Sh'mot 23:10-11 "And you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Just as the human body needs to rest so does the earth. It is possible to over use a piece of property. By resting the land for a year it gives it a chance to be rejuvenated. It also allowed the poor the chance to gather produce from the crops that sprang up spontaneously from seeds dropped from the previous years crop or from the vineyards, olive groves, etc that were not harvested that year.
Sh'mot 23:12 Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor in order that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.
Not only do we need to set aside time to spend with HaShem, the human body needs to rest. We are commanded to provide a day of rest for our employees and the work animals as well.
Sh'mot 23:13 "Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
Do not call on other gods for help.
Do not let them be heard on your lips - I do not think that we are being told here that we should never say the name of a false god. The Bible itself mentions various pagan gods. However, we are not to give them honor or credit. There are so many companies that use the names of false gods as part of their company name, or as the name of one of their products. Then there are the weathermen who NEVER refer to the snowstorm, etc as being sent by G-d, the weather is always attributed to a false goddess, "Mother Nature". Some find this harmless but in the eyes of G-d it is not. Over the next few days, think about which names you hear on daily basis that are derived from false gods. Is it a product that you use? The company you work for?
Sh'mot 23:14-17 "Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the L-rd G-D.
All the men of Israel were commanded to appear at the Temple in Jerusalem three times during the year at the following feasts.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Shavu'ot (Pentecost) - The Feast of Weeks
Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles)
Sh'mot 23:18 "You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning.
Leaven is a symbol of sin. The sacrifice would have been defiled if it were offered with leavened bread.
Sh'mot 23:19 You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the L-RD your G-d. You are not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother.
Read this verse very carefully, both sentences, as if you never read this before. There are a couple of things that we need to consider. Mother's milk was the source of life for the young goat, killing it and cooking it in its mother's milk is barbaric. However, we also need to look at the culture of the day to understand this verse in its proper context.
Archeological evidence tells us that the Canaanites believed that milk was the seed of life and they would sprinkle the ground with it. If a young goat was boiled in milk the Canaanites believed that its vitality was doubled. They believed that when this milk was sprinkled on the ground one could even be more certain of its positive influence on the fertility of fields and plants.
G-d was instructing them that they were not to use pagan rituals to make their crops grow. We are to trust in G-d to supply all of our needs not a charm, potion, etc.
Sh'mot 23:20-22 "Look, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. But if you will truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
An angel - what do we know about this angel?
Hmmm...What Angel is able to forgive sins? Which angel has the Fathers name in Him? Only the "Angel of the L-rd" our precious Messiah Yeshua fits this description.
What a wonderful promise! If we obey Him (Yeshua) then the Father will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
This fits in nicely with the meaning of the first letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Beit, Aleph. Yeshua our creator and king is out leading the nation of Israel.
Sh'mot 23:23-24 For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them, and break their sacred pillars in pieces.
Here Israel is instructed that the Angel of the L-rd, Yeshua, would lead them into the Promised Land and give them the victory over the current inhabitants. They are to be overthrown. The L-rd does not say - Negotiate with them and give them a section of the country. No, they are to be run out of the country. The places they worship false gods are to be destroyed.
Sh'mot 23:25-26 But you shall serve the L-RD your G-d, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
They would be rewarded for proper service to G-d. HaShem would bless them with food, good water (necessary in the desert), good health, and fertility.
Sh'mot 23:27-28 I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets ahead of you, that they may drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.
Here HaShem shares His military strategy with Israel. They really do not stand a chance. They will be driven out of the land through the power of the L-rd.
Sh'mot 23:29-30 I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.
This is to be a phased approach. G-d does not give them more than they can handle. If He had given them the entire land the first day, the wild animals would have taken over it before they would have had a chance to populate the land. Had they not had a phased approach they would have the problem of then driving out the wild animals.
We know that Israel was home to lions and bears at this time.
Sh'mu'el Alef (1 Samuel) 17:34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,
Sh'mot 23:31- And I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
Keep these boundaries in mind. This is the land given to Israel by G-d. The sea of the Philistines is the Mediterranean Sea; this was to be the western border. The Euphrates River is in Iraq; this was to be the eastern border.
Only during King Solomon's reign did Israel control the entire land area that G-d granted them.
M'lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 4:21-22 Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
In the future, during the Messiah's reign, Israel will control the entire region again.
Sh'mot 23:32-33 You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."
You shall make no covenant with them - The Israelites were not to sign any peace treaties with these pagan nations. They were to drive them out. Period.