Mishpatim (Judgments) Exodus(Sh’mot) 21:1-24:18
1.In Exodus 23:5 it says, “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving it with him, you shall help him to lift it” What is the stipulation in this verse for helping a person who hates you? Why is this stipulation important? What does this say to us? Why should we help our enemy?
Why should we help our enemy?
Everything we do should honor and glorify G-d (I Corinthians 10:31).
That is the best reason why we should help our enemy.
This includes people who mistreat us.
Helping someone who has wronged us can be a testimony of our faith.
The principle is: How you feel about someone does not determine right and wrong behavior towards them.
We cannot go by our feelings.
Helping a person you may not have the best relationship with can improve the relationship.
What was the stipulation in this commandment?
It says to help the person that hates you lift up the burden from the donkey.
It does not say you do it for him while he does nothing.
Sometimes in our desire to help someone we become enablers instead of problem solvers.
This command will push us beyond our natural inclinations when it is someone we dislike. Our “feelings” can betray us.
We must choose to go by G-d’s commands and not by how we feel about someone
Goodness and kindness is not only required for those we like and love, but to all.
We don’t need a command to help a friend or loved one.
Evidently this command was necessary to show us how to treat someone who dislikes us.
Our reactions to others should be dependent on who we are not on what they have done.
2. Yeshua said in Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Where in the Tanach does it say hate your enemies? Exactly how do we carry out this command of the Messiah to love our enemies? Are there verses in the Tanach that commands us to love our enemies?
Did anyone find verses in the Tanach that tells us to love our enemies or hate our enemies? Nowhere in the Tanach does it say to hate your enemies even though Yeshua used this phrase in Matthew 5. He was probably referring to a cultural norm of that time when he said, “you have heard.”
The Tanach also does not have the exact phrase, “love your enemies”
It commands specific actions of us like helping, respecting, showing mercy to adversaries.
So exactly how do we carry out the command to love our enemies?
Do we just think good thoughts about them?
Just as the Tanach does not command us to love our enemies but gives us specific actions,
The phrase, “love your enemies” in the Messianic scripture is talking about actions not emotions. The Messianic scripture says to pray for them, feed them when they are hungry, etc.
Proverbs 25:21-22 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink…”
Romans 12:21 states, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
Matthew 5:46-47, “Yeshua instructs believers to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors, noting that loving only friends is what everyone does.”
Here is a quote from someone about loving their enemies.
Do you think they have an understanding of loving your enemy?
“Loving your enemy, I’ve found, doesn’t always mean bending over backwards for them. It means praying for them even though you want them to suffer and die. The Proverbs and Paul said give them a cup of water, but I can’t even manage that. So I will take time out of my day to pray for someone who I desperately want to get what they deserve.”
I observed an example of how to love your adversary when I attended a pro-Israel demonstration downtown a few months ago. A pro-Hamas demonstrator came across the street and tried to start a heated argument with the Rabbi. After his first “in your face” accusation I expected the Rabbi to come back stronger and really put him in his place. But instead he spoke with respect and sincerity to the young man. After a few attempts to start an argument the protester began to change the way he was talking. The Rabbi did not take the negative comments personally. Instead he spoke as if he was talking to a friend. It completely changed the atmosphere. The demonstrator, as he was leaving, turned around and said to the Rabbi, “You are a much better human being that I expected you to be.” Strange response. I guess his opinion of Jewish people was not too good. But he walked away with the memory of this encounter with a Jewish person that he thought was his enemy.
3.In Exodus 24:7 it says,”…All that the L-rd has said we will do, and obey.” The Hebrew word for obey in this verse is nishma (we will obey). The word shema can have several meanings such as hear, obey or a sense of understanding. Do you think these two promises are in the wrong order? We will do is before we will obey or understand. Why do you think this verse put doing before understanding?
Shema can have different meanings.
The word shema is also used for the English word understanding in
Genesis 11:7, “Come let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Doing something always increases our knowledge and understanding.
The mother of a 2 year old may seem to have it easy
until you babysit a 2 year old for a few hours.
You cannot really understand faith from the outside looking in.
Years ago a local minister heard that we had been to the Brownsville Revival. He asked me my opinion of it and I gave him a positive report on how I experienced G-d moving in the services. A few days later I ran into him again and he told me he too visited the Brownsville Revival. But he stood in the back and observed the people and what was going on. He reported to me what he saw wrong with it. He did not go there to experience a revival for himself but to observe others. The children of Israel first agreed to “do.” And in doing they began to understand. They began to know what it was like to obey.
We may have heard about Shabbat
We may have even agreed we should keep Shabbat
but we did not fully understand what it means to obey that commandment until we started putting the world outside our door on that special day.
Our obedience was a growing process
We had to sift out the many ways the world tried to take over our peace of Shabbat.
When we start doing G-d’s commandments
we begin understanding obedience
The process changes us.
We begin to understand more about who G-d is and what His plan is for us.
We begin to understand His perfect framework He desires us to live in.
Psalms 119:34-36, “Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.”