A Journey Through the Bible: Exodus 23 and 24

Exodus 23:4--"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again." It's from precepts such as this that the Lord derived the teaching "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Most, if not all, of the principles of New Testament Christianity are found in the old law; not as clearly stated or as fully explained as by Jesus, but they are there, mainly because the same God authored both Old Testament and New. This verse is also a good illustration of the "Golden Rule": "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them." Then Christ said "for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Mt. 7:12). In other words, you can find the same principle in the Old Testament teaching. Exodus 23:4 is a solid example of that.

Exodus 23:10-11--"Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove." The Lord has always required that those less fortunate than we should be taken care of. The Law of Moses had a "welfare system," but it was intended to be voluntary, not forced by government diktat. This is a commandment of Jehovah, but there was no Jewish IRS to enforce it. There is no virtue in being forced to provide for others; God wants to see what is in our hearts. Other passages in the Law exist which deal with taking care of the poor and needy and we will look at them in turn. But the key here is to understand that providing for the poor is a necessary part of pure religion, but doing so voluntarily is the only acceptable course. Unfortunately, there is no clear indication in the Old Testament that the Jews honored this command, but we have no clear evidence that anyone starved in the streets, either.

Exodus 24:3--"So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has said we will do." Easy to say, hard to do. At least it was for this people. More than once (in this chapter) they tell Moses that they will do all that Jehovah commanded them. But there has rarely been a more fickle, capricious people in history than these Israelites who came out of Egypt. They rarely obeyed God, and as a result only 2 of them out of 603,500 (men 20 years of age and older) entered the land of Canaan, an entrance that God had promised them for 500 years. Saying and not doing is called "hypocrisy," and such a term describes these people perfectly. It wasn't just a quality of this generation, however; Jesus dealt with it in abundance, too. In speaking of the Pharisees, He said, "for they say, and do not do" (Mt. 23:3). Words mean nothing without the actions that back them up.