Deception

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have been chosen by an international banker or an heiress to some large fortune to launder money. They just need to get the money to the United States and for my assistance they’ll let me keep five million dollars. I mean, who wouldn’t be willing to hand over their personal information in exchange for five million dollars? What could go wrong? Or there was the time I received an email from a friend saying that she had been mugged in Scotland (you have to be careful; Scotland is full of thugs) and needed me to wire her some money to settle her accounts there so she could travel home. Just so you know, this email wasn’t really from my friend. Her Facebook account had been hacked and this lie of an email went out to all of her contacts in the hopes that at least some would be enticed to send money. Ah, enticement in order to profit. In the first example the enticement is five million dollars. In the second, it is the desire to help a friend. But this is not always about money.

We have come to a section in the book of Exodus that the NASB calls “sundry laws,” which seems to be a bunch of rules randomly thrown together. Which is code for “I struggle with knowing how to break this section up into appropriate passages and may make a mistake along the way.” Whew, I got that out of the way. So our passage for this article is Exodus 22:16-20. As I was studying these guiding principles the word that leapt out to me was “deception.” Even though the subject matter of vv. 16-17 is vastly different than that of vv. 18-20 it is all about deception and enticement.

If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, he must pay the bridal price and marry her unless the father determines, “Hey I’m not at all sure I want my daughter to be married to this lying piece of garbage.” In which case, he must still pay the bridal price without marrying the young lady. This is about deception; this is about enticement. Promises were made to lure this young lady away from her family. And intentions to follow through with the promises were non-existent. But in this society a young lady who has been so duped has most likely lost all future prospects of marriage. The family has lost any hope of receiving a bridal price for her. Stop here a moment. This may seem like it is all about the father getting his money. But if the young lady gets married and her husband dies, the bridal price goes to her. If she remains single and then the father dies, the bridal price goes to her. It is about establishing a fund that will help her survive if a husband or father dies. It is about protecting her in a male dominated culture which, in most cases, forbade her to earn a living.

A woman who is a sorceress is to be executed. I don’t know why this passage singles out women who practice magic. Other passages use the masculine form. The main issue here is that a person who is practicing magic is enticing others away from God. They are in a sense saying, “You don’t need to turn to Yahweh for your answers. I can divine what you need to know.” Their purpose was most likely either money or control or both. It can be addicting to have people rely on you for every important question. And this is enticing because it can be tedious and difficult to discover an answer from Yahweh. But a sorceress? You plop down your money, ask a question and she divines the answer. Easy. But deceptive and life threatening. The next two guiding principles deal with idolatry. The first is extremely unsettling and yet it was necessary for God to bring it up, which is even more unsettling. Whoever lies with an animal is to be executed. And yes, that means exactly what it sounds like. Sex with animals was a part of the worship of some of the gods among the people Israel would be surrounded by. It was also a fertility rite practice. If you lie with this animal, your land will produce a bumper crop. And what is unsettling about this is that Yahweh knew that he had to make this command for his community. The person who sacrifices to any other god shall be placed under the ban. This terminology referred to things that were to be set aside for Yahweh; consecrated and holy. However, if they could no longer be sanctified, they were to be destroyed. So, the person, who was set aside for Yahweh, has defiled himself and must now be destroyed.

There are people and spiritual forces out there who are trying to entice you away from your community and the One True God. They want your money and/or your allegiance. The question is, “What do you desire?” Do you long for five million dollars? Do you long for the easy answer? Or do you long for Yahweh and his community? Be sanctified and trust in the Lord. Anything else is a lie. Peace, Walter