the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Exodus 23:6-19
"The innocent and the righteous slay thou not", the LORD is obliged to say to His people. An injunction which, alas, proved to be only too well justified, since the "Holy One and the Just" was put to death (Acts 3:14-15). The stranger, too, is the subject of commandments. He was not to be oppressed nor ill-treated (v. 9; 22:21; see Jeremiah 22:3). Leviticus 19:34 goes very much further: we should love him as ourselves. In the New Testament the Lord Jesus declares that taking care of the stranger who belongs to Him is equivalent to welcoming Himself (read Matthew 25:35). Moreover, was He not Himself the heavenly Stranger come down to visit men? How His heart, so infinitely tender, was wounded by the ingratitude of those in the midst of whom He had come in love! Yes, we are invited to understand "the heart of the stranger" (v. 9), the heart of the Saviour.
Remember, too, that you were once strangers yourselves, adds the LORD. To put ourselves in another’s place – that is the secret of love!
In vv. 10-13 God shows us the care He takes over the whole of His creation: the animals, the plants and the earth itself. Let us also learn to respect all that belongs to our heavenly Father.
Finally, in connection with worship, let us underline the end of v. 15: "none shall appear before me empty" (Deuteronomy 26:2).
