E
X O D U S
CHAP. XXIII.
This
chapter continues and concludes the acts that passed in the first session (if
I may so call it) upon mount Sinai. Here are, I. Some laws of universal
obligation, relating especially to the ninth commandment, against bearing
false witness (ver. 1), and giving false judgment, ver. 2, 3, 6-8. Also a law
of doing good to our enemies (ver. 4, 5), and not oppressing strangers, ver.
9. II. Some laws peculiar to the Jews. The sabbatical year (ver. 10, 11), the
three annual feasts (ver. 14-17), with some laws pertaining thereto. III.
Gracious promises of the completing of the mercy God had begun for them, upon
condition of their obedience. That God would conduct them through the
wilderness (ver. 20-24), that he would prosper all they had (ver. 25, 26),
that he would put them in possession of
Canaan
, ver. 27-31. But they must not
mingle themselves with the nations, ver. 32, 33.
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Judicial
Laws.
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B.
C. 1491.
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1 Thou shalt not raise a
false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous
witness. 2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil;
neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:
3 Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. 4 If
thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it
back to him again. 5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee
lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely
help with him. 6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in
his cause. 7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent
and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. 8
And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth
the words of the righteous. 9 Also thou shalt not oppress a
stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the
land
of
Egypt
.
Here are, I. Cautions concerning judicial proceedings; it was not enough that
they had good laws, better than ever any nation had, but care must be taken
for the due administration of justice according to those laws.
1. The witnesses are here cautioned that they neither occasion an innocent man
to be indicted, by raising a false report of him and setting common fame
against him, nor assist in the prosecution of an innocent man, or one whom
they do not know to be guilty, by putting their hand in swearing as
witnesses against him, v. 1. Bearing false witness against a man, in a
matter that touches his life, has in it all the guilty of lying, perjury,
malice, theft, murder, with the additional stains of colouring all with a
pretence of justice and involving many others in the same guilt. There is
scarcely any one act of wickedness that a man can possibly be guilty of which
has in it a greater complication of villanies than this has. Yet the former
part of this caution is to be extended, not only to judicial proceedings, but
to common conversation; so that slandering and backbiting are a species of
falsewitness-bearing. A man's reputation lies as much at the mercy of every
company as his estate or life does at the mercy of a judge or jury; so that he
who raises, or knowingly spreads, a false report against his neighbour,
especially if the report be made to wise and good men whose esteem one would
desire to enjoy, sins as much against the laws of truth, justice, and charity,
as a false witness does--with this further mischief, that he leaves it not in
the power of the person injured to obtain redress. That which we translate,
Thou shalt not raise, the margin reads, Thou shalt not receive a
false report; for sometimes the receiver, in this case, is as bad as the
thief; and a backbiting tongue would not do so much mischief as it does if it
were not countenanced. Sometimes we cannot avoid hearing a false report, but
we must not receive it, that is, we must not hear it with pleasure and delight
as those that rejoice in iniquity, nor give credit to it as long as there
remains any cause to question the truth of it. This is charity to our
neighbour's good name, and doing as we would be done by.
2. The judges are here cautioned not to pervert judgment. (1.) They must not
be overruled, either by might or multitude, to go against their consciences in
giving judgment, v. 2. With the Jews causes were tried by a bench of
justices, and judgment given according to the majority of votes, in which
cause every particular justice must go according to truth, as it appeared to
him upon the strictest and most impartial enquiry, though the multitude of the
people, and their outcries, or, the sentence of the rabbim (we
translate it many), the more ancient and honourable of the justices,
went the other way. Therefore (as with us), among the Jews, the junior upon
the bench voted first, that he might not be swayed nor overruled by the
authority of the senior. Judges must not respect the persons either of the
parties or of their fellow-judges. The former part of this verse also gives a
general rule for all, as well as judges, not to follow a multitude to do
evil. General usage will never excuse us in a bad practice; nor is the
broad way ever the better or safer for its being tracked and crowded. We must
enquire what we ought to do, not what the majority do; because we must be
judged by our Master, not by our fellow-servants, and it is too great a
compliment to be willing to go to hell for company. (2.) They must not pervert
judgment, no, not in favour of a poor man, v. 3. Right must in all
cases take place and wrong must be punished, and justice never biassed nor
injury connived at under pretence of charity and compassion. If a poor man be
a bad man, and do a bad thing, it is foolish pity to let him fare the better
for his poverty, Deut. i. 16, 17. (3.) Neither must they pervert judgment in
prejudice to a poor man, nor suffer him to be wronged because he had not
wherewithal to right himself; in such cases the judges themselves must become
advocates for the poor, as far as their cause was good and honest (v.
6): "Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor; remember they
are thy poor, bone of thy bone, thy poor neighbours, thy poor brethren; let
them not therefore fare the worse for being poor." (4.) They must dread
the thoughts of assisting or abetting a bad cause (v. 7): "Keep
thyself far from a false matter; do not only keep thyself free from it,
nor think it enough to say thou art unconcerned in it, but keep far from it,
dread it as a dangerous snare. The innocent and righteous thou wouldest not,
for all the world, slay with thy own hands; keep far therefore from a false
matter, for thou knowest not but it may end in that, and the righteous God
will not leave such wickedness unpunished: I will not justify the wicked,"
that is, "I will condemn him that unjustly condemns others." Judges
themselves are accountable to the great judge. (5.) They must not take bribes,
v. 8. They must not only not be swayed by a gift to give an unjust
judgment, to condemn the innocent, or acquit the guilty, or adjudge a man's
right from him, but they must not so much as take a gift, lest it should have
a bad influence upon them, and overrule them, contrary to their intentions;
for it has a strange tendency to blind those that otherwise would do well.
(6.) They must not oppress a stranger, v. 9. Though aliens might not
inherit lands among them, yet they must have justice done them, must peaceably
enjoy their own, and be redressed if they were wronged, though they were
strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. It is an instance of the equity and
goodness of our law, that, if an alien be tried for any crime except treason,
the one half of his jury, if he desire it, shall be foreigners; they call it a
trial per mediatatem linguae, a kind provision that strangers may not
be oppressed. The reason here given is the same with that in ch. xxii.
21, You were strangers, which is here elegantly enforced, You know
the heart of a stranger; you know something of the griefs and fears of a
stranger by sad experience, and therefore, being delivered, can the more
easily put your souls into their souls' stead.
II. Commands concerning neighbourly kindnesses. We must be ready to do all
good offices, as there is occasion, for any body, yea even for those that have
done us ill offices, v. 4, 5. The command of loving our enemies, and
doing good to those that hate us, is not only a new, but an old
commandment, Prov. xxv. 21, 22. Infer hence, 1. If we must do this kindness
for an enemy, much more for a friend, though an enemy only is mentioned,
because it is supposed that a man would not be unneighbourly to any unless
such as he had a particular spleen against. 2. If it be wrong not to prevent
our enemy's loss and damage, how much worse is it to occasion harm and loss to
him, or any thing he has. 3. If we must bring back our neighbours' cattle when
they go astray, much more must we endeavour, by prudent admonitions and
instructions, to bring back our neighbours themselves, when they go astray in
any sinful path, see Jam. v. 19, 20. And, if we must endeavour to help up a
fallen ass, much more should we endeavour, by comforts and encouragements, to
help up a sinking spirit, saying to those that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong. We must seek the relief and welfare of others as our own,
Phil. ii. 4. If thou sayest, Behold, we know it not, doth not he that
pondereth the heart consider it? See Prov. xxiv. 11, 12.
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Sacred
Feasts.
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B.
C. 1491.
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10 And six years thou
shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 11 But
the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of
thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In
like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.
12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest:
that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the
stranger, may be refreshed. 13 And in all things that I
have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other
gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14 Three times
thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 15 Thou shalt keep
the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as
I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou
camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) 16
And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown
in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the
year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. 17
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither
shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. 19 The
first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD
thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Here is, I. The institution of the sabbatical year, v. 10, 11. Every
seventh year the land was to rest; they must not plough nor sow it at the
beginning of the year, and then they could not expect any great harvest at the
end of the year: but what the earth did produce of itself should be eaten from
hand to mouth, and not laid up. Now this was designed, 1. To show what a
plentiful land that was into which God was bringing them--that so numerous a
people could have rich maintenance out of the produce of so small a country,
without foreign trade, and yet could spare the increase of every seventh year.
2. To remind them of their dependence upon God their great landlord, and their
obligation to use the fruit of their land as he should direct. Thus he would
try their obedience in a matter that nearly touched their interest. Afterwards
we find that their disobedience to this command was a forfeiture of the
promises, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 3. To teach them a confidence in the divine
Providence, while they did their duty--that, as the sixth day's manna served
for two day's meat, so the sixth year's increase should serve for two years'
subsistence. Thus they must learn not to take thought for their life,
Matt. vi. 25. If we are prudent and diligent in our affairs, we may trust
Providence to furnish us with the bread of the day in its day.
II. The repetition of the law of the fourth commandment concerning the weekly
sabbath, v. 12. Even in the year of rest they must not think that the
sabbath day was laid in common with the other days, but, even that year, it
must be religiously observed; yet thus some have endeavoured to take away the
observance of the sabbath, by pretending that every day must be a sabbath day.
III. All manner of respect to the gods of the heathen is here strictly
forbidden, v. 13. A general caution is prefixed to this, which has
reference to all these precepts: In all things that I have said unto you,
be circumspect. We are in danger of missing our way on the right hand and
on the left, and it is at our peril if we do; therefore we have need to look
about us. A man may ruin himself through mere carelessness, but he cannot save
himself without great care and circumspection: particularly, since idolatry
was a sin which they were much addicted to, and would be greatly tempted to,
they must endeavour to blot out the remembrance of the gods of the heathen,
and must disuse and forget all their superstitious forms of speech, and never
mention them but with detestation. In Christian schools and academies (for it
is in vain to think of reforming the play-houses), it were to be wished that
the names and stories of the heathen deities, or demons rather, were not so
commonly and familiarly used as they are, even with intimations of respect,
and sometimes with forms of invocation. Surely we have not so learned
Christ.
IV. Their solemn religious attendance on God in the place which he should
choose is here strictly required, v. 14-17. 1. Thrice a year all their
males must come together in a holy convocation, that they might the better
know and love one another, and keep up their communion as a dignified and
peculiar people. 2. They must come together before the Lord (v.
17) to present themselves before him, looking towards the place where his
honour dwelt, and to pay their homage to him as their great Lord, from and
under whom they held all their enjoyments. 3. They must feast together before
the Lord, eating and drinking together, in token of their joy in God and their
grateful sense of his goodness to them; for a feast is made for laughter,
Eccl. x. 19. O what a good Master do we serve, who has made it our duty to rejoice
before him, who feasts his servants when they are in waiting! Never let
religion be called a melancholy thing, when its solemn services are solemn
feasts. 4. They must not appear before God empty, v. 15. Some
free-will offering or other they must bring, in token of their respect and
gratitude to their great benefactor; and, as they were not allowed to come
empty-handed, so we must not come to worship God empty-hearted; our souls must
be filled with grace, with pious and devout affections, holy desires towards
him, and dedications of ourselves to him, for with such sacrifices God is
well-pleased. 5. The passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles, in
spring, summer, and autumn, were the three times appointed for their
attendance: not in winter, because travelling was then uncomfortable; not in
the midst of their harvest, because then they were otherwise employed; so that
they had no reason to say that he made them to serve with an offering,
or wearied them with incense.
V. Some particular directions are here given about the three feasts, though
not so fully as afterwards. 1. As to the passover, it was not to be offered
with leavened bread, for at that feast all leaven was to be cast out, nor was
the fat of it to remain until the morning, lest it should become offensive, v.
18. 2. At the feast of pentecost, when they were to begin their harvest, they
must bring the first of their first-fruits to God, by the pious
presenting of which the whole harvest was sanctified, v. 19. 3. At the
feast of ingathering, as it is called (v. 16), they must give
God thanks for the harvest-mercies they had received, and must depend upon him
for the next harvest, and must not think to receive benefit by that
superstitious usage of some of the Gentiles, who, it is said, at the end of
their harvest, seethed a kid in its dam's milk, and sprinkled that
milk-pottage, in a magical way, upon their gardens and fields, to make them
more fruitful next year. But Israel must abhor such foolish customs.
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Precepts
and Promises.
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B.
C. 1491.
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20 Behold, I send an
Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. 21 Beware of him, and obey his voice,
provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is
in him. 22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all
that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary
unto thine adversaries. 23 For mine Angel shall go before thee,
and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and
the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their
works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their
images. 25 And ye shall serve the LORD
your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take
sickness away from the midst of thee. 26 There shall nothing cast
their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will
fulfil. 27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all
the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn
their backs unto thee. 28 And I will send hornets before thee,
which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before
thee. 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year;
lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against
thee. 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before
thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31 And I will
set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from
the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into
your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. 32 Thou
shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They
shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou
serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
Three gracious promises are here made to Israel, to engage them to their duty
and encourage them in it; and each of the promises has some needful precepts
and cautions joined to it.
I. It is here promised that they should be guided and kept in their way
through the wilderness to the land of promise: Behold, I send an angel
before thee (v. 20), my angel (v. 23), a created
angel, say some, a minister of God's providence, employed in conducting and
protecting the camp of Israel; that it might appear that God took a particular
care of them, he appointed one of his chief servants to make it his business
to attend them, and see that they wanted for nothing. Others suppose it to be
the Son of God, the angel of the covenant; for the Israelites in the
wilderness are said to tempt Christ; and we may as well suppose him
God's messenger, and the church's Redeemer, before his incarnation, as the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And we may the rather think
he was pleased to undertake the deliverance and guidance of Israel because
they were typical of his great undertaking. It is promised that this blessed
angel should keep them in the way, though it lay through a wilderness
first, and afterwards through their enemies' country; thus God's spiritual
Israel shall be kept through the wilderness of this earth, and from the
insults of the gates of hell. It is also promised that he should bring them
into the place which God had not only designed but prepared for them: and thus
Christ has prepared a place for his followers, and will preserve them to it,
for he is faithful to him that appointed him. The precept joined with this
promise is that they be observant of, and obedient to, this angel whom God
would send before them (v. 21): "Beware of him, and obey his
voice in every thing; provoke him not in any thing, for it is at
your peril if you do, he will visit your iniquity." Note, 1.
Christ is the author of salvation to those only that obey him. The word of
command is Hear you him, Matt. xvii. 5. Observe what he hath
commanded, Matt. xxviii. 20. 2. Our necessary dependence upon the divine
power and goodness should awe us into obedience. We do well to take heed of
provoking our protector and benefactor, because if our defence depart from us,
and the streams of his goodness be cut off, we are undone. Therefore, "Beware
of him, and carry it towards him with all possible reverence and caution.
Fear the Lord, and his goodness." 3. Christ will be faithful to
those who are faithful to him, and will espouse their cause who adhere to his:
I will be an adversary to thine adversaries, v. 22. The league
shall be offensive and defensive, like that with Abraham, I will bless him
that blesseth thee, and curse him that curseth thee. Thus is God pleased
to twist his interests and friendships with his people's.
II. It is promised that they should have a comfortable settlement in the land
of Canaan, which they hoped now (though it proved otherwise) within a few
months to be in the possession of, v. 24-26. Observe, 1. How reasonable
the conditions of this promise are--only that they should serve their own God,
who was indeed the only true God, and not the gods of the nations, which were
no gods at all, and which they had no reason at all to have any respect for.
They must not only not worship their gods, but they must utterly overthrow
them, in token of their great abhorrence of idolatry, their resolution never
to worship idols themselves, and their care to prevent any other from
worshipping them; as the converted conjurors burnt their books, Acts
xix. 19. 2. How rich the particulars of this promise are. (1.) The comfort of
their food. He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and God's blessing
will make bread and water more refreshing and nourishing than a feast of fat
things and wines on the lees without that blessing. (2.) The continuance of
their health: "I will take sickness away, either prevent it or
remove it. Thy land shall not be visited with epidemical diseases, which are
very dreadful, and sometimes have laid countries waste." (3.) The
increase of their wealth. Their cattle should not be barren, nor cast their
young, which is mentioned as an instance of prosperity, Job xxi. 10. (4.) The
prolonging of their lives to old age: "The number of thy days I will
fulfil, and they shall not be cut off in the midst by untimely
deaths." Thus hath godliness the promise of the life that now is.
III. It is promised that they should conquer and subdue their enemies, the
present occupants of the land of Canaan, who must be driven out to make room
for them. This God would do, 1. Effectually by his power (v. 17, 18);
not so much by the sword and bow of Israel as by the terrors which he would
strike into the Canaanites. Though they were so obstinate as not to be willing
to submit to Israel, resign their country, and retire elsewhere, which they
might have done, yet they were so dispirited that they were not able to stand
before them. This completed their ruin; such power had the devil in them that
they would resist, but such power had God over them that they could not. I
will send my fear before thee; and those that fear will soon flee. Hosts
of hornets made way for the hosts of Israel; such mean creatures can God make
use of for the chastising of his people's enemies, as in the plagues of Egypt.
When God pleases, hornets can drive out Canaanites, as well as lions could,
Josh. xxiv. 12. 2. He would do it gradually, in wisdom (v. 29, 30), not
all at once, but by little and little. As the Canaanites had kept possession
till Israel had grown into a people, so there should still be some remains of
them till Israel should grow so numerous as to replenish the whole. Note, The
wisdom of God is to be observed in the gradual advances of the church's
interests. It is in real kindness to the church that its enemies are subdued
by little and little; for thus we are kept upon our guard, and in a continual
dependence upon God. Corruptions are thus driven out of the hearts of God's
people; not all at once, but by little and little; the old man is crucified,
and therefore dies slowly. God, in his providence, often delays mercies,
because we are not ready for them. Canaan has room enough to receive Israel,
but Israel is not numerous enough to occupy Canaan. We are not straitened in
God; if we are straitened, it is in ourselves. The land of Canaan is promised
them (v. 31) in its utmost extent, which yet they were not possessed of
till the days of David; and by their sins they soon lost possession. The
precept annexed to this promise is that they should not make any friendship,
nor have any familiarity, with idolaters, v. 32, 33. Idolaters must not
so much as sojourn in their land, unless they renounced their idolatry. Thus
they must avoid the reproach of intimacy with the worshippers of false gods
and the danger of being drawn to worship with them. By familiar converse with
idolaters, their dread and detestation of the sin would wear off; they would
think it no harm, in compliment to their friends, to pay some respect to their
gods, and so by degrees would be drawn into the fatal snare. Note, Those that
would be kept from bad courses must keep from bad company; it is dangerous
living in a bad neighbourhood; others' sins will be our snares, if we look not
well to ourselves. We must always look upon our greatest danger to be from
those that would cause us to sin against God. Whatever friendship is
pretended, that is really our worst enemy that draws us from our duty.
Contents
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Section
