Sermon Notes: Exodus 22:16-31

As we have discovered, the law’s purpose is establishing holy order for human flourishing among the people of God and to lead us to Jesus.

But what is the location of our understanding and application of God’s laws? Where are we to put God’s instructions to practice?

It is easy, because of where we live and Christian history’s impact on our values, culture, and government, to jump right to the government as the place to put God’s instructions to practice. Our setting makes us go straight to governing laws in our land first.

What does God say?

Let’s hear 1 Peter 4:17.

1 Peter 4:17 (ESV) 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

If that is true, then God brings the church to give account before the government.

In our current place in salvation history under the new covenant, I suggest that before we look to the law of the land, that we the local church have our house in order as the diplomatic outpost of the kingdom of God in understanding and applying God’s word.

Do not misunderstand me. I want to see the truths of God’s word be how we do things at every level of society. We long for the fullness of the kingdom of God to come and the fullness of his will to be done on earth as in heaven. How that happens, I don’t fully understand yet. Before we take to governing under God’s laws, perhaps we should be astute at them ourselves.

How can we implement God’s consecrated standards for an entire population when many Christians are so emotionally and relationally unhealthy from failing at the application of simple passages to understand, like Romans 11-16? We are so infected with the world’s boundaryless standards we can’t do that in the local church. How can we determine how to even best govern Floyd County much less the United States?

Christians want to tell a city/county/state/nation to obey God’s law, but they struggle to keep their word in a church covenant.

In addition to that, there are far too many scoundrels, heretics, and charlatans who carry the name of Jesus representing his church who have risen to prominence and mislead desperate people into darkness while selling them light. Some of these agents of the Serpent are intentional, and some are unknowing agents of the Serpent who truly believe the garbage they are slinging. The local church has work to do before we can export laws for everyone else.

The first location of our understanding and application of God’s law is with us, the household of God. When we look like the people of God who manage God’s household as consecrated people, we will have the integrity to write and enforce some laws that look like the breaking in of the kingdom of God.

INTRODUCTORY APPLICATION EXAMPLE: For example, we practice capital punishment as the people of God in the church through church discipline as outlined in the Scriptures before we demand it of our government. If we won’t practice 1 Corinthians 5, then we have no business demanding our government obey God’s word when we won’t.

If we let sin run rampant among covenant church members yet demand our government punish murders according to God’s word, we are hypocrites who want one standard for thee but not for me.

So, let’s look at our passage today with an eye on how we can practice the holy order of God as the church and see if we can see and savor Jesus through it as well.

Read it! Exodus 22:16-31

NOTE: It is appropriate to say here that good order among people is not necessarily equal to holiness, but it is true that holiness always has divine order built in that results in good order among people and society as well resulting in peace.

Non-Christians routinely create order and peace without being consecrated to God. They are image-bearers, and since they are created in God’s image have great capacity to bring order to disorder.

For the Christian, our first “order” of business is to be holy, and when we seek holiness, we get God’s order that results in peace and good and thus human flourishing.

What holy and good and ordered boundaries does God set for his people in our text today?

Holiness in sexual purity. 22:16-17, 19

God’s instruction here is rooted in the very first wedding that God himself performed in Eden.

The Wise Creator Jesus took Eve out of Adam’s side perfectly corresponding to him, brought her to him, and performed the ceremony himself before they consummated the marriage. There is a lot to be learned in relationships and process and order from Genesis 2 alone. But that’s another sermon for another day.

God tells us that when a man gets the order of events wrong by seducing the girl and being intimate before they are joined in marriage, he has committed himself to marry the young lady he has seduced into intimacy by paying the marriage price and getting married NOT continuing the disordered behavior with multiple girls (vice/versa in girls doing the same thing). Being one flesh with multiple people is not good for image-bearers.

God also addresses a situation in which the father of the young lady refuses to give his daughter to the man who neglected to obey God’s standard set in Eden. The reasons are not given why the father may reject the marriage. They can be many.

NOTE: It’s the father’s prerogative to tell a young man to hit the road, Jack. It’s not up to the young man. So, young men, be careful in your pursuit of a young lady. She’s not yours, and you have zero rights. Get it right in God’s eyes, and get it right according to Dad’s good desires for his daughter.

In this instance where the father refuses the young man, the man must pay the marriage price anyway, and he doesn’t get a bride. That’s the consequence for getting things out of order.

The man having to pay the marriage price in the last instance is insurance for the young lady to be able to be married later. If a marriage could be arranged, the man might be hesitant because his potential bride has lost her innocence, and the marriage price already being paid makes the proposition more likely.

We won’t get into the ancient near east custom of dowry but suffice it to say that it was an accepted custom, and God sets his law within the framework of paying a dowry. The marriage prices is likely a protection from women being taken advantage of and left to cultural exclusion, poverty, and even death.

God’s standard is to marry before a man and woman set about multiplying to fill the earth.

This standard is to be the church’s standard of holiness. Keep it pure before marriage.

God has a prescribed order for human flourishing. Therefore, we should not be surprised at the hurt and long-term devastation that happens when we ignore his order.

Ignoring God’s order is what happens in Genesis 6 in beings crossing their created boundaries sexually, and one of the reasons sexual immorality, idolatry, and false worship often intermingle. You’ll see it over and over again in the Bible, and you’ll see it in history.

Holiness in getting rid of sorcery, beastiality, and false worship. 22:18, 19, 20

These three are samples of other capital crimes in God’s economy of holiness.

These three also fall into a category of capital crimes because they each attempt to replace something of God’s covenant with some twisted practice of the Serpent.

Sorcery

God, in his covenant with man, gave access to knowledge with boundaries back in the garden, and the Serpent came along with an enticement to seek out knowledge with not boundaries with the tempting lie that the Lord was keeping good for them.

Jude 1:6 (ESV) 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

This is an example of boundaries the Lord set and were breached and the devastation it has caused.

Sorcery is real and a boundary set by God for us to not cross.

Sorcery seeks to go beyond the knowledge that God has granted image-bearers access to with different knowledge that created divine beings have access to and might grant in some transactional encounter with humans.

The truth is there is all kinds of knowledge in God’s supernatural universe, and it’s there because God created it, the Serpent has spoiled it, and it’s not good for humanity. God will restore all things in the fullness of time, and in the meantime, there are boundaries we are not to cross for our own good. The occult is one.

Beastiality

In God’s kingdom, he made man in his image, male and female, and he gave the woman to the man as a helper in the mission.

Mankind has oversight of the animals for God’s good and fulfilling mission NOT pro-creation.

Beastiality sought to replace the connection between image-bearers for mission and joy with another creature God did not design for such holy and good purposes.

False Worship

False worship sought to make other created divine beings the objects of a human’s attention and affection. Even the Serpent attempts to entice Jesus with this while Jesus is fasting in preparation for his earthly ministry.

It matters that we do not replace God’s good gifts in covenant with the Serpent’s twisted substitutes.

Think on this and see if you can identify more ways we might be tempted to substitute God’s good design with a dark alternative.

Holiness through compassion for the vulnerable. 22:21-27

Being holy through compassion for the vulnerable falls under “loving one’s neighbor as themselves”, and therefore, a tangible expression of loving God.

Sojourner

A sojourner is one who is not native to a land and comes to live in it. God allowed sojourners to come into Israel, and he made provision for them to not be taken advantage of. This is because as a foreigner they are vulnerable in every way.

If you’ve ever traveled over to Alabama, you know what being a foreigner is like. Cedar Bluff might as well be Kandahar. Them people are backwards man! Just kidding.

Seriously, it’s a vulnerable experience to visit much less choose to live in a foreign land. The language barriers are real. True story, my first time out of the country was Afghanistan in 2002. I remember trying to navigate Kandahar and thinking that if I just said it louder and slower, they’d understand what I was saying. “Which way to the store!” louder and slower did not work.

It’s important to note however, that God holds the sojourner to the standards of the law. There are not different laws for Israelis and sojourners.

Exodus 12:49 (ESV) 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

Leviticus 24:22 (ESV) 22 You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.”

Worship, civil, and ethical standards applied to the sojourner just like the native.

So, it’s important to not say stupid stuff about laws in the United States while appealing to the Mosaic law. Don’t use parts of God’s law to demean laws intended to keep order and an eye on who is entering a country for the well-being of citizens. Other nations not doing that is not necessarily a mandate that other nations accept chaos.

God established order for his people and for those who sought the Lord’s salvation, his order, and his flourishing.

In God’s economy of law, those who come to sojourn are welcome, and they are welcome under the laws of the native land not some hocus pocus made up system of chaos that misuses God’s law to justify breaking good laws for evil and nefarious ends.

When sojourners come according to the standards of order, then they are to be afforded safety and opportunity.

Fatherless/widow

The fatherless and widow find themselves without the “covering” God designed for human flourishing. This “covering” of God is the family and a spouse.

Circumstances of life because of the curse of sin due to the Serpent have taken God’s covering of a father and mother to care for and protect and the covering of a spouse of one flesh to care for and protect, away.

This loss leaves the son or daughter or spouse in a place of need physically and socially. Their God appointed “covering” is gone, and they are exposed. In these situations, it becomes the people of God’s responsibility to care for them.

Under God’s law it was the state of Israel and the individual members of that state to care for the fatherless and widow. The two had to work together. It does not tell us how they did it, but it’s implicit.

It’s important to note that we probably can’t say that it’s completely the church’s responsibility apart from the state to do this work as it so popular to say and yet no one does.  

God gave this law to the state of Israel and thus the members of that state to obey.

Regardless of how one views the state and the church, you can’t ignore the reality that state and church under God have a place in this work, and the church must learn to work with the state at every level to be the solution.

In my opinion, this inevitable union between governing body and citizens is God’s invitation for his people to enter the domain of government and set the standard that makes such a partnership work AND be partners that can work with this dynamic when the situation is not ideal. See Jeff and Mary Margart. See Jennifer Jolly.

NOTE: God does not make provision for his people to isolate from the public square in this work. The only option is preparation and engagement.  

God says that if we mistreat the orphan and the widow, and that mistreatment may be anything from taking advantage of them to ignoring them, God himself will take vengeance for them in their vulnerable state.

Predatory lending

Charging interest to one’s own who are in need and require a loan to get on their feet is considered by God wrong. Taking a necessity from someone who is needy for a pledge to ensure payback, in God’s eyes, is wrong.

God’s economy of law requires compassion for those in real need. God’s reason? He is compassionate, so we are to be compassionate.

Holiness in respect for those who lead. 22:28

It is far too easy to reject authority for many of us raised in the shadow of 1776. And I love “Don’t tread on me.” It’s a challenge to balance the good in that with the command of God to honor authority when we believe in God’s good sovereignty over all things.

God established authority for order in reigning in disorder, and thus for human flourishing.

Authority does not imply inequality between those in authority and those under authority.

Authority does imply fellowship and accountability.

Holy authority is good for us.

Mankind has abused authority at every turn because of sin. That does not mean authority is to be rejected. It means authority is to be redeemed and those in authority need to be accountable.

Acts 23:1-5 recounts Paul before the council in Jerusalem making his defense after being falsely arrested. Paul recounts how he has been faithful to obey the law his entire life, and Ananias has Paul hit in the mouth. Paul responds by telling him that God will strike him and calls Ananias a “whitewashed tomb”.

Someone corrects Paul and tells him he should not revile the high priest. Then Paul recalls Exodus 21:28 to correct himself saying he didn’t know Ananias was the high priest.

So, even Paul in a sham trial, corrects his own behavior in obedience to the law about honoring whatever authority God has placed over him in that moment. Paul obeys God’s word in a robust act of faith in God in the middle of a sham trial.

I can give you a list of good reasons for Paul to justify his way out of doing what he did and feel good about it, but he didn’t do that.

To be frank, this whole encounter chaps my hyde a bit and tames my desire to break boundaries of authority which I’m really skilled at.

God calls us to honor authority.

He also calls us to obey him over certain authority when authority steps outside of God’s boundaries (see Acts 4:1-22). That’s what I wanted Paul to do, but he didn’t.

You need to wrestle through that and learn to make personal application.

God’ economy of law calls us to pay attention to good authority and let good authority rule over us for good.

Holiness in giving first fruits. 22:29-30

Generosity is rooted in the nature of God who creates and shares his creation with his creatures.

God gives and shares.

Therefore, it is no surprise that God calls for us to give him the first of everything. In the garden, this was not a problem. Man’s trusting relationship with God and constant unhindered abundance never caused a pause in giving the firsts as worship.

Not long after Genesis 3 though we see hints of withholding in worship with Cain as he brings “some” of his crop while Abel brings the first.

Withholding from God what we should give is rooted in the sin of distrust that the Serpent sows in Genesis 3. The ultimate test of whether a person trusts God is in their giving to God the very first of the cattle and crop because they believe God to make what comes after their sacrificial giving to be enough.  

God calls us to be givers, giving tests our holiness, and giving increases our holiness as it increases our trust in God.

Holiness in eating. 22:31b

I’m sure God is concerned with us getting sick from eating tainted food. However, this prohibition has less to do with us not eating roadkill and more to do with our worship in ritual purity.

No doubt there is concern for their health.

There is concern that an animal killed by another animal may not have the blood of the dead animal properly dealt with, which the Lord addresses in Exodus 23:18 and 34:25. They are not to have anything to do with the blood of the animal as an issue of worship purity.

The first part of verse 31 gives us the indication that holiness in regard to our eating and worship is what he has in mind.

Exodus 22:31 “You shall be consecrated to me.” “And consecrated men you shall be to me.” (My translation – “kadosh ish” holy men)

Israel is to be consecrated, that is holy. He specifically connects “ish” with “kadosh” (holy men) as the men were to set the pace of holy living, like Adam their father was designed to do, and thus the rest of the congregation of Israel were to follow suit in the good leadership of the men.

Men who have ears to hear, hear.

These laws do more than set good order and flourishing. These laws are designed to lead them to holiness, which they learned very quickly, they cannot achieve on their own and would look to Jesus.

Even down to their food they are at odds with God’s standards.

Jesus will tell us that his flesh is true food, and his blood is true drink. Jesus told us he had the food of the Father’s will to consume when the disciples were worried about snacks and meals as Jesus was on mission to meet the woman at the well.

When we eat, we are to be reminded that we are going to get hungry again, and thus we are in constant need physically, and that hunger is to point us to our need for the forever food of God’s presence while we are doing his work his way.

Food is never an end in itself. Food is to remind us of God’s presence. God gave the garden that produced food to be harvested, cultivated, and consumed in God’s presence for nourishment and joy. In the good news of the kingdom, the Lord gave us the Supper where we are invited to dine with him on the good news of Jesus’ cross in the bread and the cup. Thus, God reminds us in the Lord’s Supper of his justifying and reconciling work for us. The Supper, the food, is holy.

Food is more than good tasting morsels.

Food, like sex, is intimately connected to worship. Soon in Exodus 24:9-11 we will witness the Lord Jesus invite Moses and a whole crew of the elders up on the mountain to see him and eat with him in a moment of recapturing Eden and a foretaste of the full restoration of all things that we get a glimpse of in Revelation 21 and 22. They saw him, ate with him, and will still rebel against him. We do the same thing.

So, we should not be surprised that food, like sex, is abused and misused among humans to our physical and spiritual demise.

Take some time and think through how food might rule so many things in life rather than prepare us for mission, health, and worship. Appetite and the stomach are terrible gods.

Application

The people of God are to be a consecrated people.

We are not just to be ordered and orderly, but we are to be holy. Remember, holiness produces a godward order that is good and right.

God doesn’t just save us; he intends to restore us to full humanity.

Part of what God does for us in salvation is he begins the work of a full restoration to what we are created to be in his image.

Romans 8:30 (ESV) 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

If you are in Christ, you are counted as “glorified”. That means that you are counted as one who is sure to be completed. That’s great news, and it’s challenging news.

It’s challenging because it means I’m under construction, and sometimes ripping out my idols and habits that are not holy is painful, but it’s part of God practically making us holy.

We are to be a holy people not a people who are ok with everything that is not holy and then superimpose “grace” on top of our assimilation of the world into our value system. That’s not an appropriate use of God’s grace.

Every one of us have fallen short of God’s standard in the law, and today’s text is an opportunity to look in the mirror and evaluate ourselves and run to the cross for our justification.

It is a valuable discipline for the Christian to evaluate themselves.

2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

We should look into the law and test our standard of holiness.

We are told to be in the world and not of the world. We are to be in the world and not overcome by the world. A good look into God’s standard for what his people are to be in holiness is a good discipline for being in the world on mission and making sure we are not assimilating into the world.

And when we self-evaluate, we might be tempted to believe we earn our standing before God by our performance. We don’t.

We must remember Galatians. We take a look into the law, and we learn God’s order and holiness, and we remember that Jesus has fulfilled the law for righteousness for us at the cross, and we run to that reality daily.

Galatians 3:24 (ESV) 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

The law taught us what sin is and teaches us to come to Jesus for our justification.

We must remember this daily.

There is forgiveness for the justified in restoration of relationship with God.

Psalm 103:10-14. Actually read it.

When we violate God’s standards for holiness as justified followers of Jesus Christ, if we have truly believed, we have the very righteousness of God counted to us. This is Paul’s whole argument in Romans 1-11.

Our standing with God is secured, and we set about persevering in the kingdom of God. The proof of our salvation is not perfection but not letting go through a life of continual repentance.

Ephesians 4:30 (ESV) 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

As the Bible says, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we step out of holiness in favor of sin because Holy Spirit dwells in us if we are in Christ, and when we invite unholiness in we do violence to the Spirit as well as ourselves, and the Spirit is grieved by that. That’s why giving in to sin feels so bad for the follower of Jesus, and we instantly regret what we did. He won’t let us get away with it. We feel his grief.

This is why all those who truly are justified in Christ will repent. They can’t help but repent. The Spirit won’t let them stay in sin.

When we grieve the Spirit with sin, we confess and find forgiveness, restored fellowship and healed grief.

1 John 1:9-10 (ESV) 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Confession and forgiveness are not getting justified all over again. Confession and forgiveness are us entering the rupture / repair cycle with God because we are in relationship with him. We’ve ruptured the relationship, and we repair by coming and admitting our rupture. When we do that, he removes the sin as far as the east is from the west and does not treat us as the sin deserves.

So, if you are a follower of Jesus and you’ve violated God’s standard, admit it to him. It’s good to admit it to someone also. James 5:16 (ESV) 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

When you do that, you can move forward with God and each other.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, you need to repent and believe and receive the justifying work of Jesus for you so that he can give you a new heart, a new set of desires, and give you the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. Believe today! Then you get all the relational gold of walking with God.

Let’s worship.