If you do not know, where do you think the following verse would be found in the Bible? “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil.” It would make sense for that particular verse to be in a letter written to Christians in the immoral city of Corinth, but that’s not where this verse is found. (Although there is a verse very similar in 1 Corinthians 15:33.)
At least a couple million of God’s people had just been delivered from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and were camping at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, the ONLY people there (to our knowledge) were God’s people. All of these Jews had just witnessed multiple miraculous manifestations of the power of God, and now they are only in the presence of fellow Jews. Why, in that context, would God need to tell them, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil”? Could there have been “evil” men among them who they needed to avoid? Perhaps. Or, is it possible that God was concerned that they still had a little Egypt in them?
Does one have to be in the presence of an evil crowd to actually follow that evil crowd? Consider Lot’s daughters for a moment. These two young ladies witnessed the divine destruction of their hometown and everything that they had ever known. What a life-changing experience! What would ever cause Lot’s daughters to get their father drunk, so that they could “lie with him” and provide him with a “lineage” (Gen. 19:30-32)? Would this not be a reflection of the environment in which they had been raised and was now manifesting itself, even when they had escaped that evil place?
Go back to Exodus 23:2—“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil.” These Jews had spent their entire lives in the pagan nation of Egypt. They had been surrounded by idolatry and immorality for centuries. It is hard for that not to have a lasting impact on individuals, even after they have escaped that land.
Make the application. What ungodly influences have there been in our lives in the past that still have their seeds lodged in our hearts? What crowds might we be following, although we haven’t been around those “crowds” in years? Consider this Bible principle: “Do you not know that a little leaven,” even some that stays lodged in our hearts after many years, “leavens the whole lump?” God then instructs, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump” (1 Cor. 5:6-7). While this is written to a church, there is application even to the life of an individual Christian today. What “old leaven” (i.e., remnants of your own Egypt) do you need to search out in your heart and “clean out” (NASB)? Is there a better day to start that cleaning than today?