information about the condition of the people that inhabited Canaan. It is easy to underestimate the horror of their sinful practices. Their idolatry was no innocent practice of their primitive religion. It was the kind of inhuman, demonic-inspired behavior that was the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Centuries before Israel entered the land God told Abraham: "In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."[ 37 ] Now the measure was full.

In the Old Testament Molech, Chemosh and Ashtoreth were called "detestable."[ 38 ] In I Kings we read: "There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites."[ 39 ] An example of the practices of the Canaanite religion is found in II Kings, where we are told: "Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites."[ 40 ] The Canaanites murdered infants in cold blood and burned them on the altar of their gods or buried them alive in the foundations of their buildings. Gross sexual immorality was part of religious practices.

Israel's conquest of Canaan was just as much an "act of God" as the flood that cleansed the ancient world. God wanted His people to cut out the cancerous growth in His world, but they were halfhearted surgeons who, eventually, caught the disease themselves.

In vs. 23 the Lord promises Israel the victory. As a matter of fact, He says: "I will wipe them out." The KJV translates it with: "I will cut them off." The Hebrew word is kachad which, according to Strongs Definition, means: "to secrete, by act or word; hence (intensively) to destroy." Other nuances would be: "to hide, to conceal, to cut down, to make desolate, to efface, to annihilate." The battle is the Lord's. David understands this when he says to Goliath: "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."[ 41 ] In I Chronicles we read how the Reubenites and Gadites were victorious in their conquests "because the battle was God's."[ 42 ] And when the Moabites and Ammonites attack Judah, one of the Levites prophesies to Jehoshaphat: "Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: `Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's."[ 43 ] The spiritual implications of this Old Testament truth for our life and time are abundantly clear. In our struggle against evil the battle is the Lord's and not ours. He is the One Who overcomes the world.

The admonition of vs. 24: "Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces," was completely lost on Israel. From the time of their entrance in Canaan till the captivity, they underestimated the dangers of spiritual contamination, and many of them fell prey to the enemy because they did not obey this command. Even Solomon, the wisest man on earth, was caught in the web and ended his brilliant life in idolatry and ignominy. No descendant of Adam is immune to the lures of the enemy. Even in a ministry of delivery, we have to be aware of the danger of pollution.

The promises God gives to His people if they worship Him are expressed in physical and material terms. "Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span." (Vs. 25, 26). For us this means, first of all, "every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly realms."[ 44 ] But physical welfare is not excluded.

In the following verses (27-33), the Lord indicates to the people how the victory over the evil of Canaan will be brought about. Four points are outlined that are of spiritual significance to any kind of battle with the enemy of God.

1. God will initiate the victory without the use of human agencies: Vs. 27 and 28 say: "I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way." The terror of the people to be conquered cannot be attributed to the force and strategy of the Israelite army. The main weapon will be "hornets." The Hebrew word is tsir`ah which has the connotation of stinging, or a wasp.

The second line shows the strategy of victory; it will be done "little by little." This does not only mean that the victory will not be won in one day, but it also means that God wants His people to grow into the position of being victorious. Victory is dependent upon faith, and faith is subject to growth. It is as they see the enemy defeated one by one that the vision of the people will grow up to the level where they will be able to claim victory for larger things. Vs. 29 and 30 bring this out: "But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you."

Then there is the warning against contamination, as we have seen already above. The enemy is not to be underestimated. Human beings with sinful natures will always be subject to temptation. David's words to Jonathan apply to all of us: "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."[ 45 ] That is why the Lord says: "Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."

In vs. 31 the Lord outlines the scope of the conquest: "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River." As far as we know, Israel never spread out to the point of filling the expanse God had given to them. Their boundaries could have run from Egypt to the Euphrates; Solomon's influence may have reached that far at one point, but the whole territory never became part of Israel. We read: "And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon's subjects all his life."[ 46 ] This statement confirms that Solomon received tribute from the people living there.

Lastly, there is the warning against contamination: "Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you." Behind every idol stands a demonic power which intends to murder God's creatures. The devil sets snares. David testifies to this when he says: "We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped."[ 47 ] Because of our sinful human nature, we are not immune to temptation. The devil knows what kind of bait to use to lure us.

If people who worship idols remain in the country, the people of Israel will be subjected to peer pressure. The most comfortable response would be to become good neighbors. Ironically, the devil uses being-a-good-neighbor for his own purposes. Jude sums up the attitude of the child of God to neighbors who have links with the demonic. He says: "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear-- hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh."[ 48 ]

We live, presently, no longer in a theocracy as Israel did but in a secular society. Driving out people who are involved with demons is not an option. We can see, though, how active and aggressive the enemy's propaganda is in our modern society. Agnosticism and atheism are acceptable philosophies of life; therefore, there is no place for God in society. Worship of God is first confined to private life and then banned in most of its outward expressions. We can see clearly how relevant God's warning to Israel was.

I wonder what the world would have looked like if Israel had taken this command of God seriously. In the book of Judges, we find a long list of the failures of Israel to comply with God's orders. "The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites. … But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labor. Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor."[ 49 ] There would have been a clear testimony of God in this world, if His people had been faithful to Him. We find that in our contemporary world too those who obey the truth are in the minority.

It is not without reason that the devil is called "the prince of this world."[ 50 ]

[ 1 ] Matt. 5:43

[ 2 ] Prov. 24:17; 25:21,22

[ 3 ] Matt. 27:20

[ 4 ] Luke 23:22-24

[ 5 ] Rev. 20:11,12

[ 6 ] Prov. 6:35

[ 7 ] Prov. 17:8, 23

[ 8 ] Prov. 21:14

[ 9 ] Matt. 6:25-32

[ 10 ] Heb. 13:5,6

[ 11 ] Gen. 14:17, 21,22

[ 12 ] Matt 6:24 (KJV)

[ 13 ] Lev. 25:20-22

[ 14 ] Lev. 26:33-35

[ 15 ] II Chr. 36:21

[ 16 ] Ps. 23:6

[ 17 ] Ps. 84:6

[ 18 ] Gen. 3:17-19

[ 19 ] Ps. 16:11

[ 20 ] John 9:4

[ 21 ] John 5:17

[ 22 ] Matt. 11:28-30

[ 23 ] Col. 2:16,17

[ 24 ] Deut. 5:14-15

[ 25 ] Rom. 8:20-22

[ 26 ] Deut. 6:5

[ 27 ] John 14:15

[ 28 ] I Cor. 5:7,8

[ 29 ] Matt. 26:26

[ 30 ] Rom 8:3,4

[ 31 ] See Lev.23

[ 32 ] II Chr. 30:11-13

[ 33 ] II Kings 23:22,23

[ 34 ] Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27

[ 35 ] Deut. 14:21

[ 36 ] Heb. 2:10

[ 37 ] Gen. 15:16

[ 38 ] I Kings 11:5, 7

[ 39 ] I Kings 14:24

[ 40 ] II Kings 16:2,3

[ 41 ] I Sam. 17:47

[ 42 ] I Chr. 5:18-22

[ 43 ] II Chr. 20:15

[ 44 ] Eph. 1:3

[ 45 ] I Sam. 20:3

[ 46 ] I Kings 4:21

[ 47 ] Ps. 124:7

[ 48 ] Jude vs. 21-23

[ 49 ] Judg. 1:19-21, 27-35

[ 50 ] John 16:11