22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
God Protects the Helpless
In these chapters of Exodus, God is laying out The Law. He is telling the nation of Israel the way to live their day to day life in order for them to them to show the surrounding nations His character. They are to be a light to the nations around them and not like the nations around them:
Exodus 23:32-33 (ESV Strong's)
32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
One of the ways they could look different in the land is to treat the widow and the orphan differently. That would not have been the case in the surrounding nations. Women and children were a commodity in ancient times. The other nations would abuse, sell, abandon and neglect widow and orphans. God, in the above passage, tells the nation of Israel that He is watching over the oppressed in the land and they were NOT to be like the wicked nations around them. How we treat others is a key to reflecting God. In the New Testament the Law will be summed up as “loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself.” The above passage reflects that definition of The Law. How we treat the oppressed tells us much about our relationships with God and our mindset being aligned by God’s Word and controlled by God’s character. We are to treat the oppresses with the same treatment we want to be treated.
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