why as we move through it. So

Scripture Reading: Exodus 22:16–31

I'll read beginning in chapter 22 at verse 16. If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride price of virgins. You shall not permit a sorceress to live.

Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. He who sacrifices to any God except to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.

If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a money lender to him. You shall not charge him interest.

If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering. It is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

You shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. Likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep.

It shall be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you shall give it to me. And you shall be holy men to me. You shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field.

You shall throw it to the dogs. Amen.

Introduction

Well, as we saw last week, as we got to this particular section, it is miscellaneous laws concerning society. So last time we looked at the law concerning the seduction of a virgin. in verses 16 and 17, and then three capital offenses in verses 18 to 20, a prohibition against witchcraft, a prohibition against bestiality, and a prohibition against idolatry. Those were capital offenses. They were revolutionary in terms of the civil order in Old Covenant Israel.

It was an act of treason to engage in such wicked and abominable practices. Now we move on. to the

Laws Prohibiting Abuse of Neighbors

laws prohibiting the abuse of neighbors in verses 21 to 27, and then the laws preserving the honor of Yahweh in verses 28 to 31. As we look first at the laws prohibiting the abuse of neighbors, there are various categories represented here. It's not exhaustive. It is a representative section of Holy Scripture.

But those societies that abuse the powerless will certainly be punished by God Most High. So we look at aliens, widows and orphans, and poor people. A society can be judged and measured by their treatment of or mistreatment of those vulnerable people groups. Obviously an alien is vulnerable.

He doesn't have the rights of citizenship. A widow is vulnerable because her husband is dead and she does not have that provision. An orphan is obviously vulnerable because he or she does not have parental authority in his or her life. And certainly the poor are vulnerable because they don't have the money that the powerful people have.

And so when we look at a society like our own, where children are held in disregard, where babies are aborted, children are increasingly being given permission and even encouraged to mutilate themselves in terms of transgenderism, when we see the marginalization of our elderly people, when we see an increasing state-promoted euthanasia program, these things do not bode well in terms of our future. We see that God takes notice with reference to the powerless and he will bring judgment to bear upon the powerful. And it's intriguing because in our society you often hear the media say we speak truth to power. Our media is on the side of power.

They are against the powerless. So I think this passage does hold for us a great deal of concern in terms of our modern situation in the application of biblical law and God's will concerning man's behavior. So we notice in verse 21, the alien, verses 22 to 24, you've got the widow and the orphan, and then in verses 25 to 27, you've got the poor.

The Alien: Image Bearer Without Citizenship

So let's look first at the alien. Again, the alien was powerless as the alien did not possess the rights of citizenship. He or she did not have that full badge of authority or identity with reference to the body politic in Israel. So the law demands that Israelites were morally responsible to treat image bearers with respect.

Even though they weren't citizens, they were still image bearers of the living and true God, so therefore they deserve respect. I think I've shown you many times, Deuteronomy chapter 25, there is respect shown and dignity provided for even a criminal that is being punished corporally for his crimes. And when we look at this particular passage, notice in verse 21, Now, before we move on to that rationale or reason, you'll probably notice today that passages like these are invoked to justify open borders in the United States and certainly in Canada. I think the biblical argument is offered up by leftists in the US far more than I've heard it in Canada.

They invoke the Bible to try to prove that lawlessness is perfectly acceptable. The text does not mean that Israel was morally responsible to allow illegal immigration. It doesn't mean that anybody and everybody could come in. You can't make the Bible say anything that you want it to say.

Now, they're trying to be funny here. This is bad when the God-hater takes our Bible and tries to use it against us. They have jettisoned any moral standard whatsoever, except insofar as they want to try to make us look bad. So they use our moral standard against us.

And more often than not, Christians allow that kind of behavior. We need to shoot back at them. I'm not talking about with a .45 or with a 9 mil. I'm talking about with the truth of God's holy word.

So when you look at this passage and it says, you shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, that does not legitimize an open southern border and five million people lawlessly basically invading a country. The presence of aliens assumes a citizenship. Paul's words to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 12 assumed citizenship. The Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

Again, I don't think or I'm not convinced they had the sorts of, you know, border patrol and the sorts of things that we have in terms of our immigration process. But that there were aliens tells us there was, in fact, a citizenship. So the presence of aliens assumes citizenship. The presence of borders assumes citizenship.

And many times, in Scripture, it is specified that amount of land that is given to Israel. You see it expand. Say, for instance, under Solomon, you see that border territory expand. And so all of these things argue that there was a citizenry within the body politic.

So a passage like this, where it says, you shall not neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, doesn't mean let him in and give him everything until the day that he dies. That is pressing the text way too far and way too hard. I cannot mistreat a stranger and not oppress him without having to put him on the government welfare role. I cannot do these things that are harmful to him as an image bearer without justifying or legitimizing criminal behavior.

And to enter somebody's sovereign nation unlawfully is, in fact, a crime. And criminals should be dealt with. So the law here is not legitimizing an open border policy where the Hittites and the Hibbites and the Jebusites and whateverites want to come in among you, just put them on the welfare list, put them on the medical healthcare system, put them in your schools, and just care for them from cradle to grave. Brethren, that's not what the text is calling us to, that's not what the text is legitimizing.

And then in terms of the rationale, notice in 21b, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So the reminder here is probably in the sense of you went through this yourself, so you should not do unto others as you had done unto you. But notice, God doesn't leave it at the, you know, reminder stage. This is a law and a prohibition.

In other words, it's not just a, remember how bad it was for you in Egypt, so don't make it bad for any present stranger or alien in Israel. No, this is a law. This is a prohibition. This is a mandate for them.

He's not leaving it up to the goodness of their heart in terms of their reflection upon their past status. And I think that Stuart is right on. He says, because every member of the Israelite nation hearing these words for the first time had been in the situation of aliens in Egypt only months prior, it might be assumed that they would all automatically loathe any form of discrimination against aliens and would seek naturally to avoid the sorts of practices of which they themselves had painfully been victims. He says, You can see that, right?

I mean, the thought is, you know, we had it bad, so therefore let's not make it bad for others. We'd like to think that of ourselves in some altruistic, virtuous way, but more often than not, we'd say, you know, we had it bad. Let's punish these slobs that come in amongst us. The law is stipulated so that they will not give in to that inclination of the human heart.

And so there is legislation on how to deal with the powerless vis-a-vis the alien, those who have come in amongst the body politic that do not enjoy the full rights of citizenship.

Widows and Orphans: Prohibition and Promise

Notice in the second situation, you've got widows and orphans in verses 22 to 24. There is a prohibition in verse 22, the promise in verse 23, and then finally the punishment stipulated in verse 24. But notice the prohibition in verse 22, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child, or orphan, we might say.

Robert Alter says, throughout biblical literature, and particularly in the prophets, these are paradigmatic cases of powerless members of society who are vulnerable to exploitation. Again, these are persons that don't have any protection, or the sort of protection that just about everybody else has. Most of us, or many of us, have husbands and wives, many of us have parents, and all that sort of thing. With the widow and orphan, they're basically left to fend for themselves.

Now, obviously, there's a New Testament counterpart to this particular verse. You can turn there, James chapter 1. where James deals with practical religion and where James deals with integrity before our God. And in chapter 1 at verse 26, he deals with the tongue and then he deals with action. Verse 26, if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So this old covenant stipulation, you shall not, or prohibition, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. But positively stated by James, he says that pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their trouble. Now, this verb, visit, is similar to the verb, remember, in Hebrews chapter 13, 4.

It's not just to have some conscious knowledge that somebody somewhere is in prison. But it's remember with a view to doing something to alleviate the situation. Same with the visit. It's not just a, hey, I paid my dues, I checked my box, I fulfilled my obligation. but visit with a view to actually render some aid to try to alleviate the problems that this person has.

Calvin says to visit in necessity is to extend a helping hand to alleviate such as are in distress. Now going back to the book of Exodus, we see several places where this prohibition and this positive remedy are applied to the case of the widow and the orphan. There's many, we're just going to look at a few. Deuteronomy chapter 10.

Deuteronomy chapter 10, widow and orphan, care for those vulnerable, those powerless among us. So in Deuteronomy chapter 10 at verse 18, he administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore, love the stranger, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in his name.

Deuteronomy 14 and verse 29. Deuteronomy 14 verse 29, and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hand which you do. So when this triennial tithe came in, there were specifications on how that tithe money was to be distributed. And it went to those who were, to some degree, powerless.

Those that were, you know, somewhat beholden on the goodness of the people, the Levites, and then the fatherless and the widow. They needed to be cared for. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24.

All these passages show us why James says, this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father. I mean, you may say, yeah, I'm a religious being. I'm a Christian man. I know my confession of faith.

I read Burkoff. I do all those things. But visiting widows and orphans in their distress, helping to alleviate the problems that persons have within the context of the church and outside of the church, This is the measure of true and undefiled religion. Notice in 2417, you shall not pervert justice, do the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge.

But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this thing. And then there are specific laws concerning how you care for those who are impoverished. Notice over in Deuteronomy 27.

Deuteronomy chapter 27. And I think this is somewhat in the backdrop, I know it's sort of the context, rather, of Exodus chapter 22. The language there is similar to what you see in the covenant curses. Deuteronomy 27 and 28 and Leviticus chapter 26.

So notice this curse in 27-19. Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow. Again, brethren, when we look at our modern situation with an utter disregard for the lives of babies in their mother's womb, with an utter disregard for maleness and femaleness in our young children, When we see the disregard in terms of euthanasia and the extension of it to encompass a whole host of powerless people among us, we hold life in contempt. We have a disregard for it in spades in the Western world.

And if we continue down this particular path, we'll see what the punishment is as we move through our text in Exodus chapter 22. But notice in Psalm 68, Psalm 68, again, just a handful of references that we find in the Old Testament. Psalm 68, specifically at verses 5 and 6. A father of the fatherless, extolling Yahweh, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.

God sets the solitary in families. He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Psalm 94, an imprecation concerning the godless. an imprecation concerning the wretched. Notice in Psalm 94 verse 1, O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs, O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth.

Rise up, O judge of the earth, render punishment to the proud. Lord, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph? They utter speech and speak insolent things. All the workers of iniquity boast in themselves.

They break in pieces your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand." There's no moral governor out there. There's no God to whom we're accountable.

There's no concern. This is nobody's business. Nobody, you know, sheds a tear for these powerless ones that we dispense with so cavalierly. Psalm 146.

Psalm 146. We sang this at the outset of our meeting tonight. 146.9. The Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and the widow. but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

The Lord shall reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord." Isaiah chapter 1, we won't turn there, but Isaiah chapter 1 sets the stage for the judgment to come upon the nation, the southern kingdom of Judah. And what is their offenses?

Their offenses is to exploit and to abuse and to afflict the powerless among them, namely the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor people. The prophet Jeremiah, we see the same sort of emphasis. You see it in the prophet Malachi. There are these constant repetitious themes throughout scripture, and God has a heart, and he expresses it for the alien, for the widow, and the orphan.

You have the ministry of Jesus. He upbraids the scribes and the Pharisees. What do the religious leaders do with reference to the widow's fortunes? They embezzle them.

They seize them from these poor women. As well, you've got the Apostolic Church. You've got the Apostle Paul. The only thing they wanted us to remember was to remember the poor.

The thing that we were anxious to do. Galatians chapter 2, verse 10. You've got the commandment by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 3. The emphasis on honoring widows.

And honoring there doesn't mean, oh right, you know, Mrs. Whoever. It means to give them money so that they don't starve to death. That's the practical emphasis in the context of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When people are hurting, we're supposed to try to alleviate those particular issues. Now, he qualifies it, and he works through the various aspects concerning widowhood. He says the primary responsibility is on the family. He identifies such as are real widows, and then he says that there's a necessity of obedience in the description of the disobedient.

Those who do not provide for their own, including their widows, are worse than infidels. And then he says that the church's responsibility, in the absence of family members, is to put widows on the list and to make sure that they're taken care of, that they're honored, that they have food, that they don't have to go live out in the cold, that we can tend to them and care for them. So going back to the book of Exodus, we see the emphasis on God's compassion for those who are powerless. So he makes this prohibition in verse 22, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.

And then in verse 23 he makes a promise. If you afflict them in any way and they cry it all to me, I will surely hear their cry. I believe this kind of harkens back to Exodus chapter 2. You can turn there.

Exodus chapter 2, remember in that particular situation we have Israel. in bondage. And while Israel is in bondage, what do they do? They cry out to Yahweh. So what does Yahweh do?

He raises up a deliverer in the person of Moses and he brings his people out of this house of bondage. Notice in Exodus 2 verse 23, Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, And they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

I'm pretty sure when we look back at that particular passage, and there's similar passages in the book of Judges, we've got that cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance. Well, there wasn't always repentance. Just because they cried out didn't mean they were crying out in terms of repentance. I don't think that's what's happening here in Exodus 22.

They're not saying, oh Lord, we've sinned against you. This is the fruit of or the consequences of our rebellion. Please forgive us. Give us grace so that we won't sin again.

No, they're crying out because it hurt. They're crying out because it was bondage. They're crying out and groaning because they were in dire straits. And nevertheless, even though there wasn't repentance, God hears and God delivers.

So notice, in our passage, if you afflict them in any way and they cry out at all to me, I will surely hear their cry. What do the powerless frequently lack in civil society? They lack any ear. They lack any redress.

They lack any sort of help from anybody outside of themselves. They don't get to go to the court, the Supreme Court. They'll never be able to stand there. Sitting in that courtroom yesterday, I'd love for the judge just at one time to say, what do you think, Mr.

Butler? What do you mean, what do I think? You got two hours? Because I got lots to tell you what I think.

I'll never get that opportunity. We're the proles in society. We'll never get to speak truth to power. There's always going to be a representative.

There's always going to be somebody else. We'll never get our day in court, at least as I perceive it. Things may change. Maybe I'm speaking out of turn.

I may see my day in court, especially if they put us back in masks or lockdowns or anything like that. But with reference to the powerless, they don't have redress in the civil courts. They can't hire, you know, Johnny Cochran to defend them. They can't hire, you know, the expensive lawyers.

They have no one except the living and true God. And yet, when they cry out to the living and true God, He promises, I will surely hear their cry. And then notice the punishment. He says, and my wrath will become hot.

I will kill you with the sword. Your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. The covenant curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27 and 28 generally. This is sort of, you know, foreshadowing that list of punishments and sanctions that are appended to covenant law.

You go into the land and you live like rebels and you will reap the consequences for your rebellion against a holy God. The judgment of God via the sword means through enemy invasion. When it says, I will kill you with the sword, there's not going to be a big sword that comes out of heaven and lops the head off of some guy who's afflicted a child or an orphan. He's talking about their loss with reference to enemy invaders.

The abuse of the powerless would render the nation powerless against enemy forces. Look at Leviticus 26, specifically at verse 25. Leviticus chapter 26, Covenant Curses, and verse 25. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.

When you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. This is definitely an allusion. Jesus alludes to this in the Olivet Discourse in Luke's Gospel. These are the days of vengeance, Jesus says.

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you know that its desolation is near. He says specifically, these are the days of vengeance. This brings us back to these covenant curses. I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.

And then notice in Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 27 and 28 specifically are the blessings and curses, but we see remnants of that continuing on to the end of the book. Notice in Deuteronomy 32 at verse 25. Deuteronomy 32 at verse 25, the sword shall destroy outside, there shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

Even the non-combatants in Israel are going to be decimated when foreign enemies invade. When you carry on in a pattern of oppressing the powerless, you will be powerless to fight off enemy invaders. And this is why I say this is a very scary section of Scripture. If we continue down this path in Western civilization, I'm not suggesting we're a theocratic nation, I'm not suggesting we're the Commonwealth of Israel, but I'm suggesting that we live in God's moral universe.

And when people in God's moral universe exploit people, when they abuse people, when they mistreat people, and when they misuse people, God Most High brings vengeance to bear upon them. And when we look at passages like these, we ought to be prayerful in light of our civilization. Notice the language of Deuteronomy 32, verse 42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. with the blood of the slain and the captives from the heads of the leaders of the enemy." So in the punishment appended, or attached to this prohibition, my wrath will become hot, I will kill you with the sword, your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

Now notice that sort of specification in Deuteronomy 28. Why is it that your children will be fatherless and your wives will be widows? Yeah, you'll be dead. Or, this could speak to exile.

Notice in 28-41, which we know exile was a particular punishment inflicted upon both kingdoms in Israel. And Deuteronomy 28 is very extensive on that. Everything you see in the prophets, everything you see in, say, 2 Kings 17, in the fall of the northern kingdom, and then in 2 Kings 24, the fall of the southern kingdom, don't go, I can't believe this happened. Or when the prophets come to throw down with the nation of Israel, I can't believe this is happening.

Deuteronomy 28 makes it crystal clear what's going to happen. And notice in 28-41, you shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. So when we go back to this passage in Exodus chapter 22 and we compare later revelation, we see that the reason why Israel reaped the judgment of God Most High was at the level of the mistreatment and the affliction of the powerless among them.

It's not rocket science, brethren. It's not, wow, I can't believe the fall of Israel. I can't believe the covenant people. They got sacked by Assyria and then Babylon.

You should believe it because God promised that such would be the case if they continued down this path of wretchedness. Stuart says, the threat implied here is that God will allow Israel's enemies to attack and exterminate them if they did not uphold social justice. I mentioned this on Sunday too. God's word is pro-social justice.

The problem with social justice warriors today isn't social justice, it's their version of it. It's Marxism, it's critical race theory, it's an inversion of what's right and wrong. You can't read the Bible, both testaments, without seeing an emphasis on social justice. James sounds like a minor prophet when he comes to deal with the professing people of God that he's dealing with.

Who could, you know, evade the clear teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25? When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was poor, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me.

Of course the Bible emphasizes a horizontal element in terms of our religion. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their distress. There's not a problem with social justice. The problem is social justice warriors who are serving Karl Marx and not Jesus Christ.

The Geneva Bible at this passage says the plague or the just plague of God upon the oppressors. So this punishment reflects the nature of God, the perfections of God, the being of God at the level of righteousness and justice.

The Poor: Usury and the Pledge

And then let's move on to the poor in verses 25 to 27. Again, there's a prohibition, there's a pledge, and then there's a promise. Notice the prohibition in verse 25. If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him.

You shall not charge him interest or what we call usury. It was lawful to charge the pagans interest. That was legit. You go ahead and charge those pagans, you know, up to whatever for interest.

You can turn to Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, 19 and 20 shows us the specific limitations, the specific qualification concerning loaning money. 23, 19, you shall not charge interest to your brother, interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the Lord your God may bless you and all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess. So going back to our particular passage, it was lawful to charge interest to pagans.

It was unlawful to charge interest in the covenant community to your brother. Now there is this assumption built into the text that you will lend. There is an assumption built into the text that you will be generous, that you're not going to be cavalier, that you're not going to hoard your dough, that you're not going to watch your brother starve to death. You're going to try to be there to alleviate his particular problems and to be able to help him.

Everybody falls on hard times from time to time within the body politic, within the covenant community. Go ahead and lend money to your brother, but don't charge him usury. Don't get money, don't make money off of his back. Now, the prohibition against charging interest to fellow Israelites is not only here, but you see it in Leviticus 25, 36, and 37, Proverbs 28, 8, and then in Ezekiel 18, which speaks about responsibility for sin.

Each person's own responsibility for sin. One of the particular aspects is money, loaning, or lending money with usury appended. You see it in 18.8, 1813, 1817, and then in 22, chapter 22, verse 12, speaks condemningly against charging usury with reference to loans to your brethren. Now Ezekiel 22 is quite informative or instructive because it explains to the people of Israel why they're in Babylon.

You're in Babylon because you have broken my law. You're in Babylon because you violated and profaned the Sabbaths. You're in Babylon because you have taken the covenant law and you have rejected it. One of the particulars is that they charged interest to their brethren.

So going back to our passage, the prohibition is simple. You're not supposed to charge interest to your brother. Verse 26, if you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering.

It is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? Now the pledge is collateral to secure the loan. So while you're to be generous, you're not to be frivolous.

There's responsibility. And you're not doing your brother any good by just handing him money. That's never a good thing, ultimately. I was intrigued recently.

I saw Bono finally make that observation. You know, he's been a big humanitarian. He's gone all over the globe to help the downtrodden and the poor. You know what he said a couple weeks ago?

It doesn't do anybody any good to give them free stuff. Capitalism. Capitalism. People need to work.

People need to be able to provide for themselves. We could have told you that 40 years ago before you ever went globetrotting to help the downtrodden and poor. It is a very simple principle. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

If people get a free lunch, they will come to expect that free lunch. And God does not take that lightly. That is a bad thing. So with reference to lending, you be generous but not frivolous.

So as Stewart says, normally a lender's incentive to grant a loan is the confidence that if the borrower defaults, the lender can then take the property as his own in compensation for the unrecovered money. It's just simple economics. And the borrower knows that. The borrower goes into that.

He produces a pledge. He produces his collateral. But the point is, is if you're taking his collateral or pledge causes him to freeze to death, that's not good. You're not supposed to do that.

That's the emphasis. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, it's not like us where we have, you know, five different jackets hanging in our closet. It's a light breeze out, so I'll put on my light jacket. you know, frigid, I'll put on my big coat. It wasn't like that.

You had one outer garment and you wore it and you slept in it. If you didn't have it, you froze to death. That's just the bottom line. So if you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

You hold his pledge, you hold the collateral, but you don't do it at night when the guy's going to freeze. You give it back to him. Notice, for that is His only covering. It is His garment for His skin.

What will He sleep in? Now notice the promise, and it will be that when He cries to me, I will hear. Notice the perfection specified, for I am gracious. It will be that when He cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious." Again, with reference to the powerless.

They don't have redress in terms of civil court. They don't have lawyers that they can hire. They don't have judges on their iPhone that they can call up. They don't have persons in high places that will vindicate them.

But they have the person of God Most High. They've got the being of God Most High, rather, in heaven, who when they call upon Him, He will hear. And I love this. It says, "...and it will be that when he cries to me..." What are we talking about here?

We're talking about the poor. The guy who can't live without a coat at night. The poor guy. The man that doesn't have, you know, everything else.

And yet, he's got a direct line to God. It will be that when he cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious." Now, it doesn't specify what he will do. I'll throw a coat down from heaven and cover the man. I think if we take it on balance with what we saw in the previous section in terms of orphan and widow, he will hear and he will vindicate that man, and he will bring punishment upon that man who keeps his coat or garment as a pledge.

So God is active, God is involved in the civil polity, and He will vindicate the powerless even when they are exploited by the powerful.

Laws Preserving the Honor of Yahweh

And then in terms of Yahweh, the laws preserving the honor of Yahweh. Notice the authority of God in verse 28. We uphold the dignity of God's authority in verse 28.

Reviling God and Cursing Rulers

You shall not revile God, we know that from the Commandments, nor curse a ruler of your people. So it's obviously a prohibition against blasphemy, but it's also a challenge to God's authority. God establishes His authority in the family. Look at 2117. 2117, he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Well, why is that? Because in Exodus chapter 20 at verse 12, we have honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. They are the authority that represents God in the family. So in verse 17 of chapter 21, he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

It's a challenge to God's authority. So you've got God, don't blaspheme him. You've got parents, don't curse them because they represent God's authority. And then you have civil authority that represents God's authority and ecclesiastical authority.

Right? So this is the emphasis in 28. You shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. Gil says specifically at this passage, but civil magistrates, the judges of the land, and the like are meant who are powers ordained of God, are in his stead and represent him.

And therefore respect should be shown them, nor should they be treated with any degree of slight and contempt, which may discourage and intimidate them and deter them from the execution of their office." Earlier in the section we saw that they appear before the judges, literally the Elohim, the gods. Psalm 82 refers to the gods, likely civil authority. And so this passage demands that we show respect and that we show a regard for lawful authority in the family, lawful authority in the civil sphere, lawful authority in the ecclesiastical sphere. If we buck against the authority in the family, the authority in the civil sphere, or the authority in the ecclesiastical sphere, we are bucking against the authority of God.

Now, obviously, in fact, you can turn to Acts chapter 23. This is not the common interpretation, but it is an interpretation, and it's the one I hold to. The authority must represent God. properly. In other words, his authority is only insofar as he is doing that which is righteous.

In other words, if a mother and father tell a child to engage in wicked behavior or tell a child to do that which is, you know, abominable, that child must obey God rather than men, right? If the civil authority prohibits the preacher from preaching Christ, we must obey God rather than men. So the lawful authority of the person in authority that represents God to the inferior must execute that authority in a responsible way. So let every soul be subject to the governing authority, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

They are God's servant to you for good. Not for bad. If they're telling you to sin, they're telling you to disobey God, they're telling you to rebel, they're telling you to engage in lawlessness, well, you must obey God rather than men. So there's limitations in terms of the authority in family, the authority in civil, and the authority in terms of ecclesiastical.

If a pastor tells you something that is heretical, or a pastor tells you something or gives you a command that's not biblical, you must obey God rather than men. Now, in Acts chapter 23, the apostle is before the Sanhedrin. And if you notice in chapter 23 at verse 1, then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? And those who stood by said, Do you revile God's high priest? Then Paul said, I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, look at the text, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.

Brethren, I don't think he's saying, I'm sorry I violated the law. I think he's saying, I didn't know because you're not acting like the high priest. The high priest does not have the authority to arbitrarily and capriciously order slaps to be inflicted on a man under examination. That is an abuse of authority, just like the Sanhedrin abused their authority when they were dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren, they didn't have, you search the law of God, you go through Genesis to Malachi and you find one place where the Sanhedrin or the religious council in Israel had the right before man was convicted to start slapping him and beating him and engaging in the sorts of things that the Sanhedrin does in that first century. Both to our Lord Jesus Christ, to Stephen as we saw in Acts 7 on Sunday night, they did not have lawful authority to execute him at And neither does the high priest here have the authority to tell his henchmen to slap the Apostle Paul. So when he says, I didn't know, some say, well, it's because he had malaria and his eyesight wasn't good. I believe his eyesight wasn't good.

At the end of Galatians, see with what large letters I write these words. He had bad eyesight. He told the Galatians, you treated me like an angel. You would have given me your own eyes.

Why would he say that? Why would they want to give him their eyes? Probably because he had bad eyesight. So some say, well, he had bad eyesight.

He couldn't really tell it was the high priest. No, he couldn't tell. He said it was that the high priest didn't function according to the high priestly office. I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest.

For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. So this particular passage is a heavy passage. Nor curse a ruler of your people. Family authority, civil authority, ecclesiastical authority.

They're supposed to be revered, they're supposed to be honored, they're supposed to be respected, they're supposed to be obeyed. But when they overstep their boundaries, when they engage in that which is not lawful, we have a higher authority, and it's God himself. So if a parent tells a child to do something vicious or vile, or if the state tells a person to do something contrary to the word of God, or if the church tells somebody to do something that is contrary to the word of God, we must obey God rather than men. So earthly authority, while it represents God, is always restrained or qualified by the ultimate authority of God Almighty.

Firstfruits, Firstborn, and Holiness

And then the final section, service given to God. Verses 29 to 30 deals with sacrifice, and then verse 31 deals with sanctity maintained before God. So with reference to the sacrifice, the timely sacrifice of your first fruits. Look over at 2314.

Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month of Abib. For in it you came out of Egypt.

None shall appear before me empty. You bring sacrifice to God, not because God has need, but because God is worthy, God is given, and this is the means by which you present your sacrifice to God. You don't come empty-handed when you go before Yahweh. As Gary North once said, people in the Western world, they want their religion, but they want it cheap.

And God says, nope, you don't show up empty-handed. So the timely sacrifice of your firstfruits and then the firstborn son given to God. This is a monetary payment we know from a parallel in Exodus chapter 13. And then verse 31 is interesting.

You shall be holy men to me. You shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs. There are laws in the Old Testament regarding the killing of animals.

You've heard it called kosher killing, they drain the blood. And there were specifications on how to kill it, how to eat it, where to eat it, when to eat it. And so you are not supposed to eat that which was torn by another animal. That was carrion and that was fitting only for the dogs.

Dogs don't get great treatment in much of the Bible. But I don't think they're like the little ones that sat on your lap. They were probably more vicious scavenger type things. But the point here was they were to be separate from the pagan nations.

You shall be holy men to me. Separate men, sanctified men. You shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field. That's the way the pagans do it.

You take it rather and you throw it to the dogs. It's fitting for them. So in conclusion, we do see an emphasis on biblical justice. Biblical justice, probably the better choice of words to modify justice than social because we get so many strange interpretations of social justice.

And then the protection of the powerless people. Aliens, widows, orphans, and the poor. They're not to be taken advantage of. They're not to be exploited, they're not to be misused or abused, but rather they are to be treated as image bearers of the living God.

And yea brethren, in a situation where we have the power to help the powerless, we ought to be generous in the means or the way that we go about that. I don't think it's not, it isn't, you know, we look at the balance of scripture. So negatively, or the prohibition, you know, don't afflict them. Positively, visit them, care for them, render aid to them, give to them, help them, try to alleviate the suffering of the downtrodden and poor.

And then finally, the promotion of the holiness of God.

Application

So, these laws preserving the honor of Yahweh at the level of His authority and at the level of the service given to Him. That's the emphasis in these miscellaneous laws pertaining to society. Well, I'll close in a word of prayer.

Closing Prayer

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its clarity. We thank you so very much for the perfections of God revealed in passages like these, that you are gracious, that you are compassionate, that you hear the prayers of those who are afflicted and those who are suffering. And may you encourage us, God, to be those who are faithful in terms of pure and undefiled religion.

We pray for our nation. We pray for the Western world. We pray for the world at large. and the things that concern us in terms of crimes committed against those vulnerable among us. We pray that in your wrath you would remember mercy.

We pray that you would remove vicious and vile and wicked political leaders and put in their place men that are committed at least to some degree to natural law, to those principles that are found in God's world that uphold those things of justice and righteousness and things that make for a decent body politic. We just pray, God, that you'd bless our local church and help us to glorify you, and we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Questions and Answers

Well, any questions or comments on that section? Just a comment that we are all strangers and covert, as Peter says. Yep, we are passing through, that's for sure. Citizenship is in heaven. a notion of you wouldn't want to have a society that is known for being so inward-looking that it just treats everyone else poorly by virtue of not being from that country.

You see this in many societies, both contemporaneously and historically, in inwardness, where it's like an isolationism, almost like Japan prior to that American guy at the turn of the 1800s. That's not really the best way to live. But I think if you have a proper immigration process, I mean, if somebody is a citizen, it doesn't matter what their ethnicity is. It doesn't matter, you know, where they come from.

But if they're lawbreakers, they should be treated by lawbreakers. You violate the law of the land to get into a country, you shouldn't be reported for that. I don't see the equity there. Other righteousness.

I hate to use the word equity anymore. Exactly means the exact opposite in modern speech, new speech. I know when we were down south we were talking to Pastor Campbell about how illegal immigrants will become members of churches, or want to become members of churches down there, and how exactly the churches should deal with brothers who are in the US illegally, and exactly what course of action ought to be taken. Because if they do it right, they're going away, and they're probably not coming back.

Oh, yeah. Right? So I thought that was their figure. They're working on that.

But I thought that was a very any black from any two countries upon return.

Scripture References

• Exodus 2:23; 13; 20:12; 21:17; 22:16-31; 23:14
• Leviticus 25:36-37; 26:25
• Deuteronomy 10:18; 14:29; 23:19; 24:17; 25; 27:19; 28:41; 32:25; 32:42
• 2 Kings 17; 24
• Psalms 68:5-6; 82; 94:1; 146:9
• Proverbs 28:8
• Isaiah 1
• Ezekiel 18:8; 18:13; 18:17; 22:12
• Matthew 25
• Acts 7; 23:1
• Galatians 2:10; 6:11
• Ephesians 2:12
• 1 Timothy 5:3
• Hebrews 13:3
• James 1:26-27