To Enter the Promised Land-Exodus 23

Exodus, Sermons

Video of Sunday Worship on 4/3/2022. Henry, Elena, Zac and Abhinav shared.

  • Why keep the Sabbath: We live ON the land, we live OFF the land, but we are NOT the land, for we are destined for more than earthly things
  1. What are 3 injunctions about speech (Exo 23:1-2)? What 2 commandments do they echo (Exo 20:7, 16)?
  2. Is the poor entitled to special consideration (Exo 23:3; 6)? Is your role to undo society’s ills or to be just (Dt 16:20; Mic 6:8)?
  3. Who’s your enemy? Should you treat them or someone who hates you differently than a friend (Exo 23:4-5; Mt 5:44)?
  4. What happens to those who falsely bring death on the innocent (Exo 23:7)? What if they avoid punishment?
  5. Why are many nations unable to escape poverty (Exo 23:8)? Is bribery the single most common form of corruption in government and society?
  6. How does not plowing the land every 7th year and not working on the 7th day help the owner, the poor and the animals practically and theologically (Exo 23:10-13; 20:10; Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4)? How is this so radical?
  7. Why hold 3 seasonal festivals (Exo 23:14-17)? Why the 3 instructions about their sacrifices (Exo 23:18-9; Gen 4:3-4)? Why should you not cook/boil a young goat/kid in its mother’s milk (Exo 23:19)?
  8. Why did God send His angel (Exo 23:20, 23)? Who is this angel (Exo 14:19-20)?
  9. What were they exhorted to do and warned, and what were they promised (Exo 23:21-28)?
  10. Why would God expel and annihilate 6 resident Canaanite nations (Exo 23:23; Gen 15:16)? Does this “ethnic cleansing” distress you?
  11. Why would God not drive them out in a year but only little by little (Exo 23:27-31)?
  12. Why did God warn them against population mixing (Exo 23:32-33)?
  13. How do you “enter the Promised Land” (Jn 14:2-3; 5:24)?

Keep the concern for holiness in mind: “Holy men you [pleural] shall be unto Me Exo 22:31). The Israelites [we/Christians] are a people set apart by a very demanding moral–spiritual teaching (Exo 19:5; 22:31; 23:13; Mt 28:19).

  • One of the saddest facts of the human condition is that most people follow the herd (Exo 23:2; Mt 7:13-14).
  • The role of a judge is not to undo society’s ills, but to render justice in the particular case that has come before the court (Exo 23:2-3, 6-7). Judges are to enforce justice, not compassion. Corrupt judges destroy societies.
  • Nothing explains the success or failure of nations more than does the presence or absence of corruption (Exo 23:8).
  • The Sabbtical rest (Exo 23:10-11) would elevate people above their utilitarian and economic preoccupations.
  • The slave, the animals, and the stranger [foreigner] must all rest and have the Sabbath (Exo 23:12). This law is unique in ancient history, and perhaps unique in all history.
  • The sabbitacal year and the sabbitical week is a recurring way to reorient the soul of the individual/entire community to its highest yearnings. We live on the land, we live off the land, but we are not the land, for we are destined for more than earthly things (Jn 6:63). Though formed of the dust of the ground, we live by the spirit of God (Gen 2:7).
  • Mastery and bondage are the twin dangers of people.
  • For the ruling few: the belief that we are, through our ingenuity and efforts, masters of the earth.
  • For the toiling many: the belief that we are dependent on Goddess Earth as her servants and slaves.
  • Sacred times: the seasonal festivals (23:14-17). “Three times you shall keep a feast [celebrate a festival] unto Me in the year” (Exo 23:14). Feast/festival means “to go around,” “to dance in a circle,” and also acquires the meaning of “pilgrimage.” The seasonal pilgrimages will forge the nation’s communal—spiritual—identity.
  • The angel will lead, guard and instruct (Exo 23:20-26), but God Himself will take care of the fighting (Exo 23:27-31).
  • If you serve God, He promises to eradicate illness, miscarriage and barrenness (Exo 23:25-26). Is this troublesome to our modern sensibilities, since righteousness has never guaranteed good health?
  • God’s long and arduous efforts is to establish a beachhead in the world for His Way, a righteous and holy way for humankind.
  • Most nations are born in sin–in fraticide, conquest, displacement, forced removal, even genocide (Exo 23:23).
  • Living up to God‘s Way is demanding; backsliding and falling away are ever-present possibilities (Exo 23:31-32, 13).

21:1-23:19 contain God’s ordinances of essential teachings that are to govern their holy life in the Promised land. The final section (23:20-33):

  1. offers hope,
  2. issues warnings,
  3. clarifies responsibilities, and
  4. envisions a favorable outcome regarding the encounter with the Canaanite peoples.

Outline:

  1. Justice-laws establishing judicial integrity (23:1-9). Sacred obligations to the true, the good, and the right.
  2. Sabbath rest (23:10-13). Sabbath laws that protect the poor and beasts of burden.
  3. Festivals-sacred times: Institution of 3 yearly/seasonal festivals (23:14-19).
  4. Promises-looking ahead to the land: prospects, risks, and responsibilities (23:20-33). A formal narrative conclusion to the book of the covenant.

Chiastic structure with blessing at the center (Exo 23:25-26).

  • A. Promise of the Lord’s angel’s help in securing the land (20-23).
  • B. Warning against false gods (24).
  • C. Blessings of the Lord your God (25-26).
  • A’. Promise of the Lord’s help in securing the land (27-31).
  • B’. Warning against false gods (32-33).

Reference:

  1. Leon R. Kass. Founding God’s Nation. Reading Exodus. 2021.
  2. James K. Bruckner. Exodus. New International Bible Commentary. 2008.
  3. John Goldingay. Exodus & Leviticus for Everyone. 2010.
  4. Robert Alter. The Hebrew Bible. A translation with commentary. The Five Books of Moses. 2019.
  5. Dennis Prager. Exodus. God, Slavery, and Freedom. The Rational Bible. 2018.
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