Exodus/Shemoth 23 – The God of Grace and Law

[First posted in 2014, part of  our series of commentaries on Torah, specifically the book of Exodus. 

When we were Christians, we were taught  that Christians are under “grace,  not “law”  because  of what the Christian Savior — God Himself as Son-Man, Jesus the Christ —  had accomplished on earth. 

What accomplishment is that?   Obeying the Old Testament Law perfectly which, Christians are told, nobody can  perfectly obey,  or even if we could, we still have “original sin” in our system that prevents us from approaching God at all!!   And since the Christian Savior  had done that, all are exempted from “bondage” to the  ‘Law’ and hence live by ‘Grace’.  So Christians live liberated from obedience to the Law . . . which was presented as a “yoke” around our neck! 

At that time, it just never hit us  that we still lived the 10 commandments anyway.  Beyond the 10 though, we are supposedly exempt from all other OT requirements, like what?  For one, the Leviticus 11 diet –as though pigs and shellfish and unclean animals changed their nature under New Testament times.  For another, we didn’t have to observe the Leviticus 23 “MY FEASTS” because that was for the Jew and not the Gentile.  And so on and so forth, we have other posts explaining the Sinaite’s understanding of “Old Testament” laws, please refer to those. —Admin1]

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Continuing the listing of do’s and don’ts of behavior toward God’s creation — man, beast and land — take notice of specific instructions regarding —

• giving the land time to replenish itself (vs. 11),
• and the beasts of burden rest from their labors (vs. 12)
• and the special regard for classes of people who are usually neglected—the poor and the ‘sojourner among you’.

The very fact that these are stressed in YHWH’s guidelines for living is evidence enough that then as it is now, there is the tendency to neglect or ignore the universal and practical value of ‘sabbaticals’ as well as the equal status of all individuals in the eyes of their Creator. 

 

The New Testament teaches that the ” OT Law” is no longer operative because after Jesus’s sacrifice, it has been done away with and NT is all about ‘GRACE.’  It calls obedience to Torah as “legalism”,  casting negative implications to obedience to law, and specifically God’s Law, and more specifically Law as given on Sinai in the retitled “Old” testament which was originally the TNK.  What is the word for a situation where nobody minds the law because it is obsolete. . . “lawlessness”? Is that the right way to live? 

 

Think about this as you continue reading through the 613 (the number of do’s and don’ts in Torah)—  what is it in these rules that say they are anything but the GRACE of YHWH the Law-Giver?  Is not YHWH full of GRACE, making sure that humans in community learn to treat each other graciously, with mutual respect, with regard for the other’s dignity whatever his stature is in life?  He does not require this at the cost of selflessness or giving up one’s own rights to make room for the other; it is ultimately all about what is JUST, as well as what is RIGHT for all parties.  Is that not GRACE?

 

Why would Christian teaching say we are under GRACE and not LAW?  By the grace of Divine Providence, He gave laws to regulate every aspect of human life; without Torah encapsulated in the 10 Declarations, look at Torah-ignorant or Torah-disobedient humanity and its dismal behavioral track record!

 

What would have worked in the wilderness community should work in every society, then as now.  These are universal and timeless teachings about interrelationships, a result of YHWH’s GRACE, who in His providence and wisdom, carefully and explicitly instructs all of humanity—- through this mixed multitude within Israel— what works best to the benefit of all.

 

Other-centeredness, that’s the greatest Torah instruction that every human should learn and apply.  That’s grace and law! Instead of claiming “we are under grace, not law”, Christians should praise the God of Grace and Law, YHWH,  for instructing all humanity how best to live with one another in His world.  

 

YHWH’s TORAH is GRACE and LAW!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Translation: EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.  Commentary are by S6K and  from AST/ArtScroll Tanach.—Admin1]

 

Exodus/Shemoth 23

 

1 You are not to take up an empty rumor.

 Do not put your hand (in) with a guilty person, to become a witness for wrongdoing.

2 You are not to go after many (people) to do evil. 

 And you are not to testify in a quarrel so as to turn aside toward many-(and thus) turn away.

3 Even a poor-man you are not to respect as regards his quarrel. [AST: Do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance.]

 4 (Now) when you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey straying, return it, return it to him.

5 (And) when you see the donkey of one who hates you crouching under its burden, restrain from abandoning it to him- 

 unbind, yes, unbind it together with him.

6 You are not to turn aside the rights of your needy as regards his quarrel.
7 From a false matter, you are to keep far!

 And (one) clear and innocent, do not kill,

 for I do not acquit a guilty-person.

 

 [AST: Distance yourself from a false word; do not execute the innocent or the righteous, for I shall not exonerate the wicked.]

 

8 A bribe you are not to take,

for a bribe blinds the open-eyed, 

and twists the words of the righteous.
9 A sojourner, you are not to oppress: 

you yourselves know (well) the feelings of the sojourner,

for sojourners were you in the land of Egypt.
10 For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce,
11 but in the seventh, you are to let it go and to let it be, 

that the needy of your people may eat, 

and what they (allow to) remain, the wildlife of the field may eat.

Do thus with your vineyard, with your olive-grove.
12 For six days you are to make your labor, 

but on the seventh day, you are to cease, 

in order that your ox and your donkey may rest 

and the son of your handmaid and the sojourner may pause-for-breath.
13 In all that I say to you, take care! 

The name of other gods, you are not to mention, 

it is not to be heard in your mouth.
14 Three times you are to hold pilgrimage for me, every year.
15 The Pilgrimage-Festival of matzot you are to keep:

for seven days you are to eat matzot, as I commanded you, 

at the appointed-time of the New-moon of Ripe-grain- 

for in it you went out of Egypt, 

and no one is to be seen before my presence empty-handed;
16 and the Pilgrimage-festival of the Cutting, of the firstlings of your labor, of what you sow in the field;

and the Pilgrimage-festival of Ingathering, at the going-out of the year, 

when you gather in your labor’s (harvest) from the field.
17 At three points in the year 

are all your males to be seen

before the presence of the Lord, YHVH.
18 You are not to slaughter my blood offering with anything fermented. 

The fat of my festive-offering is not to remain overnight, until morning.

AST Notes: 

• The commandment of the first fruits applies to the seven species for which the Land of Israel is known:  wheat, barley, figs, grapes, pomegranates, olives, and dates.  Because bikkurim symbolize the Jew’s devotion of the first fruits of his labors to the service of God, the trip to Jerusalem was celebrated in every town along the way with music and parades.
• The prohibition against cooking meat and milk applies to all ages and species of sheep (and cattle); Rabbinic law extended it to all kosher meat and fowl. the Torah mentions this prohibition three times, from which the Sages derive that there are three elements of the prohibition. It is forbidden to cook the mixture, to eat it, and even to benefit from it (Rashi).
• The concepts symbolized by these festivals—freedom, the seasons, and prosperity—are at the root of human existence and happiness.  By celebrating them in Jerusalem at the resting place of God’s Presence and by bringing offerings to mark the occasions, we acknowledge Him as the Lord Who controls all aspects of life.

 

S6K:  A new reader of TORAH once wrote us, exasperated with all these rules he could not understand: “what has this not boiling of a kid in its mother’s milk got to do with us today?”

 

Frankly, we’re clueless ourselves, except to connect it with compassion for a young animal being prepared for human food, to at least respect the mother of the kid by not using her milk.  Still, it doesn’t make sense since neither the kid nor the mother goat is conscious of that artificial compassion, since the kid would be eaten after being cooked!  

 

Vegans, vegetarians claim that aside from the health benefits of eating no meat, there is that conscious respect for life that we can never replicate, that only the Creator can give, including animal life; why indeed should an animal be slaughtered to satisfy human appetite for meat? 

 

20 Here, I am sending a messenger before you

to care for you on the way, 

to bring you to the place that I have prepared.
21 Take-you-care in his presence, 

and hearken to his voice, 

do not be rebellious against him,

for he is not able to bear your transgressing, 

for my name is with him.

 

AST: Behold! I send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the place that I have made ready.  Beware of him—hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your willful sin—for My Name is within him.

 

22 So then, hearken, hearken to his voice, 

and do all that I speak, 

and I will be-an-enemy to your enemies, 

and I will be-an-adversary to your adversaries.
23 When my messenger goes before you a

nd brings you 

to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivvite and the Yevusite,

and I cause them to perish:
24 you are not to bow down to their gods, you are not to serve them, 

you are not to do according to what they do,

but: you are to tear, yes, tear them down, 

and are to smash, yes, smash their standing-stones.

 

S6K: “mal’ak” for “angel” or “messenger”, those created spirit beings who carry out divine errands; that would include the ‘adversary’ or ‘ha satan’ who, as we have repeatedly explained, is an obedient mal’ak carrying out his assigned adversarial role in connection with humankind.  Notice the instructions to listen to the voice of this mal’ak, why? . .  for My Name is in him.. 

 

25 You are to serve YHVH your God! 

and he will give-blessing to your food and your water;

I will remove sickness from amongst you,
26 there will be no miscarrier or barren-one in your land,

(and) the number of your days I will make full.
27 My terror I will send on before you, 

I will panic all the peoples among whom you come, 

I will give all your enemies to you by the neck.
28 I will send Despair on before you 

so that it drives out the Hivvite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from before you.
29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year,

lest the land become desolate 

and the wildlife of the field become-many against you.
30 Little by little will I drive them out from before you,

until you have borne-fruit and possessed the land.
31 And I will make your territory

from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines,

from the Wilderness to the River. 

For I give into your hand the settled-folk of the land, that you may drive them
out from before you.
32 You are not to cut with them or with their gods any covenant,
33 they are not to stay in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me, 

indeed, you would serve their gods-

indeed, that would be a snare to you.