This Bible passage is very meaty. There is a lot to digest, think about, and grasp. It is not easy to read because every one of us is guilty of at least one of these actions. Even though I am digging in my heels and thinking that I would rather tackle an easier passage, God is bringing my focus to this passage over and over. Let’s look at Exodus 23:1-9.
1Don’t spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence. 2Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is [a] dishonest and stands in the way of justice. 3And don’t favor the poor, simply because they are poor. 4If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy. 5If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn’t like you. [b] 6Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court. 7Don’t bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won’t forgive you if you do. 8Don’t accept bribes. Judges are blinded and justice is twisted by bribes. 9Don’t mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.
Wow. Like I said, there’s a lot to take in within this short passage. Let’s break it up, verse by verse.
Verse 1- Don’t spread harmful rumors or help a criminal by giving false evidence.
Well, this makes sense. If you are testifying in court, tell the whole truth, even though the one on trial is your friend, your husband, your child. This is very difficult. We all want to protect our loved ones. We don’t want to see them go to jail, but the Bible clearly states that we must be honest, even at great personal costs. Who am I to say that- for I have lied to protect others. Yes, I have and to be honest- if I’m dragged into court and they try to make me tell them things that would land my loved ones into jail, I will not tell them what I know. So, I find myself stuck; enduring an internal battle. How can I be a good Christian when I freely acknowledge the fact that I will not be the reason someone I care for is thrown into jail? I feel my loved ones did no harm, yet they broke the law. However, I do not spread harmful rumors. That one, I can do. I don’t see why anyone would want to spread harmful rumors, but I can see why others would help a criminal. I have seen many public figures go through the same conflict. It’s an universal struggle. This is a tough one to follow when you really get down into the gritty facts. At first glance, we all think to ourselves, sure, no problem, we can follow that rule. Then your sister steals something and you know that if you told the court it was not the first time, she would go to jail, wouldn’t you lie and say that was the first time as far as you know so that she only gets community service? We all want to protect our loved ones. On the flip side, we should not twist the truth so that we can send someone we don’t like to jail when we don’t really have the evidence of it. If you suspect someone hurt your child, you can’t take your child’s words and twist it so that they will certainly arrest said person, no matter how much you are hurting and want that other person to pay. Without proof, anything you say is a rumor. Yes, this is a difficult verse to digest. Let’s move on to the next one.
Verse 2- Always tell the truth in court, even if everyone else is dishonest and stands in the way of justice.
This verse is reiterating the point of not twisting the truth to suit others’ agendas. What if you knew your brother was embezzling funds from a corrupt company and donating that to charities? Kind of like a modern Robin Hood. Would you tell the truth in court which will send your brother to prison for a long time? Honesty, would you? Even with everyone else denying that knowledge and strongly suggesting to you that you do the same? That is a lot of pressure and you may even rationalize to yourself that he wasn’t really doing anything wrong… Even if your brother is a good Christian, God clearly states that we all are to follow the laws of our modern country. How do we follow both God and the customs of our country? I can’t answer that question for you. It’s not easy. If we follow God, we face the earthly consequences but divine benefits. If we follow the customs of our country and modern times, we reap benefits now, but face divine consequences too ghastly to discuss. The line is so fine that it looks blurry. Again, if that was indeed my brother, I would be following the crowd again. I just am not strong enough to stand alone with everyone working against me. Or am I? With God at my side, I can do anything. It just gets lonely being just me and God at times.
Verse 3- And don’t favor the poor, simply because they are poor.
That does not seem fair, does it? Oh, but they are underprivileged. Oh, but they’ve already been through enough as it is. Oh, but… but… but… Yet it clearly says we are not to treat the poor any differently. We can give them things, but we shouldn’t treat them differently. If a restaurant insists on shoes, they must wear shoes, even if they cannot afford them. Harsh, yes, but it’s there. This is not saying do not lend a helping hand to them or participate in charity activities. The restaurant manager can always loan them some shoes so that they may enter. I am talking about laws, rules, etiquette. The less wealthy are not excused from the laws. I have been poor my whole life, even homeless at some points throughout my life, but I have always strived to be presentable, follow the rules, and abide by the law. When I did break the law, such as sleeping in an area that had a sign posted “Closed during nighttime hours”, I hid and laid low. When I worked at a pizzeria, there was this poor couple that came in asking to buy some sandwiches with food stamps. We were not set up to accept the food stamps so I had to say no, we need cash. They moaned “but we are poor, these are all we have.” I could have given them a slice for free, I was the manager, but I did not want to give them the wrong impression because they were demanding it. I turned them away and gave them directions to the nearest grocery store. I told them that they sold take-n-bake pizzas. Naturally they were angry and did not receive that very well. I had to call the police and have them removed from the property. It does not say it there, but I think this can also mean we should not favor by financial status, which flips around to state that we should not favor the rich simply because they are rich either. If a rich famous person is arrested, I feel the courts should also treat them equally. I feel the jury should turn a blind eye to the fact that they are financially well off and focus on what they are there for. Now, on to the next verse.
Verse 4- If you find an ox or a donkey that has wandered off, take it back where it belongs, even if the owner is your enemy.
Interesting. Let’s see how I can tweak this to fit with the modern world. (thinking) Our modern society uses cars, trucks, tractors, and seeders, which is what these oxen and donkey were for them back then. Our vehicles do not wander off. (Thank god, can you imagine finding that your car has driven itself off?) Anyways, that does not fit, so let’s turn it to material possessions. If you find a necklace or wallet on the floor that you know belongs to the enemy, go return it. Don’t put it in the charity box so you don’t have to talk to them. Go return it, even if they will accuse you of having stolen it in the first place.
Verse 5- If a donkey is overloaded and falls down, you must do what you can to help, even if it belongs to someone who doesn’t like you.
Here’s another verse that needs to be tweaked to fit in our modern society. If you see a neighbor that you do not like struggling to move something heavy from his house into his truck, go over and lend a hand, even if that neighbor detests you and openly shows what he thinks of you. This one, I would do anyways. If I see a girl I don’t like trip and scatter the contents of her bags, I help her gather up her things and see if she is okay, no twisted ankle or anything. I have done that before, actually. She was very hostile and grabbed her things and told me she does not need my help, to go away and she’ll get the help from someone else. I just want to help. It’s not easy helping others that do not like you and while you’re trying to lend an hand, they eye you suspiciously and assume that you have an inner motivation when there is none. It’s so much easier to just think to yourself “ah, to the heck with it, they can handle it themselves.” Yet here the verse says that if the guy that doesn’t like us needs help from somebody, we should be the ones there to lend an hand, no matter how unwelcome it is.
Verse 6- Make sure that the poor are given equal justice in court.
This is probably here to remind us that although we are to not give the poor special treatment just because they can’t afford things, we are also not to be too lenient with them if they do commit crimes. Do not let one’s financial status have any impact on their proceedings. Easier said than done, though- since they cannot afford the best lawyers like the financially well-off can.
Verse 7 – Don’t bring false charges against anyone or sentence an innocent person to death. I won’t forgive you if you do.
False charges are those without proof. Even if we are utterly convinced someone did something, we cannot file charges unless we have concrete evidence of said charges. I am so grateful that we live in the age of DNA technology and forensic science because that means as early as a century ago, the guilty parties were getting off scot-free because it was essentially down to their word against his word. Now it’s no longer simply just words, it’s also microscopic evidence. This means there are less and less people being accused of bringing false charges, because they are aware of the fact it is very easy to prove that they had lied. The cases in courts now are nearly always for actual crimes committed not merely alleged crimes.
Here’s the last one- Verse 9- Don’t mistreat foreigners. You were foreigners in Egypt, and you know what it is like.
That is a loaded verse. The Mexicans entering our country comes to mind. The Bible instructs us to treat them well. Yet the verses above instruct us to not treat them any nicer or any meaner because of their status. We simply should treat them equally. It is hard to do that because many of them do not want to learn English. I’m deaf and I have a hard time enough reading lips in English, but in Spanish?! Forget it. I have friends who speak mostly Spanish within their homes, but they make an effort to become Americans. They speak English, the husband is a Spanish teacher for a college and goes to seminary at night studying to be a pastor; and the wife is a stay at home mother who wants to homeschool their three girls. They are beautiful generous people. She even tried to teach me a little Spanish and they watch this weird pink and orange Big Bird on the Spanish version of Sesame Street. It’s funny. But on the other hand, there were these Spanish-speaking people working for a restaurant my husband used to work at. They demanded special treatment or else they would all leave. They had the manager by his balls because he had agreed to hire them as a family unit. It turns out that the grandfather is too slow to do anything and is costing the restaurant money, but if they let that grandfather go, the rest of the family will quit which means half the employees will be gone. They don’t speak English and have no desire to. We are supposed to treat them like equals? How? They won’t even let us treat them like equals, they want special treatment, they feel entitled to it. They make the genuine immigrants working on becoming citizens look bad. They encourage the stereotypes much to the legal immigrants’ chagrin. I have no trouble with embracing the legal immigrants with open arms and treating them like my equal, my fellow American. Yet the Bible says we are to also treat the illegal immigrants the same way. How? They don’t give us that chance in the first place- at least, those I’ve encountered. They eye me suspiciously when I try to say Hi and my husband has asked me to steer clear of them because he is concerned I could become a target for them once they figure out I am deaf. They do not make it easy for us to welcome them with open arms, yet they demand that we allow it.
I do agree with the government that we are to close the borders and start a system where they can gain green cards. This may not be very biblical, but I agree with the government that they are stretching our resources thin. So here is yet another bible verse that I do not completely follow.
Where does this leave me? I consider myself to be a Christian and I follow Jesus as closely as I can. Yet modern society presents roadblock after roadblock in my journey to be godly. I find it difficult to transcend all and embrace everyone as equals- criminals and victims, Americans and illegal immigrants, friends and enemies. Jesus was an amazing man. He saw the criminal and the victim as equals. Same with the rest of them. We are all his brothers and sisters. Why can’t I think the way that Jesus does? I try. I try so hard. Yet my human heart holds my spirit back.
What about all of you? What were your experiences?
