Rev. Mark Birkholz, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Oak Lawn, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Exodus 23.
If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.” All the talk of oxen and donkeys in Exodus 23 sounds ancient, but the ideas here are timeless: God wants us to help even the people who want to do us harm, ultimately pointing to Christ’s sacrifice for those who hated Him. God’s sermon on the Commandments here connects theft & slander to God’s name, as well as coveting to the Sabbath. Finally the sermon concludes where it began, in God’s gospel promise to love and care for us—the land, the animals, and His whole creation.
