Daily Service and Donkeys
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to be fair and square with one and all in this day and age, just as You mandated during that day and age.
Read Exodus 23:1-19
“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.
2 “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3 and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.
4 “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.
6 “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7 Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
8 “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.
9 “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
Sabbath Laws
10 “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.
13 “Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
The Three Annual Festivals
14 “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.
15 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
16 “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
17 “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.
18 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.
“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.
19 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work… Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me” (Exod. 23:12,14).
The Israelites’ calendar was regular: the Sabbath was to be celebrated each week, and there were to be three annual festivals at which they would remember God’s salvation and provision. In between was the daily grind of living according to the laws of justice, righteousness and mercy. Then,
as now, God’s people needed discipline not to spread false reports (1) or to follow the crowd in doing wrong (2) and to resist bribes (8). The Israelites were also expected to deal in basic fairness to others, such as returning neighbors’ animals to them (4). For people with their own herds to lead, this was probably irritating at times; also, it would have been annoying to help an animal who had been unfairly overloaded by a neighbor who hated his benefactor (5). Yet, these small daily denials to self constitute overall life, then and now. As Richard Foster says, in summarizing Francis de Sales, “Large tasks require great sacrifice for a moment; small things require constant sacrifice” (Celebration of Discipline, 167). We usually prefer the notable things for God that require sacrifice and effort over having to churn out mundane acts continually for him.
The weekly Sabbath was a time of rejoicing as well as rest for all involved: family, servants, foreigners and animals (so no neighbors’ donkeys to unload—they were resting!). The land was designated its own Sabbath year to recover. The times and seasons were important, not just in giving structure to society, but physically, psychologically and socially. Refreshed by the Sabbath (12), the people could then start the week of daily service renewed. Honoring the spirit of the Sabbath is a good discipline for ourselves and for others.
Apply
The timelessness of the Bible is on display throughout all of its pages. In light of all the political turmoil in America today, do you think Exodus 23:2 might have special relevance to the Christian who has a dual citizenship—on earth and in heaven?
Closing prayer
Dear Lord, please help me serve You in the small things, day by day, and help me to learn and maintain the habit of resting one day in seven.
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