Read Exodus 21:1-24:18 at Bible Gateway.
(Please review the teaching tools of scripture, especially the Hebrew paragraph divisions and chiastic structures. The paragraphs marked by an “s” at their close are weak paragraphs, which indicate a change of facet but not a change of theme or topic. The paragraphs marked by a “p” at their close are strong paragraphs, which indicate the completion of a theme or topic. The paragraph divisions reveal the chiastic structures: narratives which zero in on the main point of the narrative at its center, like a bull’s eye at the center of a target. The main point is revealed, because the narrative elements before the main point (or central axis) are repeated after the central axis, in reverse order, while the central axis itself is not repeated.)
The Hebrew paragraph divisions are listed in this post from last year. At the time, I said I was sure there was a chiastic structure from the beginning to end of mishpatim, just as there had been all the other Torah portions until now, but I was not wise enough to find it. This week the Lord’s Spirit revealed it, and it is amazing!
1a) Exo 21:1-11 {s+s} When Hebrew slaves go out free;
1b) Exo 21:12-22:20 {sx8+p+sx7+p+sx3} When restitution is and is not to be made;
1c) Exo 22:21-31 {p+s+s} Do not afflict disadvantaged + do not revile God + firstfruits + holy to YHVH;
1) Exo 22:21, You shall not oppress a stranger;
2) Exo 22:22-27 p+s, You shall not afflict widows or the fatherless + lending to the poor;
3) Exo 22:28, You shall not revile God;
4) Exo 22:29-30, Firstfruits + firstborn;
5) Exo 22:31 s, You shall be holy to Me + you shall not eat meat torn in the field;
1d) Exo 23:1-2, False report + wicked and unrighteous + enticed to evil + pervert justice;
1e) Exo 23:3 {s} Do not show partiality to the poor;
central axis) Exo 23:4-5 {s+s} “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it;”
2e) Exo 23:6, Do not pervert judgment to the poor;
2d) Exo 23:7-8, False matter + innocent and righteous + bribery + pervert words;
2c) Exo 23:9-19, Do not afflict disadvantaged + Do not bless other gods + firstfruits + holy to YHVH;
1) Exo 23:9, You shall not oppress a stranger;
2) Exo 23:10-12, Sabbatical year + Sabbath rest provides for the poor and disadvantaged;
3) Exo 23:13, Do not bless other gods;
4) Exo 23:14-19a, Firstfruits + firstborn;
5) Exo 23:19b p, You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk;
2b) Exo 23:20-33 s+p, Israel shall not receive restitution or make covenant with Canaanites, but shall utterly drive them out;
2a) Exo 24:1-18 s+p, Israel made a covenant with YHVH to walk in His ways.
May I first draw your attention to the central axis: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES! This is really brought home to me, because we just studied the parallel command to this one in Deuteronomy recently, and we learned that the command is teaching us to love our neighbor and strangers as our brother. Now this command in Exodus is teaching us, I believe, to love our enemies as our brother! Believers, please discard the old way of thinking, that the Old and the New Testaments are disconnected, severed from each other. Everything taught in the New has its root and foundation in Torah, including Paul’s revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as we have been seeing the chiastic structures throughout Torah reveal the gospel and ministry of Messiah!
Now here is something else amazing: the 1B pair concerns when to make or not make restitution in various cases. Its 2B matching counterpart is the command to not suffer the Canaanites to dwell in the land or to make covenants with them. God is saying, Do not receive restitution from the Canaanites, but they shall be utterly driven out. Everything that is detestable, which the Lord commanded Israel that they shall not receive restitution for, the Canaanites practiced. Murder without consequence, striking and cursing parents, kidnapping, assaults, theft, seduction, immorality and perversion of the most heinous sort, sorcery, oppression and affliction of the disadvantaged: it was their common way of life! This is why God is not allowing restitution or quarter for the Canaanite nation – He obeys His own Torah.
Finally, look at the A pair: when Hebrew slaves are to go out free, and the ratification of the covenant between Israel and God. The covenant is the entire reason God delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt:
And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’” Exo 4:21-23
God did not deliver the Hebrews from slavery to live in a vacuum. But He delivered them from serving Pharaoh so that they would be free to serve Him, by walking in His ways and obeying His commandments. The A pair emphasizes that the freedom of the Hebrew slaves was for the purpose of the covenant with God, made at Mt. Sinai and ratified by receiving the words and ways of YHVH to obey. Likewise we were not delivered from slavery in the kingdom of darkness to live in a vacuum. But we were delivered from slavery in one kingdom so that we might be free citizens in another kingdom – in God’s kingdom! Kingdoms are not democracies — kingdoms have kings! In the kingdom of heaven, God is King, and His word is our command!
The idea of obeying commands used to disturb me, years ago, because as the church of the living God, we have taught so much that because obedience does not save a person, then it has no value at all. When we begin to look at what the New Testament says about obedience, removing the filter of the teaching of man, we find it to be commendable. Furthermore, when we learn that the purpose of the commands is to promote love, not ritual or legalism or any other negative thing, we can fall in love with His word, including His commands, for they are not divorced from His great heart of love!
For further reading:
sabbath and the law of love 2012 sep 25
exo 23-24, the immutable God of love 2011 feb 06
The Law of Love – Christine Miller
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