seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 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.
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.
Here's the quotes from the easy English commentary....
Verse 1 emphasises God’s commandment number 9 (Exodus 20:16). False reports can cause a person to lose his good character. Also they may cause an innocent man to receive death as his punishment.
You must tell the truth, whatever other people might say. Both rich people and poor people should receive the same fair judgement. It is wrong to listen to rich people more than to poor people. And it is wrong to listen to poor people more than to rich people.
You must not try to punish an enemy when you can help him. An owner, who is your enemy, might let his animals wander away. But then he might lose the animals. People may hurry away from a donkey that had fallen under its load. But the owner cannot without help. And the animal might hurt itself, or it might die. Someone should rescue the owner’s property. A man must be willing to help his enemy.
You must tell the truth, whatever other people might say. Both rich people and poor people should receive the same fair judgement. It is wrong to listen to rich people more than to poor people. And it is wrong to listen to poor people more than to rich people.
You must not try to punish an enemy when you can help him. An owner, who is your enemy, might let his animals wander away. But then he might lose the animals. People may hurry away from a donkey that had fallen under its load. But the owner cannot without help. And the animal might hurt itself, or it might die. Someone should rescue the owner’s property. A man must be willing to help his enemy.
IMHO these verses are really relevant.
In the news this morning.... they're talking about "spreading fake news". Once you lie, even when everyone else is doing it, it affects your character. So many times we hear that so and so has done such and such. We think it's important to spread the "fact" that so and so did such and such. It's a lie, but we don't know that.... still, we're spreading a lie.
It's easy to side with adults rather than children. People who are successful or experienced don't hold the market on honesty. Consider the teacher who looses it one horrible day and smacks a kid. It happens. This is a basically good person that made a mistake.... but once that teacher smacked that kid [even if the kid deserved it] then the teacher could loose their job [and pension], so they deny it happened. If we dismiss the child because the teacher is beloved by parents.... what message are we sending the child that got smacked?
Also, there are teachers who are accused of doing things that they didn't do.... it happens all the time. We think it's important to spread the story that a kid is lying about their teacher, or it's important that the offender is prosecuted, but we don't really know that.... so, we're spreading a lie.
Sometimes it's dangerous to stand up. Sometimes it's safer to walk away. Sometimes, though, you have to help out when it's dangerous to do so. These verses use a fallen animal to show when stepping up is dangerous. We all know that when a pack animal is off their feet, they flail and anyone who steps up might get injured. If you know the truth about an event and you stand up to help, or you find that someone is selling fake news and you step up to say so, you could get hurt yourself. Still, you have to help out. It's the just thing to do.
There are consequences for everything we do and say. Some consequences are good and some are bad. Consequences based on truth are just.
Ugh, I'm preachy this morning.... but the verses are preachy inspiring.
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