Passage: Exodus 23:6-19

The Big Idea

God’s kingdom is a celebration. In these verses He sends out the invitations (justice and welcome for the poor and the stranger), supplies the party (sabbath years and days that teach us to trust His provision and rest), and sets the party times (three yearly feasts to rejoice in Him). The feasts all point to Jesus. And the strange command not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk reminds us not to mix God’s ways with the world’s. Rejoice in the Lord, and tell others they’re invited.

Three Lessons

Learning God’s ways: the invitations.
Learning to trust God’s provision: the party supplies.
Learning to celebrate God: party time!

Part 1: Everyone’s Invited (Exodus 23:6-9)

“Don’t deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits. Stay far away from false charges, and don’t put the innocent or righteous to death, for I will not acquit the guilty. Don’t accept bribes, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous. Don’t oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreigners in Egypt.”

The poor receive justice.
The innocent are protected; the wicked aren’t excused.
The foreigner is welcomed. “You know how it feels.”
God’s invitation goes out to the overlooked. That’s why ministries like feeding the hungry and teaching English to newcomers are such natural expressions of God’s heart.

Part 2: Party Supplies (Exodus 23:10-13)

The seventh year

“For six years sow your fields and harvest the crops, but in the seventh year let the land rest and lie fallow, so the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what’s left. Do the same with your vineyards and olive groves.”

Compassion for the poor, and even for animals.
Your stuff isn’t all about you.
When we grip our possessions too tightly, God gently rebukes our lack of compassion.
“It’s mine!” God says, “Actually, it’s all Mine. You’re borrowing it. Use it to care for your family (six years) and to care for others in need (the seventh).”
In the seventh year, you’d have to trust Him, trust that in the sixth year He’d provide enough to carry you through (Leviticus 25:20-22). He won’t let you starve for obeying Him.

The seventh day

“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day rest, so your ox and donkey may rest, and your servant’s son and the foreigner may be refreshed.”

Compassion again, for servants and even animals.
God’s desire is that all His creatures have rest.
He doesn’t want us working ourselves into burnout for Him. If we’re burnt out, something’s wrong with how we’re serving.
Serving God must flow from being refreshed in Him.
Are you ready to serve the kids? Lead worship? Teach? Have you been refreshed by resting in God’s presence first?
A seminary degree doesn’t qualify us to serve God. A life of humble faith does.
Our sufficiency isn’t from ourselves but from God, who made us competent ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

Don’t even mention other gods

“Pay attention to everything I’ve said. Don’t invoke the names of other gods; don’t let them be heard on your lips.”

All these laws were meant to cultivate a life of trusting, seeking and knowing God.
Don’t abandon that for another “god” that seems easier, more appealing or more useful.
Don’t even entertain their ways. There’s no truth in them.
You don’t need to master them. Keep your focus on the Lord and His Word.
Jesus is the Word made flesh, and He plants His word in our hearts, where it lives and grows.

Part 3: Party Time! (Exodus 23:14-17)

God gave Israel three annual feasts to celebrate Him.

God’s kingdom isn’t supposed to be a drag. (Some people imagine the God of the Old Testament as a grumpy killjoy. Really?)
It’s a continual celebration.
Sadly, some people think you can spot a Christian by how little fun they have.
Jesus loved to celebrate, and still does.

“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to Me:

The Festival of Unleavened Bread. Eat bread without yeast for seven days, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because that’s when you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.
The Festival of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your crops.
The Festival of Ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather your crops from the field.

Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord GOD.”

Everyone matters. No one is left out. Everyone has equal access to rejoice in God.
No one has less right to rejoice in God than anyone else.
Rejoicing has nothing to do with your circumstances. It has everything to do with the One we rejoice in. He is good and wonderful even when everything else in life is hard.
His goodness, kindness, love and faithfulness are clear.
But we question them all the time. And He understands. That’s why He gives us something to hold on to when we doubt: promises.
The way to rejoice in God is to grab His promises by faith. Some are already fulfilled; some are yet to come. They’re all in His Word for us to investigate, cling to and depend on.
God welcomes anyone who’ll trust Him to keep His promises. The answer will always be “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Party Fouls (Exodus 23:18-19)

“Don’t offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything containing yeast. Don’t let the fat of My festival offerings remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. Don’t cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

These feast instructions mattered because they’d picture Jesus for generations:

No yeast with the blood: the Lamb is without sin; we enjoy God cleansed from sin.
Don’t leave the fat till morning: the fat belonged wholly to God; trust Him fully, and give Him your best.
Bring the firstfruits to His house: the fruit of our lives is really His work, and He gets to enjoy it. His grace produces the fruit that delights Him. Our lives are lived for His joy, not just our own.

“Don’t cook a young goat in its mother’s milk”

That seems like a random rule! But God doesn’t waste words.

Many scholars think this forbade a pagan fertility ritual practiced by Israel’s neighbors, so it was a command not to borrow the world’s religion when worshiping the Lord.

Some Bible teachers have also seen a devotional picture here: milk and meat as teaching, the goat as a symbol of deception (Jacob dressed in goatskins to deceive his father, Genesis 27:16), and cooking as man’s way of doing things. Whatever the details, the lesson is clear:

Don’t mix the world’s ways with God’s ways. Don’t think you know better than God how to be His people or how to live. His feasts are perfect. Rejoice in Him, trust His ways and His promises, and you’ll be kept from deception.

Why does God put this here? Because we’re ripe for deception. The flesh starts thinking:

“I don’t need this feast. I don’t need a Lamb. I don’t need to get rid of the yeast. I don’t need to fully trust God. I don’t need to live for His glory and pleasure. My life doesn’t matter that much. I don’t need to celebrate God.”
“What I need is to focus on my life. I need to worry. I need to stress. I can’t let go. I can’t trust Him. I need control. I need strength. I need more. I’m not happy. I’m not complete.”

That’s how the flesh thinks.

But God gives us His Word so we can see Jesus more clearly by the Holy Spirit. Everything points to Jesus. The Spirit always shows us Jesus in the Old Testament, and these old covenant laws point to Him in the most creative ways.

Our lives point to Him too, when we rejoice in Him.

Rejoice!

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).

“I wish I knew how to rejoice in the Lord. I just don’t know how.”

Look at Jesus. His critics complained, “Look at Him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” But wisdom is proved right by its results (Matthew 11:19).

What was He doing at all those parties? Rejoicing!
His joy was contagious. His smile was all some people needed to see.
It worked. It got results.

So rejoice in the Lord. Tell people how Jesus is blessing you, how grateful you are for His mercy and grace. It’s God’s kindness that leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4). Share His kindness.

Tell people about the invitation: God loves them and welcomes them into His family by grace.
Tell them about the party supplies: God provides everything we need.
Tell them about the party: Jesus will meet them in every season of life. And when He shows up at the party, things change.

Grace Takeaway

God’s kingdom is a feast, and everyone’s invited: the poor, the stranger, the weary. He supplies everything we need, gives rest instead of burnout, and calls us to celebrate Him, not with the world’s recipes, but His. All of it points to Jesus, the Lamb at the center of the feast. Rejoice in Him, and go tell others the party’s on.

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Three Party Lessons