“Justice and Mercy” (Exodus 23:1–9)

“Justice and Mercy” (Exodus 23:1–9)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, September 16, 2018

Exodus 23:1–9 (NIV)

23 “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.

1. God’s people must be known as truth-tellers (seekers of justice) (1–3, 7–8).

a. Don’t speak falsehood unintentionally (by not having all the facts) (1a).

b. Don’t intentionally bear false witness (1b).

c. Don’t bend the truth or justice for the sake of the crowd (2).

d. Do not bend truth or justice, even if it is for a good cause (to help the poor) (3).

e. Do not distort justice by receiving false testimony and then dispensing punishment on an innocent person on the basis of that false testimony (7).

f. Do not distort truth or justice for the sake of personal gain (8).

2. God’s people must be known as kindness givers (dispensers of mercy) (even to those we don’t like or who mistreat us). (4–6, 9)

a. We must be kind and helpful even to those we don’t like or those who mistreat us) (4–5).

b. We must have our eyes open to the needs of those who are often marginalized in society (6, 9).

⦁ The poor (6)

⦁ The foreigner/immigrant (9)

Main Idea: God’s redeemed and sanctified people must be seekers of justice and dispensers of mercy.