Israeli Mordecai Vanunu was arrested in Sydney nearly 40 years ago and spent almost two decades in an Israeli jail, in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon. 11 of those years he was in solitary confinement. This was for the crime of treason, selling nuclear secrets that were top secret to the press. Justice was meted out, and back in 2004 Vanunu was released from prison. He was the talk of the Jewish community especially in Australia, and the subject was justice. When is it enough? Was this enough time? What about the solitary…was this necessary? Is this necessary for anyone?
You read about the American activist Charley Kirk and how he was murdered in the state of Utah last week. There were school shootings and more murders than you can shake a stick at.
What is the role of government in stopping this slaughter. When is enough, enough?
We as humans long for justice in our land and in our lives. This is especially true of Jewish people, I think. And if we had our ways, we would bring justice to the planet. It’s an ache in our hearts, it seems, for a system of fairness and rightness.
Today’s lesson from Exodus 23 then is part of that longing being fulfilled. On the typically Mosaic wide-angle discussion, justice might be the overarching principle. It’s a series of various and sundry laws for the Jewish community. It’s about maintaining our diaries and watching what we eat. It’s about false gods and how change happens. This is all under the rubric of justice. Let’s see what Moses and if you
are willing to bear it, what God has to say to us today.
You shall pursue justice (.1-9)
“You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. (.6)
Crowds can be very demanding. If you have seen other mob scenes in person or attended a rock concert or a political rally, you know how no one individual has even a little voice. You might consider yelling an opposite opinion, but it won’t be long before either your voice is gone
or you are.
God says here a fuller explanation of the 9th commandment about bearing false witness. Remember this story of some high school boys?
The story is told of four high school boys who couldn't resist the temptation to skip morning classes. Each had been smitten with a bad case of spring fever. After lunch they showed up at school and reported to the teacher that their car had a flat tire. Much to their relief, she smiled and said, "Well, you missed a quiz this morning, so take your seats and get out a pencil and paper." Still smiling, she
waited as they settled down and got ready for her questions. Then she said, "First question--which tire was flat?"
We could make this an individual consideration of not lying to our boss or to our wives or parents. And this is true and a good way of reading it. However, as is often the case with Torah, and Bible in general, individualism is not in view. How you live this out in the wider community with others is more the biblical tack. In other
words, do you lie in public? Do you lie to gain favor with others in courts or in meetings or ...better to think this way. Do you make yourself look better than others when reporting?
“What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but that from now on
I can no longer believe you.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
Obviously one of the serious consequences of lying is the creation
of a society without faith. Victor Hugo said, “Men hate those to
whom they have to lie.” Abraham Lincoln said, “No man has a good
enough memory to make a successful liar” and my favorite quote
on lying is from Austin O’Malley who said, “Those who think it’s
permissible to tell white lies, soon become color blind”
Listen to the warnings in the opening verses of today’s chapter.
1. Don’t bear a false report.
2. Don’t join with others in lying about a situation.
3. Don’t shout your agreement with others who lie.
4. Don’t lie about things to make crowds do what you want.
Tell the truth.
5. Don’t be partial to the poor man.
Wait a minute, this doesn’t seem to fit. Does it? Especially where I live in
Australia, we want everyone to have ‘a fair go’ and that would
include the downtrodden. Shouldn’t the poor and needy receive our attention? Isn’t this partiality good for the poor person, then?
Not at all. The poor and the rich alike should have equal
treatment under the law. No court should see the wealth of a man’s
wallet before he sees the truth of the matters at hand. In fact, he
should never see the size of the wallet, Moses teaches us here. Why
should the rich lose out in equity? Why should the poor be
advantages? Be blind, oh justice.
Listen to this just section from verse 4. If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. Here’s another shocker. We often hope for tsuris to malaffect the
bad guys in our lives; we want pain to be present in those who
mistreat us. But here, God says, if you find property that belongs to
your enemy, return it to him. Don’t just release the poor animal, or
shoo it on its way…actually go out of your way and return it to him.
The last thing most of us want to do is to assist those who resist
us. God says, that’s what you do to commune well as a family, and as
a nations, and as neighbours.
Calendar maintenance (.10-17)
The next section of our text today relates to maintaining our
diaries. We have one weekly and three annual holidays. Each should
be regarded as not only an optional reminder of God who did and
does good things. We should also obey these commands so that we
can remember who God is, when all around us, people are forgetting
or worshiping other gods.
Maybe that’s why Hallmark invented so many holidays. Can you
get through a year without sending birthday greetings or anniversary
cards, cards for boss’ day or secretary’s day or Father’s Day or… the
list is endless. But each ‘special day’ is a chance to remember
something that otherwise we might forget. We take much for
granted, and a special day helps us put things of value back on the
mantle of our memory, and give them special place.
That’s what these festivals and the weekly Shabbat are to do for
the Jewish people. If on the one hand we are told not to lie, here
immediately we are told to collectively tell the truth. We are to
remember what God did and does for us; that’s the truth.
We bring special foods to the place of the Almighty, we sing
songs and gather together. This was and is God’s plan. God wants to
get this in our collective memory. Praise the Lord.
Watch what you eat (.18-19)
So then God moves in the text to our stomachs. What does justice
have to do with eating? Eating seems such a private affair, doesn’t it?
But here the Bible gives us a couple bits of advice related to our
kitchen and dining room experience. I’m glad God has rights over all
our lives, over every room of our house, and we shall see that in
Torah. If He is not Lord of every area, He is not really Lord, is He?
So in these two verses we see something about Passover and
eating things leavened, then we see this troublesome text about milk
and meat.
Let’s talk about milk and meat. Abraham certainly ate these
together and served the visitors/angels of Genesis 18. I believe the
words of this text when applied to diet miss the point.
The NIV commentary here is right when it says:
“The prohibition of cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk (see also
34:26; Dt 14:21b) has been explained since 1933 by a reference in a broken
passage of a thirteenth-century B.C. Ugaritic text called “The Birth of the
Gods Pleasant and Beautiful” (text 52, line 14). It is generally agreed that
the reference is to a fertility rite that entails boiling a kid in milk; but there is
no sure reference to the milk of its mother in the broken Ugaritic text. The
matter is basically that the young dead kid is being cooked in the very milk
that had sustained its life.”
It’s about family. It’s about preserving community. It’s not about
having a cheeseburger. I don’t mind those who argue for a separated
diet of milchik and fleishik foods. But to get that from this text (and
the other two (Ex. 34.26, Dt. 14.21) is unwarranted and bad theology.
No false gods (.20-26)
The first commandment is of course the fulcrum of all
commandments. And here we listen to the echo of that again. He
doesn’t even want to hear the sound of a foreign god on the lips of
any of his people. (.13) God wants singular worship, not mixed, not
once in a while; he is a jealous God. And when you enter the land,
tear down the foreign gods, and if you have to, tear down the
foreigners, so that their influence will not persist to taunt and
influence future generations of Jewish people. (.32-33)
Change happens slowly (.27-33)
Finally today we learn a huge principle from the Bible. Change is
never easy..Verse 30 tells us how God changes things.
Little by little. The principle is there in verse 29. He will not do
things in a single year lest it strip the whole land too soon. Beasts
would ravage the land and nothing would grow again too soon. But
little by little he will make changes in us and we will bear fruit for
God.
A word from a Jewish believer
I remember an email from a young Jewish woman who has been a
believer for years. I helped her celebrate her Bat Mitzvah and have known her
family for decades. Now she is a lawyer and an advocate for justice in Israel and parts of the US.
She wrote:
“In Dublin, Ireland, I couldn’t shake the image of the homeless man I
passed on Thames Street while grasping 75 euro in my pocket. In New
York City, I was struck by the compassion of my boss, a youth pastor,
who gave his best guitar to a recovering drug addict. In Chiang Mai,
Thailand, I worked past sunset to help free a Burmese girl from forced
prostitution. On Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line, I was aghast at the
world’s indifference toward genocidal violence in DR Congo. In North
Philadelphia, I was inspired by Lawanda, a single mother of three and a
survivor of domestic violence, who started her own shelter for battered
women. In Israel, I wept for the separations between my people and the
Arabs, reinforced by long barriers, tanks, helicopters, and suicide bombs.
In four years on four continents, I have learned numerous lessons.
Most relevant, I believe, is the realization that the world is full of
injustice. Fortunately, I serve a God who hates injustice, and calls me to
work in His strength to seek justice for the oppressed, the orphaned, and
the widowed. I follow a Messiah who reached out to prostitutes,
criminals, tax collectors, and beggars. I read a Bible that tells me all
people are created in the image of God, and that I should love them with
as much passion as I do Him.”
This woman has learned, and she continues to labor for law and justice, helping others get their human rights. May we be with her, learning to bring justice to those in need, learning to daily trust Messiah Yeshua for His instruction and His life in us. May His will
abound in your life and in all the house of Israel, and let us say,
amen.
Lessons learned
I believe we should see applications from our chapter today.
1) God’s concerns for society to run smoothly required an
honouring of each other by each citizen
2) Lying both individually and corporately has severe
consequences which are never good for society
3) Yeshua brings true justice to the earth, and those who follow
Him can learn His ways
4) Noting things on a diary is beneficial for those you remember
as well as for you
New Testament connection
Who better to know about corporate responsibility than Yeshua,
who in His dying for us experienced this crowd/mob mentality.
Yeshua was dobbed in by a friend, then brought before a mockery of
a trial in the Sanhedrin, arrested by the Romans and taken into a
courtyard where hundreds if not thousands of pilgrims were. They
shouted out to crucify him and the nails took aim at the Messiah.
From the cross Yeshua offered forgiveness and grace to those who
had even nailed him there. He sought greater than justice, he wanted
to take the lost oxen and sheep back to the Maker, back to God, one
person at a time. The thieves were there; the soldiers, the people.
Yeshua certainly maintained the calendar as this took place on
Passover, when others were worried about kosher lambs, Yeshua
died as the Lamb of God for us all.
He wanted and still wants no one to have other gods; He is alone
to be worshiped.
And yet, all the while, He well knows that change is slow. He
longs for us to know Him and to grow in Him. He longs for all His
people worldwide, in prison in Ashkelon or in suits at the ASX to
know Him. He longs for you to come to believe in Him and to follow
Him each day. He wants you to be alive and forgiven.
