Exodus 22:16-23:9--Laws Regarding Actions Against God and Nature

16 “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. 17 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.

18 “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.

19 “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.

20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

25 “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. 26 If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

28 “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.

29 “You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. 30 You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.

31 “You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

23 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

4 “If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

​9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

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I hope my title is clear as this is the best category I could come with--most of these laws have to do with "deviant" behavior that while maybe not seen as "criminal" (like murder and kidnapping), are so detrimental the fabric and foundation of society that God says these people have to die as their wickedness will be contagious and spread throughout the community.  These are the acts that define the pagan nations that surrounded God's people that were rebellious against God and His established order, and it was not the way that God's people were supposed to live.

We've already seen in Genesis how the Canaanites did not respect the virginity of a young woman and would take beautiful woman as their concubines like they did with Dinah that lead to Simeon and Levi slaughtering a whole tribe of Canaanites to rescue their sister.  We also saw that they might even kill a husband to take his wife if she was beautiful as we saw Abram and Isaac fear this several times with the Egyptians and the Philistines.  Sexual purity was to be revered among God's people and women were not to be seen as sexual objects or conquests.  Anyone who wanted to do "married people things" with a woman needed to pay the dowry to the father and marry the woman ,but the father (who was in a position to protect his daughter) was allowed to refuse to allow her to marry such a man (say he was abusive) and the man was still required to pay the dowry for her all the same.  This was a crime against God's natural order of marriage coming before sex and we'll see all kinds of sexual deviance discussed in this section of the Law.

Next comes a prohibition on sorcery.  That seems pretty straightforward, but what is that? What are the people being told not to do?  This same word can also be translated as "astrology," "divination," "magic," and "witchcraft."  Remember the people just came out of Egypt where the king consorted with "magicians" and "sorcerers" when he needed to understand something that was clearly outside the physical realm.  For instance, Pharaoh called for his magicians to try to interpret his dreams in the time of Joseph, but their books could not give the interpretation.  In the time of Moses the magicians used their "dark arts" to try to replicate the miracles God performed through Moses so that Pharaoh would believe that the gods of Egypt were just as powerful as the God of Israel.  Such acts glorify and consult with the "spirits" and other gods for the answers and wisdom and power that belong only to the one true God.  Saul, the first king of Israel, will get in trouble for this when he consorts with the Witch of Endor.  There is no such thing as "white magic" in the Bible, just like there is no such thing as a "white lie."  Does that mean all illusion and "magic tricks" are bad?  Certainly not--the word "magic" there means something different.  The magic we're talking about here is that of trying to harness the spiritual realm to affect things in the physical realm such as to put blessings or curses on people and nations (we'll see this with Balaam in the book of Numbers), the idea of changing something worthless (like lead) into something valuable (like gold), healings, fortune telling, interpretation of dreams, and all other kinds of "divination" where someone speaks what the will of the spirits are or which direction they want you to go in.  Ever heard of a "divining rod" or "divining stick" that's supposed to lead you to water?  Yep, that's from a form of sorcery/witchcraft.  Along with this would go things like Ouija boards, tarot cards, spell book, amulets, crystals, potions, and all kinds of drugs.  Speaking of drugs, did you know that drug use for the most part also fits into this category?  The purpose of most drugs is to put your mind into an altered state and the purpose of using those drugs in the past was to open your mind to the "spirit realm" where the "spirits" (demons) could freely communicate with you.  This becomes clearer in Greek when the word used for "witchcraft" and "sorcery" is pharmakeia (φαρμακεια) from which we get our English words like "pharmacy" and "pharmaceuticals."  You may also be familiar with the idea of the "witch doctor" in pagan cultures.  This is not to say that all medicines and pharmaceuticals or bad, but remember that it is God who Jehovah Rapha.  Do not play around with the spirit realm, period, end of story.  Such actions were worthy of death.

Next comes another sexual perversion--bestiality.  ​If you're a normal person you probably never even considered this and it turns your stomach to even think about it, but there are depraved and degenerate people that will have sex with animals.  We think this is how some of the STD's and STI's crossed over from the animal kingdom into the human kingdom--that a man had relations with monkeys and then with many women and that was the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  Once again, God put barriers in place to protect His people.  Any such person also had to be put to death because God knew this kind of sexual deviancy was a danger to the entire community, but also such actions were closely related to paganism--as I said before, all these things that God is prohibiting here were the identity of the Canaanites that God would wipe out for their wickedness.

The next seems pretty clear.  Don't make sacrifices to any other gods.  Seems clear enough and comes straight out of the first and second commandments, but where they were not necessarily clear that God was first and don't make an idol, this seems to be more clear that God alone is worthy of our worship and praise and He will not share His glory with anyone or anything else.

I find the next one interesting because all the laws given so far were how to treat other people within the Israelite community and were directed at how they should treat their "brothers."  Very little has been said so far about how to treat foreigners, but God clearly says that foreigners are not to be mistreated simply because they are from a different culture.  Oh, how we have been guilty of this one throughout history!  God also says that widows and fatherless children (maybe orphans, maybe children where the father had an affair with the mother and left her to raise the child, maybe children whose father died but the father had every intent of being there) should not be taken advantage of or mistreated and God promises that He will certainly pour out His wrath on anyone that mistreats these disadvantaged innocents if they cry out to Him.  The Jews would imagine that God would not hear the cries of the ungodly, but God promises to hear the cries of the outsiders if they cry out to Him when His people mistreat them.  I find that interesting.  God reminds them that they too were sojourners in a foreign land and were mistreated and they should never treat others this way.

God's people were never to take advantage of their brothers financially.  All loans were to be made with little or no interest being charged and God warns His people not to take someone's coat as collateral for a loan (they must be pretty bad off to have to give their coat as collateral) without returning it to them before the sun goes down so that they did not die of exposure to the cold or not have any bedding to sleep on.  Again, God promises to hear the cries of the poor in this case if they are taken advantage of by loan sharks and money lenders, and God promises that He will get justice for those that cry out to Him.

Now comes another interesting one.  Of course we are not to revile God, but that is followed by "or curse the ruler of your people."  The people would have lots of bad kings in the future, but to curse the king is to curse God who brought that king to power.  That is not to say that the king is God, but he is an agent of God and Romans 13 makes this clear, as do other passages in the Bible.  God, not man, is responsible for establishing governments and raising rulers up and bringing them down in His way and His time.

God then commands the people to not delay in giving their firstfruits of their harvest and the firstborn of their herds and flocks that belonged to the LORD.  The animals were allowed to be with their mother for seven days but were to be weaned and given to the LORD on the eighth day.  

The people were never to eat anything killed by animals.  If they found a dead animal it was food for the dogs and not for human consumption.  This again protected the people from all kinds of diseases.  We will also see that all the animals that feed on creatures like these would be declared "unclean" and the people were not to eat of these animals either.

Next, God says that we should never give false testimony in court nor should we conspire with evil men to commit a crime (there is usually an agreement to cover up such actions and lie about our involvement).  We also are not to take sides in any lawsuit--if we have facts to present, then we present the facts, but we do not alter our testimony to benefit one side or the other or attempt to sway the outcome.  That is a perversion of justice.

We see that the people were supposed to show the same care for their enemy's donkey as they would want their brother to show for their own.  If it were lost, they are are to return it to him and if the animal has collapsed under a heavy burden, they are not to pass by and ignore it, but stop and rescue of both the donkey and the man, even though this man may be your enemy.

God again repeats not to consider someone's wealth or poverty in a lawsuit--making a decision based on anything other than the facts of the case would be a miscarriage of justice.  We are told to not be associated with false charges and to make sure that we do not kill the innocent or righteous (this is why the burden of proof is so high in our criminal justice system for any capital offenses--we want to be sure that the innocent and righteous are not put to death).  God says that He will take care of the wicked people that fall through the cracks of the criminal justice system.  They will never escape His justice.

We are commanded to never take a bribe (especially in the context of court here) because this "blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right."  We ruin our integrity and and the name of God which we carry around with us when we put our integrity up for sale.  We should be men of our word so that when we speak no one has to ask if the words are true or if someone paid us to say those words.

Last, but not least, God again repeats the command to never oppress a sojourner (a foreigner).  God will repeat this command several times in the Law, but He said it twice in this small section and repeated His reasoning both times--because they were sojourners in Egypt and they had been mistreated there and they were never to do that to others.

Next time we'll start to look at some of the Sabbath laws.  This is group of laws that will be brought up many times in the gospels as Jesus butts heads with the religious leaders over whether He as God in the flesh is constrained by these laws and who gets to determine when someone is breaking these laws--God or men?  What was the purpose of the Sabbath?  Was man made for the Sabbath or the Sabbath made for men?  We'll see that more and more as we continue or study of the Gospels and the New Testament as a whole in The Gospel Project.  You can follow those lessons on our Discipleship Discord or by watching the video recordings of the lessons on YouTube.