What's It Worth To You?

You have probably noticed recently that it is prime time for good garage sales. Rummaging through items trying to find a good deal. Because you never know what kind of steal you can find. Take one person who purchased some antique bowls at a garage sale. They thought there might be more behind these bowls so they had them assessed and find them to be 1000 year old Chinese pottery with an appraised value of $2.25 million.

Another man found a group of art sketches that he bought for $5. These sketches turned out to be from Andy Warhol and appraised at $1.3 million.

Another man decided to purchase some salt and pepper shakers as well as, what he believed to be, a copy of the Declaration of Independence for $2.48. It turned out to be an 1820 copy that was ordered by congress and was sold for nearly half a million.

See, the value of each of these items needed context. You needed the proper information of its origins in order to recognize its true worth. But to find the true worth of someone is often difficult. Take a car, which loses value the second you take it off the lot as your own. While on the other hand a house generally retains its value and often can gain value.

But we are always looking for the next deal, we are always looking to assigning value.

This question comes from the main verses in our passage today. Exodus 21:23-24 - “If there is an injury, then you must give your life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.”

This passage is often used to condone revenge or retribution. It has been taken in a literal sense to say if you lose your eye you have the right to take your neighbors eye. But this verse was not meant to encourage revenge and it was not supposed to be taken as a literal eye for eye. But rather God desired for proper worth to be given to each man. The proper worth for himself, for his family, and for his property.

Because the title of our sermon is often the question we are asking. “What’s it worth to you?” See, we are trying to get a bargain, or we are trying to use monetary reward to hide our sins. Because someone of a higher social status, or someone who is wealthy they might try to take advantage of that. Whether by using their standing to get a decreased penalty or by buying their way out of problem. But this law intentionally seeks to put every person on equal ground, for a fair punishment to be given both to those who are poor and to those who are wealthy.

Why does God give these laws to his people here in Exodus? And why right after the 10 commandments does God add all of these seemingly arbitrary laws as important parts of his covenant?

-To understand this we have to remember what God told Pharaoh. “let my people go, so that they may worship me.” The point of the Exodus is for His people to worship Him and for them to receive the blessings that He has promised them. But God calls them to worship so that they may enter His presence. As I read in one commentary “obedience to law is something God requires of his people, not just so that they have something to do, but that they may have a proper relationship with him.

-Therefore these commands that relate to how you care for your neighbor is so that they may conduct themselves in a way that they may enter His presence. This is the worship that God calls them to.

The purpose of the law is to direct his people to proper worship of Him through the way that they treat one another.

Likewise, we are called to worship God through the way we love our neighbor in every situation.

Not to ask the question, “what is it worthy?” but to ask the question “how can I made it right?”

Some important things to understand as we read these laws.

These laws are casuistic.

It means that they case-by-case and based on precedent.

Just like a judge will provide a different punishment for the same crime based on the situation.

Because life is not black and white. It is entrenched in tough decisions and gray areas, where we are called to use wisdom in making a decision. We may not always have a clear picture of what is right and what is wrong.

The law recognizes that if a robber enters your home that you have the right to act against them, even though in most other cases it would not condone a physical altercation. We recognize that we are not to lie, but what if we are lying in order to protect someone else’s life?

Providence of the law does not always mean the condoning of an action.

The law can’t presume our perfect obedience, but provide a way to obedience even when we sin. For example, there are some laws about treating both of your wives equally. This does not mean that God’s law condones polygamy, rather it speaks to how to treat your spouse in the case that polygamy has already been established.

Why? Because we are sinful and God assumes our weakness and our inability to live perfectly. If God did not provide assistance for our weakness than we would never be able to enter his presence.

In the New Testament we know that God provides for our weakness in the forgiveness of our sins through Christ.

The law also discusses slavery, but what it confronts is not slavery itself but when slavery does exist how you are to treat those who work for you.

But more should be said on slavery as well.

The penalty for a crime was the same no matter the social standing of the offender or the one offended.

Others laws during this same time period would have a different penalty based on social standing.

But God’s law see’s all people as the same.

So how do these laws apply to us?

We are called to accept responsibility when we wrong our neighbor

We must accept responsibility for our actions. One of the instances talked about is when someone is guilty of murder they might go to the altar and hang on the horns. The idea was that if they were really guilty that God would supernaturally kill them for touching the altar so they must be innocent if they were still alive.

-It reminds me of in movies when there is a criminal who is on the run and where do they always run? Right into a church. They think that if they are in a church they are untouchable, that it in some ways forgives them just by being in the church.

-Or when you play tag and you have a “base” where you can go and there are no repercussions if you keep your hand on the base.

-But God makes clear that the absence of divine intervention does not make someone innocent. Just because we still experience success, or just because no one finds out, or just because everything in our life seems to be going fine that we have escaped what we deserve.

-Even if they were on this altar, God tells them to still take them to their righteous judgment.

-When someone was in an adulterous relationship the law stated that you are to marry that woman. Because to have sex with her is the creation of a marriage covenant. You have decided to consummate the marriage, therefore you must be willing to take responsibility for your actions.

-When we are physically violent in any way

-They were pay if it causes someone to be out of work, if it was an injury to a servant they are to free them from their burden, if we steal we must be willing to pay the fair penalty, not just what we think we deserve.

Our tendency is to try and get ourselves off the hook, to try and portray ourselves as innocent, and to blame someone else for our mistakes.

When we have a project due at work and we don’t have it done in time we can get angry when there are consequences, when we have wronged someone and they are upset but we deny them the right to be upset.

We must also accept responsibility for what is in our possession.

-The law talks about cattle and the dangerous consequences of not keeping them in control.

-Other laws about kidnapping discuss those who act as the middle man who might try to argue for their innocence.

-But God does not give excuse to someone who acts naive of the circumstances in order to keep plausible deniability. Because God see’s the heart.

-You are complicit if you act in any way to allow for this sinful action to occur.

-But we are responsible for our car. If we cause an accident.

-If our dog has been violent before, we must be wise in protecting others in the company of our animals.

-If we have a firearm, you are responsible if one of your children takes possession of it in your home because you did not lock it up.

-When others we know are acting in sinful ways yet we do nothing to stop it, we do not speak up.

We are not to respond with vengeance.

Other nations assumed that vengeance was the appropriate response to certain crimes. For example, if one of your family members was murdered and you could not find the one responsible. You were expected to take vengeance by killing one of the family members of the guilty party.

Often our response to being mistreated is to take everything that we can get in order to get “payback”. But God’s law calls for a proportional response when we are wronged. It gives guidelines to a correct payment for what has been taken from us, and correct punishment when someone has been harmed. We are not to treat others unfairly because we have been treated unfairly.

But our culture is just like cultures of Israel’s time. We often are trying to get everything we can get. If we are wronged, we don’t just take what is fair, we take what we are able to and take every last penny. Have you ever seen a lawsuit where what someone is asking for is “fair”? No, it is ruthless. You get hit by a car, why not go for millions? Your coffee burned you? We can take everything they have. Someone insulted us? Why don’t we ruin their reputation. Our instinct is to act disproportionately to the crime against us.

But in this we miss what is really being said when God says “an eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth”. First, we can look at the preceding verses in v. 26-27 where the punishment for taking the eye or the tooth of someone was not your eye or tooth get taken, but that you let them free from their service to you.

Jesus tells us what is behind this command in Matthew 5.

-What Jesus calls us to is to not just to provide retribution but to seek to make amends.

We are not to exploit our neighbor in their weakness

An eye for an eye meant that the punishment did not depend on social status or wealth. Often the wealthy would just be required to pay a price with no other repercussions. Essentially they would try and buy their way out of a problem. Or they would attempt to use their social status to lesson the burden of their crime if it was against someone of lower social status. They would seek to take advantage of women or take advantage of their servants. But God calls them to treat each person equally.

-Often some will see that slavery was allowed under the law and ask, “how could God still allow for this to occur?” But we must remember a few things:

To be a slave for another was a contractual agreement, one much like an athlete. Who signed an agreement in exchange for compensation.

What we consider slavery today would be condemned under Israel law.

Think about the circumstances in Israel. Where they have just been brought out of slavery, and not just slavery but slavery on the basis of ethnicity. Where they were in bondage to another people group and were not paid a fair wage.

So we first know that the Israelites would be against that type of slavery and we also know that God desires to protect his people and to protect against any type of injustice.

We often still see exploitation today though. Paying someone what we are allowed to get away with and not what they deserve.

Recently there was an article about a black woman who was having her house appraised, and the appraisal came back at $125,000. She thought that was too low, so she had a white friend of hers stand in for her to have her house appraised and the appraisal came back at $259,000.

Often, nowadays, companies will compensate someone so that they can settle out of court. Or they just use all their lawyers to keep them out of any serious consequences. But God seeks for each to pay their fair due. The Bible shows us how we are to give back if we exploit our neighbor in the story of Zacchaeus.

Luke 19:8–10 LEB

And Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am paying it back four times as much!” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost.”

Obedience in Christ is freedom, it is not bondage.

Matthew 5:38–42 LEB

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer, but whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. And the one who wants to go to court with you and take your tunic, let him have your outer garment also. And whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

See, Jesus calls us to love our neighbor more than they deserve, to go out of way to love them, and to trust that God will honor your faithfulness rather than be bitter that your neighbor is unable to pay back what they owed.

We do this because we have been saved and redeemed, we have been given an incredible gift and so we seek to be obedience in our lives. We respond to our redemption through obedience, our obedience does not make us redeemed.