This passage from Exodus 23 emphasizes the importance of truth-telling and justice for all, regardless of social status. It encourages disciples to resist the temptation to deceive or act out of partiality, as God will not acquit the guilty. This is a theme echoed throughout the Bible, calling Christians to be trustworthy witnesses and to pursue truth over self-advancement.
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Transcript
00:00:00:37 – 00:00:28:46
Clint Loveall
All right. Welcome back. Been a while. So thanks for being with us. After a couple of holidays as we continue our way through Exodus, actually, this is probably a good part. We’re in a part of Exodus where transitions don’t really matter in this legal section. You can kind of jump in and out. So we’re in starting the 23rd chapter today and an interesting section, a small section.
00:00:29:18 – 00:00:52:24
Clint Loveall
My study Bible heads it, Justice for All. And there’s some interesting stuff in here that I think we’ll see. We hear echoed in the New Testament. Let me read through a few verses and we’ll pause for some discussion. You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness.
00:00:53:11 – 00:01:25:44
Clint Loveall
You shall not follow majority in wrongdoing when you hear witness, when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice. Nor shall you be partial to the poor in the lawsuit when you come upon your enemies ox or donkey going astray. You shall bring it back when you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help set it free.
00:01:26:22 – 00:01:49:01
Clint Loveall
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from the false charge and do not kill the innocent and those in the right for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall take no bribe for a bribe blinds the officials and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. You shall not oppress a resident alien.
00:01:49:31 – 00:02:12:45
Clint Loveall
You know the heart of an alien. For you are aliens in the land of Egypt. I think, Michael, as we jump back in here, a couple of interesting things. We we resonate here with some themes that are fairly major in. I would. Not only the Old Testament, I would say, but the New Testament, the idea of false witness.
00:02:12:45 – 00:02:46:46
Clint Loveall
We heard this explicitly in the Ten Commandments. The idea of truth telling, the concept of truth. You know, in an odd way, the New Testament talks more about truth as truth, and the Old Testament talks more about not subverting the truth, and particularly in these legal sections, the idea of don’t participate in a falsehood, whether you’re a witness, whether it’s against the poor, whether it’s a lawsuit, whether it’s in the majority.
00:02:46:46 – 00:03:12:41
Clint Loveall
I love this phrase here. You know, even if everyone else is doing it like your kid. Well, everybody’s do it. Well, that doesn’t matter here. You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing. And so the idea not just of honesty, but of being a faithful witness, being a truth telling person and truth telling doesn’t mean insulting. It doesn’t mean throwing out your opinion.
00:03:12:54 – 00:03:27:25
Clint Loveall
It means be on board with the side of accuracy of of truth. And I think, you know, yes, we all know that. But it’s interesting how deeply woven that is in to the scriptures.
00:03:27:25 – 00:03:59:58
Michael Gewecke
I think the part of this text that jumps out to me and I think is in many ways very contemporary. Clint is the part here that makes it clear that the the different sides or teams or the different demographics are all to be given the same deference, which is ultimately true that at the end of the day, justice is the thing that matters, not whether you’re poor, not whether you’re rich.
00:04:00:00 – 00:04:31:58
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s striking this language that we’ve already seen here. Verse number three, You shall not be partial to the poor in a lawsuit. In other words, even if it seems like the person who’s down and out would benefit from a saying, if it’s not right, then you shouldn’t pursue an end that favors even the poor. But then you keep on and verse number six you shall not pervert the justice due to the poor and their lawsuit.
00:04:31:58 – 00:04:57:07
Michael Gewecke
So it’s going both ways. And that is, I think, the contemporary part of this text that I think is striking is in our current moment, people seem to make determinations based upon what group they might be part of this tax cuts against that grain intentionally. It’s not about where you’re situated. It’s not your context, but rather it is what is accurate, what is true.
00:04:57:07 – 00:05:31:31
Michael Gewecke
Because ultimately, remember, this isn’t just some high minded idea. This is ultimately connecting back to who God is. God creates God is the source of all truth. And so therefore, those who are going to live in covenantal community as God’s children are going to have to live their lives defined by what God and God’s truth means. And so when one gives favoritism to one group over another and goes against that grain of truth, one is going against God’s intention, God’s creation in God’s character.
00:05:31:46 – 00:05:55:10
Michael Gewecke
And I think it is striking, it’s in many ways inspiring, but also challenging to find the metric or the ruler of truth to be something grounded in God and not our own experience or our own preference or our own particular sort of group and vantage. It’s not about self advancement or even group advancement. It’s about truth advancement.
00:05:55:31 – 00:06:20:16
Clint Loveall
And beyond the idea of sort of right and wrong, beyond the idea of punished or not punished of of being caught or not being caught. Is this concept that we see in verse seven, I will not acquit the guilty that our decisions and our ethics are ultimately supposed to mirror our faith and to reflect the God behind our faith.
00:06:21:54 – 00:06:49:44
Clint Loveall
Yes, telling the truth matters because it’s good. Yes. Not spreading false report. All of those things are good. But but they are good because they reflect the idea of who we are as God’s people. And behind them is not just the idea of punishment or of doing wrong, but the idea that God is watching, that God is aware I will not acquit.
00:06:50:56 – 00:07:38:02
Clint Loveall
And so I you know, I think that’s a powerful motivation for truth telling. And we live in an era where the idea of objective truth is often on the table. The idea that truth is kind of multifaceted and that people have different truth. This scripture is probably going to struggle with that, especially in a context like this. The idea here is that that when we take steps to deceive someone, to make ourselves look better, to practice deception in any way, we’re participating in falsehood, and that that is outside the pale for God’s people.
00:07:38:02 – 00:08:07:44
Clint Loveall
And, you know, we see this again. It’s not just this place, Michael. We saw it in the Ten Commandments. It’s scattered throughout the New Testament. It’s a fairly significant theme in the gospel. But Christians are to be people who can be counted on the idea is, if you were a witness, if you were testifying in a case, if you had to tell the truth, that as a person of God, you could be trusted to do that, even though you might be tempted not to.
00:08:07:44 – 00:08:11:42
Clint Loveall
And I think that’s it’s a significant snapshot into that theme.
00:08:12:10 – 00:08:43:21
Michael Gewecke
Truth not only resists our efforts to advance ourselves or our group, but I think truth also has a way of pushing us away from pettiness. And I would point us here to verse five. I found this really, really interesting in today’s reading that it’s not just telling the truth about your neighbor, which I think we all understand the merit of, but it’s being kind even to the person who you hate, to their possession, to their donkey.
00:08:43:21 – 00:09:15:39
Michael Gewecke
You know, obviously most of us don’t own donkeys and we wouldn’t understand this reference. But right now it’s snowing a lot. A lot of people are moving snow. You know, a comparable reading of this would be don’t push your snow into your neighbor’s driveway even if you really dislike them. Don’t go out of your way to, you know, ruin someone’s garden or hedges, you know, like find ways to to practice charity and to goodness with other people because.
00:09:15:39 – 00:09:41:40
Michael Gewecke
That’s right. Because that’s good because that complies with God’s character and who God is at. It’s not justice in the lawsuit sense. I don’t think it’s justice in the doing right sense. And I think that what the Old Testament has is a broader enough definition to push back on us. When we find ourself always in the right, we often put ourself at the center of our stories.
00:09:41:40 – 00:10:05:07
Michael Gewecke
We make ourselves to be the hero of the narrative, and that’s natural. And in some cases it’s even good. But I would like to point out that the Old Testament wants to make it clear that even if it’s something as inconsequential as someone who you really don’t like and it’s their stuff, it’s not even them, you have an obligation to do right by that person.
00:10:05:09 – 00:10:13:13
Michael Gewecke
You have an obligation to do right by this animal and this example. And there’s a kind of resistance to pettiness that I think is helpful in that.
00:10:13:48 – 00:10:46:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think it’s natural to read this when you read the word enemy or the other phrase in verse five, one who hates you, it it probably is easy for most of us to imagine that the fault lies with the other and not self. And even if that’s true, even if even if these two verses describe somebody who dislikes us or is opposed to us for no fault of our own, let’s let’s even say that’s true.
00:10:46:51 – 00:11:13:10
Clint Loveall
What I think is fascinating about these verses is they challenge us never to let someone else’s lack of character produce a similar lack of character in us, the recipient of doing the right thing should not determine whether or not you do the right thing. And that that’s a challenge. I mean, that’s a that’s a stark challenge when you see your enemies donkey, you will bring it back.
00:11:13:10 – 00:11:49:57
Clint Loveall
You will do a good thing for your enemy when someone hates you and you see their arcs under strain, you will help set it free because that’s the right thing to do. And the fact that it involves somebody who may not deserve the right thing doesn’t change it being the right thing. That’s that’s a fascinating way to look at our obligations as people of faith, how we treat others, how we manage those moments of making moral, ethical decisions.
00:11:49:57 – 00:12:06:39
Clint Loveall
It is very easy to think, well, I would do this for the people that I’m in favor of, but I’m not doing that for that guy. He did this. This, this and this. And the pretty challenging word here to say, well, that doesn’t matter, because if it’s the right thing to do, it’s the right thing to do.
00:12:06:52 – 00:12:32:58
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And it is this text ability to jump between these things seamlessly. Clint, that I think has a lesson for us because if you look closely here, you see that we cover a lot of ground in a very short period of time. You know, tell the truth, don’t spread the false report, don’t side with the winning side. In a lawsuit, you have an obligation, even to a hated or someone who hates you into their donkey.
00:12:32:58 – 00:12:56:31
Michael Gewecke
Then you also have this idea of don’t go against the poor. If if that is due to them in a lawsuit, don’t be part of false charges. Take no bribe. I mean, in the midst of this, we’re skipping so quickly between these different themes and the thing that connects them is not the transitions and the text, but rather the person who lives behind them.
00:12:56:31 – 00:13:25:13
Michael Gewecke
And I think that makes sections like this in the Scriptures very hard to study, certainly makes them hard to read casually. It’s because this doesn’t have a narrative flow. This doesn’t introduce a character and introduce us to their struggles or to choices that they make in their life. You know, certainly throughout the Book of Genesis, we saw a much more narrative description of God’s plan unfolding over time through these people, often making very difficult and sometimes even destructive decisions.
00:13:25:13 – 00:13:49:51
Michael Gewecke
But here, Clint, we have a conversation about what it means to live rightly in the world. And the thing that binds it together is not a person or a character, but it’s God. It’s not Abraham, it’s not Isaac, it’s not Jacob. And here it’s not even Moses. It is God and God’s character that is lived out into the world and through what we do.
00:13:49:51 – 00:14:12:32
Michael Gewecke
And I think, you know, maybe we look here at the end at first nine and we see some empathy, we see some connection to the previous story. But I think I’m just struck by here, truth stands on its own foundation. Truth doesn’t need a further description. It doesn’t need someone to make a case why it should exist. It doesn’t need to be argued for.
00:14:12:50 – 00:14:38:52
Michael Gewecke
These are the right actions because they are right and they’re right because of the God who calls the people as his own, because of the God who’s faithful to the Israelites. Therefore, because that God has called them. This is the behavior and expectation that they are held to account. They’re called to be people who allow truth to be its own right and just thing.
00:14:39:03 – 00:14:41:13
Michael Gewecke
And they’re called to live that out to the best that they can.
00:14:41:24 – 00:15:08:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And that is rooted in one’s relationship with God. You know, you wrap up with verse nine here, which is a significant theme throughout the Old Testament. You shall not oppress a resident alien. And we don’t. I I’m not sure, you know, alien for us has become a kind of politically charged word in the last several decades or years here.
00:15:08:13 – 00:15:40:35
Clint Loveall
I think maybe a good way to conceive of that is outsider, the one who doesn’t have the benefit of being on the inside. It’s not just that they’re a foreigner. It’s that that they’re vulnerable, that there’s a sense in which they can be taken advantage of. They can be mistreated, they can be mishandled. And God’s prescription for how to treat them is exactly related to how God treated the people.
00:15:40:35 – 00:16:08:16
Clint Loveall
And so our moral and ethical stance toward others is to be determined by the fact that we have received graciousness, we have received goodness. We as outsiders, have been brought in and cared for, and that is to color and define how we then extend that care to others. You shall not oppress a resident because you know the heart of an alien.
00:16:09:34 – 00:16:29:16
Clint Loveall
And when we forget that, when we forget that we know the heart of a wayward person, we know the heart of a sinner. We know the heart of a question or a doubt, or we know the heart of somebody who’s been on hard times and didn’t know if we could pay the bills, whatever that is, that is to produce in us.
00:16:29:36 – 00:16:57:01
Clint Loveall
Not a sense of pride, but a sense of humility. And with it, a sense not only a sense, but a bent toward and a practice of hospitality and compassion. I think, you know, this is I would argue that verse nine gets us very close to the heart of the Exodus story and a major thread that runs through not only this book, but significant parts of the Old Testament.
00:16:57:09 – 00:17:21:05
Michael Gewecke
As really well said. And I agree completely, and I only want to emphasize the diverse nine for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I think that there’s some deep scriptural wisdom here lived out in our practice of worship here, even in our own tradition, where we have a moment in worship where we can assess the reality of our sinfulness.
00:17:21:05 – 00:17:46:39
Michael Gewecke
We remember not only where we came from spiritually or theologically, right? That idea that every single one of us bears the weight of sin in our life, but the reality that because we live in a broken world, that we to participate in the brokenness of the world that surrounds us and that brokenness, like it or not, flows from the fount of our own heart.
00:17:46:39 – 00:18:13:46
Michael Gewecke
And there’s something deeply, deeply convecting about this idea for you were aliens in the land. The reason why we practice extravagant grace, the reason why we seek to live our lives with a kind of openness to the stranger is not because we are greater or because we’re better, but because we can connect with the reality of brokenness that we share with that person.
00:18:13:46 – 00:18:39:14
Michael Gewecke
The fact that we are all children of God and that we all bear both the weight of sin and also the same invitation to restoration in Jesus Christ. And so ultimately, you know, it’s easy to get fixated on what other people deserve and I think that when you look at a section on justice, that might be your temptation to say, well, what can I get away with so that they get what they deserve?
00:18:39:14 – 00:19:03:16
Michael Gewecke
And I think the the surprising turn in a text like this is no one should get what they deserve because of the God who has taken that way. And of course, this text in Exodus isn’t explicitly referencing Jesus Christ, but as a Christian reading it, certainly we’re going to find in this redemptive notes. And I think that that’s, you know, both inspiring but also challenging.
00:19:03:54 – 00:19:31:06
Clint Loveall
Yeah, being redeemed does not lessen our obligation to others. It actually increases that. And and we should remember where we started not so that we feel guilty so that we are inspired to be better. And being better has concrete application in how we treat other people. So a lot of good stuff a little bit all over the map today, but a pretty consistent thread that runs through it and hope there’s something in it that’s helpful.
00:19:31:10 – 00:19:44:33
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. Glad that you might join us again as we kick off the study and we will see you all tomorrow. Stay warm.