Exodus 21 – Hebrew Servants and Personal Injuries
Exodus 22 – Protection of Property and Social Responsibility
Exodus 23 – Laws of Justice and Mercy, Sabbath Laws, The Three Annual Festivals and God’s Angel to Prepare the Way
Thoughts about serving others
This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
Today’s readings in Exodus take us back to a time when Moses was working hard to organize the Israelites, a time when God spoke to Moses and Moses in turn spoke to the people. Reading through these ancient texts is like looking into a microscope to understand a person or staring at a puzzle piece to see a photo. It’s only one part of the story, but the more we understand the details, the richer the story. Lord help me to learn this morning.
Reading through Exodus 21, 22 and 23:1-9, I get the impression that the Israelites, the chosen people, have become a horrible group of people. Some 430 years in Egyptian captivity has inbred a culture that God has to remold. The value of a human life was far different in those days, there are so many laws that result in the death penalty, these people obviously were an incredibly difficult group to manage. The whole concept of worshipping a single God must have been totally foreign to these chosen people.
God knows his people well and he is doing things that reshape them. “Do not let them [people of the land given to you] 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” (Exodus 23:33). Indeed we see this prophetic verse in the lives of the kings. People are so easily turned from God.
Lord move me from the masses, guide me in your ways and with your people. Many are the rules of the land, but Jesus simplified them all, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39).