Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 22-24.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I am going to start by writing about what God tells us about justice in this passage.  What is written here is very relevant to how we deal with contemporary events.  At the beginning of Chapter 23 He says that you shall not spread a false report.  God goes on to say that you should not join to be a malicious witness or fall in with the crowds to do evil.  A straightforward reading of this says that if we know something to be untrue we should not spread it, but I think there is a little more to it than that.  I think that the idea of not spreading a false report means that we should check the facts about stories we have before we pass them on.  And I think there is more to what it says about justice.  In fact, when it talks about not being partial it starts by telling us not to be partial to the poor man.  Do not favor the poor over the wealthy.  Then a little later it warns us against perverting the justice due to the poor man.  I think this makes it clear that we should not side with the poor, or with the rich.  Instead, we should side with justice.

Then, in a related command, God tells us not to oppress the sojourner (many other translations say “foreigner”, I think being aware of both ways to translate the Hebrew helps us see this clearly).  This is relevant to the current controversy over immigration law enforcement in the United States, but not in the way that Anti-ICE protesters interpret it.  However, the other side dismisses it too lightly as well.  In order to understand why I think this command is a problem for those who oppose immigration law enforcement we need to look at one of the early arguments against deporting those who had not followed the legal procedures for entering the country: “But if we deport them, who is going to do those jobs?”  Those making that argument was an admission that those who did not have the proper documents to be in this country were being oppressed.  They worked for lower wages and in worse conditions than those who had legal authorization to work here would put up with.  On the other hand, many of those who support the deportation of those who do not have legal authorization to be here are unconcerned with reports that they are being mistreated by the authorities.

Which ties us back to the command to not spread false reports.  Part of the reason for that lack of concern is that those opposing the deportation of illegal immigrants spread stories which imply mistreatment, which turn out to be misstatements of the facts.  This has led those who disagree with them to dismiss ALL of their stories.  The same can happen the other way.  If those who support enforcement of immigration law (or any other position) do not confirm their facts before they tell others about what they hear, many of the stories they tell will also turn out to leave out important facts.  In the short term, you can win the “argument” with lies and false reports, but in the long run you will lose support for your position if you are not honest.  As Christians, we should strive for truth, because we serve the Truth and want to attract others to the Truth.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.