Exodus 22:28-31

"Thou shalt not revile God, nor curse a ruler of thy people. Thou shalt not delay to offer of thy harvest, and of the outflow of thy presses. The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. And ye shall be holy men unto me: therefore ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs."

Reviling God was a most serious offense, and cursing a ruler was here made parallel to it. Why? Because, "The powers that be are ordained of God," as an apostle warned (Romans 13:1-10). Right here is the seed of that extensive teaching in the N.T. relative to a Christian's responsibility to his government, and the requirement for assembled churches to pray for magistrates, rulers, and all men in authority. Without the God-ordained authority of government, the whole world would quickly revert to the primitive sadism of a jungle.

The thing of principal importance in this passage is Exodus 22:29, where the dedication of the first-born was mentioned. Of course, this is an abbreviated account, the full details having already been given by Moses back in Exodus 13:1-16, where specific instructions for the "redemption" of the firstborn were laid down, instructions already understood by Israel and absolutely unnecessary to be repeated here, but the critics, trying to find infant sacrifice as an allowable part of the worship of Jehovah in the history of Israel, allege such a thing on the basis of the abbreviated statement here. Ridiculous! There is not the slightest hint in the whole Bible of God's ever condoning, suggesting, receiving, or countenancing in any manner whatever, any such thing as human sacrifice.

Well, how do the critics attempt to circumvent that? They attribute the key portion of Exodus 13 to another and later source, "J." This diabolical purpose of the critics is frustrated by the fact that their injection of "J" at Exodus 13:13-15, automatically forces an interpretation that their document "P" is left without a redemptive provision, thus "proving" by their explanations that, "the horrible rite of infant sacrifice was an element of the religion of Israel even in post-exilic times!"[23] There is not a person on earth who does not know that a proposition like that is false!

"Ye shall cast it to the dogs ..." The reason underlying the forbidding for food the flesh of animals slain by other animals in the field was the fact that such animals were not properly bled. Note the use of dogs here as the scavengers of that era. The attitude of the Holy Scriptures toward dogs continues throughout to the very last chapter where, among those who are excluded from the City Celestial, are the "dogs," a metaphor of unholy and shameful men.

How amazing it is that dogs are so beloved in our own country! They have a status almost equal to that of children in countless homes, and, in the light of this, many of the Scriptural intimations from the references to "dogs" remain unclear to some.