Exodus 23

Notes

Ver. 1. They were neither to invent a slander, nor to receive or report it, but to discourage and reprove every spreader of it.—[The full meaning is 'Thou shalt neither raise nor propagate an unfounded report.' In giving testimony each man is here bound to state only what he knows to be true, and to avoid countenancing anything that is false. P.]

Ver. 2. Neither the counsel nor example of multitudes in evil is to be followed; nor must either parties, friends, judges, witnesses, or vulgar opinions move us to lessen great faults, aggravate small ones, vindicate offenders, accuse the innocent, or misrepresent anything to procure an unjust sentence.

Ver. 3. In judgment none must be favoured either for their poverty or their wealth.—[Countenance a poor man in his cause. The foregoing law forbids to follow, the succeeding forbids to court the multitude. A high profession of sympathy with the poor, loud and pretended boasted efforts to alleviate their sufferings, and redress wrongs, have ever distinguished the traffickers in popularity; from Absalom, who rebelled against his king and his father (2 Sa. 15. 2-6), to Judas, who, for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed and sold his Lord (Jn. 12. 5, 6).—Note, The believer must follow Christ, and seek no praise but that which cometh of God, Jn. 12. 23; Ro. 2. 29. C.—When justice is at stake neither the wealth nor the poverty of the party is to be taken into consideration. No favour must be shown even to the poor. Strict and impartial justice must be done to all. P.]

Ver. 8. Bribes corrupt the minds of judges, and make them, though sensible and ordinarily upright, to judge unjustly.

Ver. 11. The design of this rest of their land was to teach them that they and their land were the Lord's: this year of release, as well as their weekly Sabbaths and other jubilees, were typical of the gospel—the new covenant—and the eternal rest.

Ver. 15, 16. The feast of unleavened bread was in March; the feast of harvest, weeks, or pentecost, at Whitsunday; the feast of in-gathering, or tabernacles, in September.——[Ver. 15. The passover is here called 'the feast of unleavened bread.' It was the first and greatest of the feasts. The last clause of the verse, 'None shall appear before me empty,' applies not to the passover exclusively, as might be inferred from the English version, but to all the feasts. No man was to appear at any of them without suitable offerings. P.]

Ver. 17. Women were not required, but they might attend their solemn feasts if they pleased.

Ver. 19. This taught them to detest cruelty, and any imitation of idolatrous rites.—[Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. Whatever be the meaning of this prohibition, there can be no doubt of its importance, as it is thrice enforced in the same words. It is here the last of the judgments delivered to Moses during his first interview with God on the mount, ch. 20. 21, 22; 21. 1; 24. 34. On the renewal of the broken tables, ch. 34. 1, and solemn annunciation of the covenant, ch. 34. 10, the same words are repeated in ver. 26; and lastly, in De. 14. 21, holiness to the Lord, as exhibited in abstaining from forbidden food, immediately precedes. Maimonides, a Jewish expositor, considers it merely a precept against an unwholesome food. Philo, another Jew, considers it a precept against cruelty; and a Cairite Jew, quoted by Cudworth, represents it as a reference to a heathen custom of boiling a kid in its mother's milk, and sprinkling it on fields and trees, with the superstitious idea of rendering them fruitful; and in either the first or last of these opinions, there is a general concurrence of Christian expositors. It is with much diffidence we would venture to present another view. To prepare our way, two facts in Scripture history require to be considered—(1) That the Jews, and the Jewish priesthood, even 'from the days of their fathers, have gone away from God's ordinances, and have not kept them,' Mal. 3. 7, and have 'transgressed, and rendered of none effect the commandments of God by their traditions,' Mat. 15. 3, 6. (2) That one of the sins that did most early and most easily beset or entangle the nation, was the appetite for flesh. Hear the proof from their own lips, Ex. 10. 3, 'Would to God we had died in Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots.' See it in their fretful and angry tears, Nu. 11. 3, when they 'wept, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?' To a people and priesthood so disposed, it became therefore necessary to give 'precept upon precept' against epicurism in food, and especially against its introduction in their religious festivals. It is remarkable that this prohibition is twice connected with the offering of first-fruits, a festival peculiarly privileged as an occasion of domestic and national joy, De. 26. 11. But on no solemn occasion of thanksgiving has the disposition to indulgence been more observable than in the celebration of the harvest-home—the very festival, in modern language, to which the prohibition is appended. Of this festival, amongst the Jews, a kid constituted an essential part, being appointed for a sin-offering and atonement, Le. 23. 19; Nu. 28. 30. This being observed, two questions present themselves. (1) Why prohibit no other young animal but a kid? According to the manner of Scripture, which ever avoids prolixity in its laws, one of the sacrificial animals stands for them all. This abbreviation may be exemplified, Ex. 20. 7, where 'the name of the Lord' stands, by irresistible inference, for his 'names, titles, attributes, ordinances, words, and works, or anything whereby he maketh himself known.' (2) Can the reference be to seething this kid, seeing it was a sacrifice? It will appear from examining Le. 23. 19; 4. 23; 3. 13-15 that the chief parts of the sin-offering, Le. 6. 25, 29, were to be 'eaten in the holy place by all the males among the priests.' (3) A third question still remains, Why specially prohibit seething in the mother's milk? From Zec. 14. 21 it appears that seething was the common mode of preparing the feast of the sacrifices. But amongst God's ordinances for sacrifice, we find the following: Le. 22. 27, 'When a bullock, or goat, or sheep, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam, and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord.' Now it is during these seven reserved and prohibited days that the kid is said to be in or on its mother's milk; and as during that period it could not be sacrificed to the honour of God, so, during a like period, it should not be devoted either to the sustenance or epicurism of man. The prohibition was therefore a special memorial to the priests, for a strict adherence to the ritual of divine service, and a solemn caveat against any infringement, through temptation of appetite—a restraint, which, if the priests faithfully imposed upon themselves, there was every reason to expect would extend its self-denying influence to the people. C.]

Ver. 20. Christ the angel of the covenant.

Ver. 26. Fulfil, in granting thee long life and prosperity.

Ver. 31. Had they been obedient they would all along have possessed this whole territory; but for their sin they were deprived of a great part of it, except in the days of David and Solomon.

Reflections.—Think, O my soul, have I taken heed to my ways, that I might not sin with my tongue? Have I always acted with conscience and impartiality in all my conduct? Have I always spoken only the truth, and that in due season and with a good intent? Have I been a hater of bribery and all perverting of justice? Have I entertained strangers, done good to mine enemies, and prayed for them that despitefully use me? Do I in all things acknowledge God, the giver of my mercies? Am I careful to keep his Sabbaths, and to observe every instituted opportunity of fellowship with him? Are even his most circumstantial laws hidden in my heart?—While I thus seriously examine myself, endeavour to conform myself to his will, and lament my infirmities and failings, let me rejoice that Jesus, the angel of the covenant, will safely lead me through this wilderness-world to the promised Canaan above, where no accursed inhabitant shall ever molest me, nor idols deceive me. Meanwhile, let him put out my inward corruptions, and the enemies of his people, by little and little; and let me keep myself from idols, and from voluntary intimacy with wicked men, cheerfully obeying his gracious voice, that I may not feel the rod of his chastisement, but in all my ways rejoice in his presence, blessing, and protection.