When reading lists of laws like this it is interesting to notice what the repeated concerns are. Clearly, one of the most prominent concerns is that of the protection and welfare of the poor, the alien, the orphans and the widows. This is a disproportionately prominent theme throughout the biblical civil law. It is undergirded by a principle of mutual responsibility that was as counter-cultural then as it is now. The default human inclination in most human interaction is self-centred: “What can I get out of this person?” A young man focuses on the pleasure he can derive from the girl he lusts after (22:16-17); a man with resources focuses on how he can use the needs of others to his own gain (22:25-26). The problem here is not just the positive exploitation but the lack of responsibility that one person has for another. This responsibility is not just a matter of helping others when they are impoverished and injured. It goes further than that. We have a mandate to positively bless each other. It is our responsibility to put into the lives of others. You are not in the right if you do no wrong. You have a positive mandate to uplift others and if you don’t you are not fulfilling your responsibility. Exploitation is the extreme opposite to this; but inaction towards another person is still a breach of God’s mandate. God’s desire for the church today, as with Israel then, is that we be a community based on mutual responsibility, and thus, a microcosm of restored humanity. Let’s be a part of that.
Ask God to show you whom you might be able to help, encourage and pray for.
Read Exodus 22:16-31
