Preserving a Righteous Dominion
Notes
Transcript
Pastoral Prayer:
Thanksgiving:
Church Members: Jim Lum
Illumination:
1 “Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: 2 “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. 3 “If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 “If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. 5 “But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently. 7 “If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. 8 “If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her. 9 “If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. 10 “If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. 11 “If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
12 “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 13 “But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. 14 “If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die. 15 “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 16 “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. 17 “He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 18 “If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but remains in bed, 19 if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his loss of time, and shall take care of him until he is completely healed.
Introduction
What does it mean for us to take dominion? Dominion sounds like one of those old words that’s relegated to a time of kings and lords who established their dominion in lands, armies, and wealth, but I think it’s much more ordinary than it sounds. If I were to simplify the idea I would boil it down into removing the bad and filling with good. Let’s say you’re about to move into a new apartment or a new house, what’s one of the first things we do? We never stop doing it. We clean it. Before the house is filled with furniture or painted, it’s removed of all the dirt. It’s one of the first things we do, but it’s also an ongoing work to keep the house clean. You can imagine what an abandoned house might look like. It’s full of good things, the appliances still work, the furniture is all in place, but there’s a layer of dust over everything, there’s a leak in the roof that’s gone unaddressed, mice are starting to settle in because there’s no dominion in the home. Dominion begins with removing the dirt and being diligent to keep the dirt out, but it doesn’t stop there. Dominion continues by filling our area of influence with good things. A house can be extraordinarily clean, not a germ to found anywhere, but be utterly empty. If the house is clean, but there’s no bed to sleep in, no dinner table to eat at, no plates or forks to eat dinner with, there remains a few more steps to be taken to fully establish dominion.
We’re coming to a place in Exodus where God is providing some pretty detailed instructions to the people of Israel. Some of them appear to be rather random, and some may come across as a little disturbing. In all of these instructions though God is providing a means for Israel to establish their dominion as God’s chosen people and image bearers. You’ll notice that many of these instructions are oriented toward preventing the bad and protecting the lowly and the innocent. God’s beginning to teach His people what His dominion, His kingdom is supposed to look like and begins by showing Israel what it looks like to clean house. Galatians speaks of God’s law here in Exodus using the picture of a tutor or a teacher with a young student. You might recall that period of time as a child or a teenager when you’re parents started teaching you how to take dominion of your room and clean it. That’s where learning to take dominion starts. Clean your room! God’s starting in much the same place. All Israel has known is slavery for 400 years. Dominion is very much a new concept to them as a free and independent people, and so God begins with the basics: Let’s remove the dirt and the evil. There is going to be no individual within the nation of Israel, not even the slave or the unborn who will be subjected to the evil and sin of men. Everyone, will be protected from harm. God’s dominion is absolute and so the dominion of Israel is to be absolute. No dust is being swept under the rug. No dirty clothes are being tossed in the closet.
As we go however, you may notice there’s want of a greater good to be found in this dominion that’s being established. The room feels a bit empty perhaps. If you weren’t here a few weeks ago, we wrestled with the limitations of the law. The law can provide order and cleanliness on the outside, but the law cannot make the heart of Israel truly love apart from faith. We should have a sense of an incomplete dominion here because we have yet to see a people who love God and one another from the heart - a people devoted to the good of one another in love filling the house with good things - Things that enable the family to thrive and welcome others into the house. We’ll wrestle with that incomplete dominion as we work through the text.
The dominion of God’s people is to reflect the dominion of God: Protecting the lowly and advancing the good of those within our influence.
The dominion of God’s people is to reflect the dominion of God: Protecting the lowly and advancing the good of those within our influence.
Protecting those under authority.
Protecting proper dominion.
We’re only covering half the chapter this morning, but next week we’ll finish the chapter and continue to fill out this picture of righteous dominion
Protecting those under authority (vs. 1-11)
Protecting those under authority (vs. 1-11)
As God begins his instruction on the clean and orderly dominion of Israel, He begins with the least. Those who are most likely to be neglected, subjected to injustices and taken advantage of, that’s where God turns the eyes of His people first. As God established His dominion by claiming the least of the nations, Israel enslaved in Egypt, to protect them, to care for them, the people of Israel are to imitate what God has done. Their dominion is to protect the least among them first and foremost.
1 “Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: 2 “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.
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From our modern cultural perspective the idea of protecting the least and buying a slave are utterly opposed to one another. There are atheists today who deny the Scriptures altogether with reference to this very chapter of Scripture. The idea of a good and perfect law from a good and perfect God permitting slavery is unthinkable. Let’s wrestle with that for a moment.
Firstly, the authoritative Word of God is good and true whether we’re comfortable with it or not. It’s simply prideful to come before God and critique His Word with our understanding of ethics. How can we define what is good? We are not good! What absolute standard do we have to appeal to to say, “Look, this is good!” There is no other good standard apart from what comes from God. He is holy God and His Word is holy and good.
Secondly, let’s address the vast chasm between our modern culture and the culture of Israel. We have a fundamentally different understanding of debt, crime, and slavery. I’d like to address each briefly, because these all contribute to a proper understanding of God’s instructions here. (debt, crime, and slavery)
Firstly, slavery in our modern American mind is likely what we know of the slavery surrounding the civil war - chattel slavery. This kind of slavery considers people to be little more than cattle. They’re less than human. They can be gathered up, kidnapped from other nations like animals and sold against their will into lifelong slavery where they’ll be abused and worked until they can’t anymore. This is not the life of a slave or bondservant in the nation of Israel.
Slaves or bondservants in the time of Israel were treated as humans. They were given a Sabbath like everyone else. They had rights to be defended like everyone else. They weren’t picked up and forced into slavery. Anyone found kidnapping or purchasing kidnapped people as slaves were to be put to death. (vs. 16) In many ways they were given all the rights of children. They were cared for but they were expected to submit to the authority placed over them.
How did slaves become slaves then?
In our day we’ve become very comfortable with debt, but if someone comes to a point where they can’t pay their debts there’s always bankruptcy. At the end of the day the bank takes the risk. If we can’t pay up and we declare bankruptcy, the bank takes the hit. That wasn’t the case in Israel’s day. If you couldn’t pay your debts. You were going to pay off that debt by being a bondservant or a slave. Debt is a very private thing for us. We don’t talk about it. Unpaid debts were often in the public eye of Israel in the form of bondservants.
Additionally, we have an understanding that criminals face justice and if it’s severe they go to prison. Israel at this point is a nomadic people. There’s no prison system. If someone committed a crime and couldn’t repay the debts that were due, they would pay that debt through a term of bond service. Crime for us is a very distant matter. There are judges, courtrooms, and prisons which take care of that. For Israel, the punishment for crime would have been before them often in the form of bondservants repaying the debts for their crimes.
In short, we should understand that when we see the word slave or bondservants in Exodus we shouldn’t recognize a less than human class of people who have been subjugated to lifelong slavery and abuse. Very often these are people who have criminal or fiscal debts to pay who are working to pay off their debts to a master who’s actively caring for them.
Hopefully that little bit of context brings to light just how extraordinary these instructions really are.
From just verse 2, it doesn’t matter how great the persons debt or damages were in his crime, after 6 years they were to go free. There’s no argument to be made, “Don’t you realize how much this person owes me!” “Didn’t you see what they did!” Even for the slave with crimes or debts, there’s a Sabbath rest to look forward to every week, and a Sabbath rest to look forward to after 6 years.
Verse 3 and 4 ensures the bondservant goes out of His time of service in the same way he comes in. If He comes in married, he goes out married. He wasn’t going to lose His family by entering into this service, but he wasn’t going to gain one either. If he comes in single, he’s going out single. If His master offers Him a wife who’s apart of the Master’s household, the man will need to remain part of the household to keep His family.
There was a decision to be made there, that we don’t have a category for. Verses 5 and 6 open a door for a servant to be a servant for life should he love His master.
This sheds a little light on the nature of this relationship. A Master was to care for His servants so well that they might conclude I’m better here with a family and a Master I love than out there on my own.
If you think about it, there are probably some of us here who’ve experienced that very story. We found ourselves indebted in sin before God and came to Him for forgiveness. In that forgiveness we’ve been adopted as sons or daughters and also bondservants as Paul puts it to our Lord and Father. In that loving service within the household of our gracious master we found a wife whose been faithfully serving the Lord for years. And from where we stand it would be unthinkable to forsake our gracious Master and Father. The grace of God alone is more precious than anything, who could forsake this extraordinary gift and loving relationship, but additionally, it’s that relationship that defines the unity we have with our spouse. The very nature of godly marriage is to be united by a common union to Christ. That’s the bond of marriage.
Much of these instructions are protecting and keeping the people of God from the great to the lowly, but we get glimpses of God’s gracious care of His people. God has bought this people out of slavery to serve Him. He’s a gracious and merciful Master. He’s provided them with all they need in the promised land, and yet time and again they will conclude that they are better off on their own, forsaking Master and the blessing of the household alike.
One more set of instructions God provides to protect the humble in Israel. There’s the debtor and the criminal who has debts to pay, and then there are the children of the debtors.
7 “If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do.
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This may be one of the most difficult verses in the whole of the book of Exodus. Isn’t this turning a blind eye to simply turning children into a commodity to be sold?!
There are things throughout the law which God permitted for a time until a greater love and obedience were to come. Until then, the least must be protected!
Jesus himself addresses this before the Pharisees when they ask about divorce.
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
We need to be careful that we don’t come to the law with questions of testing like the Pharisees simply asking, “What is permissible?” or “What am I entitled?”
Notice how Jesus responds.
4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
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Jesus calls back to the perfect dominion of the garden. Perfectly clean from any sin, and full of all that is good and holy. The question we should be asking is, ”What is the fullness of goodness and holiness?” To ask simply, “What is permissible?” Is to overlook the greater obedience which the law pointed to and protected. It’s in this time of sin, immaturity, and hard hearts that God permits these practices like divorce.
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
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When we look at something like a Father (likely in debt of some kind) selling his daughter, we can say, “It was not this way from the beginning it was never intended to stay this way.” There’s a brokenness here in the time of Israel that God is bearing with and ordering for a time to ensure that these daughters are taken care of.
We actually have a similar biblical example of this scenario. This word “slave” in verse 7 is the same word used of Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant given to Abraham as a second wife or concubine. Again, Abraham is no example for us to follow, but God was patient with Abraham just like he is with Israel. In that case, after Abraham had Isaac, Hagar was then despised by Sarah and treated harshly, she was even driven out by Sarah. God’s making sure that the Hagar’s are taken care of and not poorly treated like Hagar was.
(vs. 7) She’s not to be set free like Hagar was because she will have no one to care for her, wandering in the wilderness and destined to die apart from God’s divine provision.
(vs. 8) If she becomes displeasing in the eyes of her Master, she cannot be handed off to some foreigner unbound by God’s law. She must be entrusted to another, redeemed by someone to take care of her. If you know the story of Ruth, Boaz has an obligation to redeem Ruth because she needs to be cared for.
(vs. 9) She can be cared for by the Master’s son, but whoever cares for her, she must be treated with all the privileges of a wife.
If she’s not taken care of and given those privileges (vs. 11) then she has no obligation to stay. She can leave without payment.
These instructions probably seem utterly foreign to us in many ways. These are different times, but we serve the same God. He hasn’t changed and He bears the same heart today that He did then. How might our dominion today reflect the heart of God reflected in even these commands?
The concern of Christ throughout his ministry was to welcome in the broken and reach out to the needy. He exercised His gracious dominion among those who needed Him most. He came to the woman at the well who had five husbands and he offered her living water. He came to tax collectors, many of them thieves by all accounts (theft was an offense that explicitly provides for the debtor to be sold to repay the debt Exodus 22) Jesus sat down to dinner with them! He calls Zaccheus a son of Abraham. A son of faith!
9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
Jesus hung on the cross next to a thief and declared surely you will be with me in paradise. Jesus is the gracious master who purchases us, the guilty and the debtors, with His own blood. He not only protects the least, he seeks our flourishing. He gives us the Holy Spirit that we may be fruitful. For us as the church, in our desire to protect and cultivate the love we have for God and the love we have for one another, let’s begin where Jesus did. He went to the least, the guilty, the humble, the debtors. Might the dominion and strength we’ve been given reflect the gracious Master who we serve as we serve and care for those who have little.
Jesus Himself called the poor in spirit blessed.
The mourning, the merciful, those hungering and thirsting for righteousness. These are the ones who Christ comes to and satisfies with Himself. Let’s be the means of that blessing as we bring the comfort and love of Christ to those who have need and are vulnerable.
We might ask ourselves, “Who in my circles has very little to give?” When we look around for relationships to build, and people to invest our time and energy into, we tend to look for our benefit in the relationship don’t we? What about those who would bring us no benefit because they have nothing to give? We were helpless once with nothing to give once and yet Christ in His sovereignty delivered us into His kingdom and His gracious dominion. Let’s use the means and dominion we have for the good and flourishing of those who have nothing to give in return.
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God begins with the least. Those who are under authority: Ensuring they are protected and cared for. This emphasis isn’t absent the call to respect proper authority and dominion that is ordained by God however.
Protecting proper dominion (vs. 12-19)
Protecting proper dominion (vs. 12-19)
12 “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.
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God goes back to the ten commandments and begins to expound on, “You shall not murder.” Protecting proper dominion begins with protecting the lives of one another. Life itself, the image of God in us as humans is where all good and proper dominion begins. Immediately after Adam and Eve are created, given life in the image of God, what is their task?
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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To have life as humans is to be to made in the image of God and entrusted with the work of that image. Taking dominion - Being fruitful and multiplying and subduing the earth. That personal dominion which every person has, that innate image and work of that image must be protected!
To murder, to kill with intent to harm someone else is not just a violation against that individual. It’s a work of destroying the glory of God found in the image of man. God sets out these commands and the protections of proper dominion not just for the good the man, that is true, but it’s also the protection of His own glory in creation. God is clearly devoted to His glory among the people of Israel, they are to be a nation of priests, a holy nation. He’s so devoted to it that anyone who violates his image in the life and dominion of another man or woman, they are to be put to death. The dominion of man in the life and image of men will be protected.
God continues to provide some provisions however. Again, I believe this fits into that category that Jesus gave, “Allowed for a time because of the hardness of hearts.”
13 “But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. 14 “If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.
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We catch a glimpse here again of God’s ultimate desire for His people. In drawing this distinction he emphasizes the punishment due the heart of the murderer. It’s the character of the man that sets him apart for the punishment of death. He crafts a way to kill his neighbor. The NASB has presumptuous, The ESV puts it willfully. There’s a heart of desire for the other persons harm before the deed is done. There’s a work of cunning and craftiness that feeds the hearts evil desire for the death of one’s neighbor.
Jesus addresses this heart in direct reference to the ten commandments.
21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
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The penalty of death which God communicates to Israel in Exodus in order to preserve life and dominion reveals an even greater death that Christ Himself points to. The heart of murder, anger, is enough to send one to an eternal death.
God is accomplishing multiple things with the law here in Exodus, and it benefits us to see both. He protects life. He protects and preserves the order and society of Israel by preserving proper dominion, by preserving life, but he’s showing Israel the depths of their sin. In a very literal way, We recognize in these initial verses of God’s instructions, the wages of sin is death. The penalty of murder is death, but Jesus brought to light the deeper understanding we should see here. The wages of sin is death! Eternal death. It doesn’t take the act of murder to be condemned before holy God. It only takes a sinful heart.
God will go on to provide some extreme cases that are deserving of death, and we might at first remove ourselves from the instruction immediately saying, I’ve never done that. I’m good. Let’s pause and consider the heart which God is addressing that is accompanied by such a severe punishment.
15 “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 16 “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. 17 “He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
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God doesn’t take lightly the preservation of proper dominion and authority in Israel. We can recall even in the ten commandments:
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
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We get a little clarity on, “so your days may be prolonged in the land.”
For one, there’s a common good in just honoring your father and mother that brings certain blessings, but if you don’t, if you strike them, if you curse them, the penalty is death. You’re not going to live long in the land because you’re going to be dead.
There’s a good authority and dominion in the family unit that needs to be protected for Israel to prosper as a nation! If children are not subjected to the good and lawful discipline of their parents, how will they learn right from wrong? Much like how God exercises His Fatherly dominion over his people Israel. This parental dominion images God’s good and righteous dominion and so it must be protected by the penalty of death.
The same penalty applies to the one who kidnaps his fellow man (vs. 16) and subjugates him to slavery. Anyone who fails to respect the image of God in the personal dominion of his fellow man by lawlessly subjugating him to slavery is deserving of death.
You’ll notice there is a kind of eye for an eye in you shall not murder, but you’ll notice the penalty for these crimes are distinct from the crime offended. A strike is deserving of death because it’s a strike against God’s appointed authority in the family. A curse is deserving of death because it’s against God’s appointed dominion that’s established in the family. Kidnapping is deserving of death because it imposes an unjust dominion on someone who ought to be free.
We can recognize in this prohibition and threat of punishment the protection of the most fundamental dominions God intended for every parent and every individual. Freedom to exercise authority in the house for the good of our children and the freedom to exercise our own dominion in the world without fear of some unjust power subjugating all we’ve worked for to their own personal gain. These are very explicit examples, but again let’s look for the heart of the command. It’s more than exercising undue harm or verbally cursing our parents.
Jesus again addresses the command explicitly.
3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ”
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Note that, Jesus is speaking to full grown adults entrusted with great responsibility in the spiritual matters of Israel. Honor your Father and Mother is not exclusive to children, but it certainly includes them. Jesus rebukes them for withholding care from their parents in the name of tradition. There heart’s are absent a genuine love for the well-being of their parents and their too devoted to other things that are ‘more worthy’ of their attention. That starts to hit closer to home.
How many of us find ourselves caught up with other things, we’re too busy to give our parents a call and ask, “How are you?” I’ll be the first to say, I’m guilty of that. It’s easy to get caught up with life and even good things, but no matter what season of life we’re in, the call to love our neighbor should in many ways begin with our parents just like it does in the Ten Commandments. The first horizontal love to be protected by the ten commandments is that of those who brought us into the world and cared for us so faithfully for many years. Let’s be faithful to love and care for our parents. Maybe just give them a call every once in a while. See how their doing. Send them a picture of the grandkids if you have kids.
What’s in the heart of the kidnapper? That’s such a foreign idea, but it may not be as foreign as we think. In some ways it boils down to the question, “How can I use this person for my personal gain?” Here in Exodus that personal gain is found in slavery or selling people as slaves for money. Today it probably looks more subtle but the same question is at the root. There are bosses in positions of influence who use manipulation to get more out of their employees to make them look good. There are those who hand off their work to their coworkers to do taking advantage of their hard work for personal gain in the name of being, “too busy.” Any time we seek to advance our own dominion and well-being through manipulative means at the expense of another, we commit the same sin.
It doesn’t take kidnapping to take advantage of someone. The next couple verse make that clear to us.
18 “If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but remains in bed, 19 if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished; he shall only pay for his loss of time, and shall take care of him until he is completely healed.
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Simply put, the degree to which we’ve undermined the dominion of someone else out of our own ambition or just outright recklessness, we are at fault! There’s a debt to be paid. In this case it’s not until the wronged have been completely healed in the care of the wrong doer is that debt repaid.
I hope we might begin with considering whether we’ve committed that sin. By my own ambition or hardness of heart, have I undermined the dominion of someone close to me for my own gain? If that’s the case I hope we would be quick to bring it before God in repentance and confess that sin to whoever was wronged in humility. Seek to make it right, but even if we aren’t guilty of such an act, we can still take responsibility for the flourishing of one another.
Why don’t we ask that question we asked a few weeks ago, “How can I advance the dominion of my fellow man? How can I advance the dominion of my parent’s proper dominion. Rather than exercising our dominion to harm or hinder another’s dominion, let’s use our dominion for the good and flourishing of one another the way Christ has.
Paul speaks of the fullness of the dominion of Christ to the church at Colossians and how all that power and authority came to die that we might know reconciliation.
19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
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With the dominion we’ve been given, might we readily pick up our cross in love and service for the good of one another knowing if Christ had not served us, we would yet be counted among the guilty and the dead. He was entitled all the glories of heaven yet he came to earth to bear our sin, might we readily bear the burdens of one another and seek to advance the dominion God has entrusted to our brother or sister, mother or father, wife or children who God has put in our lives.
It’s all to the glory of God when we use all of our means to protect the lowly and advance the good of our neighbor!
Let’s Pray
Devotion
Local Ministry: To Every Tribe. Pray for TETM as they train missionaries at the Center for Pioneer Church Planting. Pray for those who instruct and those who learn to make the most of this opportunity. Pray that the Lord would use these missionaries to bring about lasting fruit in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Southeast Asia
International Ministry: The church in India
Faces resistance from anti-conversion laws.
The churches that are being planted would be rooted in the Scriptures.
