The Judgments

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Exodus chapter 21.

So I'm trying to determine how focused we're going to be tonight. With all this business going on. I had to cut a few balloons out because there were balloons right here. And they would have been in front of Steve too. So they're back here as extra bubbles on the ground. But we're very excited about BBS is coming up starting tomorrow night. So if you'd be in prayer for that.

Also, if you're thinking afterwards, Hey, I'd love to get a little bit of exercise in to really round out my day. I could really use some help stacking up all these chairs and slamming them in. Lighting them to the outside after the service. So if you want to get that little workout in, join me afterwards, won't you? So I could really could use some help with that.

So, all right, we're in Exodus chapter 21. Some of the most exciting chapters in the entire Bible. That's absolutely not true. But we are going to learn some things from them. So I think when we get to the book of Leviticus and we get into things about bodily discharges, we'll put all this stuff up again so that you'll have something to entertain you once again in the midst of what is maybe not

the most fun section of the entire scripture. So the last time that we were together, well, actually the last time we were together, we weren't in the book of Exodus at all. But the last time we were in the book of Exodus, we looked at the law. God had given the children of Israel the Ten Commandments and we said that he spoke those where everybody could hear them.

And after he did, everybody said, Whoa, that was really scary. Moses, you go talk to God. Then you tell us what he said. So that's exactly what Moses does. He now, he now, he now goes and speaks with God. And so as we come to chapter 21, we are going to look at what's known as the ordinances. It says in verse one, now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them.

I prefer the New King James translation of this where it says these are the judgments because that's the idea that's given here. If you remember a few chapters back, Moses was leading all of the children of Israel and they were coming night and day to come and talk to him. So that he could settle disputes for them. And his father-in-law said, that's a terrible idea.

You need to put some other guys in charge of this. Teach them, teach the people, the law, teach these judges, the law, and then they can know how to settle the minor disputes that come up. And then the major ones can come to you. So as we come to chapter 21, chapters 21, 22, and the very first part of 23, which we probably won't get to tonight, all deal with the judgments.

They are, if you will, the standards that the, these judges that were to be appointed over the people, these are the standards that they would use to help settle disputes. This was, if you will, the civil law that they were to follow within the nation of Israel. But there's a few things I want you to pay attention to. As we look at this civil law within the nation of Israel, the first thing we pay attention to is it really does reveal once again, the holiness of God.

And so as we look at this matter, in fact, this chapter is going to end with be holy men. And so we see the holiness of God revealed in, in it. We also see that God has a great concern for human life, much more so than the other nations. At this point in time, God really elevated the position of human life as being worth so much more because of course we were created in the image of God.

We also see that God puts a heavy precedence on a personal responsibility, as well as the payment of restitution for crimes that are committed. And what we really see more than anything in all of this is the summation of the law. And that is love for fellow man. And so pay attention to those things. As we look at some of these civil laws, these judgments that were set out before them.

And so we pick up now in verse two of chapter 21, if you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, but on the seventh, he shall go out as a free man without payment. If he comes alone, he shall go out alone. And if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears some sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master and he shall go out alone.

See why I wasn't overly excited about this particular section. Wait till we get to talking about selling your daughter, right? Like that's going to be really fun to deal with. So we deal with this. Nobody laughed at that. I thought that was a pretty funny thing to bring up. So the first thing he deals with is this aspect of slavery. Now here's one of the criticisms of the Bible.

A lot of people say, well, you know, God, God really was in favor of slavery. As a matter of fact, the, the Bible, the Bible actually promotes slavery in the old Testament. That's actually not true. That's actually a, a misunderstanding of what this particular scripture is talking about. First of all, we have to understand that in the culture at this point in time,

slavery was a fact of life. It took place in every culture at this point in time. And as a matter of fact, people were treated more like property than they were individuals, which is why what God says to do here raises the aspect of human life to being so much more important because there is great concern, for humanity and if you will, great concern for the working population, the slavery that's being spoken of here was not to be the kind of slavery that took place in the nations around them. Because remember everything that God wanted for the nation of Israel was that they would be holy and set apart from the people that are around them.

The nations that are around them own people as property. That's not the idea of the servitude that's being spoken of here in our culture. We would refer to this as indentured servitude. There was several reasons why somebody might end up becoming a slave. Number one would be extreme poverty. In other words, they just literally have no money. They can't pay their way.

They can't afford anything. So they would then subject themselves to an indentured servitude so that they could have some means of living. The second reason why people would end up in indentured servant who servitude is because of bankruptcy. Perhaps they owed a debt that they could not pay. And so in order to pay off the debt, they said, I will now work for you for X amount of time in order to pay off this debt.

The third reason why people would end up in this type of slavery is because of a theft. You see when people committed crimes like theft, which we'll get to tonight a little bit later on in the chapter, when people committed a theft, they had to provide restitution for that. Sometimes up to four to five times the amount that they stole. We'll deal with that.

We'll deal with how important I think that is in just a moment. And if they could not pay that off because of the things that they stole, they would then go into an indentured servitude, sort of a sort of a relationship with a master in order to pay off their crime that they had committed. So when we look at what God is referring to here, we don't think at all of the kind of slavery that you and I would think of in our current state that we would have looked at perhaps in the 17 and 18 hundreds where men and women were kidnapped, sold as slaves and taken away from their homeland. As a matter of fact, when we get to the part of kidnapping, we realized that God has punishment lined up for those who would commit such a crime.

Now this was a completely different idea that's given to us with an indentured servant servanthood. So as we look at this, we realize that there are several regulations that are put upon it. Number one, they were chosen. It was a term that was chosen or mutually agreed to. In other words, an indentured, an individual did this of their own free will in order to deal with a either

punishment or a payment that had to be made. So this was chosen or mutually arranged. The second limitation on it is that it had a limited duration. Did you take note of the limited duration that was supposed to take place? If someone was to become a slave in this particular way, they could only serve for six years and then they had to be let go on the seventh

year, because the seventh year would be their time of freedom. In other words, this would only last for so long. And every debt that was to be paid was to be based upon this sort of a system where it could be paid off in that six years. Chuck Smith pointed out in his commentary, this idea of six and one, six years, six days is kind of throughout scripture. As you look at it,

the Sabbath day was to be set upon six days and then there were to be, uh, one day of rest when it came to this sort of servitude. There were six years where you served and then there was a year where you were set free. And as a matter of fact, God had an idea also that you would every 70th year would be the year of Jubilee and they would let the land lie fallow. In other words, you wouldn't even work the land for the 70th year.

And so this idea of rest, this idea of when a time of completion comes, there is no longer a debt to be paid. There is a rest to be had is woven into every aspect of the scriptures. And so there was a limited duration. And then the third aspect that we pay attention to is that this type of servitude was highly regulated. These types of servants were to be treated.

Well, they were not to be treated like property. They were to be treated like humanity because again, God viewed people in a very high with very high concern because they were not created in the image of God and he wanted each of us no matter what standard, no matter what state in life you're in, whether you're the one that owns the business or the lowest employee that you be treated the same because you are still a human being that's been created in the image of God. So in this case, if you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years and on the seventh, he shall go out as a free man without payment. If he comes alone, he goes out alone.

If he's the husband of a slave, the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master and he shall go out alone. But pay attention to this next part. Verse five, it says, but if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out as a free man.

Then his master shall bring him to God. Then he shall bring him to the door of the, or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an all and he shall serve him permanently. And this is the principle of what we would refer to as the bond slave, a slave by choice. Imagine if you will, you owed someone a debt and you couldn't pay the debt. And so the arrangements were made.

You can come and work for me for six years. And during those six years, you found that your master didn't treat you like some sort of a slave or a piece of paper. He didn't treat you like some sort of a slave or a piece of paper. He actually treated you more like his own son than he did some sort of a piece of property. And when all was said and done, the debt was completely paid off.

You realized I actually really care about this individual. And quite frankly, he cares about me maybe more than anybody ever has. And so I'm going to give up all of my rights. I'm going to give up all of my freedoms. I'm going to give up all of the things that I would eventually hope for in this life. And I will dedicate myself of my own free will to serve,

this individual with the rest of my life because I love him so much. That individual would then take you to, it says here in this translation, he'll take you to God. Some of your translations, if you have a new King James or old King James, it says, take you to the judges. Same ideas given there because a judge acted on behalf of God would take you to the judges and they would take you to the doorpost and they would pierce your ear with an all.

That way, everybody knew when they saw that your ear was pierced, that is, he's a bond slave, a servant by choice, a servant who has decided to give up all of his rights to this world so that he can love and serve his master of his own free will. Now there's two interesting New Testament correlations I would like for you to pay attention to when it comes to the bond slave, the servant by choice. Our most perfect example of this is Jesus. Jesus, if you will, became a servant by choice.

Not because of the love that he had for his master, but because of the love that he had for us. He gave up all of his rights. He laid aside his glory so that he could come down and serve us with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his strength so that he could be our savior. He is, if you will, the perfect picture of what a bond slave is. Because remember what it says in the book of Philippians,

that though he considered equality, equality with God, not something to be grasped, he laid aside his glory and came down and dwelt among us, became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross. And so as we look at this, we realize that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the bond servant. But what's interesting to pay attention to is that all of the New Testament writers, Paul, James, Peter, those guys, I realize I didn't throw John in there, but those guys all had the same thing to say. They referred to themselves as a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

Because when they viewed their lives, they realized that they owed a debt that they couldn't pay, and their master paid the debt for them. And because their master paid the debt for them, they said, I lay aside all of my rights, all of my desires as far as this world is concerned, and I dedicate myself wholeheartedly to Jesus to serve him in the way that, he sees fit, to serve him in the way that he would like for me to serve. And may I say also that this should be a challenge for you and I. Who is in charge of your life right now?

I think it's a question that we should all be asked at certain points in time. Who are you serving? Have you given up all of your rights as far as this world is concerned? Have you given up all of your desires as far as this world is concerned? And said, I will give up everything, so that I can be a bond slave, a servant by choice to the one who loved me enough to pay my debt.

It's a wonderful picture, it's a wonderful idea, but it's a whole other thing to actually live out in our lives. I remember when I was in my teens, some of the older Christians that I was aware of, meaning like they were probably in their 20s by that point in time, the idea was that they were going to pierce their ears, and everybody was like, why are they piercing their ears? They're like, I'm a bond servant for Jesus, and it's like, that's great, but are you actually doing it? See, it's one thing to be able to say, oh yes, I'm a bond slave.

We can sing about how we're surrendered to Jesus Christ all that we want to, we can claim that we're surrendered to Jesus Christ all that we want to, but the proof really comes when the rubber hits the road, and we have to make a decision. Who's in charge of my life? Is it me, or is it Jesus? Who's in charge of my desires? Is it me, or is it Jesus? Have I absolutely surrendered all of those things,

to him? And so, he gives us this picture of what a bond slave, is supposed to be. Someone that would serve, permanently, their master, at the complete giving up of their own rights. Now, in verse 7, he goes on to continue with this same theme of slavery. He says, If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master,

who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to foreign people, because of his unfairness to her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. If he will not do these three things for her,

then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money. Man, I wish this was not in the Bible. I wish this section wasn't here, right? Like, there's a reason a lot of people don't like to teach the Old Testament. It's because the Old Testament's hard. Right? It helps that I have a fish above my head right now. That really softens the blow, I feel like,

a little bit of what I just had to say. So you're probably asking yourself, in what situation would someone sell their daughter? Other than what we know of in our world today, as far as the sex trade is concerned, right? Well, again, we don't always understand the way culture worked at that point in time. You see, if I was a man who had nothing to offer to my family,

I had nothing to offer to my daughter, I knew that I could not provide her with a very good life, and I've got two of them right now, then I might say, there's a family who does have the ability to offer my daughter a very good life. As a matter of fact, they have a son really close to her age, and I think that would work out really well. So I then, if you will, offer her for a dowry, a payment to that family, so that either A, she can be promised to one of their sons so that she can have some sort of hope for a better life than what I can provide for her, or B, simply so that she can be taken care of in a financial way in a way that I cannot. Because women at this point in time did not have the ability just to go out and work and support themselves.

They were completely subject to being under the protective regime of the rights of a man. Now listen, that's not just a biblical thing. That was a cultural thing at that point in time. And so what God did here is he just elevated the place of a woman. And you go, how can that be, Ryan? Because he just gave them rights. You see, we don't always realize in the culture

that we're in today where the women's movement is really on the move right now, and oh my gosh, we're throwing off all kinds of stuff. What women really had to go through at that point in time were women, much like slaves, were considered property. And so for God to put a limit on this and say that if a young girl is sold to a family in this type of way, she cannot then be sold to a foreign people to be made money off of. She cannot be deprived of any sort of food or clothing or any other right, nor can she just simply be put out because she's not pleasing.

She has to be taken care of. You see, what God just did there is he just elevated the place of the woman in this society to no longer being a piece of property, to the place of being someone who should be loved and cared for the way that God has intended for women to be loved and cared for by the men in their lives. If there's anything good that has happened for the place of women as well as the working class and everyone else, it's been because of what the Bible has done to elevate that place. It's funny because as Scripture goes on, the position of women continues to move up and up and up as far as their place in society is concerned to the point where when Jesus came along, Jesus began to speak to women not as if they were property,

but as if they were simply another human being, as if they were to be loved and cared for. You see, if we want to really see the rights of women, if we want to see the rights of minorities, if we want to see the rights of the working class be improved, then we must follow principles that Scripture lays out where in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. There is simply believers in Jesus Christ because all are one in Him. And it elevates the position of everyone to being either in Christ or not in Christ.

And all of the labels that we put on people today are no longer needed because you're either in Christ or you're not in Christ. And so that's what He does here in this particular section. And so He really elevates the position of women within society to a place where they had never been before. So now that we're done with that section, we deal with personal injuries.

Verse 12. He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for Him, but God let him fall into His hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a man acts presumptuously towards his neighbor so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar that he may die. He who strikes his father or his mother

shall surely be put to death. He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. See, I have labeled these first few verses of this particular section those things that are worthy of the death penalty. Because that's kind of what God does here, right?

Now I want you to pay attention to this. He says, He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. Now this is not a new law. Remember the very first law of human government was given to us right after the flood when God instituted what we would refer to as capital punishment. That life is so valuable that if you take the life of another your life is required of you.

Now there's some real major issues that we have with certain people in dealing with the death penalty. They say, oh, it's just so cruel. Well, because it was so kind for them to commit murder, right? Like, that must be what's going on. See, I believe that if you commit murder you should have the gospel preached to you so that you can get right with your Savior

and then we need to deal with what the Bible says we do when someone commits murder. Because that's how we cleanse murder from our nation. You see, throughout Scripture, one of the things that you continue to read is that the blood of the innocent cries out from the ground to God because murder stains a nation. And may I say, if the blood of the innocent cries out from the ground so that God can hear it with the amount of abortions that are committed within our nation in a day, can you imagine how loud the ground cries?

Can you imagine how deafening the cry in God's ear is with the atrocities that are committed in our world today? And so he says, if you strike a man so that he dies, you shall be put to death. Now, God does mercifully give an avenue for those who have committed what we would call second-degree murder, not premeditated murder, perhaps a crime of passion, perhaps even an accident. Something went too far in a fight, somebody got angry, and it wasn't premeditated, God provided them a way.

Notice what he says. If he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I may appoint you a place to which he may flee. You see, at this point in time, there would be what's referred to as an avenger of blood. If it was one of your family members, you could then go after them to seek their life for the murder that was committed. But if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt

that you did not do that in a premeditated sort of way, God, when they came into the nation, when they came into the land of Israel, would provide for them what's referred to as cities of refuge, a city where they could flee to until they could be given a fair trial to determine whether or not they had committed the crime in a premeditated sort of fashion, or if it was an accident or a crime of passion. And so, God provided that avenue. It says, verse 14, If, however, a man acted presumptuously toward his neighbor so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from the altar, that he may die. Now, the next one I think is kind of interesting.

It says, he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Now, this is not even striking to kill. It's simply to strike, to hit. That's the idea of the word that's given to us here. And so we ask ourselves, why, if somebody hits their father or their mother, are they to be put to death, right? Like, that seems like a really serious crime.

And I'll tell you why I believe why God takes this so seriously. It's because God takes authority seriously. God takes that authority very seriously in the first place. The first place that we learn authority in our lives is from our mother and father. That's the first authority that we learn about in our lives where hopefully we learn about what the authority of God looks like.

And if we cannot put ourselves under the authority of our parents, then we can never put ourselves under the authority of God. And so God takes very seriously this aspect of striking a father and a mother, says, should be put to death. The second one it says is, he who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. I often wonder in the world where we are dealing with the sex trade today, if we dealt with this as swiftly as the Bible says that we are to deal with it, how long that trade would continue going on.

I think that we would see that change quite drastically. I also wonder how many people in high places in our current society right now might find themselves put to death. I know that's not a very popular statement, but I do wonder about it. He goes on to say, and he who curses his father or mother shall be put to death. Again, I think for the same reason, because God holds authority in a very high place.

Now he goes on from there to say, if men have a quarrel, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but remains in bed, if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished. He shall only pay for his loss of time and shall take care of him until he is completely healed. Seems fair to me. If you beat a guy up, he didn't die from it, you got to pay for the time he can't work, and you got to pay for his health care, right?

In our society, that would be enough punishment, right? If you have to pay for somebody's health care, that's a massive punishment, right? And so he goes on, makes you think twice before you get in a fight. Listen, I can't afford that hospital bill. Verse 20, if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished.

If, however, he survives, no violence, no death, no violence survives, no vengeance shall be taken, for he is his property. If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband made demand of him and shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. So he deals with another scenario here.

If two men are fighting and a woman is pregnant and she ends up injured in this situation, if there's no major injury that takes place, then the husband can say, you owe me X amount of money for what took place. He has to pay it. We move on. But if something happens to the woman or her baby, then it needs to be dealt with and the punishment needs to fit the crime.

Because the next aspect that we move into here in verse 24, we realize that God gives a principle to be dealt with that the punishment should fit the crime. Eye for an eye, life for a life, tooth for a tooth, foot for foot, bruise for bruise. We'll deal with that later. And so as we look at this, the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. Now, a lot of people look at this

and they say, there's a contradiction in the Bible, right? They say, well, in the Old Testament, it says eye for an eye. But in the New Testament, Jesus said, you've heard it said eye for an eye, but I tell you that you should turn the other cheek. How do you reconcile those two things? Now, if you ever try to witness to somebody, I guarantee at some point in time,

they'll ask you this question. How do you reconcile those two different things? Well, it's easy. God at this point in time is putting a governor on retaliation. He says, if somebody injures your eye, you cannot go beyond retaliation with the aspect of dealing with their eye. The punishment is supposed to fit the crime. But that doesn't mean that you have to do that.

It doesn't mean you have to perform that sort of a punishment on an individual. Not to mention the fact that this is speaking in a judicial sense, not in a personal sense. And so when Jesus moves to the New Testament, it says, but I tell you, you should turn the other cheek. He says, that's the limit to the retaliation that you can give. But if you really want to fulfill the heart of the law,

which is love for your fellow man, then you will learn the aspect of mercy and forgiveness. And so he says the punishment is supposed to fit the crime there. Now he goes on in verse 26 to say, if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

If an ox gores a man to death, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it, and kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall be put to death. If a ransom is demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him. Whether it gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.

If the ox gores a male or female servant, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Now, he deals with a couple of different things here. I don't want to go into too much detail on this because I am running out of time here. He says, first of all, dealing with this aspect of the punishment fits the crime. The same is true with your male or female slave.

You can't just beat them any time you want to. If you do damage, they have to be set free because, again, God elevates human life. Then he goes on to talk about this ox. If you've got an ox that gores somebody, a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, but the owner shall go free because nobody knew this was coming. However, if it has seen in the past that this has been an issue

and you haven't dealt with it, then the owner is held responsible. Now, I don't know about y'all. There might be a couple of y'all in here that own some cattle, but I've never owned any cattle or an ox, and my ox has certainly never gored anybody. But you know what I do own and what I think really fits in this culture? I own a dog. Now, if your dog is the dog

that bites people all the time and it tears somebody up and they want to get real jumping up and down with you, you have only yourself to blame. That's all I'm saying. You know, we live in a town where there are certain laws when it comes to dogs, and quite frankly, if a dog is known to attack, you deal with your dog, right? As a runner, this is my own personal thing, as a runner, I don't like when people just let their dogs roam free because you know what dogs like to do when you run by?

They like to chase you. Now, I had a dog literally jump a fence on me one time and come after me, and this dog looked like he was straight out the junkyard, right? I mean, nothing looked nice about this dog, and I turned, I always do the same thing. I turn and I face the dog because otherwise he's going to keep chasing me because either A, it's a game, or B, I'm prey, right?

And so I turned and faced the dog and I very demandingly said, get back, and the owner yelled at me. He said, that dog wasn't going to hurt you, and I said, how am I supposed to know that? He just jumped a fence and ran after me, right? I'm going to go ahead and say that this individual didn't take care of his dog very well. We'll just put it that way. But that's the same principle

that could be applied here. And so he says, if the ox was known to gore and he didn't deal with it, you're the one that's to blame for it. Then he goes on in verse 33 to say, if a man opens a pit or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution. He shall give money to its owner and the dead animal shall become his.

If one man's ox hurts another so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price equally, and they shall divide the dead ox. Or if it's known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not confined it, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall become his. Now, I want to point out one thing about all of these laws, because our laws look very different today than they did back then. As a matter of fact, I would say that oftentimes people that commit crimes of a violent nature like this, not to mention the aspect of abortion, and understand what I'm saying here, I do not hold many of these young girls responsible for the abortions that they have committed.

Many of them have been lied to, many of them have been manipulated, and there is absolutely healing and forgiveness in the hands of the Lord. But sometimes on topside of planet Earth, some of these crimes will not be dealt with in the way that the Bible sees fit. And for that, may I give us all a little place of rest, and that's that God is a God who is able to make people pay for their crimes. We can sit back and we can see people in high places that it seems like they over and over get away with their crimes.

I want you to know, they don't. Remember what it tells us in the New Testament, it says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And so when we see someone getting away with one of the crimes that's mentioned here, and we say, Lord, how can you let this stuff go on? We can remind ourselves of what that scripture says. God is able to deal with the things

that it seems like nobody in our government or judicial system is able to deal with, because it may have escaped the hands of justice here, but it will not escape the hands of justice in eternity, and we can rest in that. And so now we move on to the aspect of theft. Notice what it says in chapter 22, verse 1. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.

If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guiltiness on his account. But if the sun has risen on him, there will be blood guiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution. If he owns nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If what he stole is actually found alive in his possession, whether an ox or a sheep,

or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double. Now, when it comes to theft, the Bible again takes this very seriously. And depending on the severity of the theft and what was stolen, you would have to repay either twice as much up to five times as much what you stole. Now, I don't know if you ever saw that movie, Ocean's Eleven. Can you imagine how much those boys would have to pay back?

That's a whole lot of money, right? But that was to be a deterrent to committing that sort of a crime. You may remember in the book of Matthew, no, no, excuse me, it was Zacchaeus, not Matthew the tax collector, it was Zacchaeus the tax collector. When Zacchaeus met Jesus, he said, I will repay everyone that I've stolen from fourfold. You ever wonder how he came up with that number?

Well, it's because he knew the law. And he knew that according to the law, because he stole, he would need to restore potentially up to four times as much as he stole from those that were around him. One of the things you're going to find in scriptures, there's no jail. There's no jail in the Old Testament. They don't send people to a place where they can learn to get better at committing crimes.

They don't send them to a place where they can end up getting stabbed by another prisoner or end up accidentally hanging themselves. That's a whole other thing. That's a controversial one that will get me in trouble. But we all know he didn't kill himself. Anyway, so that's not, they don't send them to those prisons. No, what do they do? They pay restitution in some way, shape, or form

so that there's true punishment that goes into the crime. Listen, if I stole a car and I had to find out now I have to buy four new cars to replace the one that I stole, I'm going to think twice before I steal a car, right? Because if I can't afford one to begin with, how will I ever afford four more? And so there's restitution that was to be made. Now there's one thing that I want us to pay attention to,

especially those of us that are gun rights activists, right? Or gun rights proponents. Activist is the wrong word. Many of us say, listen, if you come into my house, you need to realize that there is a gun that will meet you. But notice what the Bible has to say. We all love that first verse that it gives, right? It says, if he breaks into your house and you confront him and he dies,

that's his problem. But take note of what it says. But if it's daytime and you have the opportunity to show mercy and not kill him, and you kill him anyway, you're the one that's held responsible for it. Why? Because God values human rights. God values human life. And we need to remember that. That God values human life, even the life of someone who committed a crime.

And so he gives this principle for what happens when things are stolen. Notice what it says in verse five. If a man lets his field or vineyard be grazed and lets his animals loose so that it grazes in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. If a fire breaks out and spreads to the thorn bushes so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed, he who started the fire shall make restitution.

If a man gives his neighbor money or goods to keep for him and it is stolen from the house and the thief is caught, he shall pay double. If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor's property. For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says this is it, the case of both parties shall come before the judges. He who the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.

So the first one deals with if you're like, hey, all my fields are bare. I don't have time to replant anything. My cattle need to eat. I'll just accidentally let them go over to the neighbor's field and graze over there. Nope, you're going to have to pay for it. If you set a fire and it ends up burning the neighbor's house down, you're responsible for it. Picking up on the personal responsibility that God's big on here,

wouldn't it be amazing in our culture if people just took responsibility for themselves? I know we're not into that, but wouldn't it be amazing if that began to take place? And so God gives this aspect of personal responsibility. He then talks about that if you are keeping track of your neighbor's goods and they're stolen, the thief is caught, he has to pay it back.

But if the thief is not caught and the goods are not returned, then the person that was given the responsibility is then to be questioned to make sure that there was no theft on his part that took place. Middle of verse 9. The case of both parties shall come before the judges. He who the judges condemn shall pay double to the neighbor. Verse 10. If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox, a sheep,

or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is hurt or is driven away while no one is looking, an oath before the Lord shall be made by the two of them that he has not laid hands on his neighbor's property, and its owner shall accept it and shall not make restitution. But if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner. If it is all torn to pieces, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn to pieces.

It reminds me of a story. So before my wife and I got married, we were dating at the time. We had some friends that we went to church with and they had chickens. I lived down in Lewisburg, Kansas, about half an hour or so south of where I lived, and they had chickens and they had cats, and they were going to go on vacation. And they said, Hey, Ryan, can you come house-sit for us

and take care of the chickens? And I said, No problem. Now, oddly enough, this story is not about chickens at all. It's about the cats. I said, We've got these two cats. One of them has a tendency to run away, and you need to make sure and kind of hold on to the cats, but just know that one of them is kind of sick, and if something happens, we completely understand.

Now, I was actually reading through the law at this particular point in time. I was almost to the book of Leviticus, and so I had been reading through all this kind of stuff, and they've got this cat, and the cat ran away. I couldn't find it anywhere, and I was like, Oh, no, what happened to their family cat? And so three days I couldn't find this cat, and I couldn't find this cat, right?

I'm looking in the barn. I'm looking out in the fields. Every night I come home from work, I'm looking for this crazy thing, and one day I walk out. One of the last days I was there, I walk out to take care of the chickens in the morning, and there laying out in the middle of the drive is the cat. Now, it's barely purring, right? And so I'm taking water from a rag,

and I'm squeezing it into its mouth, and I'm doing everything that I can to keep this cat alive because I know they may say they don't hold me responsible for this, but I'm responsible for this. Oh, the cat didn't make it. So anyway, but it is actually stolen from him. That was the saddest I've ever been about a cat in my entire life. Okay, in all sincerity,

when I saw the cat, you know that song when God ran? And then he ran to me, took me in his arms, held my head to his chest. I did that with the cat. I saw it. I was like, the cat. In my mind, the slow-mo was playing. I picked up the cat, and I held him close, took him into the barn. Anyway, it didn't make it. They did not hold me responsible, even though to this day,

I hold myself responsible for it. If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, or he breaks his skill saw, its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution. If its owner is with it, he shall not make restitution. If it is hired, it came for its hire. So he deals with the aspect of theft. Now this last section that we're going to cover at the end of 22,

I have labeled as various moral laws, or laws of morality. Notice what it says. If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged and lies with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins. So, if a guy talks a girl into it, this act takes place. He then has to do it.

He then has to not only marry her, but pay the dowry. In other words, there was, if you will, money that was paid that if anything happens to the husband, that lady can be taken care of even after he's gone. That's what a dowry is. Most of you know that. He has to not only pay that price, but then he has to take her to be his wife. This would change a lot in our society,

would it not? Matter of fact, there'd be a lot of polygamists in our society right now, even more than in the land of Utah. There'd be tons of them, right? But think about the deterrent that this would be. Hey, she's awfully cute. Not sure I want to get married just yet. But notice what it says in verse 17. If her father absolutely refuses, in other words, if that guy's an idiot,

and he refuses to give her, he still has to pay the money. He just can't have her as wife. He's like, you still owe me $35,000. Right? Like, you just can't have her. And what this does for us is it gives us an understanding of something. It gives us an understanding that sex outside of marriage has long-term effects. It has long-term effects that last for the lifetime of an individual.

That's why in the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul says, every other sin is done outside of the body, but this one particular sin, this one particular sin is committed against the body. And it's one that is really, really hard to overcome. And so God takes it very seriously, even these moral laws that he gives. He goes on from there in verse 18 to say, you shall not allow a sorceress to live.

He deals with this aspect of sorcery and those who would commit sorcery. Now, we should ask ourselves, what does he mean when he talks about a sorceress? Well, there's two different ways in scripture that this word is used. It's first of all used for one who would make contact with the demonic world. We might call them a medium or perhaps a witch. That's what we would refer to it as in our culture,

someone that makes contact with the demonic world. But the words used in another way, other places in scripture, and the word is used for one who is given over to controlled substances or one who provides controlled substances to other people. In other words, drugs that would cause hallucinations. And so the idea that's given here is someone that is taking part in that or giving that out and a provider of that is to be put to death, partly because the demonic world was not to be messed with.

And partly because when you lead other people into that world, you're taking them down a path of destruction. And so he says, they are not to be allowed to live. Verse 19, whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. Unfortunately, that's a law that has to be given. It's a sin that I cannot ever imagine falling into. But I know that in the culture that we live,

that we live in today, it's a reality, just like it was back then. He said, I will surely be put to death. Verse 20, he who sacrifices to any God other than the Lord alone shall be utterly destroyed. Verse 21, you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict a widow or an orphan if you afflict him at all.

And if he does cry out to me, I will surely hear his cry. And I will kill you with the sword. Your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. And so he deals with a couple of more moral laws. He deals with the aspect of how we treat strangers. In other words, how we treat those who are not like us or perhaps from another place. He says, you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, you are to show kindness to strangers. Then he deals with the fatherless and the widows, those who would have been the weakest and most easy to prey on in society at that point in time. He says, if you afflict them in any sort of way and I hear about it, bad things will come upon you. I will deal with it and you won't like the way it's dealt with.

And may I say, we can test a society by how well we deal with the fatherless and the widows. He goes on from there to say, if you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him. You shall not charge him. You shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets.

For that is his only covering. It is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? It shall come about that when he cries out to me, I will hear him for I am gracious. Now I believe from what I've read that this lending of money has more to do with individuals lending money as opposed to a commercial loan. What does the Bible have to say about commercial loans?

Well, it says that the borrower is slave to the lender. That's the most that it has to say about those. But when it comes to this, if you do have to lend to somebody, somebody's in great need and they say, please, I just need $500 to end up making it through the month, I'll pay you back. Don't charge them interest. Matter of fact, if they gave you a down payment,

if they gave you a pledge and their pledge was their outer coat, then give it back to them at night so that they can sleep. Why? Because we are to be gracious and merciful and loving. Because that's what the law is about. Being gracious and loving. He goes on from there to say, you shall not curse God nor curse a ruler of your people. Now, we're back in the same place

where we were with the dealing with the parents. And that's that God holds authority in a very high place. There was a spot in the New Testament where this particular scripture is quoted. You may remember Paul was on trial and he really spoke out hardcore against the high priest because he didn't realize that it was the high priest. And when Paul, when he did so,

they said, do you revile the high priest in that way? And he said, please forgive me. I didn't realize it because the scripture says, you shall not curse a ruler of your people. Now, we're not under the old covenant. However, I'm curious how many of you have spoken about our current leadership right now. Because I know sometimes I may have broken this law, right?

There's been points in time where I have. But I do think it's something to be paid attention to. Whether it's the leader of our nation, whether it's the leader of your job, whether it's the leader of your ministry, whatever it is, we need to remember that God holds authority in a very high place because all authority comes from God. And we have to remember that.

As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say that if we don't learn to respect the authorities that God has put over us as far as man is concerned, that we probably don't do a very good job of respecting the authority of God. And so he goes on from there to say, verse 29, you shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep.

It shall be with its mother seven days. And on the eighth day, you shall give it to me. So he says, hey, don't say you're going to give an offering and then keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Give your first and give your best. So he says, hey, don't say you're going to give an offering and then keep putting it off and give your best.

Then in verse 31, he says, you shall be holy men to me. Therefore, you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs. Verse 31 in the beginning is an important aspect of everything to do with the law, because everything about the law speaks of holiness, that we are to be holy and set apart. And it's interesting that when he says

you're to be holy and set apart, the next thing he says is, you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs. And so you should ask yourself the question, why? Why is it important that they not eat flesh that had been torn in the field? Because it had not been properly drained of blood. The rest of the cultures around them

had no issues with the eating of blood. And yet God, every time this came up, made sure that they understood the sanctity of the blood because the blood contained the life. But why else was God so interested in them being set apart from the consuming of the blood of an animal? Because what does blood speak of? It speaks of sacrifice for sin. And in order to be holy

and set apart unto God, the sacrifice for sin had to be made and had to be treated as holy. And so even in the smallest ways in how they approached the blood of an animal, there was to be holiness that was involved. And so the next time that we're together, we'll continue on in chapter 23 as we see not only the holiness of God, his concern for humanity, but also how the law can be summed up by having love for each other. And so Father, we come before you and as we have been in this law, that at times can be a little bit of drudgery, at times can be a little scary, but Lord, all of which reminds us of how holy you are.

I just pray that you would continue to work your word into our lives. And into our hearts. And may we become the people of God that you have called for us to be. People who have been cleansed and sanctified by a Savior and are now set apart unto you, not because of what we do for you, but because of what you've done for us. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen.