We notice that to be God\u2019s representatives, this ex-slave community needed to be distinct from the surrounding nations. God’s grace and His mighty hand of deliverance had set them free; but to remain free, they couldn’t live like the other nations. They couldn’t live like the pagan Egyptians, under whose rule they\u2019d groaned in slavery and cried out for help. Now that they had been delivered, they had to learn to live together in new ways.<\/p>\n
Verse 23 is a reiteration of the 9th commandment: “You shall not bear false witness.” This verse says not to “circulate a false report” or “put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.” A false report may be a groundless report, or something as simple as gossip, but primarily this was a command against both slander and false evidence given in a trial. The Hebrew word for “the wicked” means “the party who\u2019s in the wrong.” An “unrighteous witness” or literally a “witness of violence” is a person who would give false evidence to bring about the acquittal of a guilty person.<\/p>\n
There are 2 root truths behind the 9th commandment and this verse: love justice and don’t twist the truth. Don’t pass along false reports. Don’t cooperate with evil people by telling lies on their behalf. We must ask ourselves frequently, “Have I dealt justly with others, loving truth and walking close with God?” If the answer is no, then it is time for us to make things right by repenting before Him.<\/p>\n
“LORD, please forgive our sins. Change our hearts and make us like You.”<\/em><\/p>\n =============================================================<\/p>\n Exodus 23 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.\u00a0 2<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt not follow a multitude to\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest\u00a0judgment:\u00a0<\/em> 3<\/sup>\u00a0Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. 4<\/sup>\u00a0If thou meet thine enemy\u2019s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.\u00a0\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. 8<\/sup> And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.\u00a0 9<\/sup>\u00a0Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u00a0 10<\/sup>\u00a0And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0But the seventh\u00a0year\u00a0<\/em>thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>with thy oliveyard.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And in all\u00a0things\u00a0<\/em>that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14<\/sup>\u00a0Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering,\u00a0which is\u00a0<\/em>in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord\u00a0GOD.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.\u00a0\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother\u2019s milk. 20<\/sup> Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in him.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.\u00a0\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall serve the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26<\/sup>\u00a0There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfill.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.\u00a0\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.\u00a031<\/sup>\u00a0And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.\u00a032<\/sup>\u00a0Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.\u00a033<\/sup>\u00a0They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n