Equality

DEVOTION

EXODUS

EQUALITY

Ex 23:10-13

10 "For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. 12 "Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. 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.

NIV

It would seem we have to part of this command at all for who of us would stop work for a whole year. The idea here was not just to stop work for a year, that is not sow and harvest a field for a year, but it allows those who have no field the opportunity to use that field for their food. In all reality this looks more like a lesson on equality then on resting from work for a year. This yearly rest of a field is followed by the weekly rest of working, both of man and beast. This is the actually time of rest, or taking a breather from work. So the yearly rest of a field is not so the field can take a breath, but that the poor may use it for their needs, food. The question is that if all of them were slaves in Egypt and all of them came out together, how did some of them get fields and others became poor?

Deut 15:4-6

4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

NIV

It seems God did not intend for there to be any poor among the Israelites, yet he gives them this command to allow the poor to use their fields every seventh year. Jesus even said in response to Judas about the lady with the perfume that she poured on his feet, that there will always be the poor among them.

John 12:4-8

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "[It was intended] that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." 

NIV

So it would seem that somehow there will always be the haves, and the have nots, the rich and the poor. Not sure how all that was back then, but it sure also happens today. We have the rich and the poor although none of us ever allow our work to rest every seventh year so the poor can work in our stead for their food. So this is not about a yearly rest, but about showing equality. God wants all of us to respect each other no matter our material position. Later we find that even on this seventh year all debts are to be forgiven among the Israelites, but not with an alien living among them. So every seventh year, there should be no debts, no one owning another. This is about equality, all men are equal in the eyes of God. Jesus came to die on the cross for those who have plenty and for those who have little or nothing at all. What that translates for us, is that we need to look at all people in the same way. We should not give special attention to the wealthy, as some churches have a tendency to do, nor should we ignore the less fortunate, as again some churches are in the habit of doing.

James 2:1-4

2:1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

NIV

 How often do we find a poor person serving on the board, or becoming a deacon or elder? But for us, the people, we should treat all people the same way, with love and respect as God does. James finishes this teaching with the statement about loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is true equality.