Ex. 23: Thou shalt Celebrate.

In chapter 23, God reveals His commands regarding false witness, lying for someone, and mob justice.

Favoritism
Additionally, God commands not to show favoritism to a poor man in a lawsuit. Interesting. Is it not human nature to want to help the little guy? God is so justice-minded that he must remind us to be as well. Of course the poor people can milk the system to their advantage, playing on the sympathies of people. God warns us not to fall into this prejudice.

Helping Enemies
Return your enemy's ox to him if you find it, and help it up if it has fallen down under its load. Fascinating. An enemy is described here as someone who hates you. It says nothing about you hating them. So, fine. First instinct is to revel in an enemy's hardship. Second nature is to do nothing. The last thing I want to do is help someone who hates me. Forget that, brotha. God tells me to go against that instinct, and pitch in and help. Its about being good and kind, plus you buy goodwill.

Innocents
Do not put innocent people to death, because God will not acquit the guilty. Seems obvious. But in a twisted way, maybe you want to see the goody-two-shoes get their comeuppance. Am I right?

Bribes
Unacceptable in any form. What do bribes do? They twist words. They change stories. They blind those who can see.

Sabbath Laws
God says sow your fields and harvest for six years, and then during the seventh year, let the field go unused. That way the poor among you can use it, and the animals can eat what they leave behind. I'm sure there is some deeper truth behind that. Just sure of it. So work for six years...or 6/7ths of my time. The final 1/7th is for the poor. Is that a standard of charity?

But this field is allowed 1 year in every 7 to rest. Does the whole universe receive this rest? I thought it was for God and man. But here we have something like a field. Makes me believe this rest applies to all creation. Who are we to take rest away from the field?

Feasts
There are three feasts a year God commands His people to celebrate. A command to celebrate. This isn't just joy for joy's sake. It is joy in deliverance. In the way God revealed Himself in a very vivid way. The Unleavened Bread we've discussed. The Feast of Harvest was about the first fruits of the field. Remember Genesis 4 when God was not pleased with Cain's alleged sacrifice? It was never about the fruit. It was about the heart. There is also the Feast of Ingathering, which at first site, appears to be celebrating the exact same thing, but upon further review, the call on the field has been reversed. Harvest is first fruits, Ingathering is when you gather in the crops of the field.

No blood sacrifice is to be offered with anything containing yeast. And what does God have against yeast? What is the purpose of yeast? What is the nature of yeast that it shares with sin or impurity?

God Prepares the Way
Beginning in verse 20, God relates how this whole transaction of the promised land is going to go down. God is sending an angel to go ahead of the Israelites. And this is just awesome reading right here.

God tells the people not to rebel against the angel, because God's Name is in Him. God's Name is in this angel. This messenger. If the Israelites listen and do what this angel (God) says, God will be an enemy to their enemies. An opposer to those who oppose them. That's powerful stuff. Again, conditional on the behaviors and hearts of the Israelites.

God will bring them into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites. And God will wipe them all out. Man. Again, my questions about God's concern for human lives is raised. These were people too. Did God love these other people despite having his chosen people? Was there a chance to repent? Was the sole purpose of these people merely to test Israel's obedience and fidelity to God? And its easy here to project our emotions onto God, and audaciously say, "How could God do such a thing?" When I don't know. I can't answer that. Am I intellectually dishonest to not bother to question it further? Why keep attempting to understand in complete futility? Why not realize the mystery of Him? Why did I get off track?

God says He will keep the Israelites free from sickness, barrenness, and miscarriage if they stay on track and don't bow down to other gods. In fact, the command was to smash these idols to small pieces, eliminate them completely.

How will God do this? He will send a terror ahead of Israel that will spark these other nations to flee in confusion. Those who oppose Israel will be forced to turn their backs and run. I want that! Would my behavior reflect that, is the question...

God will send the hornet ahead to drive out three nations. Amazing. Just some bees. Probably some sort of supernatural mega bee though. I freak out of my mind when I see one harmless bumblebee.

The borders will be from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean (apparently also called the Sea of the Philistines), and from the desert to the Euphrates. Not sure what desert, but the point is, it was probably a lot of land. God will hand over these people, and God said make no deals with them or their gods. (Did other gods have some sort of a deal-making power?) If they are allowed to live in Israelite land, God knew that worship of their gods would soon follow so He wanted to make the covenant with them.