(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, right? We're in Exodus chapter 21, and it took a long time just to get through Exodus 20. I thank you all for your patience in that, but I think it was an important study on all the Ten Commandments. And so we're moving on to the next chapter here, and the title of my sermon tonight is, Is the Bible Pro-Slavery? Is the Bible Pro-Slavery? And there's a lot of topics in here besides slavery and indentured servitude and all that stuff. But I do want to kind of focus a lot of the... I'm actually going to read an article that I think is really important for us to help understand the differences between slavery and indentured servitude and just being a servant in general. But I want you to turn back to verse 21 real quick in Exodus 20. We're still not quite done yet. I just wanted to show you this verse really quick. It says... So basically, the Ten Commandments was when Moses... God gave the Ten Commandments in front of all the children of Israel, basically, and they agreed to follow the covenant. They agreed to keep the covenant of the Lord and bind themselves to it. Look at verse 21. It says, And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. So the rest of these judgments you're going to get in chapter 21 are Moses getting them from God himself. And so the Ten Commandments were plainly told to the children of Israel, but the judgments and the statutes and all these other things are given to Moses at various times. And these specific ones that we're about to go through were given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the thick darkness. And Moses is to tell the people these judgments and these statutes. And this topic is pretty heavy. There's a lot of heavy topics in this sermon tonight. So I just want to say this, that I'm for what the Bible says. And so if the Bible says something that hurts our little feelings, then we should just go with what the Bible said. And maybe you don't fully understand why God would say some of the things that he says here to Moses. But we have to understand that the law of the Lord is perfect. So God's Word is perfect. And whether our 2023 society understands how things were and how God puts things, that doesn't matter. It's what the Bible says is what's right. So let's go to the first point here, and basically we're going to look at the laws about indentured servants. That's what I think that this is talking about. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. So how long were they able to buy a Hebrew servant for? Six years. And at the seventh year, they go out free for nothing. There's nothing stipulated upon them. They don't have to do anything else. In fact, they're supposed to go out with some benefits from the person that hired them. So we're talking about people within the nation of Israel here. I'm not going into other nations tonight. It's a vast topic, and I kind of want to stick with this chapter mainly. I'll veer off it a couple times, but I really think it's important that we just kind of stay in this chapter tonight. So what is a servant? It is a person who performs duties for others. That's what a servant is. It's somebody that performs duties for others. So would you say a job in 2023 is a servant who performs duties for others? Yeah. So it's basically a servant is just somebody that's hired to do work. That's what it is. It says they bought them. And we don't understand this because we don't live in a time period. It's like very negative connotation to say, oh, you bought somebody. You talk about slavery. They're not slaves. They're servants. There is a difference. So remember, let's jump back to Exodus 20, verse 1. Sorry, we just can't leave Exodus 20 alone. But look at what he says in verse number 1. God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of what to say there? Bondage. Does God agree with what Egypt did to the children of Israel? No. Otherwise he would have just left them there. They were bond servants. They were forced to labor. They were forced to work. And in the end, Pharaoh was making them even go gather their own straw. They're building all these cities in Egypt for them. They're killing their children. They're making them do infanticide when they're born. If they're male, to throw them to the alligators or the crocodiles or whatever. And they're in hard labor, hard bondage, being whipped, being beaten, all these things. And they're not getting paid for it. So that's the difference between being a servant and a slave. A slave is a person who's forced to work for and obey another, and is considered to be the property and enslaved person. So there is, obviously, you're going to work for somebody. And basically the picture, I think, that really this is trying to tell us, you know, we're slaves to sin. As far as before you get saved, you're basically a slave to sin. That's what Egypt pictures. You're a slave to that sin. But when Christ frees you, you're free to serve the Lord God. We're going to serve somebody. You're either going to serve sin and the devil or you're going to serve God. But you're always going to be serving somebody. And so we'll see that picture play out, though, later on. But what is an indentured servitude? It's a person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time, especially in return for payment or travel expenses and maintenance. So I'm going to read this article, and this is not from independentbaptist.com or anything like that. It's just like some kind of financial site or something. But I was just kind of looking up some of these terms. But I like the article, and it explains indentured servitude in America. It was a big thing in this country, and it wasn't necessarily all slavery. But look, you can't look, but I'm going to read the article to you. So it says, what is indentured servitude? I'm going to read through this pretty fast because it's kind of lengthy, but I think it's important for us to understand the context and what an indentured servant is. Before I read the article, in the very first two verses in our chapter tonight, it says you're buying someone to serve you for six years. Now let me read the article. It says, indentured servitude is a form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan within a certain time frame. Indentured servitude was popular in the United States in the 1600s as many European immigrants worked in exchange for the price of passage to America. So there's the rub right there. So you want to go to America? Well, you're going to have to work for me for six or seven years, right? And it says the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution, which passed after the Civil War, made indentured servitude illegal in the US. Today it is banned in nearly all countries. But isn't it funny how God's law allows for indentured servitude, but all the countries in the world have gotten rid of it? So what does that tell you though? It tells you that, and I'm not saying that, you know, obviously God allows for this to take place. This is indentured servitude. It's not slavery, okay? But the work that you would do and the trouble you would get in for not doing work when you're already contracted to do it is a lot more severe as we see in the chapter as we go along. People are getting their teeth knocked out and all kinds of stuff, right? So but it says, indentured servitude is a form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan. Indentured servitude is popular. I already read that, okay. So understanding indentured servitude. Indentured servitude served as a type of barter system for many immigrants, an individual who sought a new life in America, but who could not afford the steamship fare from another country may contract with a wealthy U.S. landowner to perform a type of work for a fixed period in exchange for the price of the boat ticket. Indentured servitude in the U.S. began in the early 1600s in Virginia, not long after the settlement of Jamestown. Many early American settlers sought cheap labor to help manage their large estates and farms and commonly agreed to fund the passage of European immigrants to Virginia in exchange for their labor. Other parts of the world also engaged in indentured servitude. At the time that it was occurring in the United States, many citizens left Europe for the Caribbean to work as indentured servants on sugar plantations. Contract terms. Contracts stipulated that the worker would repay the loan to the lender by performing a certain kind of labor for a set period. Skilled laborers were usually indentured for four to five years, but unskilled workers often needed to remain for seven or more years. So they're going past what the Bible says, though. But you see how they're kind of sticking to what the Bible says? Because at this time, everybody went to church. Everybody pretty much read the Bible at this time. And so they understood the differences. But obviously, people get greedy and people go past what they're supposed to do. But it says, the indentured servitude system allowed landowners to provide only food and shelter for indentured servants. As opposed to wages, some landowners offered their servants basic medical care. But typically, labor contracts did not provide for this. Duties. Some indentured servants served as cooks, gardeners, housekeepers, field workers, or general laborers, while others learned specific trades such as blacksmithing, plastering, and bricklaying, which they often parlayed into future careers. So it's kind of like apprenticeships today. You see that people work for less money until they become a full journeyman at whatever. So this kind of stuff's been going on for thousands of years, folks. I mean, this is how the world has worked for a long time. Most workers who became indentured servants were males, generally in the late teens and early 20s. But women also entered into these agreements and often worked as household employees or domestic servants. And if you were reading along, the women were not allowed to go out with the men. They had specific duties as handmaids or things when they were hired. They didn't go out and work in the fields and do all the heavy labor. And so it kind of seems like they stuck to that here, too. Controversy. Although some indentured servants completed their contracts and received land, livestock, tools, and other necessities, many others did not live to pay off their contracts because they perished from disease or work-related accidents or fled before completing the terms of service. Indentured servants enjoyed little personal freedom, and some contracts allowed landowners to extend the work period for servants who were accused of behavior that was deemed improper. History and indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was historically used to pay an apprentice who agreed to work for free for a master tradesman to learn a trade but evolved as a way for an individual to pay the cost of transportation to the American colonies. Workers were commonly bought and sold, and when they arrived at their destinations, Great Britain used indentured servitude as a punishment for captured prisoners of war and rebellions and civil wars. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was common in America and a common way for Europeans to immigrate to the colonies. The system was also used to exploit Asian immigrants who were used mainly to construct roads and railway systems. Over one half of all European immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and the American Revolution came under indentures. Many young children were taken from England to the American colonies as indentured servants, often kidnapped off the streets and sent off as merchandise to be sold as servants in the new world. Now that doesn't sound like indentured servitude to me. That sounds like slavery, okay? So there is a difference, but obviously this article is not really exactly, you know, explaining that part correctly because if you kidnap somebody in this chapter, what happens to them? They get death, right? Both the American and British governments passed laws that helped the decline of the indentured servitude. The United Kingdom's passenger vessel act of 1803 regulated travel conditions aboard ships to make transportation more expensive. An American law passed in 1833 abolished the imprisonment of debtors, which made prosecuting runaway servants difficult. The 13th amendment of the United States constitution following the American Civil War made indentured servitude illegal in the United States. Slavery, but slavery and indentured servitude have been going on since mankind has been on the face of the earth. And, you know, obviously the Bible does not condone kidnapping people, making them work for the rest of their life under people's thumbs in that way, but indentured servitude is something that that people, mankind has been doing for thousands of years and I don't necessarily think that that's wrong. So, again, people are going, oh, you're a racist, you're, look, let me just explain something to you. People have been enslaving all different colors of people around the world for thousands of years. Even in the early days of the United States, the Barbary Coast pirates were capturing U.S. ships and enslaving the captives until they got lit up and completely destroyed. The United States destroyed the Corsair and Barbary Coast slave trade because they kept capturing American U.S. ships and then Thomas Jefferson was like, why are you guys doing this? And then he was like, they're like, well, we're gonna do whatever we want. And then they're like, oh, yeah, well, we're gonna do whatever we want too. And they annihilated them. That's what happened. Okay. So, I mean, obviously the course, so the Ottoman Empire was around and for, I can't remember when the Ottoman Empire ceased to be, but it wasn't that long ago. Okay. World War I, yeah, the Turk, yeah, the Ottoman Empire ceased to be. And so, but they were enslaving Christians, Christians I say, because obviously, you know, there's a lot of people that say that they're Christians and they really aren't, but millions of white Christian Europeans were enslaved by the Ottoman Empire and the Corsairs and the Barbary Coast pirates. That's what they did. They traded, you know, trading in flesh has been going on for a long, and I'm not saying it's right. It's not right. And there's even like, if you just, you can look some of this stuff up, but in Iceland, they would even go up to Iceland. They'd go to where small communities were and where people couldn't fight back and they would capture all these white people and take them down to the Middle East. And they couldn't last as slaves there because they were white. You know, it's like fair skinned people aren't used to having all that sun. And even the ones that were hired off into the Caribbean and parts of South America, they just couldn't last. And so then they came up with the idea of just, you know, enslaving black people to do the work instead. But there was white slaves in America or indentured servitude, excuse me, but it was probably slavery too. But there was white people. The Irish were treated like scum when they came here. And they were treated, they had a very low, people had a very low opinion of them. They were, in some people's minds, equal with what, you know, these racists would be like equal with what they would say black people are. But, you know, that's when Darby came out with his book and all that stuff. And, you know, people have been racist for a long time, but not only black people are the ones that got enslaved. It's other people have been enslaved. Joseph was enslaved in Egypt, right? His brother sold him to what Ishmaelites as they're coming by. And then they sold him to Potiphar in Egypt. And then he became, you know, the second ruler of all Egypt from being a slave. And he was a literal slave. We're talking Genesis, the whole, the beginning of the Bible. Abraham had hired servants that were trained to fight with him. And, you know, his, he, they went and rescued Lot from the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and all those other places. So, I mean, was Abraham some kind of evil slave owner or something? No, he just hired these people and there were people who were born into his home. You know, obviously, Abraham had a lot of respect and they respected him and stayed with him because the option of, after six years, we'll talk about that in here in just a minute, but the option is that you could stay with them forever if you wanted to work for them forever. It's just kind of like how, you know, you work at a job, but maybe that's not the permanent job you want to work at. So, you're like, well, I'll work at McDonald's for a few years and then, you know, maybe I'll be a sous chef someplace else or, you know, whatever your career path goes, some people work for the same company for their whole lives until they retire. So, anyway, so the, these, there's people like Portland, Oregon has tunnels that you can go to where they're called the Shanghai tunnels. And being Shanghai means that they got them drunk or they drugged their drinks or whatever and then knocked them on the head, took them down some trap door and before they could wake up, they're out on the ocean. You know, it's like, well, you're gonna have to work for us now. So that, I mean, that's slavery. That's not really indentured servitude, but, you know, this is the types of things that have happened for a long time and, you know, black slaves had it bad. I'm not saying that they didn't. I would never downplay what they went through, but again, all nations have been enslaved and from the book of Genesis, we see it and, you know, all throughout the Bible, it's kind of talked about, but God places rules upon these things and this is what these judgments are about, that what you can and can't do, what rules are put in place for people that are hired servants. And there's actually, I think it's in the book of Numbers where they estimate what every person's worth, right? They estimate what animals are worth. They estimate what people are worth and Jesus, you know, he was sold for 30 pieces of silver. He was sold at the price of a slave of his age or, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say slave, a servant of his age. Okay, that's better, but, you know, you start, yeah, you're jet lagged and then you start saying slaves. So servant, okay, because in the Bible they estimated when they would hire, you know, the Levites would have people that work for them too. And so when you talk about selling yourself to somebody, you're basically selling yourself and the way you work and what your work ethic is, whatever your trade is, and that's the estimation by years. So, and then the most valuable was the handmaiden, the virgin handmaiden was 50 shekels of silver. So she's worth more than a man that's 30 years old that can really work hard and do a bunch of stuff, but, you know, so God estimates, you know, the priests were to estimate people and how much value they had. It's just a fact. So Abraham had hired servants. Abraham sent his servant to get Isaac a wife and is there any doubt that his servant loved him? I mean, he said, my Lord Abraham, he seemed like he believed in the Lord himself. He's, you know, obviously God guided him to Rebekah. And, you know, in this country, Native Americans, you know, people are like, oh, we stole the land from the natives. Well, who did they steal the land from first? Because like Sitting Bull, when he was finally brought under wraps, they came to him and they're like, what about all those people that you killed and took their property? And they're trying to say that those certain lands belonged to them, but they stole it from somebody else. They were enslaving people. I've read plenty of books where Indians and this, you know, Native Americans here, they would go to different tribes and they would kill all those people and take the ones that they wanted for slaves. It's just a fact. It's a fact of history. And then they would sell them to whites. They'd sell them to the Spanish. They'd sell them to other Native tribes. So, you know, these idiots that are just asking for reparations over something that never happened to them is just completely beyond the, I just like don't understand how someone could say, well, I owed money because my great-great-grandfather or whatever was a slave. It's like, well, what about my great-great-great-great grandparents that were in Norway that got taken as slaves or whatever? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, where do you draw the line? You're not, if you're not a slave, you don't have any reparations coming. So these people, I want my reparations too. How about that? I mean, it's just idiotic that, you know, our government, our own government is playing into this idiotic thing. And what it is, it's just a race-baiting to try to start race wars. That's what they're doing. There's only one race. That's the human race. So, yeah, they want to divide this country. And let me just tell you this, the first slave owner was black. His name was Anthony Johnson. He was a slave. And then he got his freedom as, he was an indentured servant, but he was captured by somebody else and sold. So it's not like, to me, it's like you're partly indentured, but really not. But he did work. And he, and the guy like earned his own stuff, bought 250 acres in Virginia. And he had his own servants. And his servant, so this guy's black, and then he has his own servant that the court ruled, it was the first court ruling that you could, that he would be a servant forever for that person. And so the first slave owner in America that was documented in a court case, he won. First he lost the case, but then he came and the judges of that land were favorable to his plight and they allowed him to keep that guy forever. And so that's kind of how it all started. And people were taking black slaves before that, but they weren't calling it slavery. So, but when they finally started making it a law where you could own property and human flesh as property, he was the first one. So people were like, well, that's a right-wing talking point. It's just a fact. Just look it up. I mean, do some reading for once instead of just listening to all this race-baiting garbage that you see on the internet. Let me just tell you something. Just because someone makes a video on the internet doesn't mean everything they're saying is true. I mean, I watched a video where it said King, I mean, how many times are they going to call King James a homo? And there's just no evidence whatsoever that he was. And 25 years later, some guy that was disgruntled decided to call him a homo. And you know what? And that's what people always say. Well, King James is a homo. Where's the evidence? Let's see it. He had 10 children with the same wife. I mean, how are you a homo? I just don't understand how that works. He wrote poems to his wife. He was like one of the only kings who would even do something like that. Henry was a womanizing piece of garbage. And just because his wife didn't produce a male heir on the first time, he off with her head. So he just like made up his own religion. And I'm glad he kicked the Catholics out. That was a good thing. But he basically made up the Church of England so that he could divorce his wife. And then she doesn't produce an heir. Off with her head. Divorced. She's an adulteress. And then he had six wives. And they didn't have a very good life expectancy around him. But anyway, so, and if you don't believe me, that guy's name is Anthony Johnson. And people say, that's a right wing talking point. Well, but it's true though. That's the thing. And again, I'm not saying that atrocities were not done to black people in this country. They were. But again, the whole world has been doing slavery for a long time. And I'm not excusing it. It's wicked. It's evil. It's wicked. It shouldn't be being done. But it is. I'm sure there's still, you know, they have what all these people that are capturing people and selling them in other types of trades. And there's just, you know, people are still kidnapping little children and then selling them on the markets, in the black markets and stuff like that. Look at verse number three back in our text. Sorry that took a long time. But as we go through this chapter, we're going to see more, you know, the kind of the whole context of this is kind of rules for working. And then of course it gets into other stuff. But, you know, the main thing in this chapter is like basically rules that are in place for indentured servitude and things like that. So look at verse three. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. So if someone sells themselves, his wife is with him. You know, he didn't buy the wife. But if he was already married before he sold himself to this person, then he would go out with his wife. But he's going to go out by himself if he came in by himself. The 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 some people are like, well, I don't really agree with that. But he didn't have the wife when he went in. The master gave him the wife, you know. And so then all those children and the wife are basically the property of that owner. But here's the thing, six years. So it's not like he had to, you know, they had to be there forever and he had to just walk out on his family. But it says, and if a servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. So they have a choice. And if they love working for that person, they love, and here's the thing, they gave him room and board and special privileges. It wasn't like necessarily how I read that article about America. It wasn't necessarily like that. There's all different sorts of situations. So it's not like that indentured servitude only happened in the United States in that time of history. But they kind of, the way the article is written, it kind of makes it seem like that was the only time that's ever been done or something, but it's been being done since the Bible. You know, since Moses is in short pants, right? Writing this to us here from the mouth of God. But anyway, it says, and so if I love, so 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 and unto the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him forever. So this is where you get where, you know, you're basically working for this guy for the rest of your life. But forever is a long time, isn't it? But I think it's just telling you like he's going to work for him for the rest of his life, right? So I believe that there's a picture here for us with the Lord Jesus Christ and with our having a choice in whether we want to serve God or not. This is clearly a picture of someone that's being set free. They can go free, but they don't want to. They want to be the servant of God forever by their own choice. And right, if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we say we want to be saved, how long are we saved for? We're saved forever, right? And we are his servant. And the Bible talks about, the word servant is in the Bible a lot. And so this is also a picture, so it's a picture of us becoming Christ's servant forever, but it's also a picture of Christ becoming a servant for us. So notice what they do. What is he supposed to do? He's supposed to take him to the judges, this person that wants to serve his master forever, put him next to a door. What are doors made of normally? Wood, right? Or a doorpost. What's a doorpost made out of usually? Wood, right? And then he's stuck to that door and then they drive an all through his ear. So they're piercing his flesh and nailing it to wood. Because that's what I mean, if you've ever had your ear pierced, you know, they kind of take this punch and punch it through. But if you're standing next to a doorpost and they're just like, you know, and they're making a hole in your ear, right? That's what they're doing. But didn't Christ get pierced on a cross for us on a piece of wood for us so that we could be saved forever? So, and you know, Jesus Christ, turn to Philippians chapter two real quick. Just keep your finger there. Philippians chapter two. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, my favorite passage, it says in, talking about Christ, verse, actually look at verse six, it says, or verse five, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of, what does it say there? A servant and was made in the likeness of men. So Christ took on the form of a servant. Here we have this picture of a guy that says, hey, I want to serve you forever. And isn't Christ, you know, he washed the disciples feet. He taught servant leadership. He's going to serve us in heaven. He's going to serve us new wine in heaven. We're going to eat with him and, you know, we're going to serve him, but he serves us too. And that's what servant leadership is all about. But he's just like willing to get his ear bored through. And Christ was willing to get pierced on a cross for us so that we could be serving him forever. And so he, you know, it says, he loves his children. He loves his wife. And God loves his children. And he loves the bride of Christ, right? Which is the believers. So this is a picture, I believe, of the New Testament. And I don't want to get too crazy with all these pictures, but this is, to me, is a very clear picture of Christ being nailed to a cross, right? So, and also it says the doorpost. I mean, that makes me think of in Egypt, what they have to do, they had to put the blood on the doorpost. And if you bore through someone's ear on a piece of wood, it's going to bleed, isn't it? So again, a picture of Christ suffering for us on the cross, on the tree. So look at Deuteronomy chapter 15, verse 11. And this is kind of, it gives more information to what this is talking about in Exodus chapter 21. But Deuteronomy chapter 15 is kind of like a pair, a little bit of a parallel passage and gives a little more detail for us. So look at Deuteronomy 15, verse 11. The Bible says, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command thee, saying, thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in the land. So this is directly in the context connected with this next verse. And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. So it's talking about a woman or a man can sell themselves. And a lot of times this was to pay their debts or to pay a debt that they owe to somebody else. You couldn't just rip people off. They didn't have bankruptcy laws back in the Old Testament. You pay what you owe. And if you owe a whole bunch of money, you have to pay it back. And sometimes people had to sell themselves. The judges would probably just say, hey, well, you can't just stiff this person. You've got to pay them. And so then you would have to just be employed by that person. And you'd probably get room and board and all that kind of stuff. And you're kind of putting yourself at the mercy sometimes of people that are cruel. But look what it says in verse 13. It says, and when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. So this is the addition here that God is adding to help us understand. It's not just you let him go free with the clothes on their back. Actually, give the clothes back, go out in your underwear, and good luck to you. No, he says that you're not going to let them go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out of thy winepress. Of all that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto them. So you don't leave them empty-handed. You give them of the fruits of the labor that they brought to you. They helped you labor. And so God is saying, don't let them go out with nothing. It's kind of like a severance package. You serve for six years. You do a good job. And they send you out liberally with some animals, some tools. Kind of sounds like the indentured servitude in the Americas. They send them out with tools and a little bit of property and let them earn their way into being able to have their own stuff. It says, and thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Therefore, I command thee this thing today. And you'll notice a lot that God always says, remember that you were a bondman in Egypt. So obviously, this is not talking about slavery because that's what they were. God's saying, hey, here's some rules about employees and employers, basically. That's what we call them today. In Black's Law Dictionary, if you look up that term, it's going to say master and servant. So an employee and employer, the employer is the master. And when you have a master, you're supposed to do what they say. You're supposed to show up on time. You're supposed to dress how you're supposed to dress. You're supposed to dress in whatever costume or outfit that they have you. Not costume, but you know what I'm talking about, like your construction gear, your high-vis vest, your steel-toed boots, or whatever. You do what the boss says. They're your master. They're the ones that are paying you, and that's how we should look at it when it's talking about this stuff in the Bible. And it says, and it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee because he loveth thee in thine house, because he is well with thee. Then thou shalt take it all and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also unto thy maidservant, thou shalt do likewise. So in Exodus, it didn't talk about the woman, but now it is talking about the woman, and she has the same choice to continue to serve in the same manner. It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free from thee, for he hath been worth a double hired servant in serving thee six years. And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest. So, you know, employers are supposed to be good to their employees, but employees are also supposed to be good to their employers, and we're not supposed to talk back to them. And obviously, we live in a day and age where people tell off their bosses, or they just don't show up for work. They don't give them the two weeks notice. I was always told growing up by my mom, my dad, my grandparents, don't leave a job unless you give it two weeks notice. Who's ever heard that before? And why you're not supposed to do that? Because you want to give them time to get somebody in there to train them and replace them. But there's some bad employers that the minute you say, I'm giving my two weeks notice, they just fire you right on the spot. And so that two weeks that you were trying to get, you know, the rest of your paycheck, you know. But here's the thing. You're doing the right thing. So if they do that to you, and you do the right thing, God will bless you for that. I really believe that if you leave your job the right way, then God's going to bless you. Isn't he saying to the employers, hey, treat them right, and God's going to bless you. But you know what? If we treat our employers right, and we work hard for them, and do what they ask, then God's going to bless us for that too. Even the mean bosses. Like, I still stay. I did quit that job on the spot though. The one I was talking about earlier, I did do that. And because I knew they were going to fire me. And so I guess I'm not practicing what I, you know, I'm telling you to practice something that I didn't do that time. But I do regret it. I do regret it. And I felt bad about it. But I was just really fed up. I mean, I was going through a torture chamber. But I believe I stand in doing that. So here I am confessing my sins to you. Hope you forgive me. No, I'm just kidding. But turn back to Exodus chapter 21 verse 7. Exodus 21 verse 7. It says, And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the men servants do. So here's the Bible commanding you not to allow your, just the other women to go out and work with the other men. Right? And that's kind of the opposite of what you see out in the world today. Men are working with women. Sometimes I was in situations where I had to ride in the same vehicle alone with another woman. And there's nothing I could do about it. But you know, I hated every second of it. That's why you've got to be a hard worker so you don't get paired up with the girl. You know? So, you know, obviously there were just situations where that would happen. Your normal work partner or whatever is gone that day and then you get stuck with the chick that can't do anything. But, you know, it's just because they're not supposed to be out doing that type of work. You know, women construction workers, I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt. This is going to sting a little bit. But they can't do the same things that men can do. It's just a fact. It's a fact. That's why nobody wants to hire them. They're like... When I worked at the Water Bureau for Portland, they hired all kinds of women. And guess where they always ended up in the dump truck sitting on their butt reading romance novels? Well, we dug the holes, laid the pipe, and did all the hard work, and raked all the gravel, and compacted it, and we're out there sweating, and they're sitting in an air-conditioned dump truck doing nothing. And you think that that doesn't piss people off? It does. It does. Everybody's mad about it. Except for, you know, the weird dudes are just like, no matter what women do, they're like, oh honey, you know. And they treat them good, but they'll treat the other people that work their guts out for them like garbage. But anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here. But wasn't that what the Bible says, though? That they're not supposed to go out and do the same type of stuff the men's servants do. It says, if she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her into a strange nation, he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. So this is kind of a confusing little passage here. But what I think is happening here is that sometimes, you know, men would probably want to see how this woman worked before they would marry them. And so they'd buy them in this way, a maidservant, to serve around the house and just see, you know, how does she cook? How does she clean? And like, then he betrothed her to himself. She's still working for him, but then she's betrothed to him. And then he's like, yeah, I don't really like her that much. And, you know, maybe she sucks or whatever at cleaning or cooking or whatever. Or maybe he's just a jerk. You know, who knows? But he's not allowed to just sell her to some heathen nation or something to be a worker someplace else. And, you know, so it's basically saying there's some kind of deceit going on. He's betrothed when he betrothed to someone. That means that you're going to marry them. It's like Mary was betrothed to Joseph. And so there was that marriage contract kind of already in place, but maybe they haven't consummated the marriage because it says maidservant. When you're a maiden in the Bible, that means you're a virgin. That's what it's talking about. So and it seems like this guy, you know, in this situation, he's kind of doing her a little bit dirty. So he doesn't have the right to just cast her aside or sell her to a foreign nation. And so it's kind of like a dowry style betrothal is kind of what I think. That's just my opinion. I could be wrong about that. But, you know, the man basically pays to test her out. That's kind of, you know, what's going on here, in my opinion. So look at verse nine. And if he had betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. So he's supposed to treat her like he would a daughter. If you take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall not diminish. So he is basically married to this person or the son is married to her or betrothed. But if he takes another wife, he doesn't like her and decides to take another wife. And here again, here's the Bible giving us rules about people that have multiple wives. It's not saying that God condones of you having multiple wives. It's just saying that if they do do that, you can't do certain things. God's placing limitations upon what people can do. And so God is, you know, he's wise. He's wiser than we are. He knows how man's hearts are and he knows how people are and he's making rules to protect her. He's not saying, yeah, it's okay to have other, you know, that's just a dumb way to look at things. You know, we're supposed to, you know, leave father and mother and they twain shall be one flesh. Two people. Doesn't say they twain and all their other wives that they decide to take on. So it's already wrong. People need to be like Isaac and just keep one wife or, you know, King James, right? Anyway, so, but it says, and if he do not, if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. So he gets to, he just lets her go basically probably in some sort of divorcement or just where she isn't, doesn't have to do the duties of a spouse. First Corinthians talks about, you know, if people won't do the duties that they're supposed to do, you know, there's a lot of rules about that, but he's supposed to, if he's married to her, he's supposed to give her food, raiment, and the duty of marriage shall not, shall he not diminish. So the things that he's supposed to provide, he's not supposed to be able to get out of that. So it's not condoning multiple wives. It's just saying if they do mistreat them, here's the rules. So now let's look at verse 12. We're going to move on from this subject and talk about the laws about homicide. So in homicides, when someone kills somebody else, it's basically what it means. Look at verse 12. It says, he that smiteth the man so that he die shall surely be put to death. So what does the Bible put upon someone that kills, that murders somebody? The death penalty, right? Here's another unpopular topic in this chapter, but the Bible says that if you're a murderer, you're to be put to death, plain and simple, right? And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place where he shall flee. So he's referring to the sanctuary cities where people are allowed to flee. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe it was manslaughter. You know, an ax had slipped off. He didn't have it tightened good enough, so it's kind of his responsibility. But at the same time, it was an accident. It might be negligent, but it still happened. So God will allow those people to go to the sanctuary cities, and then the judges will determine whether it was actual cold-blooded murder, pre-planned murder, premeditated murder. And so people that murdered people premeditatedly, that's when the Bible gives the death penalty. So it says, but if a man come presumptuously, which means boldly or brazenly, upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, which is a cunning or sly intelligence, like you planned it out, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. So if it's premeditated, it's just a fact of knowledge. You know, this guy has pre-planned it. This woman's pre-planned it. It's elaborate. You know, sometimes people come up with pretty elaborate murder plans. Have you ever watched like the Forensic Files or stuff like that? It's like they get these really elaborate plans to kill their own spouse or kill other people, but the evidence kind of finds them out and shows that they were murderers. So if that's the case, then you know how it says, if they came presumptuously, it says thou shalt take him away from mine altar. What does that mean? Well, people probably play the religious forgive me card over stuff like this, and you know that it happens. Turn to First Kings chapter 2. First Kings chapter 2. You know it happens. It happens in the Bible multiple times, but I'll just show you this one instance where Joab flees to the tabernacle. He goes to church, you know. He's like, I'm going to go to church and cling on to the horns of the altar. That's what he does. Look at verse 28. Then tidings came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom, and Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar, and it was told King Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and behold he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaniah, the son of Jehoiada, saying go fall upon him. So what does the Bible say? Well, even if they're by the altar, take him and kill him, right? So this is what Solomon says. He's a wise guy. He said, and then verse 30, it says, And Benaniah came to the tabernacle of the Lord, and he said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay, but I will die here. And Benaniah brought the king word again, saying, Thus saith Joab. And thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do as he has said, and fall upon him, and bury him, that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from the house of my father. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword. My father David not knowing thereof, to wit Abner the son of Nur, captain of the host of Israel, and a mass of the son of Jethur, captain of the host of Judah. So basically, Joab got pissed off because David basically gave somebody else's job. And so every time David hired somebody else to replace Joab, Joab just murdered him. And Abner actually killed his brother, and he's using that as an excuse why he could just murder him with guile. Because he did plan it out. He grabs him by the beard. Are you in hell? Well, I think a mass is the one that he grabbed his beard, and then he got him under the fifth rib. But he killed both of them. He murdered them. And so you know, God says even if they're grabbing, you know, if they're at the altar, take them away and kill them because they're murderers. Number three, striking your parents. Look at verse 15 back in our text in Exodus chapter 21. So the law is about homicide. If it's pre-planned, if it's pre-meditated, if they lied in wait and planned the murder and did it with guile, and they did it presumptuously, brazenly. And Joab did. He like gutted Amasa and just left him laying in the highway there so everybody could see his guts all over the place. And finally someone just covered him up with something. But you know, that's kind of Joab's way of saying, if you cross me, this is where you're going to end up on the side of the road with your guts all over the place. Right? So he had to go. It doesn't matter. God's not a respecter of persons. Look at verse 15. It says, he that smited his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. This is another thing we get criticized about because we believe that this verse is true. But what's it talking about? If you hit your parents, then you deserve to die for that. And you know, I guarantee you there'd be a lot less kids hitting their parents if the death penalty was in place still for those crimes. You wouldn't lift your hand to your parents. You know, you wouldn't lift your hand to your mother who's probably weaker than you at a certain point when you grow up, boys. Nope. Keep your hands to yourself. You know, and kids that would slap their own parents at an early age, you have to get on that immediately. You have to correct them. You have to, you know, I mean even little babies. I've told you this before. Even little babies will do the whole claw you thing. You know, who knows what I'm talking about? They'll just like try to claw you and you're just like, hey, no. I'm not saying like beat them or, you know, like you're talking about a little kid here. But you have to stop them. You have to restrain them and stop and say no. You know, if you have to get a little smack on the hand or something. But you can't just give your kids a pattern of you just being okay with it. They slap you in the face. They need to get a spanking immediately. A bad one. A rough one. Because if you don't get control of that now, they're going to be doing it to you when they're older and when they can't actually hurt you. And you can never just allow that to be some kind of thing that your kids can do to you. So if a child punches or hits one of their parents or obviously smiting could also indicate that they're killing their parents. Hitting them with something, you know, murdering their parents. Obviously murder, whoever you murder, it's put to death. But I think it's indicating mostly that you're hitting them. You're striking them in some way, shape, or form. The Bible says it's the death penalty. So don't let your kids get in the habit of doing that. Number four is kidnapping. Look at verse 16. It says, 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 now the whole slavery thing kind of comes back here because what would people do to get slaves? Well, they would capture them and they would steal them from their homes or wherever they were at and sell them to somebody else. That's the death penalty. So there is a difference between indentured servitude and slavery. God says, if you steal a man and sell him and he's found in your hand, you're done. You're dead. You're going to get killed. You're going to get put to death for this. So, you know, anybody that says that God is for slavery in the Bible, and you can just look up these dumb videos on the internet where people are saying, God said it's okay to have slaves in the Bible. You're an idiot. You're not even saved. What are you talking about? That's not what it's saying. And it literally says if someone steals a man and sells them, that's what slavery is, right? Then you're dead. That's what God says. He doesn't condone it. What are you talking about? Now, obviously, in the New Testament, you see people that are servants of other people. And look, here's the thing. God has rules for situations that are not optimal. But did the Romans have rules like that? Did the Greeks have rules like that? Other nations didn't have God's law, and so you could be treated really bad. Even as an indentured servant, you could be treated really bad. You could be worked to death, and there's nothing you could do about it. But the great thing about God is he doesn't just allow this stuff to go on. And he says it's the death penalty, and it's for literal slavery. But there's kidnapping that takes place in this world all the time. People taking little toddlers and taking little kids. My wife's sister was abducted when, how old was she young? Five years old. And she was taken to California by somebody, and they had to fight to find her and get her back. So, I mean, it happens. Kids get kidnapped, and sometimes they never come home. Sometimes they're on the back of a milk carton. So you need to watch your kids at all times, even in stores. Or, oh, I just let them play outside for a few minutes. You better put them in the backyard. There's a lot of weird people out here today, and they're just allowing them to come and camp in our neighborhoods and stuff. I mean, it's just bizarre. So, man, it must be like being a prisoner in your own home in Portland. I mean, I couldn't even imagine that. I'd probably be in jail. But anyway, then think about the people that kidnapped people for the sex trade or trafficking and forced prostitution. It happens every single day. They talk about it all the time. They call it trafficking, but you're basically kidnapping somebody and making them perform things. And it could be children of any age or adults of any age. And if you do that, it's the death penalty. But do they put them to death? No. So that's why they're just doing it in a, like, anything that you don't put a stop to in this country or in this world that's wicked like this, then it's just going to grow exponentially because they have no fear. They have no fear of God before their eyes, and they have no fear of the government because the government, you know, they'll show up when someone's soul winning at an apartment complex, but they won't show up when somebody's hurting somebody or stealing their property or anything else like that. Isn't that funny? Oh, you're there in five minutes when someone gets called for us soul winning and trying to get people saved, but you won't show up and help if someone's car gets stolen. It's weird. But anyway, don't get me on that. All right. Look, there's sick freaks that capture people for their own sick ends, and I don't really want to get into that, but you know what I'm talking about. And look, it's the death penalty, folks. I'll say it again. It's the death penalty. And God's law is right, and I'll never apologize for it. And I'll keep preaching it as long as I'm the pastor of this church. If you do any of these things that God says the death penalty, I believe that, and yes, I support it. They're like, what about, I don't care if it's this situation, death. You know, they used to put kidnappers to death, but now they just lock them up in a cage. So how about number verse 17, cursing your parents. So we had smiting your parents. Now we have cursing your parents. And here's where people really flip out and say, you just think that they should have the death penalty just for seeing, just for telling your parents off. Well, what's the Bible say? What's God's perfect law say? Verse 17, and he that cursed his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. That's what it says. Am I going to apologize for that? No, I'm not going to. And what is it talking about? Well, cursing your parents, telling your parents to go to hell, or just anything that you're saying that would be a curse, that's what the Bible says. And you know what? If those things were enforced today, there'd be less kids telling their parents off or telling their single mothers off, and then doing whatever they want in the house. I mean, you got kids dominating their mother's home because they're a single mom, because they decided, you know, the dad decided not to be involved, or she decided not to be involved with the dad and wanted to play the whore or whatever, but that, you know, all these things just lead to other problems in our society. Leviticus 20, verse 9 says, for everyone that cursed his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He hath cursed his father or his mother, his blood shall be upon him. That's what the Bible says. You're like, that's just, that's too extreme, pastor. Well, why don't you just tell God that? Because I'm reading God's Word. I'm reading what the Bible says. You're like, that just is too extreme. And you're like, Jesus wouldn't teach that. Well, turn over to Matthew chapter 15. Let's see what Jesus said about this. What did Jesus say about these verses here? It says in verse 4, for God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother. That's in the 10 commandments. And he that cursed his father or mother, let him die the death. So, God commanded. Is Jesus God? Does Jesus agree with this? He said, let him die the death. You're like, Jesus never taught the death penalty. Well, it sounds like he did here. And it's talking about the most, what people find the most extreme of what we believe in the death penalty. And Jesus said it, so we need to deal with that. We need to know what the mind of God is. And his mind is, you know, so children, if you think about puffing up against your parents like that, you know, God's opinion of you is that you should be dead. So, maybe don't do those things. You know, how about people just stop doing those things and stop blaming God for putting things in force that need to be, you know, put in check. That's why this world is messed up because we have stopped enforcing God's laws. You know, we knocked all these neighbors' doors today and they don't, one lady just said, I don't believe. I'm not a believer. She said, I'm not a believer. Okay? She has a shrine of some Buddha or something, some little incense burners on the side of her house. This is the state of America. You know, in some places, you know, people have, I mean, they literally have graven images at their door and they're not believing. And then, you know, they just infect our society. They're like, well, that's, you know, we should respect the other religions. I don't respect them for one second. I don't respect them at all. I don't respect that Jehovah's false witness. I don't respect the Mormons. I don't respect the Muslims. I'm going to call it as I see it. A bunch of dirt balls that, you know, worship a pedophile. And then they say that my Jesus is going to come back and kill the infidels. Yeah, he is. But you're the infidels. We're not the infidels. You're the infidels. The Bible's the word of God. The Quran's a piece of garbage. Exactly. They don't even know what they're talking about. He was illiterate. Anyway, look at verse 18. I've got to hurry up. Fights that injure or medical restitution, number six. Verse 18 says, and if men strive together and one smite another with a stone or with a fist, and he die not but keepeth his bed, if he rise again and walk abroad with his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So we're talking about mutual combat here. And there's actually state laws. And I think Oregon and I think Washington might be mutual combat laws. If someone's fighting with you fist, you can fight them with fist. If someone's fighting you with a weapon, you can have the equal weapon that they have. But obviously, you know, they're not, you know, sometimes people fight. Sometimes guys get in fights. But what it's saying is if you hurt someone so bad in a fight that they're on their deathbed basically, as long as he recovers, you're not going to be punished like by the death penalty or anything else. But you do have to pay for their loss of time at work. You know, this is where the Bible also is very fair. You know, why should that person have to go without money and not be helped and not have the medical treatment he needs when that guy could help him? You know, hey, you whooped him already. Everybody knows it. Now pay his medical bills. You know, that's basically, I mean, it's basically a restitution style thing. And obviously sometimes, you know, the Bible gives these examples, but it's not every example. It's just like it gives you an example later on here about the ox. Now is it only talking about that animal or do we have to name every single animal in the animal family to tell you what kind of animal it is and how, if you have that one and it is known to bite people, you know, or if it's known to scratch people, if you've got a tiger in your backyard and they're known to kill people all the time, they're so taming the tiger, you know, if you have a deadly animal, you have to make a way for it to not hurt people. So anyway, I'll get to that in a minute though. But number seven, more rules for servants here. Look at verse 20. It says, and if a man smite his servant and his, smite his servant or his maid with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished. So again, we're talking about someone that works for somebody else. Apparently the rules were a little bit more harsh when you didn't show up for work on time back then. And, you know, sometimes when you're a boss or you're a lead or something like that, you're like, man, I really wish, you know, there was this famous saying that we had when I worked at the city and, you know, it's funny, one of my bosses would say it when one of the guys were talking back to him or something, he said, man, I wish it was still like the 70s. Because in the 70s, they would just fight that person and beat him up on the side or whatever. I don't know. But that's the way things have been for a long time. If, you know, because think about this, how do you enforce the rules over someone that basically, you know, put them, you know, you bought them and then you're expecting them to get a certain amount of work done? If they're just loafing it and not showing up on time, you have to always get up, go out to their little house that they're living in and wake them up and get them dressed. I mean, eventually your patience is going to wear out. So, and it seems to me that things were just dealt with. You didn't get a matrix where someone just put a little check mark in your box or something. You're like, no, don't do this again. You know, they bring the other managers in and make you sign a paper or whatever. I won't be late again for six months. They just beat the crap out of you, it sounds like. It's like, if he smites his servant or his maid with a rod and they die under his hands, it's like, ah, ah, ah. They're just like, and I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that according to the Bible, you know, he's going to get punished for doing that, obviously. It says, notwithstanding he can continue a day or two, he shall not be punished for he is his money. So if they're beat almost to death and then a day or two later they're up and around, you're like, oh man. So then the guy doesn't get punished because he paid for this person to be his worker. Things were a little bit different back then. So look at, and that's probably why the United States got rid of these rules. Now look at how people work. They don't show up. They call in sick all the time. They're never there when they need them to be stuff like that. You know, maybe if you could, you know, put some employer-employee justice on them, maybe they would show up for work on time. If they got like a couple shots of the ribs or something, or head or gut, you get a choice of the face or the stomach, just bam! Yeah, do some tieboxing on them, or whatever. Maybe they would be a little bit better of a worker. Number eight, negligent homicide. Verse 22, if man 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 to the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine. So let's talk about, you know, people are fighting, and this woman gets caught in the mix, and her child dies as a result. So it says that they'll be punished as according to the woman's husband will lay on him. And so basically he's at the mercy of, you know, the husband and the judges, and he's going to pay what the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. So I'm thinking that if the woman dies also, obviously we're talking life for life. And it says eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. So basically, you know, whatever you did to something, somebody, or whatever you did to someone, you could expect equal punishment under the law. There is still equal punishment laws, but they're not exactly like the Bibles laying out right here. But, you know, equal punishment is just judgment. Hey, if you poke somebody's eye out, then you get your eye poked out, right? You knock someone's tooth out, your tooth's coming out too. You chop someone's hand off, or break their hand, your hand's going to get broke. That's just the Bible justice that it's giving here. Life for life. If you're in a fight, and you kill some woman and her kid, you're going to die for that. That's what the Bible says, and that's what's right, because it's God's law. Look at verse 26. Punishing of servants. Here we go again. So, you see how it just keeps jumping back and forth into this thing of servants and people that are working for somebody. It says, 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 eyes' sake. So, you know, I mean, some people probably just say, yeah, come on, hit me, come on, hit me. And they're like, oh, my eye. You know, they can go away free or whatever. I'm sure people just found ways to circumvent these laws, and the Jews probably found ways, you know, I'm going to give her a wife. I'm going to give him a wife. Ha ha ha ha. And then, like, to keep him for longer or whatever. Be nice to him until he puts the boar through his ear, and he's like, ha ha. And he's just, like, beating him and stuff. I'm sure that kind of stuff happened, but anyway, it says, and if he smite out the maidservant's tooth, so it sounds like he's beating up on the woman too here, or his maidservant's tooth, he shall let him go free for the tooth's sake. So, all you have to do is just lose a tooth, and you're out of the job. You get to just leave for free. But obviously, I mean, knocking a woman's tooth out, I mean, that just, to me, that just seems pretty harsh. But, you know, when the Bible says in the New Testament that, you know, we're supposed to be good, you know, we're supposed to obey our bosses and not talk back to them, and even to the froward. So, there are froward bosses, and, you know, if you just happen to be working for one for six years in this time, you're just going to have to kind of, you know, better do everything he says, or you might knock your teeth out or something, you know. I mean, it's pretty rough, but apparently, bosses were able to just inflict real punishments for people that served them. And I don't necessarily think that's wrong, but it's not saying that it's right either. It's not saying that what he did was right if he knocked some woman's tooth out. It's not right, but these are the laws if you do such things. So, not everyone is probably just happy as clam to be forced to work. Sometimes, you know, it's a restitution situation where you stole something and you don't have the ability to get that money back that you stole or whatever, then you have to work for them in restitution. If someone steals your car now, you might get 250 bucks back for restitution, that's about it. And they can joyride and smash your car up or whatever, but what if they had to work for you after that? You know, and they're probably just not too excited. They already stole your car and have no respect, but now they have to work for the person that they screwed over. And, you know, if they don't show up for work on time, you might want to give them a beating every once in a while, right? Because they stole your car, you know. So, you know, and not everybody's a hard worker. There's people that you hire or that work with you and they're slothful and it's annoying and it would be nice to be able to beat some of these people. There's this guy that worked with us and he was like maybe 18 or 19 years old and he wasn't a full-blown utility worker. He was like, you know, a seasonal or something. And we're all, everybody's out of the truck working. Everybody's working hard. He's sitting in the truck on his phone and my boss walks over to him and says, hey, we're all working. You need to get out and work too. And he says, F you. That's exactly what he said to him. And like, I know that guy. He would have taken that guy apart in just seconds. He's like a gorilla, right? But he had to just not do anything about it because he's a protected class and so he just gets to sit in the truck in the air conditioning wall. Everybody else is outside working. That's a bunch of crap. And he should have been able to beat that dude down right then and there. They, yeah, it's a union job. They can't fire them. Like people are just getting away with murder. Not literally, but you know what I'm saying. I mean, in what world are we living in where you can just tell your boss to F off and nothing gets done about it? Didn't even get in trouble. In fact, he probably got in trouble for just bringing it up. So, you know, back in the day they had like, you know, ship or slaves basically that, I think brother Bill was telling me about this. Were you basically, was it you that was telling me about this? Were the people that rode, was it you? Galley slaves, yeah. Who's that? What's the movie that it's from? Is it like Ben Hur? I've never seen it, but you wicked people. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, so in Ben Hur, like they're slaves and they're in this galley and they're having a row and they're basically, you're just worked to death and then you sit on that bench. You're chained to that bench and that's where you go to the bathroom. That's where you eat your food. That's where you sleep at night until they just work you to death and you die. So, doesn't sound like very much fun, does it? That's the very extreme thing that can happen out in a world, you know, obviously in the Roman Empire and it wasn't just, you know, it was probably all empires where, you know, and that boat rowing stuff kind of went out in the 1600s, but there's still big ship battles where there's thousands of slaves o'ering themselves to death in those battles. So, and then they have to get killed. They didn't have nothing to do with it. So, number 10, unruly beast. So, this is, I'm going to try to get through this really quickly. So, it says in verse 28, if an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned and the flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit. So, it's like just talking about some random animal that someone has and it kills somebody, it kills a man or a woman, that that ox is going to be dead. So, and this is like in the world we live in, it's kind of more like dogs. If a dog bites someone, isn't it weird how people always try to protect their dog from getting put to death? Like, I've seen people, I know people that their dog bit someone a couple two or three times and they try to hide the dog so that they can't, you know, put that dog to death, but the dog does deserve to be put to death because it bites people. I don't care how big it is. You know, if it's a chihuahua, you know, I've gotten attacked by chihuahua, like some chihuahua type Pomeranian dog when I was out salooning and it was, it was gumming me pretty hard, but the pit bull that he was holding back, I was, I was happy that he was holding that back, but it says in verse 29, but if the ox were want to push with his horns in time past and had 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. So when you have a dangerous animal and this is just using the ox, okay, insert any animal that can kill people here, chimpanzees, leopards and tigers, big wolf type dogs, dogs that can kill, you know, and that's really what we would generally see happen in the United States and all you have to do is just look on Miss Sheila's Facebook page and you'll see things you never want to see when it comes to what dogs these pit bull dogs do. So pit bulls were bred to kill and they have locking jaws. You can hang them from stuff and they won't let go. They'll just, once they lock on, you can't get their jaws separated and they just like to just all of a sudden just turn into reprobates and kill babies and kill people. They'll kill their owners and when they turn, they turn and there's nothing you can do to stop it. People are like, well, it's just the way you raise them. No, you know, sometimes the breed is just a bad breed and people, but people will protect their pit bulls to the very bitter end. Oh, he only bit someone once, you know, and these people that like to walk their dogs up to you, man, it's just so irritating to me. It's like, get your dog away from me. I just stand there and just look at them like I'm going to smash their dog and then they kind of just, okay, come over here, puppy. It's like, I will smash them. I'll shoot them. If that dog bites me, they're getting shot right there on the spot because you shouldn't have some kind of, you know, these Hannibal Lecter masks that they have for some of these dogs. Have you seen these things? They're like just this cone of, you know, it's like, hello, Clarice, and the dog's just like trying to bite everybody, but it can't, you know. It's like, why in the world would you have that dog out there amongst people? Put that dog to death. That's what needs to happen to them. There's something wrong with them. This is what the Bible is teaching, but it's also saying if you know your dog bites or you know your animal has been want to push before, you know that that animal has hurt other people in the past and then you just let that animal loose, then you die and the dog dies. That's justice because, you know, there's just people, you know, that have had their loved ones killed because someone just had a dog or some kind of animal that was deadly and dangerous, and we as Christians ought to honor these types of things. If you have an animal that's dangerous, don't let it around people, and if you know it's going to bite, hey, you know, get another dog. There's lots of them out there. Go get a rescue puppy somewhere and save them, but most of those dogs, a lot of those dogs are already messed up before, you know, they ever get there, so that's the reason why they dropped them off there in the first place, because they keep going to the bathroom on the floor or whatever. See Joshua's sermon about dogs. Anyway, sorry, but so verse 31 says, whether he have gored a son or have gored, oh look at verse 30, I'm sorry, and if there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whom whatsoever is laid upon him. So it basically, it sounds like that they can kind of get out of it by paying if the person is allowing that to happen. They're like, well, my son or daughter is already dead, and, you know, instead of putting this person to death, I want them to pay this amount of money, and if he's able to come up with that sum of money, it sounds like he gets to kind of get out of it, but I'm sure the ox or whatever it is still gets put to death. It says, whether I have gored a son or gored a daughter according to the judgment, shall it be done unto him. If the ox shall push a maidservant or maidservant, he shall give unto their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. So see how it's 30 shekels of silver, the estimation of the cost of that person, and, you know, so these pit bulls, these land sharks that people have are deadly, and they need to be kept away. How many times do you see, like, there's all these, like this next door app, and it's like, have you seen my pit bull that's running around the neighborhood? Like, that's, like, there's multiple postings of that, and you know what pit bulls do? They escape. You know what they do? They kill other animals when they escape. My dad had the nicest pit bull. It would never bid anybody, except for cats. It ate cats. It gutted the cats in the neighborhood. As soon as it, if she got loose, she just sprinted, and my dad would have to get in his truck and go after it, you know, and then, you know, he would kill, or she would just kill cats, or any other thing that she came across. She just had a bloodlust to kill other cats for some reason. You know, she really didn't like cats, but that's what they do. That's the kind of things they do. Last thing here, and I'll be done. I'm sorry it's taking so long, but last portion here. Law is about restitution. Verse 33. If a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and the ox or the ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall make it good and give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be his. So, you know, you dig a pit, you don't cover it up. So these are just just basic laws. You know, when you dig a pit, you got to cover it up. Like, have you ever seen like someone dig up in the in the street, you have to put like a steel plate over the top of it so people won't fall through it. People are dumb, and they'll just walk right into a pit and fall into it. You know, they're looking at their phone. I'm sure you've seen videos of it, but it's basically saying that if you do that, then you've got to pay. And if a man's ox hurt another, is that he die, and they shall sell the live ox and divide the money of it, and the dead ox shall they shall they also they shall divide, excuse me. Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in times past, and the owner hath not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his own. So, you know, then you got the situation where your animal's killing other animals, or has been known to do that, then you have to pay for that restitution. So obviously it won't be a life for a life, because human lives are more important than animal lives, right? But, you know, and a lot of this is really heavy stuff, right? So I'm done. But just remember the law of the Lord is perfect, and there's some harsh things in here, some things that happen. And again, not every situation is perfect, but God is trying to just make laws and statutes so that people won't just go overboard, and just live however they want, hold people as servants for however they want, knock people's eyes out, not have to pay for it, stuff like that. So God's always right. So again, if you have a problem with the laws that God's put forth, then your problem is with God, pure and simple. It's not with me. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible, Lord. And Lord, I pray that you just help us to just understand these types of situations where we need to be able to do the right thing according to your words. Lord, some of these things are practical even for us today. I pray that we would just remember these things, and when it comes to our own precious pets, that we would be able to judge righteous judgment when it comes to our own situations as well. And sometimes things don't seem fair, but Lord, if it's in your word, it is. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.