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CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
Exodus 22:18–24 ESV
“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.
“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.
“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
CONSIDER THIS . . .
Have you ever tried to read through the Bible? You move along pretty well through Genesis and the first half of Exodus, and then all of a sudden, you are brought up short by the weird laws and strange details that occur in the second half of Exodus.
What do we do with these things?
Can I tell you something? The Old Testament laws actually make me love God more, and I want to tell you why.
In these weeks leading up to Lent, I’m doing a little mini-series on Exodus called “How God Gets Egypt Out of Us.” Let me explain.
At my church, we’re calling 2026 The Year Through the Bible, and all of us at Asbury Church are using the One Year Bible as we work through the Bible together. We are currently midway through Exodus, and so I thought it would be good to offer a series of reflections from that reading. As we will see today, we are not in the part of the Bible that most Christians find meaningful or helpful, and that’s exactly why I wanted to write about it! I think all of the Bible has something to say to us, if we are willing to hear it. Over the next few days, we will be looking at the laws and regulations that make up so much of the second half of Exodus. I expect these are not your favorite passages, but I think they are beautiful, and I can’t wait to talk about them with you.
The first part of Exodus is about God getting the people out of Egypt.
The second part of Exodus, however, is perhaps even more important: it’s God getting Egypt out of the people.
As we shall see, the lessons and the laws are there to teach the people about God’s way of righteousness and to form them to carry on that way to the nations.
All of what we believe about right and wrong and morality comes from the Bible! But, at some point, Israel had to be instructed about morality, and that’s what’s happening in Exodus as God first gets the people out of Egypt and then instructs them as to the right way to live. This means that the laws in Exodus teach us about what matters to God. In general, we see two main categories in this section of Exodus:
First category: keeping people away from serious sin and error;
Second category: protecting the vulnerable.
In the first category, we have verses 18–20:
“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.
“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.”
These actions are so destructive to the community that those who take them face the ultimate punishment: death.
In the second category, see verses 21–24:
“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”
God is instructing the people of Israel that all people are valuable to him, even the poor and weak.
With just this short passage, you can learn a lot about God’s heart for humanity and what a good life ought to look like.
All this to say, the laws in Exodus tell us what should matter to us. We should care desperately about the weak and the poor and should seek to be a society in which justice is available for everyone. At the same time, we should seek to be a society that instructs its members on what sorts of behaviors would make human life impossible.
And all of this is what God cares about! This is what the Lord is like, and his laws reflect his heart.
And to see his heart for humanity revealed—to keep us away from serious error, to care for the vulnerable—makes me love God all the more, and I’m grateful.
PRAYER
Lord, let your will be done and your kingdom come here. We pray for America. Help our laws to reflect your values, Lord. Help us be a just nation and a wise nation. Keep us from the sins that lead to death, Lord, and bring about spiritual awakening in our land. Lead us not into temptation today, Lord, and keep us far from the ways that lead to death. All this we ask through Jesus’s name. Amen.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Which of the laws in today’s reading is most needed in our society today? Are you more uncomfortable by the laws about the poor and the weak or the laws about behaviors that lead to death? Why? Have you ever thanked God for the Old Testament laws that undergird our modern concepts of right and wrong?
SING
Today, we will sing “God of Grace and God of Glory” (hymn 45) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
Andrew Forrest
Andrew Forrest is the senior pastor of Asbury Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Raised in West Africa and Virginia, he is a third-generation pastor and church planter. He blogs at AndrewForrest.org.
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6 Responses
Andrew Forrest has been a wonderful, thought provoking addition to Seedbed.Im enjoying his teaching. Thank you Andrew!
Your doing great Andrew!!
The Bible clearly demonstrates this: Spiritual awakening can’t be produced by laws or formalized religion being imposed on people. It requires a humble heart, gut-wrenching repentance, and full surrender to the leading of God the Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 29:13) When will we humans ever lean that?
God called Israel to be a godly nation, but when you read their story in the Bible, they never truly lived up God’s calling. They never consistently obeyed God’s laws. Even their best heroes and their “good” kings sinned against God.
The Old Testament prophets boldly criticized and rebuked both Israel and Judah in the name of God. They continually challenged them to go beyond the hypocrisy of outward appearance and religious formalism and to diligently purse true righteousness that comes from a heart fully surrendered to and obedient to God. Then when Christ came to show them His way, the most religious among them rose up against Him and convinced a mob to demand that the Roman governor crucify Him.
Since Christ came, many nations have called themselves Christian, but all those nations have fallen far short of cultivating truly Christ-like culture and community. They have promoted formal religion, imposed it on their people, and produced the pride of self-righteousness, but they haven’t changed people’s hearts in the way that produces widespread moral purity, genuine holiness, and Christ-like love that overflows with humility. When will we ever learn?
Laws can never create a godly culture. God’s righteousness begins to manifest itself when individuals sincerely and consistently open up to, align their free will with, and obeying God the Holy Spirit. The world doesn’t need more legalism. It needs genuinely heart-transforming, spiritual awakening. Nothing less will do!
Amen.
Thank you, Andrew, for these insights.
Journal Prompt question #1 is leading into a logic trap.
Of course the ones calling for the death penalty.
But then again the ones that command us to love sojourners, strangers, widows and orphans by not oppressing them are important too.
Seriously, the Second Commandment is tied to the greatest commandment.
You just can’t get away from the immigration issue.