Exodus 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
29  Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
30  Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.
31  And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

Who are the gods spoken of here. We know that God hates idolatry. He would not be telling His people to show some respect for idols. We also know that they were to destroy any idols they would find in the land of Canaan when they took it over.
The word “gods” is sometimes used to speak of human rulers such as judges and other officials with authority.
The nation of Israel was to show respect for their leaders. Of course their leaders were supposed to be God-fearing individuals. Moses would later choose seventy men to help him with the governing of the nation. Those men were to be respected men from within the tribes of Israel. They would be seen as gods in the sense that they had authority from God to judge the people.
To “revile” these people was to make light of their authority. God-appointed leaders need to be respected. There would be self-appointed or humanistically appointed leaders chosen by ungodly kings as the nation progressed. They did not have the authority to rule. They would despise God’s law and seek to enact their humanistic principles. King Saul had such men around him. Many other kings would do so as well.
God wanted the people to have respect for the rulers of the nation. The rulers needed to be God-fearing men who were seeking to uphold God’s law, not man’s ideas.
In verse 29 we see that the nation was not to withhold offerings of thanksgiving to God. The first of their ripe fruits belonged to the Lord. God wanted the nation to be reminded that their success was dependent upon the Lord. He would bless them with good crops and He expected them to acknowledge the source of their blessings by offering the first of their ripe fruits to Him.
The firstborn son also was to be surrendered to the Lord. In Exodus 13 God had already declared that the firstborn son could be redeemed for a price. Again, God was teaching the nation that He was blessing them with children. They needed to acknowledge this blessing and give Him the firstborn, or they needed to redeem the firstborn with money.
In verse 30 we see that this same law applied to their animals. The firstborn calf or the firstborn sheep was to remain with its mother for seven days and on the eighth day it was to be given to the Lord. The farmers needed to be reminded that they would not be lacking anything by honouring God with their firstborn livestock.
In verse 31 God reminded the nation that they were to be holy men unto Him. Israel was to be different than the nations around them. They were to publicly identify as the people of God and thus they would demonstrate to the nations around them that there was something more important than chasing after earthly possessions.
There was also to be a protection against eating the meat of an animal that had been torn and killed by an animal. God had already taught them they were not to eat the meat with the blood. The animal needed to be properly bled out prior to eating it. If an animal was killed by a wild animal, it would not bleed out properly. There might be bleeding, but it would not have died in a proper manner and thus blood would have remained in the meat of the animal. The life is in the blood and it is not to be eaten.
God told them that an animal that was killed by a wild animal needed to given to the dogs. The dogs need to eat and they were scavengers. Today we see advertisements for pet food that is sometimes more nutritional than that fed to people. Animals are not people. They should not be elevated to the status of people. Animals have their place but some people talk of their animals as their babies, or their children. This is misplaced loyalty.
As we see here, God is concerned with the well being of His people. The nation of Israel was to be the example to the nations of how God will bless those who know Him and walk in the fear of the Lord. God wants all people to be saved. In the Old Testament era, Israel was chosen by God to be the light and the example of the blessings of knowing and serving the true God.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ set aside the nation of Israel for that purpose and He brought in a new entity which was referred to as a mystery. That mystery was the local church. God still loves the Jews and wants them to be saved. In the future Israel will be saved and they will become the glory of the Lord. At this time the local church is to be submissive to Him and the Lord Jesus Christ is to be the Head of the local church. It is a rare thing to find a local church that is seeking to be submissive to the will of God. Most are just social clubs that offer their own version of religion. Many people will be shocked to discover they chose to remain on the broad way rather than humble themselves and repent and get on the narrow way.
There are stubborn people with good imaginations and they have convinced themselves that black is white and evil is good and good is evil. Today is the Lord’s day. The wise person will choose to listen to God and will seek out a Bible-believing local church to attend. If you have one, then thank the Lord for that church and pray for the pastor and other leaders in that church. You need to pray that they would be faithful to the Lord and not be politicians who seek the opinions of the people. A true, Bible-believing church is not run under a democratic banner. A true, Bible-believing church submits to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and it demonstrates that by actually following what the Word of God says. True Christians reject the perversions and stick with the truth. The truth is liberating.
Pastor Bartel