Social Justice and the God of Compassion

Last month, our family was “up north” visiting relatives. We were driving around my father-in-law’s hunting land, setting up trail cameras (so we can spy on deer as the hunting season approaches), and we saw an animal up ahead in the distance. First, someone thought it was a coyote. Then, someone else said, It’s a wolf. But as we got closer, it became clear that it was a sheep. Which was puzzling. We’re out in the woods; it’s very odd for a sheep to be wandering around in the woods with wolves and coyotes.

When we got to the sheep, we saw it was hobbling severely. One of its hooves was injured, and we realized we weren’t too distant from a nearby farm. The farmer isn’t a close friend, but my in-laws knew the right thing to do wasn’t leave the crippled sheep in the woods for a predator, but bring it back to the farm. So my brother-in-law picked up the sheep, and got into the bed of the ranger with it, and we drove the quarter mile or so to the nearby farm to return it.

And while we’re driving, I realized, that something like Exodus 23:4 was happening: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey [or his sheep!] going astray, you shall bring it back to him.'“

To be clear, the farmer whose sheep this was is no “enemy” of my in-laws. But bringing his sheep back, and not leaving it for the wolves, was the right thing to do. And perhaps in ancient Israel, if you did come across the straying animal of an enemy, this case law in Exodus 23 would lead you to do the right thing.

Now, these case laws in Exodus 21–23 are not typically so directly applicable today as my sheep incident. Besides, as a city boy, I have never before come across a straying farm animal, nor do I possess the ability (or courage) to return a straying sheep to its owner. These case laws, as we saw last week, are largely foreign to us, though with some meditation we can discern the timeless principles, and the character of God, coming through in them.

What Do We Need?

Last Sunday, Pastor Joe tackled chapter 21 and introduced us to this whole section of case laws, in Exodus 21–23, as part of the book of the covenant. He provided some important perspective on these chapters (some of which we’ll review), which meant that last week’s sermon needed to be light on application. This week, let’s try to complement that, and at least frame our approach in terms of application. So the question we ask this morning, as we look at Exodus 22 and 23:1–9 is, What do we need as a church from these case laws?

As followers of Christ, together as a church, in our particular place, in the year 2021, what might God have for us in old-covenant case laws from more than 3,000 years ago? What might God have for us, as a church, in this seemingly obscure passage?

Let me draw your attention to five provisions from God, for us today.

1) We need to know how to use the word of God.

Foreign as these case laws and their scenarios may seem to us, these are the words of God — first to his ancient people fresh out of Egyptian slavery, but also, secondarily, to us. Rightly is the book of Exodus, and the case laws it reports, part of our Bibles. We cannot understand the New Testament without the Old. While not our covenant, this is our Scripture. And as we saw in 2 Timothy just last fall:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

These case laws for Israel were God-breathed. They were not given directly to the church in the first century, or directly to us today, but they were God-breathed to God’s first-covenant people more than 3,000 years ago.

And Paul says this is useful for us. All Scripture, old-covenant case law included, is “profitable” — beneficial, useful — for us as Christians. These case laws, as expressions of God’s wisdom, justice, and compassion, are part of the old-covenant Scriptures that not only “make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15), but also make us mature (“complete”), this is, equipped to do good for each other and in the world.

And to do that, to “use” these chapters well, as Christians, we need to know how to properly read and understand this section of Scripture so difficult for modern Bible readers so far removed from the original context.

Last week, Pastor Joe clarified:

“The Law of Moses is a specific published covenant between God and his people for a particular era of redemptive history. The laws within it contain various layers in various combinations. . . . [W]e can use [them] as wisdom in our own attempts to apply the law. But, as Christians, we’re not directly under the Mosaic Law as a covenant. We’re under [the new covenant]. We’re in Christ; all authority has been given to him as the head of the new covenant.”

Exodus 21–23 is our Scripture, but Moses is not our law-giver. As Christians, our law-giver is Jesus.

We also need to remember what kind of law system we’re dealing with in Exodus 21–23 — not a comprehensive legal system but example case laws. A law code, like U.S. tax law, tries to be exhaustive and cover as many scenarios as it can. But case law provides examples — case studies — that show the principles, priorities, and penalties of the law in particular cases. The leaders of the people were to know the examples well enough to be able to apply them, with just judgments and appropriate penalties, to various complex situations and disputes that emerged.

You might recall what Deuteronomy 17 says (ahead of time) would be an Israelite king’s first order of business when he came to the throne: make his own copy of the law by hand and meditate on it daily (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), so he could judge the people with God’s wisdom.

For us, we need to know how to use these chapters, not as kings in Israel under the first covenant, but as Christians today, under the lordship of Jesus, in the new covenant.

2. We need to see God’s provision for his people.

Not only are these case laws useful for cultivating wisdom and informing our lives today, but we also can stand back, in awe, and say, “Look at how our God provides for his people!” Put yourself in their setting. You have just come out of generations of slavery. Your people have little culture of their own. They have no king or formal laws or legal system or official religious practices. This is a people without official order or codified culture, and God, through Moses, sends it down from the mountain, as a gift from heaven.

These chapters and case laws show us how God cares for his people — with justice and mercy meeting — in the particular details of their times and place. Daily life looked very different 3,000+ years ago, when God’s people were organized by tribes, and there were no prisons, and no machines or automobiles, and no massive welfare state. But God meets his people in the wilderness, and provides his Ten Commandments for them (20:1–17) and a mediator in Moses to speak for him (20:18-21) and an altar for sacrifices so their sins can covered and he can come near and bless them (20:24). And he provides rules to give order to their covenant life (21:1-23:19) and, as we’ll see next week, “an angel . . . to guard [them] on the way and to bring [them] to the place that [he had] prepared” (23:20). And as we’ll see in Exodus 26–31, he provides detailed directions for a tabernacle and priests.

It is in the context of God’s provision for his people in Exodus 20–31 that we can see what’s happening in chapters 21–23. These case laws are not given to make their lives harder. These are not hoops to jump through. These are not punishments. This is glorious revelation and guidance and precepts from God. Now, it’s not Christian, we might say. It’s well more than a thousand years before Christ. But these case laws, as particular example applications of the Ten Commandments, for Israel’s time in world history, are a gift for the good and peace and flourishing of the nation, until the promised one comes.

Last week, we saw that 21:1-11, the case laws on slavery and giving rest, were applications of Commandments 1 and 4. And then 21:12-36, on violence and honoring father and mother, were applications of Commandments 5 and 6.

So too today. We will see that 22:1–15, on property and theft, applies the eighth commandment; 22:16–20, on marital and spiritual fidelity, applies Commandments 2 and 7; and 22:21–23:9, on care for the poor and marginalized, applies Commandments 3 and 9.

Next week, Pastor Kevin will lead us through 23:10–19, on Sabbath and festivals, which applies Commandments 4 and 10 — and so all Ten Commandments, most paired with a complementary commandment, are refracted into the specifics of life before Christ.

Yes, this book of the covenant, and its case laws, is for a different time and place, but there is remarkable wisdom, and a striking concern for justice, and even an arresting heart of mercy, that comes through in these case laws. This is our God providing for his people. See him. See his glory in justice and mercy. See his well-timed, well-placed provision for the good of his people. This same God provides for us today.

3. We need to know God’s concern for restitution. (22:1–15)

Now we get into specific clusters of laws. Two sections in this morning’s text display what we might call two aspects of God’s concern for justice. The first is the application of the eighth commandment in 22:1–15 in the concern for restitution.

Restitution means to make wrongs right, and what’s in view here is loss of and harm to property: (1) unauthorized invasion of another’s property in verses 1–6 and (2) the abuse of authorized use of another’s property in verses 7–15. The examples are arranged from most offensive to least. And when we see the principles at work here, it seems like very common-sense justice.

If you harm another’s property by accident (you are at fault), then basic restitution is to compensate for that property. That is, make the wrong right. However, if you are caught stealing, then the norm is double restitution: restore what you took (for the owner’s sake) plus provide what you sought to take (as punishment for stealing, called “law of equivalence”). However, if the stolen animal dies, or is killed, and cannot be returned, then you repay five for an ox, four for sheep — because to destroy an ox or sheep is to destroy capital. These animals were not just property but equipment that enabled work. If the ox dies, and cannot be returned, now a new ox will need to be raised and trained; everyday work can suffer serious setbacks. (Like a carjacking, you don’t just lose a possession, but one that enables your everyday life.)

One clarification in this section, before we move on. Verses 7 and 9 talk about both parties in a dispute “coming near to God” or “coming before God.” What does that mean? Last week we saw in 21:22, that one who accidentally harms a pregnant woman shall “pay as the judges determine.” Through Jethro’s good advice, Moses searched for able, God-fearing, trustworthy men to serve as judges (Exodus 18:21–22). Previously, Moses alone, as the prophet, would “bring their cases to God” (18:19), but now the judges handle these disputes so the one prophet is not burdened with them all. To “come near to God” or “come before God” meant to take it to the appointed judges who would know this law backwards and forwards and be able to declare God’s judgment in the matter.

4. We need to know God’s concern that justice not be perverted. (23:1–8)

Restitution, making wrongs right, was one aspect of God’s concern for justice here. Now 23:1–8 protects against perversions of justice, against making rights wrong. Two repeated warnings come in 23:1–8, both surprisingly relevant in our day: the first is against spreading false reports (slander) or making false charges; the second is against partiality.

False reporting means circulating details that are not true, or conveying true details in such a way as to give a false impression. This includes speech in court and outside court — both perjury and slander and gossip.

Little did we know, 25 years ago with the advent of the internet, and 15 years ago with the advent of the smartphone and social media, what false information and slander would be unleashed in public by sinners as they made use of these new technologies. Once our slander did its evil and disappeared into the air with our breath. Now it’s preserved online to be reshared and retweeted and viewed at any time from any place. Brothers and sisters, may it not with us. Frankly, I am stunned how much, and how quickly, some who profess the name of Christ have been “conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) and are “following the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2) in the sort of slander and gossip they put online in 2021, which would have been unthinkable for them ten years ago.

More than that, it was just January of 2020, when we preached on the ninth commandment (“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”), and as I thought back on that message, in preparing for this one, it seems to me that the situation is discernably worse now a year and a half later. In that sermon on the ninth commandment, we got help from the Westminster Larger Catechism as it applies the ninth commandment into various expressions of lying. Question 144 speaks of the (positive) duties required by the ninth commandment, including:

“a charitable esteem of our neighbors; desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; . . . unwillingness [receive] an evil report, concerning them; discouraging talebearers, flatterers, and slanderers.”

Then Questions 145 expands on “the sins forbidden” (negative) in the ninth commandment:

“all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors… passing unjust sentence… speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful or equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of the truth or justice; speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring; misconstructing intentions, words, and actions… unnecessary discovering of infirmities; raising false rumors, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stopping our ears against just defense; evil suspicion; . . . neglecting such things as are of good report…”

So, the first emphasis in not perverting justice is not spreading a false report (verse 1) and keeping far away from a false charge (verse 7). The second emphasis is against partiality or favoritism, unjust bias or preference.

Verses 2–3: “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.”

And on the other side, verse 6: “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit.”

God forbids judges and witnesses in court from being biased against the poor, or biased for the poor. Even 3,000 year ago, being weak or marginalized could provoke unfair treatment negatively, or positively. In court, in a contest of justice, God’s people are not to play favorites because of the class identity of the plaintiff or defendant, as rich or poor, or occupation, ethnicity, his or her sex, or other details irrelevant to the case. How eerily relevant. Just this weekend, I came across an article by Tim Keller grieving how “identity politics” has come to ground “claims for justice not in an objective moral order, but in their own group’s unique perceptions and experience.” In such times, we need the fresh breeze from Exodus 23 to blow away our madness. Judge the case with impartiality, by the truly relevant details. Do not pervert justice, both sides of the aisle.

Which is not unrelated to the warning here against the pull of “the many” — the mob, the majority, the crowd. Social pressure is powerful. God calls his people to be the kind who are wary of social pressure in general, and especially in judicial contexts.

And in the midst of these two aspects of justice — righting wrongs and not wronging rights — we also see that God calls his people beyond merely keeping laws, and protecting justice, but to act in love, even toward enemies. Verse 4: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.” Which leads to the last provision for us to see in these case laws.

5. We need to know our God’s heart of compassion. (22:21–27)

In the middle of these two sections establishing and protecting justice, we have 22:21–27 and its calls for compassion, for going beyond strict justice to care for those in need.

Given that our God is a God of justice, as we’ve seen, how amazing to see his concern for the stranger and oppressed, for the widow and orphan, those without a father to provide and protect them. Our God cares. He is not just the perfect Judge, but also the perfect Father. He inclines his heart to be a father to the sojourner who is outside his “fatherland.” And he is made furious by the mistreatment of the vulnerable (verse 24).

There are cautions here that justice not become an excuse for being inhumane or unkind. For instance, God wants his people to give charitable loans (verse 25) — make it so that we share in each other’s profit, and not profit from their failures (which is argument against gambling!). So also, if you take a poor man’s only cloak as a pledge (verse 26), return it to him for the night so he can sleep warm.

Real Compassion Wrongs No One

This concern for compassion might create a tension with all we’ve seen about justice. To put a fine point on it, what about the (just) treatment of the poor in 23:3 (you shall not “be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit”) and the calls to compassion here in 22:25–27?

This is very important: there is a difference between partiality to the poor in court (which would wrong his opponent), and extending compassion to the poor, in other contexts, in ways that wrong neither him or anyone else. In other words, there is a kind of thin (or even fake) compassion, or misplaced compassion, that compromises justice to help the weak and marginalized. And there is a true compassion — manifested in acts of sacrificial love and mercy and generosity — that does not compromise justice.

True compassion, with apologies to Robin Hood, doesn’t wrong one identity group to give help to another. True compassion doesn’t force or manipulate others to bear the cost of my compassion. True compassion bears the cost itself. I help the poor by willingly, gladly, giving my own time and resources, not by taking from others against their will. True compassion wrongs no one. “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Romans 13:10). True compassion, true mercy, true love bears the cost personally, and does not wrong others in the name of compassion.

Which leads us to the Table, and how our God has shown compassion to us.

Just and Justifier

The end of 22:27 is the sweetest, most glorious, most stunning glimpse of God in all these case laws: “I am compassionate.” In the midst of God’s remarkable concern for justice, and examples of how to pursue and apply justice with wisdom, verse 27 shines through with the stunning heart of this God of uncompromised justice.

God wrongs no one when he extends his saving compassion to his people in Christ. He did not compromise cosmic justice to show us mercy. He put his own willing Son forward at the cross, to cover, with his blood, the justice we owed for our sin. Romans 3:25–26: “This was to show God’s [justice], because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his [justice] at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Just and justifier. Righteous and compassionate. God is just — he does not wrong anyone to extend rescue to his people. And he is justifier — at great cost to himself, he gives his own willing Son who receives for us our just penalty, that we, though ungodly, might be declared righteous.