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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening, tonight we're in Exodus chapter 21. Exodus 21, the Bible reads, Now these are the judgments which the south set before them. Thou by in Hebrews serve in six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. His master hath given him a wife, she hath borne him sons or daughters. The wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the manservants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed, to sell her unto a strange nation. He shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he had betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, he shall not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. He that spiteth a man so that he die shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then will I appoint thee a place whether he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, that shall take him from mine altar, that he may die. And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. And he that sealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. And if men strive together and one smite another with a stone or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed, if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smoteth be quit. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod that he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. And if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Whether he have gored a son or have gored a daughter according to his judgment, shall it be done unto him. If the ox shall push a man-servant or a maid-servant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. And if a man shall open a pit, or a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass-father in, the owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be his. And if one man's ox hurt another, and others that he die, then they shall sell the alive ox, and divide the money of it, and the dead ox also they shall divide. Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his own. Let's pray. Lord God, just thank you for this time we have to come together to hear the preaching of your word, Lord. Just please bless the service. Please bless Pastor and fill him with the Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches your word unto us, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, we're in Exodus chapter 21 this evening. It says in verse number 1, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. And the title of my sermon tonight is the superiority of God's laws. The superiority of God's laws. If you've been reading through your Bible and following the Bible reading schedule, you've obviously read through these chapters this past week, and you've come across some of these laws that are spoken of here in chapter 21 all the way to chapter 23. Now it's important to note that Exodus chapter 20 is where we find the famous Ten Commandments chapter. And these ensuing chapters really detail the specifics of those commandments. This is an expansion of those commandments, kind of giving us different scenarios by which we could apply the different commandments dealing with our fellow man, our neighbor. And so Exodus 21 through 23 is essentially talking about moral laws, how to essentially love your neighbor as yourself, how to treat your neighbor well, what to do in different circumstances. And tonight specifically we're going to look at the subject of indentured servants as well as disabilities, murders, manslaughter, and eventually we're going to also get into the treatment of animals or just laws dealing with oxes and animals and such. So the first thing we're going to look at tonight is the humane treatment of indentured servants. Now people in the secular world, atheists will often point to passages like this and say, oh, the Bible's teaching slavery. You know, oh, you believe the Bible? Oh, that means you're pro-slavery. Now if they mean slavery as in the biblical definition of slavery, yes, I'm pro-slavery, amen, because of the fact that what they define as being pro-slavery is what the culture would consider to be, you know, slavery as in the African slave trade, okay? And slavery by today's cultural standards would be stealing a man to be used as currency, sexual exploitation, and the like with no freedom in sight, okay? So that's what people typically think of when they think of slavery. They think of those particular categories. The African slave trade was essentially human trafficking. But here's the thing is that the Bible actually condemns that form of slavery. And in fact, in this very chapter, we see that it's actually a criminal act. If you look at verse 16, it says here, I don't have the verse right here. Verse 16 tells us, And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. So slavery in regards to kidnapping, to use for currency, sexual exploitation, and the like, that was strictly condemned in the Bible, and God was not for that. And so there were other instances of slavery involving, for example, the spoils of war. So in the Bible, you would often have instances where maybe the children of Israel or others would defeat a particular nation, and they would take the people as currency, they would take the people as the spoils of war, so to speak, and that was sanctioned, or that was permitted by God. Why? Well, the reason why is because people would be enslaved because in this particular instance of the spoils of war, slavery was an alternative to death. So it's like, do you guys want to die, or do you guys want to just work for us for the rest of your life? And it's just like, oh, we'll work for the rest of our lives. Now, people are like, oh, there you go, you're for slavery then. But here's the thing is that being a servant to someone in the nation of Israel was far more beneficial than being a servant in another nation. Why? Because the laws that surrounded the children of Israel regarding servitude or slavery actually favored in a lot of instances the servant. They were supposed to show care, and they were supposed to take care of the servants. And so whereas other nations, if they would take the spoils of war, they would be used for sexual exploitation. There wouldn't be a year of release for them. They would be mistreated, whereas a lot of these laws, actually you see that God wants the masters to take care of their servants, to show them love, to show them care, et cetera. And so what the Bible's talking about here in this particular chapter is indentured servitude or covenanted labor. In other words, someone sells themselves to a particular master in order to pay off a debt. And so slavery or being a servant, an indentured servant, a bond servant, was a willing act as a payment for debt. If a person was in debt to another or simply became destitute and financially depleted, they would sell themselves to a master as a servant. And servants, yes, were considered property of the master, okay, as we're going to look at in just a bit. This doesn't mean that the owners, by the way, were permitted to abuse them sexually or exploit them in a nefarious manner because the laws of God that were laid out, though favoring the master, would also take care for the safety of the servant as well. So God was obviously looking towards the servant and the treatment of the servant as well. So the evil exploitation of a servant was not permitted, and the judges of the land would see to it. So if there was an instance where a servant was mistreated, they were abused sexually, they were being used for currency, they were being sold into a foreign land for currency, for slavery, the judges would actually come down on the master for that, okay. And so don't have a knee-jerk reaction when we talk about this, all right. This law is actually superior to whatever has taken place throughout all nations. This is God's remedy for paying off debts. And this is how it should be, you know. If you look at our nation now, I mean, our nation in and of itself is involved in debt, right. It's very much indebted. Many people are involved in debt, and they don't even care to pay off those debts. Whereas if you were sold into indentured servitude to pay off your debt, you would very much value not going into debt, okay. You would realize the importance of paying this off. And here's the thing, you know, God is obviously against being in debt because of the fact that, you know, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to come and die for us to pay for our eternal debt, right, to pay that off, and we'll get a little bit into that symbology later on. Look at verse number two. We're going to look at general laws concerning servants. First and foremost, we need to understand that indentured servitude, unlike slavery that most people think about, was actually temporary. It was not lifelong slavery. It was very much temporary. It says in verse two, If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out for nothing. So even if the servant was not able to pay off his full debt, if the six years were up, guess what, he's allowed to go free, okay. Now, obviously, it would be, you know, optimal for him to pay off his debt, but in general, God did not want the servitude to extend beyond six years. And in fact, go to Deuteronomy chapter 15, if you would hold your place there. Deuteronomy 15. This is actually referred to as the year of release, okay. The seventh year was the year of release, and this is something that God instituted as an economic system in order to prevent generational poverty, okay. You know, obviously, there was always going to be poor people in the land, but God didn't want them to just remain poor for the rest of their lives, you understand. And obviously, the Bible talks about the poor you have always with you, meaning people are going to become destitute, they're going to go into debt, they're going to experience depletion of resources and such, but God didn't want that to be just a norm in the nation of Israel. Eventually, he wanted that debt to be forgiven, and they can start with a clean slate and move on with their lives. Look at Deuteronomy 15 verse 1. It says, At the end of every seven years, thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it. He shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's release. So basically, God is sanctioning this. He's like, he doesn't have to pay this debt anymore. If he's done the six years, regardless if he's still in the red, he's allowed to go free. He says in verse 3, Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again, but that which is thine with thy brother, thine hand shall release. So the foreigner, the stranger, those who were not of Israel, in this regard was not given the privilege of the release, implying that they would have to work off to pay the full amount. It's like, oh, you're not a citizen of Israel, you're sojourning with us, you're living among us. Okay, if you're in debt, you have to pay off that full debt because this is a privilege only designated to those who are citizens of the nation of Israel. And you know, I think this would work today. The year of release would be a great thing for people to do. Instead of just passing on debt from generation to generation and just allowing it to accumulate, it's better to just work it off for six years. And obviously, it doesn't have to be a full six years. You pay it off in one year, two years, et cetera. That would be ideal. Go back to Exodus 21, look at verse number 3. You're like, I just don't like that phrase, master, though. That just sounds really bad. Well, that's exactly what they were. A master is simply a boss. It's someone who is a lord over a person. They're the ones in charge. They're the ones who are the bosses. And you need to understand that you can't view these things in light of the narrative that's always being pushed out there, okay? We need to view it in light of God's laws and how God saw it. And in fact, as we're going to look at, you know, masters were often generous with their indentured servants. So they weren't abusive with them. They didn't mistreat them. Obviously, there's probably instances where it did happen. But I believe the normal, you know, thing that would take place is that masters were kind to their servants. They were loving to their servants. How do we know? Look at verse 3. If he came in by himself, meaning the servant, was sold into indentured servitude for those six years, he came in by himself. As soon as he's done paying off his debt, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. So he's in debt. This man is in debt to some person. He goes to a master. He sells himself. His wife comes with him, and as soon as he pays off his debt, his wife leaves with him as well. But I want you to notice verse number 4. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. So what does it say? There were instances where a servant was purchased because of the debt that they owed, and the master was gracious and said, hey, man, I don't want you to be alone. You want a wife? You know, because six years, those six years, six years is a long time, right? And it's just like that's a little chunk of your life. Those are six years that could have been dedicated looking for a spouse. But, you know, some masters were like, hey, you know, you can marry this. You can raise your family here. You can have children here. You can live a normal life here. That's kind of showing the generosity of the master, okay? It's not like you're inferior to me, you know, you're going to receive, you know, this much, and sometimes I'm not going to pay you, and too bad for you if you don't get married or whatever. You know, he's obviously providing a sustainable life for the servant, not just in resources, because he's obviously feeding the servant. He's providing shelter for the servant, but even in this instance, he's providing the spouse. Hey, some of you guys need to be indentured servants, maybe, you know? Now, the only caveat to this is that if the master gave him a wife and he bore children, once he paid off his debt, you know, say goodbye to the wife, say goodbye to the children, because legally, according to God's laws, they still belong to the master, okay? But I think what probably typically happens is what we're going to look at right now in verse number five. It says, and if the servant, excuse me, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. So we see here that there's instances where the indentured servant initially started off paying a debt, but once the debt was paid, he actually grew attached to his master. He liked his boss. Why? Probably because his boss treated him well. You know, he loved his master, his boss, and his lord, and, you know, he liked the life that he gave him, and he's like, you know what? I'm just going to work for you for the rest of my life. Why not, you know? He probably sees him as a father, as a mentor figure, and he decided to stay with them, and obviously, if the master's given him a wife, he's given him children, he's provided for him, he's been good to him, these were incentives that the master provided so the servant would just be a lifelong servant, right? Now, this is great if you think about it, and obviously, the reason they're bringing this before the judges is because, you know, you can see maybe the temptation of some evil nefarious master to say, oh, you know, he wants to be a lifelong servant, so I just want to let you guys know he's going to be with him for the rest of his life. No, obviously, the servant has to go to the judges and testify himself, I love my master, I want to stay with him, and then the ceremony of the all being born through the ear was given to signify, oh, this man chose to remain a servant because after the six years, you go into the seventh year, eighth year, you see the same servant, it's like, why is this guy still serving? This guy's breaking the law. He's not supposed to serve beyond those six years, but if they see the all in the ear, they're like, oh, he chose to remain, okay? Now, this obviously has a beautiful picture of the Christian life, right? Because if you think about it, we as Christians, our sin debt was paid by Jesus Christ on the cross, and you and I have a choice. We can, you know, either just take the salvation and just go live our lives the way we want it to live because the debt's already been paid, or we can become bond servants of Christ. You know, we can say, you know what, no, I love my master, I love my Lord, he's given me a wife, he's given me children, he's provided for me, he's loved me, he's just blessed me beyond measure, you know, I want to bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And I want to serve him in full all my life. And so it's obviously a beautiful picture of that. Look at verse number seven. We're going to look at next the treatment of female servants. It says that if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do. Now, people would have like a knee-jerk reaction to this, like, whoa, hold on a second, selling your daughter? That sounds like slavery. That sounds pretty bad. Well, there's instances, you have to understand, where a father falls into deep poverty and can't financially sustain a household, including their children, the people who live with them. So, you know, there's instances, and this is not something that God is sanctioning, this is just something that people do. People did these things in times past, and this is why God had to provide guidelines and parameters by which they would operate under those circumstances, OK? It says that a man will sell his daughter to be a maid servant, meaning an employee, but it's saying that if he were to sell his daughter as a maid servant, the master can't treat that woman the way he would treat other male employees, OK? And we'll get into that just a bit. So he would sell his daughter, and it's important to note, this is not for prostitution, because that's kind of what people think about automatically, oh, you're selling your daughter, that means you're just giving your daughter over to this man, and we don't know what that man's going to do, but you've got to understand, this is still under the canopy of God's laws regarding how to treat people, and those things were forbidden. So he would sell his daughter, not as a prostitute, but as a maid servant, and in other cases, as a potential wife, believe it or not, OK? So if the father was not able to provide, he's like, the best option for my family, for my daughter, was to be sold as an indentured servant, to be a maid servant to this man, and eventually marry this man so that he can take care of her for the rest of her life. And that was ideal. This would not only relieve the father of the financial burden, but also guarantee the safety, provision, and set future of his daughter. And in fact, the command is that if a man buys a maid servant, you know, she can't necessarily do things that were fitted for a male laborer, OK? So it's not like, you know, he buys his maid servant, he's like, all right, you know, go, you know, construct something in the barn, I don't know what they did back then, you know, go do field work, go work with the man or something like that, he was supposed to treat her as a female still, and still respect her as a female, and not necessarily cause her to do labor that is only fitted for a man. Verse 8 says, If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her unto a strange nation, he shall have no power, seeing he had dealt deceitfully with her. Now, I know what a lot of people think when they hear this, like, oh, man, this sounds really bad. But here's the thing is that when the Bible uses the term daughter, a lot of people automatically assume that it's referring to a child, right? But I believe it's just referring to an adult woman that lives with her father, okay? Living in her father's house, who is then sold. So I don't think this is something that's taking place where a child is being sold to a person, and then the master's like, I'm gonna wait till she gets over to marry her, or something like that, that's obviously perverse, God will not sanction that, he's not for that. This is probably referring to an adult daughter who's being sold in order for her future to be taken care of. So if the master doesn't like her for whatever reason and finds her not to be fitting for himself as a wife, maybe she's lazy, maybe she just doesn't want to do anything, she's deceitful, you know, there's some uncleanness found in her of sorts, the father can then purchase her back or another can purchase her, but the master is not allowed to sell her off to another nation, okay? Because it says there, to sell her into a strange nation, he shall have no power. Now, why? Well, obviously, if the man is purchasing this woman, right, to betroth her and he ends up saying, well, you know, she doesn't please me, I'm gonna sell her to the medianites. You know, you can obviously see that this man might have some nefarious agenda as to why he purchased this woman in the first place. So the law is protecting her from being sexually abused or being taken advantage of, because if she's sold, she has to be sold within the confines of the nation of Israel so that the laws of God can still be enacted upon her and those who are taking care of her. Whereas if she's sold into a foreign nation, those freaking Canaanites are wicked. You don't know what they're gonna do. And so God is obviously looking after the safety of her and we obviously understand that other nations do not abide by those same regulations. Verse 9 says, And if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her, excuse me, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. So he buys a woman of a man who is depleted of his resources and he is purchasing her for his son, because his son is ugly, he can't really, he doesn't have any ribs, he can't really, you know, get himself a wife or whatever, and he's like, I'll just buy you a wife and she's gonna marry you or whatever. He's like, thanks, Dad. You know, and then the master has to treat the daughter, excuse me, treat the woman as his own daughter, okay? It's his daughter-in-law and he has to show her that same kindness and respect and give her the same privileges that he would to his other daughters, because it says he dealt with, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. Verse 10 says, If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. Now, verse number 10 doesn't mean, hey, we can take on more wives, because it says if you take another wife, obviously, the dude is referring to a guy who's into polygamy, right? He's got enough money. He's gonna purchase a bunch of wives. This is not God putting a stamp of approval on polygamy. It's just giving some regulations and restrictions because he knows people are into polygamy, you know? And so it's just like, if that's what he does, okay, whatever, God's not sanctioning it, but here are the rules. You cannot take away from her resources to give to this other wife. You better still treat her with the same resources and the same care even though you've taken on another wife, because this guy could be like, well, look at all these mouths I gotta feed, you know? I gotta take a little from you, 10% from you, 10% from you, because I gotta give, I gotta feed all these wives. Well, if you had enough money to buy another wife, to get another wife, you should have enough money to pay for all of their, you know, wants and needs and luxurious things that they need, because it says here that her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. So he has to treat her the same exact way he treated her when he only had her as a wife, okay? So what do we see here? We see that God is obviously favoring the servant. He's favoring the maidservant. He's favoring the bondservant. He's setting regulations to make sure that they are taken care of and not being taken advantage of. Verse 11 says, And if you do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. So basically, if the judges discover that the maidservant who's been purchased is not being given sufficient food, she's not being given sufficient raiment, her duty of marriage is not being fulfilled, okay, at that point, she can bring that to the judges and the judges say she doesn't have to be, you know, a maidservant for those six years. She's allowed to go out free because you broke the law here. You can't do that. So if a man decided to be a polygamist, he cannot reduce her provisions and treatment just because he took on a second wife. And so we see that there. Now look at verse number 12. And by the way, you say, why would this regulation be made? Well, this regulation would obviously prevent men from taking on more wives because, you know, you would have guys who want to take on more wives and maybe there's some who are, you know, nefarious or, you know, they want to take on more wives for whatever reason, but if they know about this rule, they're like, oh, one is enough because, you know, there's only so much lamb that can go around for everyone here or whatever, you know. And so one thing we're going to see throughout this chapter is that a lot of these regulations were set in place in order to prevent people from crossing that boundary and getting involved in those things. So that is the laws concerning indentured servitude. After those six years, you're free to go even if you have not paid off your debt in full. And of course, the exception would be if you are a foreigner. So if you're a Mexican, sorry, you know, you just got paid off. But thankfully, you know, Mexicans, if they existed back then, they could probably pay it off in six months or less, you know, with all the work they put in. Next thing we're going to look at is murder, manslaughter, violence, and disability. So again, as we read these laws, we can obviously see that these laws were constructed in a sophisticated way and in such a way that we can see a major concern for justice, right, like God is obviously looking over the well-being of those who are under these laws who may be the servant, who may be the victim, et cetera. So let's look at capital punishment for murder. Verse 12 says, He that smiteth the man so that he die shall surely be put to death. Now obviously, this is a law that God even had even in the book of Genesis, right? After the flood, this is something that he instituted that men should be put to death if they take life. But verse 12 of chapter 21 is the instance where it's actually being enacted because now there's a functioning government known as Israel who's able to actually enforce this law. So before, he's, like, vocalizing this, saying that, hey, if you take man's life, you know, your life shall go for his, and humanity knows this, but who's really enacting this law if there's not necessarily a functioning government to act, you know, there's not people in charge, judges that can actually enforce this law, whereas now, because Israel's becoming a functioning government, small government, you know, now they can actually enforce this. So he's saying, you know, if a man beats a man to death with his bare hands, well, that man should be put to death. Now let me say this. This should still be enacted today, okay? And, you know, I know that there's a few states or whatever that still enforce the death penalty, but even those states who do, it just takes forever to even do that. Most people who are on death row die before they even get to the injection chair or electric chair, whatever they got going on now, you know, and it's just not conducive to true justice, okay? True justice is once the person commits the crime, it's proven that they're guilty. They should be put to death. Why? Because that would deter others from committing the crime of murder, okay? And so fast inaction of this law would prevent people from taking another person's life out of passion, out of anger, out of vengeance. Verse 13 says that if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place whether he shall flee. So verse 12 is referring to murder. Verse 13 is referring to manslaughter, okay? Because it says if a man lie not in wait, what is that referring to? It's referring to the fact that this man did not plan to take the life of another person, right? It's not preconceived murder. He's not plotting. When it says lie in wait, it means like, oh, he's waiting for this person to come down this road to jump him, kill him, take his life, and in fact, it says, but God deliver him into his hand. What does that mean? It means that maybe, you know, this person took this person's life on accident, you know, it wasn't, you know, he didn't mean to, he wasn't, you know, exacting violence on this person and God allowed that person to die. That's another way of saying God delivered him into his hand. It was that man's time to go. It's just unfortunate he went this way, you understand? So this man is guilty of manslaughter, so to speak, but he's not guilty of murder. Now, what happens with this person? Well, he says there that he was going to appoint there a place whether he can flee. Now, we know this later on in Numbers 35 to be what? The cities of refuge, right? Where cities are constructed, priests are placed there, where, you know, someone who commits the crime of manslaughter can flee there so that the avenger of blood doesn't catch them. You know, someone who's next of kin wants to kill that person, whether they did it on purpose or not, because they're in a time of passion, the person can flee to the city of refuge, but they just have to remain there, you understand? And that was a way to protect the person guilty of manslaughter, because God understands, like, I delivered that man into your hand, you didn't do it on purpose. And obviously, all of that is after full investigation by the judges. Like, if the judges investigate and say, this guy did not intend to kill this person, we see all the evidence, let this man flee into the city of refuge. But here's the thing, is that here in Exodus, we don't have cities of refuge yet. And so where is the place that they were appointed to flee unto? Well, in the Old Testament, prior to the city of refuge being established, is the horns of the altar. So what this is referring to is that if someone was guilty of manslaughter, for example, and someone was out to kill him, he can flee to the sanctuary, grab onto the horns of the altar, and it was forbidden for anyone to go in there and exact vengeance on that person. Okay, they can't kill someone in the sanctuary if they're holding onto the horns of the altar. Look at verse 14. He says, but if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die. Now, what is this referring to? Well, when it says, but if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, obviously this is the conclusion that the judges come to. So the judges make diligent inquiry regarding the occurrence that happened of this man dying, and they realize this is not manslaughter. That dude tried to kill him. He wanted to kill him, and he's like, where is he at? Well, he's at the horns of the altar. We'll go kill him at the horns of the altar then. Because the horns of the altar can only protect those who are actually innocent and are not guilty of premeditated murder. Now, what's an example of this? Well, in the Old Testament, even though this is long after the Exodus story, you have the story of Joab, right? And David makes a hit list right before he dies. He's like the godfather. He's like, take care of these guys. And he gives a list of people. One of them is Joab, one of them is Shimei, one of them is Abishai. It was Solomon's half-brother. Was it three? It's fleeing around. At least those three, for sure. So Shimei, you have Joab, and then you have Solomon's half-brother. So obviously Shimei is allowed to just kind of exist for a little bit, but he later on dies. We know that Solomon's half-brother ends up dying because of his covetousness. But you have Joab, who knows he's going to die, and what does he do? He flees to the sanctuary and grabs onto the horns of the altar. And Benaiah comes to Solomon and is like, hey, he's in the sanctuary. He's grabbing onto the horns of the altar. And then he's like, fall upon him. He's like, just kill him right there. And here's the thing is that I don't know why Joab thought that that was going to help him because he's guilty of all kinds of murder. The guy has a major track record of just being a murderer, coming upon people presumptuously. You're like, really? I thought he was a good guy. Yeah, yeah, real good when you grab someone by the beard. He's like, good health, brother, and just smite them under the fifth rib. You're coming upon that person presumptuously. And many times at the prohibition of David. David said, don't do it, and he would do it anyways. Very disobedient person. So he thought he was going to be delivered by grabbing onto the horns of the altar. Benaiah went there and slew him anyways because that law did not apply to him because he was actually a murderer. So what God is saying here is that if the judges come to the conclusion, no, that guy planned it out. We see the text messages. We saw the video. We know the conversations or whatever. He's at the horns of the altar. Go execute him. He's going to die because he's guilty of that. Go to Numbers 35, actually. Hold your place during Exodus. Numbers 35. Numbers 35, verse 30 says here, Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. But one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Now, obviously, what we see here is that in order for anything to even be taken into consideration, full investigation has to be made, but there has to be, you know, witnesses, plural. Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, witnesses shall every word be established. And obviously, that's, you know, to prevent a guy who just has ought against another person who wants them to die from just rising up and giving a false report. Right. So he's saying one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Verse 31. Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. Now, what is that referring to? Now, what is that referring to when he says thou shall take no satisfaction? This isn't saying like, hey, don't be happy when this guy's put to death. You know, that's not what it's talking about. And I think a lot of people read it that in that way, like, oh, we shouldn't be happy when these people are put to death. You know what I mean? Because the Bible says we shall take no satisfaction. But satisfaction actually means compensation or payment. OK, so in other words, judges can be taking bribes. And the reason this is being put forth is because satisfaction, compensation could be taken in the case of manslaughter. So if you have a man who, you know, accidentally kills someone, if the family permits it, they say, OK, you can pay this amount, then satisfaction can be given. Compensation can be given in that particular case. But when it comes to murder, no compensation, that person has to die. And you can see how this could be a temptation if a judge is really wicked. Right. They're like, oh, man, this guy's guilty of murder. All right, well, just pay me off. You know, what do you got? How many shekels you got? How many shekels you got, you know? And then, you know, payment is made. And then what happens is that the land becomes defiled. Because look what it says in verse 32. It says, Ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the priest. So shall ye not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. So the land actually becomes polluted when men begin to excuse murder for bribes. And obviously, this is the thing even today, you know, it says in verse 34, Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. So this is to prevent bribery, and it's also to prevent bribery where murderers are just allowed to go unfettered into society without being punished, okay? It's just like, hey, you cannot take compensation for this. If a person kills someone intentionally, they need to be put to death. No amount of money can purchase that, okay? And so that's important. Go back to Exodus 21, Exodus chapter 21. You know, and again, this should still be instituted today. We're never going to have a government this side of the millennial reign where it is going to be instituted. And let me say this, a lot of these deportations that are taking place, you know, you could avoid a lot of it if, you know, the death penalty would just be instituted upon the immigrants who are here committing those types of crimes. You know, if they're committing crimes worthy of death, hey, don't worry Mexico, don't worry Colombia, we'll take care of it. And just because they shouldn't be dwelling in any part of the world, right? But obviously that's not the case, you know, and it will be the case in the millennial reign, but this is showing us the superiority of this law is that when you have murderers and people worthy of capital punishment, if you have them being put to death, it deters people from committing those crimes and it keeps the land clean. It keeps the land unpolluted. It keeps God's blessing on the land, okay? Now look at verse 15 here, we're going to look at the abuse of parents. It says, he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Now, you know, I've heard a lot of people try to, you know, interpret this and say, well, this means smite, that doesn't mean like you smack them or beat them. This actually means like you kill them because it's in context of murder, manslaughter. No, it just says smiting because other instances it talks about smiting and it talks about killing that person. This is referring to children and we're not referring to little kids, by the way, obviously, you know, if your little kid is smiting you and beating you up, you got issues. Why are you so weak, bro? You know, you can literally just put your hand out, you know, grab him by the forehead. He can't get near you, you know. Obviously, this is referring to someone who's capable of actually damaging their parents, causing injury to their parents. And according to the Bible, the Bible sanctions the death penalty for that, okay? And, you know, obviously, again, this law is not instituted now. But, you know, it should be though because I promise you there's many instances in this world where children always raise their hand against their parents. Where they're beating their parents or smacking their parents, they're abusing their parents, and that is wicked in the eyes of God. You know, they should be put to death according to the law because you say, well, I feel like that's a little too much. You know, well, you know, if this actually took place, then, you know, what would happen is junior would grow up and be like, you know, I'm just not going to mess with that. I'm not going to, you know, if I get mad at my dad, I'm going to punch the pillow instead. You know, I'm going to yell into the pillow and punch the pillow instead, but I'll never raise my hand at my father or mother. And so, God is very much for respecting your parents, obeying your parents, reverencing your parents, showing them honor. Look what it says in verse 17, or verse 16, excuse me. And, of course, we read this earlier, he that stealeth the man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. So stealing a man in God's eyes was near akin to murder, okay? And this is not a property offense, you know, this is theft of a human being used in foreign nations for murder, sexual exploitation, and the like. So God obviously looks down upon this in such a way that he deems it as a capital crime. Verse 17, going back to children, or the children cursing their father and mother, it says, he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death, okay? Now, I do believe that when it says cursing father or mother, yeah, you can include, like, cussing them out, but I think this is actually referring to cursing them as in threatening them. Because what is a curse? It's saying, like, may this come upon you, may this happen to you, right? And it says they shall surely be put to death. Now, here's the thing with liberal churches, okay, because, you know, some liberal pastor, some liberal Christian, can you listen to what I'm saying right now? They'd be like, brother, that's not, you know, that's Old Testament, that was under the theocracy, brother, and, you know, what would Jesus say, brother? Well, Jesus quoted this verse, so there you go. That's what you get for not reading what Jesus actually says. That's what you get for wearing that stupid bracelet. What would Jesus do? How about what would Jesus say, right? And what he says is, hey, if someone, if a child curses their father or mother, they shall surely be put to death. And so, you know, we don't enact this today, but you should get the spirit of the law, though, okay? And we do live in a generation, as Proverbs 30 says, that curses their father and does not bless their mother. Or they make videos about their parents and mock their parents and disrespect their parents and embarrass them in front of millions of people, even though their parents provided for them, took care of them. I mean, that's wicked, regardless of what you think about it. You know, look, there's parents out there who are probably not the best parents, but they did one thing, right? They had you, right? They had you. And so it's important for us to realize the spirit of the law here is that you should not despise your parents, okay? And not hate them and curse them and want evil to come upon them. You know, well, they're my enemy. Well, what does the Bible say about your enemies, right? Thou shalt love thy enemy. And so, there you go. And in fact, in Proverbs 30, verse 17, it's basically what Exodus 21 is talking about. It says in verse 17 of Proverbs 30, it says, The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagle shall eat it. Now, we don't necessarily know what this is kind of talking about, like, how is that going to happen? I personally believe it's actually a callback to Exodus 21, okay? And verse 17, because someone who curses their father, they're put to death, they're stoned with stones, and what would happen, well, the ravens of the valley will pick out their eyes, you understand? And the young eagle shall eat it. That's what it's referring to. So, you know, it's referring to that capital punishment that they're going to receive, or that they deserve. And you say, well, I just don't think that, you know, that's right. Then spank your children so they don't grow up to be heathens, okay? And, you know, back up parents and back up biblical authority, back up parental authority, and we won't have this problem, okay? You know, well, you know, I just don't believe in spanking. Then you don't believe the Bible then. What are you talking about? The Bible teaches spanking. It doesn't teach, it obviously talks about beating, but the beating that the Bible is referring to is not punching in the face, and, you know, smacking them around, and, you know, grabbing their hair, and doing this, that, or the other. Obviously, there's forms of abuse that are not, they're just not sanctioned by God. I don't believe it is appropriate. But there is spanking in the Bible, and look, don't have a knee-jerk reaction to this. Just because of what happened, whatever, months ago, you know, you need to believe what the Bible says about this, because you don't want to be deterred and have the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction where you don't spank your children. You know, believe the Bible. So, do you spank your children? You better believe I do. Because I don't want my children to be in prison later on, to be gang members, to, you know, be involved in drugs, and be disrespectful members of society. You know, I still believe the word of God, and so I'm going to continue to discipline my children, and that's just it, okay? And so, don't be these people who are like, well, you know, we just never know what's going to happen. So we just shouldn't do it at all. Okay, then raise a hell raiser then, because that's what's going to happen if you don't, okay? You're going to raise a spoiled little brat. What about people who were raised getting spanked and they turned out really bad? Well, I guess the Bible is wrong then, huh? No, it's not. Those are obviously the exceptions to the rule, you know? And there's probably other factors that we don't know about in those situations. But why don't you worry about your own backyard and believe the Bible for what it says. Folks, I was spanked as a kid, and I turned out great, you know? I'm perfectly fine, you know? My mom spanked me, regardless of what she tells you, because she wants to say that I was an angel when I was a kid. No, I was spanked, okay? I was whooped as a child, and you know what? I'm a pastor today. I love the Lord. I'm a functioning member of society. I love people, you know, and I pay my taxes. You know, I don't break laws. I don't do anything against the law. You know, I'm a law abiding citizen. I love the word of God. And you know what? Obviously, a large portion of that has to do with me getting saved, but a piece of the puzzle is me being disciplined when I was younger. It's important, okay? And you say, well, you know, I just don't know. Okay, then look at the children in society right now who weren't spanked. How do they act? You know, like a bunch of spoiled little – some of you didn't get spanked growing up, and it shows. Fact, and you know that. And you know what? If you weren't spanked as a child, then you know what? Start taking on characteristics as one who did, okay? If you weren't whooped as a child, then start acting like you were. Stop exerting characteristics and attributes of someone who didn't get whooped as a child. Act like you were, okay? I'm not saying lie about it, but you know what? You need to work twice as hard to get some character as those who were disciplined as children, okay? And not act like a spoiled little disrespectful brat. Amen. That's a good place to say amen. All right, let's move on here. We don't spank in this church, by the way, as far as like, you know, the pastor does not spank. There's other churches that do that stuff, though. Yeah, it's crazy out there. You know, I would like to whoop some of you. No, I'm just kidding. If I had the chance, just give me five minutes. I've said too much. Verse 18 says, And if men strive together, meeting their fighting, and one smite another with a stone or with his fist, and he die not but keepeth his bed, if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quite. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So what is this referring to? Well, it's obviously referring to compensations for injury. So if a person is disabled because of a fight, so two guys are getting down, one guy pulls out a stone and beats him with it, or just beats him with his bare hands, and he whoops him but doesn't necessarily kill him, but he's definitely disabled. Like, he gets his rear end handed to him in a very big way. And it says there that he keepeth his bed. What does that mean? He's disabled. Someone who just can't get off of his bed. What happens at that point? He can't work. He can't provide for his family. He can't do the normal functions of a man, the duties of a man. He's disabled. Well, it says in verse 19 that if he rise again, meaning that he is healed, and he walks abroad on his staff, meaning he can walk again, he can function the way he used to, then the person who basically whooped him will be quiet, meaning he's acquitted. Because obviously if he dies, then the guy's in trouble, but it says here that he would be essentially acquitted from criminal charge. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So this is the Old Testament way of showing love to your enemies. You duke it out. You disable the guy. Well, now you've got to pay for his loss of time. The man has to provide for his family. If he's out for a week, he's out for two weeks, he's out for a month, it's your responsibility to make sure that man is thoroughly taken care of, that his family is taken care of, because it's your fault the reason why he's disabled in the first place. Now, why is this law being enacted in the Old Testament? Well, it's obviously to deter people from violence. Because if you're getting into a physical altercation with someone, you've got to think twice and say, man, if I whoop this guy, because I know I can, if I beat this guy down and disable him, I'm going to pay for it in the long run with compensating him and his family. So I have to work twice as hard, not only to provide for my own family, but I've got to provide for his. So hey, I'm sorry. It's deterring people from violence because of the consequences that come with it. Very good law here. Amen. And so look at verse 20 here. We're going to look at disciplining employees. And yes, that happened in times past, right? It says in verse 20, if a man smite his servant, meaning his employee, or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. This is pretty rough here, right? You know, you have a master and the servant is lazy. He's not fulfilling his tasks. Maybe he's being disrespectful. Maybe he's purloining. You know, maybe he's talking back or something. And the master is like, oh, OK, you're going to roll your eyes at me. And he starts whooping him to try to get him to do his job. There were instances where he's probably whooping him and then he might even take his life. Right. And so the judge is not going to look at that and be like, oh, you know, see no evil or hear no evil. There's obviously punishment that's instituted upon that person. He said, well, is God like sanctioning the smiting of a servant? I don't think he is. I think he's just kind of given a scenario because he knows that it happens. Right. And one thing I've learned just kind of looking through these passages is that just because a statement is made in this particular circumstance doesn't mean that God sanctions it. He's just kind of helping humanity deal with these situations because he knows people are giving over to them. He knows that that's, you know, that's what happens. OK. Verse 21 says, notwithstanding, if you continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. So what is this referring to? Well, let's just give, you know, an example here. You know, Ulysses is my employee. Brother Ulysses is my employee. And the guy is just not doing his job. He's just not doing it. And then he's making fun of my gains. He's he's mocking me. He doesn't call me pastor anymore. You know, he's just kind of being disrespectful to me. And then I'm like, hey, do this. And he says, why don't you do it? You know, I'm busy or something, you know. I'm like, what am I going to do? I know I'm going to whoop his rear end. And that'll kind of motivate him a little bit. Right. So I'm just beating him down. I'm like, who's strong now? You know, I'm just kind of like giving it to him. Are you going to do the job now? Right. But let's say just I have an incredible temper and I end up like beating him really bad. OK. It says in verse 21 that if you continue a day or two, meaning that like. If after the beating. He survives, but dies in a day or two. It says there that he's not the master would not be punished for he has his money. Now, why is that? Why does why does that law institute like that? Well, what this is referring to is the fact that the master did not intend to murder that person, his servant, because if he did intend to to murder him, he would he would have made sure he finished the job in a day or two before the day or two came into completion is what it's saying. So basically, like he beats him down to a bloody pulp. But then he keep it this bad. You know, obviously, if he's intended to kill him, he would have finished the job already, is what I'm saying. You understand. But if he's there for a day or two and then he dies thereafter. OK. The guy did not intend to kill him. He just guilty of manslaughter is what he's guilty of. It's not murder. It's manslaughter. So I don't agree with that. Then just say you don't agree with the Bible. That's what God said. That's the law superior in this end. OK. And so a boss beats his employee, but the employee dies days later. I mean, he continues a day or two. It shows that the master wasn't intending to take his life. And so that's what it says. And obviously, this is not a this is not a thing today. You know, it probably would be different if this was still enacted and people were allowed to beat up their employees or whatever. I guarantee we'd have a lot better Starbucks workers. And according to God's law, you know, the loss of property was just enough. That's what God said. He is his money's referring. That's his property. And you got to think about it. You know, these laws, they weren't placed necessarily so that the servant could be at the master's mercy, but rather to restrict the master from, you know, having too much power over him. You know, and these laws were intended to deter masters from mistreating their servants, too. OK. And so, you know, if you have a master who has a temper and he wants to beat down that employee for just not doing his job, for calling in too many times and doing all this stuff, he's going to think twice because he's like, you know, if I beat this guy down and I accidentally kill him. Well, now he can't fulfill the six years of debt that he owes. That's the loss of the money. Yeah, I don't get punished according to a murderer, but I do get the punishment of manslaughter. And also, I lose out on those rest of the six years. OK. And so these were the laws that were enacted, my friends. You know, I like these laws. I don't know about you. I think they're great. That's what God instituted. And I know people maybe even in our church are just like, oh, man. Yeah, you need to toughen up a little bit. And you know what? Then why don't you go on and skip Exodus 21, then, if that's you? You know, God put it in there for a reason. And it sounds to me like maybe you need to reform your mind and bring it into conformity to the word of God. The sermon is called the superiority of God's law, meaning that this is better. This is a better way of doing it. Now, we are in the New Testament, local New Testament church. We have no power to do all these things. I'm preaching this to kind of show you what God's solution was for some of these problems. OK. And by the way, you know, employee, you know, masters were beating their employees even within the last 40, 50 years, even in the United States of America. That would happen all the time, especially if it was your dad. And no, I don't beat brother Ulysses. OK, I don't whoop him. I verbally abuse him. That's what I do, you know. Verse 22, I don't verbally abuse him either. If men strive, verse 22, and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined. So this is obviously, these are kind of laws of retribution. OK. And this is specifically referring to manslaughter. Men are striving. A woman kind of gets involved. They end up hurting the woman on accident, and the fruit, meaning the child, departs. There's no mischief, meaning he didn't intend to do so. He didn't intend to kill the child. Then obviously, you know, he's going to be punished, but it's going to be according as the husband is going to lay on him. You know, whether that is a satisfaction, a compensation of sorts, and he's going to pay as the judge is determined. So the husband goes to the judge and says, you know, he didn't intend to kill my child, but he did, and so I want retribution for this. And the judges will essentially institute a fee that he has to pay of sorts. So retribution for loss of life, you know, mischief follows, means that, you know, the guilty party was intending to kill the unborn child. So this conclusion would be based upon the thorough investigation of the judges. So two men are fighting, and then the child dies. The judges see, oh, this guy did want to kill the child. Like he was intending to kick her in the stomach. He was intending to do this. He knew that she was pregnant. He did it on purpose. You know, that's what it's referring to when it says that mischief will follow. They determine if mischief will follow based upon that investigation. Now what happens if mischief follows? Verse 23 says, and if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. So pretty self-explanatory there. We're going to see retribution for servants. Look at verse 26. If a man smite the eye of a servant, or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. You know, if he smite out his maidservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. You know, God is even looking out for your teeth. He's looking out for your eyes. You know, the intentions of these laws was to cause the master to do what? To value and honor their servants. You know, he's beating his servant because he wasn't doing his job and he accidentally stabs him in the eye or something. You know, I don't know how he would smite his eye to the point it doesn't work, but you know, he breaks his tooth. At that point, the law says, according to the judges, all right, he's no longer your servant. He can go out for free now. Because obviously, now you've crippled this person for life. So, he doesn't have to work for you. He can go out free. Now, this is very important because now the master, though no one's going to give him any, you know, any heat for whooping on his servant, he's going to think twice because one misguided blow, right, and he forgoes the payment of exceeding debt. So, you know, he's obviously instituted this and he's thinking, you know, if I end up injuring and disabling my servant, he's not going to pay off the rest of his debt and I'm in trouble, okay. So, what do we see with a lot of these laws? We see that really what it was supposed to do, the intention of it was to bring out the humanity in people. You know, to kind of, you know, value people and think twice before you make that action. Think twice before you beat that person. Think twice before you get involved in that strife between men. You know, think twice before you make those decisions because actions have consequences, okay. So, it brought out a lot of the humanity in people. Now, looking at these laws, you can see why some of the servants love their masters, right. Some of them, they're just like, no, he treated me good, you know. You know, he didn't, my eye is good, you know, I got all my teeth, you know, and I got my wife, I got my children. So, a lot of them were happy with where they're at. And so, great law there. Alright, let me just breeze through some of this stuff here, the laws regarding animals. I'm not an animal fan, but I know some of you are, so you need this. Okay, verse 28. If an ox, which is a beast of burden, gore a man or a woman, that they die, then the ox shall be surely stoned. And his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quite. Now, this is referring to the fact that, or an example of this should I say, is, you know, Tilikum should have been killed a long time ago. Who's that? Shamu from Sea World. Because that killer whale, I mean, he bears that name properly because he killed a lot of people. And according to the Bible, if animals kill a human being, they automatically need to be killed, right. And it says here that the owner is acquitted because they're stoned and they're not eaten, but obviously that's his loss because an ox costs quite a bit of money. And so, you know, but what the Bible's teaching us here is that if a dog bites a person, right, if a dog bites another person and injures them, they should be put down. Plain and simple. Regardless if you're a dog lover or not, that is what the Bible teaches, okay. And so, you know, it blows my mind how much people just defend dogs sometimes, and specifically pit bulls. And I'm not a dog fan at all, okay. If you have a pit bull, Rottweiler, God bless you. But I'm just saying here that if that animal escapes and bites someone, it's just like, oh man, he was never, he wasn't like that, you know, he's just really friendly. And let me just get this off my chest. I can't stand it when I'm out in public, especially when I'm out soloing with my family, and there's just some dog loose. Or with his owner right next to him or something. Like, what are you doing? Oh, he's really good with kids. Yeah, until he sees the color red and just flips out. You know, and I have family members who are kind of like this. They just really favor dogs. And I just can't, you know, I don't agree with that. You're like, oh no, he's fine, you know, he's good with kids, and just go out and pet him and just talk to him and stuff. And I'm like, no. Let me explain to you why, okay? Because it's an animal. It's not a human being. You know what animals do? They just kind of flip sometimes. They do. You know, and I'm not just talking about people, just any animal. They can just flip. Why? Because they're animals. Now, yeah, a chihuahua, you know, just kick that thing, just launch it into the next decade or whatever. But we're talking about, you know, those are ankle biters or whatever, you know, and they should just be put down because they're an abomination to creation anyways. And forgive me if you own a chihuahua, but, you know, there's strife taking place here. But, you know, you know, a large dog, a cane Corso, you know, a pit bull, Rottweiler, you know, it's just dangerous, you know. And the thing is, is that the Bible is laying out some instructions here that if your dog is accustomed to just attacking people, this is how we can apply it is what I'm saying. Because none of us own an ox, right? But, you know, this is how we can apply it. If your dog is accustomed to attacking people, they need to be put down. That's what the Bible teaches. Well, you won't do it again. I'll put a muzzle on him. They need to be put down. This is what the Bible says. And as a Christian, you need to take that position, too. Verse 29 says, But if the ox were wont to push with his horns in times past, meaning that this is not the first time it's ever happened, and it hath been testified to his owner, meaning, hey, chain up your dog. It bit me. And by the way, this happened to my wife. And it was one of those punk dogs, you know, not too big, just, I don't know, just one of those punk dogs. They're a little bigger than a chihuahua. It's one of those expensive dogs or something. But, you know, the lady was walking the dog and the dog just ran up to my wife and just bit her. Broke the skin and everything. And then my wife's like, your dog just bit me. And she's like, oh, I got to go now. And then she just picked her dog and just left, you know. And, you know, lo and behold, that dog has done that multiple times before. And he's like, would you really put a little dog like that down? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. With pleasure. OK. Because they deserve it. You know, this is what the Bible says, because here's the thing. That's an ankle. But what if I was a child, though? Walking in all fours and it bites the face is over and done with. OK. You got to think about that. It says, and it has been testified to his owner, he has not kept him in, meaning he doesn't close the gate. He's not taking provision of protecting the public from the dogs. I know you dog owners are getting mad at me right now, but we're just reading the Bible here. But that he hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and his owner also shall be put to death. What is it saying? Like, if you know and I know it says ox, but we're substituting pit bulls here and dogs. You know, if you know that your dog is accustomed to just attacking people and even after it attacked the person, you're still just careless. You're not closing your gate. You're not putting a muzzle. You're not changing them up. And you just you have knowledge of this. Then guess what? If that animal kills a person, you're going with them. Because now at this point, it's just like, you know, you're just careless about life. You have no regard for human life. So this is a very strict rule here. Now, what would this do to people? It would cause people, where's that dang ox? You know, make sure that they put a fence around that thing. Got to keep an eye on it. You know, we need to make sure that he's a little temperamental. We got to make sure we keep. And obviously, an ox is different from a pit bull because a pit bull serves no purpose. Whereas an ox is a beast of burden, right? You know, a pit bull is good for like a wrap cover, you know, and such or whatever. But an ox actually served the purpose, okay? So the owner is just like, I need this thing to help me to, you know, plow the field and do my job and do my work. And so we need to make sure this thing does not get out because it's temperamental and we can't buy another ox, right? So it'll cause people to be more conscientious about other people's safety and their own property. It says in verse 30, if there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. What is that referring to? It's referring to that satisfaction, the compensation. So he can pay that sum if the kin, the near of kin of the victim exacts that upon them. Verse 31 says, whether he have gored a son or have gored a daughter according to this judgment, shall it be done unto him? If the ox shall push a man's servant or maid's servant, he shall give unto their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned. So these laws here are created to essentially make a, or cause us to have an abhorrence for murder or manslaughter. There's like so many laws, so many punishment for these laws. Let's just make sure that we take care of our neighbor and, you know, keep an eye on our property. Verse 33, let me just finish up here. And if a man shall open a pit or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass father in, the owner of the pit shall make it good and give money to the owner of them and the dead beast shall be his. And if one man's ox hurt another's that he die, then they shall sell the live ox and to buy the money of it and the dead ox also shall they divide. Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in times past and his owners have not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox and the dead shall be his own. Now go to Matthew 22, and this is the last passage we're going to. Matthew chapter 22. Now it's kind of hard, obviously these laws aren't being enacted upon us today. We should take the spirit of these laws, and in fact we could practice, obviously, some of these laws ourselves. For example, the whole thing with the dogs and the animals and such. But, you know, you think of someone in Israel who is living during this time, you know, it's kind of hard to keep track of all these laws, right? Just to kind of remember all these laws. Obviously, I'm sure many of them memorized them, knew them by heart. But at the end of the day, it's just like, man, what was that law about the ox again? Or how much do I have to pay? You know, I'm sure a lot of it would slip through their minds. But here's a way that they can just completely keep all the laws, period. And this is the spirit of the law, okay? Look at verse 37. Jesus said unto him, referring to the question, what is the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So he's just saying, if you want to just fulfill the law, just make sure you love your neighbor. In other words, you know, look for the good of your neighbor. You know, look for the benefit of your neighbor over your own. Look not every man on his own thing, but also every man on the things of others, right? Favor your neighbor. Love your neighbor, because love worketh no ill to his neighbor, right? So obviously if you love your neighbor, you're not going to kill him. If you love your neighbor, you're not going to steal from him. You're not going to kidnap him. If you love your neighbor, you're going to keep your ox in the stall and make sure that it doesn't get out. Not so you don't lose your ox, but so you don't lose your neighbor. Meaning these laws were given to favor our neighbor, you understand? And, you know, at the end of the day, what we see here is that God is basically saying, hey, if you want to fulfill all these laws, you just got to make sure you keep your neighbor in mind. You favor him. You bless him. You kind of live life in a way that's selfless towards your neighbor, and you try to help them. And if you do those things, you're just going to naturally fulfill all these laws in Exodus 21 through 23. Because loving your neighbor, you're not going to, you know, be guilty of any of these crimes, you know, and so forth. And so great laws laid out and they are superior to what we have today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for these laws, Lord, that we know they're going to be enacted one day in the millennial reign. Help us to take the spirit of the law even today and realize, you know, even compare them to the laws that we have today, Lord, and realize what are your solutions to society's ills and problems. I pray that, Lord, you'd help us to take them into account, to meditate upon them, Lord, and ultimately to understand the spirit of the law is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves and to favor them, Lord, over our own sometimes property, resources and money. Help us as your people to love others as we love you and we love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.