CONCERNING BORROWING.—Exodus 22:14-15
This is an extension of the preceding principles. Borrowing might be for the purpose of—1, obligation; or 2, trade.
I. If that which was borrowed received hurt in the absence of its owner, Exodus 22:14, the owner was to be indemnified.
II. But if, as might be the case when the loan were cattle, and the owner were present, the sum for which it was hired was understood to cover the risk of accident, and the owner bore the loss.
Learn—
i. On the one hand—
(1.) to be obliging. If you can do a needy neighbour a good turn by lending advice or material assistance, do so.
(2.) Don’t make your needy but obliged neighbour answerable for any accident that may occur through your own misfortune or fault.
On the other hand—
(1.) Be careful not to abuse that which is in kindness lent you; or
(2.) (grave though minor inability of life) forget to return it, and thus render evil for good. Book-borrowers should note this. But
(3.) rather both in principle (2 Kings 6:5) and in action suffer the loss than inflict it.—J. W. Burn.
SOCIAL EVILS.—Exodus 22:16-19
1. Are recognised in the Word of God, and recognised as abominable before God and man. But unfortunately they are not so recognised by Christian communities and governments. Hence their prevalence and their enormities.
2. Are dealt with delicately, but firmly, by the Word of God, Old and New Testament alike. But, from mock modesty and a strange stupidity or inhumanity, are not so dealt with, but are rather encouraged by Christian communities and governments. And the result, of course, is ruin and misery now, and to the third and fourth generation.
3. Should urge every man who takes the Bible as his law, and who loves his fellow-creature, to adopt every legitimate means, at all times, and everywhere, to bring back society and government to the spirit, at any rate, of the legislation here enforced.
I. Contrast the Mosaic precept with the Christian practice with regard to the seducer.
1. Then the penalties fell on the real criminal.
(1.) He must marry his victim; or
(2.) in case the parents should interfere, pay a fine of 50 shekels of silver—the amount of her dowry.
2. Now the penalty falls upon the victim.
(1.) It is true a feeble sentiment (anything but universal) is expressed, but nowhere legally as to the obligation of marriage. But when that obligation is not recognised, the poor creature loses all, loses reputation, position, opportunity for retrieving her character, inherits the scorn of her sex, and, driven mad with woe, sinks into a suicide’s grave.
(2.) While in the second case, the villain holds his head as high as ever, often escapes all penalty, and when that penalty is incurred it is the amount he spends upon his dog. Shame on our Christian society, which adds burdens to that which by itself is too heavy to be borne. Shame on our inhuman and immoral legislation, which dares to put a premium on vice and to let the oppressors go free. (See also Deuteronomy 22:23-29).
II.
1. The Mosaic precept concerning the beast was death without mercy.
2. The Christian practice is to put a cloak over his crime or to hurry him away.
Learn—
i. The awful sanctions of personal purity and chastity (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20).
ii. To expend your wrath on the right offender.
iii. Do not shun the society of the offender (Luke 7:27; John 4:18; but Galatians 6:1; Mark 2:17; cf. John 13:15).—J. W. Burn.
DIVINE JUSTICE AND DIVINE COMPASSION
The strictness of the Divine justice is seen in these ancient enactments; but there is also revealed the tenderness of the Divine compassion. The law is severe on evil-doers, in order that well-doers may be encouraged and strengthened. God is just to punish the unjust and the oppressor; but He is compassionate to the weak and helpless. How tenderly He cares for the widow and the orphan. Their mournful cries touch His Divine heart. Here are combined the justice of the ruler and the tenderness of the father. We must be just, but justice must be tempered by mercy, and sweetened by compassion. Let the beautiful humaneness of our religion be always manifested.
I. Irreligion must be checked. The witch is especially mentioned because women are more addicted to these evil practices than men. She is instrumental in the promotion of radical irreligion. She invokes the aid of demoniacal powers. She nurtures all that is evil in man. She is an evil worker for the purpose of getting gain, or securing power, or carrying out her desire for revenge. “Thou shalt not suffer the witch to live.” Perhaps if she repents and forsakes her evil ways, pardon may be granted. It is strange that this enactment is carried out in countries where the Bible is not read. Witchcraft is very generally abhorred. We must avoid all causes which tend to the spread of irreligion.
II. Unnatural abominations promote irreligion. The beastly is opposed to the spiritual. Religion exalts humanity, while irreligion degrades it. “Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.”
III. False sacrifices are the outcome of irreligion. We sometimes use the word religion in a loose sense. And in this way we speak of idolaters as religious. But religion is that which binds the heart of man to the service of his Maker. That man is not religious, in the scriptural sense, at least, who offers sacrifice unto a god made by art and man’s device. There are those who insist on a religious spirit, and say that forms are no matter. But a right spirit will embody itself in a right creed, and express itself in right forms of religious worship. It is ridiculous to affirm that it is of no consequence to what god we offer sacrifices, in what form we worship, so long as the heart is right. “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” Spiritual destruction at least will be the result of erroneous creeds and immoral practices. Erroneous creeds are very often the forced product of spiritual death or decline. The pure in heart shall see God, shall see His truth, and be led into right ways.
IV. Inhumanity is opposed to true religion. “Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Knobel says, “The persons meant are the Canaanitish and non-Canaanitish strangers, who stayed as individuals among the Israelites; the Canaanites as a whole are, according to this lawgiver also, to be extirpated.” No penalties are laid down now for the non-observance of this command. An appeal is simply made to the former condition of being strangers. The remembrance of our own afflictions ought to make us sympathetic with the afflicted. But in the day of our prosperity we forget the days of adversity, and have not a due consideration for those in adverse circumstances. Vex not the stranger, for thy soul was once vexed in a strange land. Oppress not the foreigner, and he will come to love thee, and to admire that religion which has taught thee compassion.
V. Gentleness towards the weak is highest manhood and noblest religion “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” An exalted humanity abhors the conduct of him who oppresses the widow and the orphan. Their very helplessness should be their strength. If the oppressor makes them cry, their cries, though only the sighing of crushed hearts, will pierce the heavens. The oppressor will be finally crushed by means of the oppressed. It is the great law of nature and of revelation that as a man sows so shall he reap. Retribution will come sooner or later. The oppressor of widows and orphans shall be killed with the sword, and their wives shall be widows, and their children fatherless. Escape is only in seeming. The prosperity of the wicked cannot be for ever. Oppressors must be destroyed. Tyrants must feel the awful recoil of their tyranny. Let us hasten for forgiveness and for power to amend our ways to Him whose gentleness was such that He did not break the bruised reed.—W. Burrows, B.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Divine Enactments! Exodus 22:1-31.
(1) There is a world of difference between a stained glass window and a kaleidoscope. Their relative values are very different, and so is their structure. The pieces of variegated glass are flung anyhow, for the prism to arrange; whereas, those employed in the window are all arranged to give a beautiful, effective, and abiding impression. These separate enactments are not strung together haphazard. On the contrary, they are chords divinely arranged to produce harmony in the world, and give forth strains of Divine adoration in their observance.
(2) If one side of a tree grows, and the other does not, the tree acquires a crooked form. It may be fruitful, but it cannot be beautiful. God would have humanities and nationalities, theocracies and individualities, both rich in the beauties of holiness and the fruits of righteousness. The unequal growth of the Christian graces is undesirable; hence the numerous Divine precautions to make them alike fair, fragrant, and fruitful.
“Stern lawgiving! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead’s most benignant grace;
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds;
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong.”
—Wordsworth.
Seduction-Solatium! Exodus 22:16-17. Marriage or money are the only earthly compensations which can be made. Unhappily, Wilson’s “Tales of the Borders” abound with instances, in which this law—still in force—was utterly disregarded altogether in its compensatory aspects. So far are men from any disposition of heart towards the act of restitution, that English law has to be framed and put in force to compel them to make solatium, either by matrimonial contract or pecuniary indemnity. One of the most painful of the annals of British Law Courts is that which concerns the disclosure of man’s heartlessness in regard to the maiden whom he has seduced. Law, however, can only enforce compensation; and it remains for grace to suppress the inclination. St. Benedict relates that when he felt this desir upon him, he rushed from his cave, and flung himself into a thicket of briars and nettles, in which he rolled himself until the blood flowed. This expedient could only be a temporary relief; and the only efficient and permanent method of preventative is “Prayer for divine grace.”
“Terrestrial objects, disenchanted there,
Lose all their power to dazzle or easnare;
One only object then seems worth our care—
To win the race.”
—Elliott.
Witchcraft and Wizardry! Exodus 22:18.
(1) The Church of Rome subjected persons suspected of witchcraft to the most cruel torments; but itself is the most notorious offender in this respect. Its pretended miracles from the blood of St. Januarius to the trance of La Pucelle are a concentration of superstitious wizardry. In tens of thousands of cases the victims—often innocent—were burned alive; while others were drowned by the test applied. Rome herself, the apocalyptic wizard clothed in scarlet, is to know the retributive penalty of this law: “She shall not be suffered to live.”
(2) Sad as are the evidences of superstitious wizardry in modern spiritualism of America and England, there is this sure solace, that all witchcraft is doomed sooner or later. It is Carlyle who says, that the burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there, and will reappear. Truth is Eternal.
“Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again—
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among her worshippers.”
—Bryant.
Witchcraft! Exodus 22:18. The river Dart is a bright clear stream, which takes its rise amid the wild beauty of our English Alps—the Dartmoor range. Long years ago, a crowd was gathered. Here were the middle-aged and young farmers and labourers, with mingled fear of all witches, and hatred to witchcraft a part of their very creed. Here also were women with rancorous tongues; little children, with babes in their mothers’ arm, gathered as for a holiday. The squire’s daughter has been condemned to the test of witchcraft; if she sinks, she is guilty; if she rises and escapes, she is innocent. Arrayed in white garments, she is led towards the river through the crowd, whose cruel jests and coarse words are the first gauntlet her pure mind must run. The tender arms were grasped, and the graceful form hurled into the stream, swollen with the unusually heavy rains. Suddenly a cry was raised; the cruel crowd gave way; and a man rushed breathlessly to the river’s brink. It was the maiden’s lover, to whom she was shortly to be united; and having heard of the dreadful ordeal designed, he had hastened to rescue her from the “witch’s test.” Too late! Without a word, he plunged in after her. A gleam of a white robe—a sudden uphang of a man’s strong arm—were all that the superstitious onlookers ever saw more of the maiden or her lover.
“But endless is the list of human ills,
And sighs might sooner fail than cause to sigh.”
—Young.