Exodus chapter 23.
A lot of laws still but I want to highlight a few thoughts.
1. Justice is for everyone no matter who they are or how much we like or dislike them.
2. In fact we are to do good for our enemies. If something will ever win an enemy over to the Lord, it will be our love for them.
3. Having a Sabbath day is valuable spiritually and physically.
4. Having times of celebration for the Lord is a great habit to have.
5. God wants to direct our paths for today and for our future. And his Direction sometimes comes at a slow pace not with immediate results.
6. Don't surround yourself with evil people or some of their ways will become your ways. There's great value in being committed to church Fellowship and developing Christian friends because we need their accountability in helping us stay on the right path.
Amen, Pastor Blair! Reading these laws, it’s easy to miss that God’s loving hand is being shown to His people. For a culture to work, there must be boundaries and regulations. It’s also easy to forget that the children of Israel were surrounded by pagan cultures. Righteous living is meant to set them (and us) apart from the world. It is the love of God that puts parameters on our lives. Keep your eyes on Him.
There are so many rules that I don’t completely understand at this point, but I’m sure that God had a reason for giving each one of them even if I might not know that much like what the reason is for a young goat to not be boiled in its mother’s milk. I think that the most important thing to remember is to trust and obey God no matter what because He knows best and He deserves best. I’m reminded of 1 Samuel 15:22, And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Recent finds of ancient writings around this time in Canaan show there was a pagan fertility ritual that involved this practice (young goat boiled in its mother’s milk). God may have given this regulation so the Israelites would stay clear of anything resembling this pagan practice. Interestingly enough, the Jewish people have taken this regulation so far that Observant Jews do not eat meat products with dairy products. You will not get a cheeseburger in Israel today.
Thanks Jeanine. That makes sense about them steering clear of that practice if that were the case. I knew about some Jewish people not mixing meat products with dairy products, but I wasn’t sure exactly where or when that started from.
Amen, Blair, Jeanine, and Jim! Jim I love the scripture you included in your comment. I am not familiar with that verse, but boy does it ring true for my own walk with the Lord! Obey the Lord and live a life aligned with His teachings and our life will be more blessed than we can imagine!
Thanks Sarah. I’m glad that verse connected with you. I was thinking about even in my family about how much better it is when the kids obey instead of having to deal with consequences such as getting burned by touching something that they were warned about being too hot. Here’s how I look at it: sacrifice involves a cost that someone has to pay while obedience is better because there’s no negative consequence that anyone has to deal with.
Of course, we need to remember that we do live in a fallen world and sometimes things happen that seem bad or we might not understand like in Job’s case. Matthew 5:45 tells us that “…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” However, we can also see God’s blessings poured out on His people so many times when they obey and follow His principles just like we see in Proverbs. Another example that we recently read about would be God’s protection on the Israelites in Goshen while the Egyptians were having to deal with the plagues.