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Exodus 22:21-23
“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.
New International Version (NIV)
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Do the rules apply to you? Don’t look now but there are more than ten commandments. Many of them are in Exodus, others in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Long ago people who loved the law a lot found 613 rules in the First Testament: 365 Thou Shalt Nots (One for every day of the year), 248 Thou Shalts (one for every bone in the human body). Some of them have to do with the calendar. Others have to do with food rules. Many laws have to do with human relationships.
Some Old Testament laws sound strange to us but still seem easy to keep: “don’t cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Got it! Most Christians have long ago given up on keeping all of the specific ceremonial and calendar laws. Paul writes to both the Colossians and Galatians encouraging them to move beyond rigid rule-keeping of times and seasons as their way of life. He must have known how easy it would be to go back to the hypocrisy of Pharisaism.
Still, Jesus said he came to fulfill, not abolish the law. The consensus of Christianity is that the moral laws remain binding for believers in every culture. For example, in these verses, God’s people are supposed to be kind to foreigners, widows and orphans. The Israelites had just left the life of being foreigners in Egypt where they were mistreated. Deaths in the wilderness would create many widows, widowers and orphans. The logic of the law is compelling: when someone hurts the helpless, they cry in pain, and their Helper, God hears. Actually, God not only hears but he knows who is hurting others.
When Henry James, the great old fuddy-duddy and American novelist, was saying good-by once to his young nephew, Willie, son of his brother William, he said something the boy never forgot. Of all the fancy, labyrinthine, impenetrable things that fancy, labyrinthine, impenetrable old novelist could have said, what he did say: "Willie, there are three things that are important in human life. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind." This rule applies to all who follow Christ. Let’s put it into practice today!
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Pray with me: Father, we thank you for your kindness that leads us to repentance. We are prone to use shame to try to modify behavior. Instead, set us free with the truth that your grace is sufficient to forgive us. Let us treat others with the very same kindness that you have shown to us. Protect the guest in our gates today. Provide for the widows and the orphans we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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| This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan. Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download
the app at readscripture.org. Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully,
Duane
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