Loving God and Neighbor in Everyday Life
Notes
Transcript
What I find striking here is that for Israel, this is one of the most important sections of Scripture for them, and for the average Christian, this is probably one of the most neglected sections of Scripture.
And I can see why. To our eyes, many of these laws are weird, confusing, and really just don’t make sense.
What we have here is the Lord showing the Israelites how to apply the 10 commandments in everyday life. And through the Israelites following these laws, they would be expressing their love for God and neighbor, and therefore living out what it means to be a holy nation that is set apart.
Anytime we read a passage of Scripture, we should ask, “what does this passage teach me about God?”
Well, in today’s text we see the nature of God put on ful display. In every one of these laws, we see the underlying nature of God.
Now we need to be careful not to make 1 of 2 mistakes here:
Throw this out completely. After all, this law was written in a specific context to a specific people, so what does it have to do with me?
Take this law, and try to copy and paste it into our society. Our society is not a theocracy, and God never intended for us TODAY to completely copy and paste this. Ex. EX 20:26
And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’
Laws About Altars
Laws About Altars
Really, these are laws about worship.
In v 22-23 God gives instruction about building idols. These instructions reflect commandments 1-+4
In vv 24-26, God teaches them how to worship.
God instructs that an altar of earth be constructed for the burnt offerings and peace offerings. And if they build an altar of stones, it shall not be made of hewn stones. Hewn stones are stones that are chiseled into a certain shape, usually square, for building. And God says is for wield your tool and build an altar of hewn stones, it is profane. That sounds kind of extreme doesn’t? wouldn’t God like a nice altar built for Him?
Well in answering that question shows us why God said this. Remember, Israel is surrounded on every side by pagan nations, and these nations all have certain pagan practices. And the LORD not only wanted Israel to avoid worshipping pagan gods, he wanted them to avoid even worshipping LIKE the pagans.
The Canaanites were idol worshippers, and they worshipped their idols on altars made of cut, finished stone. These pagan altars were built really tall and built with valuable stones… for the purpose of showing them off.
But the Lord, knowing the hearts of His people, kept it simple: a waist high altar of earth or unfinished stones in the shape of a rectangle big enough to burn the sacrifice. He wanted to make sure nothing was taking the people’s affection and worship off of Him. Think about it; if a valuable, beautiul, tall altar was built, the people would be tempted to give glory to the altar rather than the LORD.
I think this principle of simplicity is very valuabe even for us today. Expensive lighting, darkened ceilings, loud music with the spotlight on the musicians; when all of that is stripped away, is God still enough?
Impressive things should never capture our heart’s affection and take us away from the worship of the Lord.
Notice in v 26, God prevented his people from going up steps to the altar, so their nakedness might not be exposed. The men wore robes, and we see later, God made the priests wear linen garments to avoid being exposed. God values His people’s purity.
Laws About Slaves
Laws About Slaves
Right out of the gate let us establish that this is nothing remotely close to the slavery we see in American history.
The slaves here in Exodus were more like contract workers who were hired for six years and then set free on the seventh. Here during Moses’ time, slaves actually hired themselves into servitude so that they could either pay off debt, have lodging, food, and an honest wage.
As we see in verse 16, involuntary slavery was actually forbidden, or man stealing.
The slavery of the Atlantic slave trade was man-stealing. It was disgusting, and anyone who sees it as being synonymous with Exodus 21 is totally wrong.
God ensured that the slaves were protected. in vv 26-26, if a slave was mistreated, he could go free. This slavery was not based on race or was it designed to be oppressive. As a matter of fact, every seventh year, slaves were to be freed, unless they did not want to. If they were freed, the master was to liberally give him livestock from the flock to ensure their well-being. (Deuteronomy 15:12-18)
Another major difference between the man stealing slavery in the Atlantic and what we see here is that God desired to protect the unity of the family. Very commonly did American slavery separate families at auctions, but nothing could be further from the truth here in Exodus.
If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
Then we get to Exodus 21:4,
If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone.
And at first glance we may think, wow how cruel and unfair. But let’s remember a few things:
She herself committed to six years of service. If she got married before her term was up, she could not just go free early.
The husband could either wait until both of their terms were up, he could make enough money to redeem her and the kids, or he could committ to work permenantly for the master, along with the rest of the family (vv 5-6)
I actually love v5, and what it pictures.
The law here shows that when the law was being obediently followed by masters and servants, Israelite service would we so beneficial that the slave could actually desire to enlist for a lifetime of service to the master.
The master was called to love and treat the slave so well that the slave would actually love him back.
Placed in these laws are tow important aspects of Israel’s covenant relationship with YHWH:
The Israelites would serve YHWH forever because they love Him
Yahweh made Israel His own, therefore He will always remain faithful to them.
In looking at these laws, do we honestly think that God would somehow enact some unjust laws here?
Think about the backdrop in which this is being written: God just delivered the Israelites from the type of slavery that is exactly the opposite of what is going on here.
The Egyptians made the Israelites slaves because of their ethnicity, they forced them to serve as slaves for life, they did not compensate them justly, worked them unbearably hard for the pupose of keeping them weak under the burden of slavery.
We must not forget at the heart of Exodus is the redemption of the Hebrew slaves from the control of a wicked master, and redeeming Israel for the purpose of serving YHWH, the perfectly just, loving and gracious master.
21:12-32
21:12-32
laws concerining injuries to people and animals. The principle here is that the punishment should fit the crime.
VV 12-14 all concerns homoicide.
Now notice v 13 involves accidental homicide, possibly even self-defense. Most likely, the situation would be accidentally running over someone with a wagon, or hitting them with a tool, or accidentally killing an ally in battle. Whatever the situation, we see that the killing of someone wasn’t intentional. it wasn’t premeditated.
What God is doing here is considering what other cultures during this time didn’t consider: intent. Through this we see that there truly is a difference between killing and murder. Remember, murder begins with the heart: a wrongful hatred of someone and a desire and will to wrongfully take their life.
That is much different than the accidental tragedy of killing someone. Tragic, yes, but the intent is not the same as murder.
As we continue on through verse 17, we see the repetition of capital punishment. Many people today have a very hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that capital punishment is mentioned in God’s law here. The specific crimes warranting it included murder, man stealing, assault on one’s parents, sorcery, bestiality, and idolatry.
This can seem pretty harsh, but we must remember what these consequences were based on: the sanctity of human life, the honoring of parents, and the purity of worship.
When it comes to the value of human life, we need to understand that God did not institute capital punishment in Israel because He is indifferent toward human life, but rather because each human life is sacred and of value to God. Concerning Israel’s justice system, a life for a life did not express a vengeful heart, but rather that the only payment that can be made for taking a human life is a human life.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
People matter to God. All are made in His image, and to hate an image bearer is to hate God, because He is the one who carefully created them.
This law set Israel apart because in the neighboring nations the value of human life didn’t always exceed that of a piece of property. Many times in neighboring cultures, people were given the death penalty for stealing possessions and could actually pay for a pardon with money if they committed murder. Do you see how backwards that is? a piece of wood or a piece of metal considered more valuable than a human being made in the image of God.
Now we need to acknowledge that a perfectly just system will never exist in a fallen world, and their are times when the death penalty is unjust depending on the situation. However, as people of God, we should always understand that there is a just punishment for those who do not honor the image of God.
when someone steals a man and sells him (v16) they are desecrating the image of God. They have no right over that person’s life. That was the case with slavery in the 16th-19th centuries. And today, that is the case with the human trafficking industry, that is absolutely modern day man stealing slavery. over 27 million people, including children, kidnapped and exploited around the world. Church, the Bible is very clear on the position the church should take regarding problems like this throughout the world. (james 1:27)
The early church was totally committed to these issues (rescuing babies in trash heaps, feeding the hungry and poor, treating servants/slaves justly in their household when the Roman Empire did not.)
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
vv 20-32 had to do with laws concerning injuries.
The whole purpose was for justice to be served. the verse that everyone knows, and often uses wrongly “eye for an eye and tooth for tooth” has nothing to do with personal vengeance, but actually allowing the judges of Israel rightly deal out justice with the presence of two witnesses. Notice when a master strikes the eye of his slave, he did not have his eye ruined as well. Rather, he was to let the slave go free because of his eye. The bible never, even in the Old Testament, promoted personal vengeance, as if God somehow is a different God in the OT as in the New. God never changes.
In Matthew 5, when Jesus was quoting these Scriptures, he was teaching more about personal relationships rather than the judicial system.
I want us to close with the understanding that God is perfectly just. Just a couple of chapters in the explanation of His law shows that.
Next i want us to understand how we stack up against God’s law. It is perfect, but very quickly the Israelites showed that they could not keep God’s law because of their impure, sinful hearts. Because of that, they, and anyone else for that matter, falls under the curse of God’s law, so don’t think for a second that any of us are better than the Israelite. And if we stand before God under the perfect standard of His law, we automatically stand condemned.
That is why we must always plead Jesus. Because He is the only one who kept the law perfectly on behalf of us, and bore the curse of the law on the cross on behalf of us.
I want every one of us to hear what is being said. If we all stand before God and are judged by His law, justice will be dealt to us. However, if Christ stands before God and is judged by His law in our place, we are granted mercy because Christ kept the law instead of us, and bore God’s justice instead of us.
So please trust in Christ and who He is and not in you and who you are.