-- If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt certainly bring it back to him.
Among the laws on honest witnesses and fair courts sits a small test: a stray animal on the road, and an owner who hates you. The command tells you what to do before your feelings can vote. It raises a question too: how far did the law of Israel already reach toward the enemy?
This command is not a stray act of kindness. It sits among laws about true testimony and fair judgment, where personal feeling gets no say.
Notice how human feelings are shut out in these matters of judgment. Not only is all false witness forbidden; dislike for an enemy must not stop you from helping him in a time of need, as we see in verses 4 and 5. And your feelings about the poor must not sway the judgment either, for him (verse 3) or against him (verse 6).
A stray ox is a small thing. That is why it tests a man: no one is watching, and the owner is an enemy.
Verse 4 is again intended to test our honesty. Even if someone is an enemy and we see his animal straying, the honest thing is to return it to him. Or suppose we know that another person hates us, and his donkey has too heavy a load. We are responsible to give what help we can (v. 5), even though the natural thing would be to ignore it. It is the same principle found in Romans 12:20: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."
People narrowed the word "neighbour" until it stopped short of the enemy. This verse shows the narrowing was never God's.
But the Jews deliberately overlooked that God had also commanded them in the law to love their enemies (see Ex. 23:4-5; Lev. 19:33-34). The Lord Jesus then goes on: "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." In this He does not give His disciples new commandments. He judges the way people had narrowed the old commandment, and the addition they made to it. In God's thinking, every person we deal with is our neighbour, even if he or she turns out to be our personal enemy.
Commentators differ here. One finds the command to love an enemy already in the law. Another says what the Lord taught goes beyond anything law could teach, and that the deeper question is not whether an act is right, but what fills the heart.
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Here was something the law never could teach — it is grace. In a thousand practical instances, the question is not whether the thing is right. We often hear Christians asking, Is such a thing wrong? But that is not the only question for a Christian. Suppose someone wrongs him. What should he feel then? If another person hates him, what should he cherish in his own heart?
Returning a hostile man's animal is not natural. One writer traces such kindness to God's own character, and to a day when Israel fed a captured enemy army instead of killing it.
A command like this must have startled an Israelite. It rises above nature, and above law, which deals with evil feeling and evil ways as they deserve. Here it is "the kindness of God," and His call to act on a goodness that is seen in Him and can only flow from Him. We see it actually done, and on a large scale, when God's power led a Syrian army, sent to arrest the prophet Elisha, blindfolded into the capital city of Israel. The king asked the prophet, "Shall I strike them?" But the man who spoke for God said, No; "set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master."
Kindness does not leave the enemy unchanged. It works on him like fire, and it can go two ways.
Heaping coals of fire on an enemy's head by kindness (Prov. 25:21-22; Rom. 12:20) puts him to the test, as fire tests metal. The kindness shown him will either bring him to repentance and friendship, or harden him even more.
- Setting — The command sits among laws on true witness and fair judgment. Dislike does not get to decide what you do.
- Test — A stray animal is a small matter. That is why it measures honesty when the owner hates you.
- Reach — Some writers say the law itself already commanded love for an enemy here. Others say loving enemies is grace, beyond what law could teach.
- Source — This kindness rises above nature and law. It can only come from the goodness seen in God Himself.
- Result — Kindness given back for hostility puts the enemy to the test. It either wins him as a friend or hardens him further.
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden, beware of leaving [it] to him thou shalt certainly loosen [it] with him.
This command sits among rules about honest testimony and fair judgment. It moves from the courtroom to the roadside. The question is simple: does your dislike of a man get a vote in what you owe him?
The verses around this one forbid false witness and unfair rulings. This command belongs to the same pattern.
Notice how human feelings are shut out in these matters of judgment. Not only is all unrighteous witness forbidden. Dislike for an enemy must also not hold back help in a time of need, as we see in verses 4 and 5. And further, one's feelings about the poor must not sway the judgment, either for him (verse 3) or against him (verse 6).
The law does not ask whether you like the man. It asks what you do about his animal.
Verse 4 is again meant to test our honesty. Even if a man is an enemy and we see his animal straying, the honest thing is to return it to him. Or suppose we know that another person hates us, and his donkey has too heavy a load. Our natural inclination would be to ignore it. But we are responsible to give what help we can (v. 5). It is the same principle found in Romans 12:20: "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."
The verse allows for the pull inside you — the wish to walk on. The matching law in Deuteronomy names that wish outright: "you shall not... hide yourself from them" (Deuteronomy 22:4).
Here the two lessons we have spoken of are very clearly presented. What a deeply humbling picture of the human heart we have in that one sentence, "You may not hide yourself"! We are capable of a low and detestable selfishness. We hide ourselves from our brother's claims on our sympathy and help. We dodge the holy duty of looking after his interests. We pretend not to see his real need of our aid. Such is man! Such is the writer!
The one actually suffering here is a beast, unable to help itself, and it belongs to the wrong man. Scripture repeatedly measures people by how they treat such creatures.
Men are tested by their treatment of the creation that God put under human authority. Indifference to one's animal is unworthy; cruelty is worse. So the righteous man cares for his animal's life. But even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruelty. The Lord's tender mercies are over all His works. The day is coming when everything that has breath will praise Him.
Jesus told of a man left half dead on the road, passed by first by a priest and then by a Levite — the very men who handled Israel's worship and taught its law.
The wounded traveller lay in his blood, and two men passed by: one a priest, the other a Levite. Neither offered a helping hand. Yet the law taught that even the donkey of an enemy must be helped when you see it groaning under its burden (Ex. 23:5). But out of all classes and ranks of men, why did the Saviour pick the priest and the Levite as the ones who did nothing for the dying man? Surely to teach us that the system these men represent cannot meet the need of ruined man. The priest's business was with religious forms and ceremonies, and the Levite was responsible to teach the people the law of God. Yet God's own hand pictures both of them doing nothing for a man in his hour of deadly danger.
Where does such kindness come from? One writer traces it above nature and above law, to God Himself.
The first of these sayings must have startled an ordinary Israelite. It rises above nature, and above law. Law deals with evil feeling and evil ways as they deserve. Here it is "the kindness of God," and His call to act on a goodness which is seen in Him and can only flow from Him. We see it acted out literally and on a large scale when divine power drew a Syrian army, sent to arrest the prophet Elisha, blindfolded into the capital city of Israel. The king asked the prophet whether to strike them. But God's spokesman said no: "Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master." After that, Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. It was God in Christ; it is God in the Christian. Is it obsolete in Christendom? May it not be so in Christians! It is too precious to lose.
- Command. The law will not let dislike decide your duty. Feelings get no vote in judgment, toward an enemy or toward the poor.
- Heart. Your natural pull is to walk past. Scripture calls that hiding yourself, and names it selfishness.
- Hands. Honesty is not a feeling but an act: return the straying animal, lift the fallen one, even for the man who hates you.
- Witness. The priest and the Levite knew this law and still walked past a dying man. Religious position cannot meet the need of ruined people.
- Source. This kindness is God's own. Christ showed it, and God means His people to show it still.