Thank you for being here this morning. We have finished the Ten Commandments, and we're starting into another section of Exodus. So I'm going to ask you to turn to Exodus 20, and we're going to pick up at verse 18, which is right after the Ten Commandments. We've completed this mini-series that we started, I think in November, on the Ten Commandments, and of course we paused for Christmas and such. But we're continuing now with our study of the book of Exodus, and the approach that I'm going to take for the rest of the book of Exodus is gonna feel like just the opposite of what we've been doing for three months, because we have parked on a verse or at least a commandment, maybe up to three verses at a time, and we've stayed there for the day. And from here on out, Lord willing, we're going to cover a chapter or more per week and move through things like the tabernacle and some of these laws and regulations. So just to give you a heads up, this won't be the same verse by verse necessarily, but every section, every paragraph, I will probably make some kind of comment on. To review where we are in the book of Exodus, since it's been a year since we started Exodus, The first section is Israel and Egypt. This is from one of my study Bibles. I shared this with you the first week. Israel and Egypt, that's up through chapter 12, verse 30. And then Israel in the wilderness. They got out of Egypt. The Lord delivered them from slavery. So they were in the wilderness, and then they got to Mount Sinai. And that takes the rest of the book of Exodus. And for those of you who care, it takes all of the book of Leviticus. And it takes, I should have looked, but I think the first 12 chapters of the book of Numbers. They're parked there at Mount Sinai. There, God gave Moses the Law, and we can outline this section this way. So this is the Mosaic Law within the Book of Exodus. We started with the Decalogue, or we would say the Ten Commandments. That literally means ten words. That's the first part of chapter 20, and we'll finish verse 21 right off the bat here today. Then we have what's called the Book of the Covenant that goes the rest of chapter 20 through chapter 24. And then we have some ceremonial regulations. And that makes up the rest of that. And then we talk about the tabernacle, basically, for the rest of the book. So that's kind of where we are and where we're headed. Now, because of the length of the passage that we're gonna study today, I'm not gonna read all of it now. But I'm gonna read a portion of it. So I hope you've been able to find your place and that you're in Exodus 20 with me. I'm gonna ask you to stand, please, for a moment, if you're able. And I'm going to read chapter 20, Verses 18 to 21. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you. and that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. And I'm gonna stop there for now. Would you pray along with me? Our Father, as we look into your word today, we're asking for your help once again, that you would reveal yourself in your word. that you would help us to understand some of these strange laws to our context, but that we would understand what does apply to us and the overall idea that you want us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. So Lord, we're asking for the help of your Holy Spirit for that, that he would anoint me as I teach, that I would be clear, that we would have ears to hear, and that we would be changed to be more like Jesus as a result of our time together in your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. Three main ideas that I see in this section that we're gonna cover today are number one, the fear of the Lord. It leads to obedience. Having a proper fear of the Lord will discourage us from disobeying. If we have the right view of God, we will obey him. Number two, God cares about his children. He cares about them individually, and he cares about them as a group. So number two is God cares about his children, and number three, God treats his children with fairness. He treats them with equity, and he expects us to do the same, that we would treat others fairly. That whole love your neighbor as yourself idea. So those are the three main ideas for today. I thought it would be helpful probably to show you an outline, and that's what I'll be showing you as we go today, rather than coming back to three points. I will come back to them at the end, and hopefully they'll be obvious as we go. But here are the sections we're gonna look at. First off, the fear of the Lord. That's the section I just read. And then there are some laws concerning the altar. After the altar, we have laws concerning servants. After that, we have laws concerning violence. And after that, we have laws concerning, I'm gonna say, animal control. Dog catcher kind of stuff, right? So those are the sections that we're looking through. And we're gonna begin back at verse 18 in chapter 20 with the fear of the Lord. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. They trembled. They stood afar off. The people feared these signs of God's presence, the thunder and the lightning. And they asked Moses to stand between them and God as mediator, is our word for that. And then Moses said to the people, do not fear. For God has come to test you, that his fear may be before you, so that you may not sin. Now that's an interesting statement. As you read it, it may sound like it's contradictory, because he says, do not fear, but the fear of God should be before your eyes. So what is he saying? He's saying that they were afraid, that's obvious. Why do you think they might have been afraid? Well, there's thunder and lightning. When was the last time this group of people saw this kind of thunder and lightning? It was in Egypt, it was one of the plagues. Remember the plague of hail and the intense thunder and lightning? So they were naturally fearful, but he says God has come to test or to prove, or we could say to train you. The Ten Commandments and the laws that follow were intended to show whether the people would obey God or not. that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. An appropriate awe and reverence for God, that's the kind of fear we're talking about, that will keep us from sin. Having a right view of God will prevent us from sinning. The phrase, fear of the Lord, I don't know if you've ever done a word study on that. I pulled up the verses throughout the Old Testament this week to look at the fear of the Lord. There are lots of them in Proverbs, so I'm gonna give you some highlights, but it would be a really good study if you want something to dig into this week. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is clean. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that prolongs days. The fear of the Lord brings strong confidence and it results in hating evil and departing from it. Those are some of the statements about the fear of the Lord throughout the Old Testament, especially the book of Proverbs. And it says, the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near. There's a contrast there. The people are fearful. The people want Moses to tell them. Because what's been happening? Again, we should review because it's been a long time. They were standing on a plateau below the mountain. The mountain's on fire. There's thunder, there's lightning. And they are hearing the voice of God himself. Tells them these 10 words, the 10 commandments we've just been studying. They came directly, audibly from God's voice. And they're saying, we can't take anymore. This is scary stuff. Please, ask God not to talk to us directly anymore. We'd like him to tell you what he wants us to hear, and you come tell us. That's what we would like to do going forward. That's their request. But what's interesting is that it seems that the people are trying to avoid God's presence. And the contrast is that Moses wants to draw near to God's presence. And we'll see that more in the weeks ahead. Next, God gave some specific instructions on how to worship him. And in my opinion, these next verses, it's very interesting where they come in the order. Because what have we just had? The Ten Commandments. Could the people keep the Ten Commandments? No. Can we, as a people, keep the Ten Commandments? No. We're going to sin, we're going to fail, we're going to fall short, we're going to break God's law. What is the solution for that? The solution for that ultimately is Jesus, but the solution is a sacrifice. So what does God talk about as soon as he finishes giving them the Ten Commandments? He starts talking about an altar. That's what this next section is. What has to happen when we sin and disobey God's law? There must be an offering for sin. Hebrews 9.22 teaches us that. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with what? Blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission, which is another word for forgiveness. You want forgiveness for your sin? You've broken God's law. Do you want forgiveness for that? You know where it's gonna come from, ultimately? The shed blood of Jesus. Where does that offering take place in their context? On an altar. So we're gonna talk about the altar. Then the Lord said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, you have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to be with me, gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. What's God doing? He's further clarifying the second commandment. Not to make any idols. He's saying don't make any idols out of gold or silver. Boy, I wish they'd listen to that better. Because they made a golden calf. We're going to see that. In a future study and they worshiped it. But he's saying, Don't make anything that looks like anything created. That's a paraphrase of the commandment. Instead, he says, verse 24, an altar of earth you shall make for me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record my name, I will come to you and I will bless you. And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it. Wow, these are fun verses, aren't they? What are we talking about? Well, first off, let me say that the altar of earth he's talking about here is different from the bronze altar that would be a part of the tabernacle. So we'll talk about a different altar in a few weeks. That'll be chapter 27. But by insisting that God's people make the altar of dirt, or unfashioned, uncut stones. What's he doing? He's preventing them from making something fancy, ornate, and he's preventing them from making something that would look like something in the creation, keep them from worshiping it. That's what he's doing. He's making it very simple, something accessible. Anyone, anywhere in that context who wanted to worship God could make an altar out of dirt, could make an altar out of stones just pulled from the ground. Anybody could do that. Anybody could approach God. That's the way he wanted to be approached. And when he says, I don't want it to be high in the air, I don't want it to have steps, so probably it had a ramp and that kept it low. Apparently some of the other idolatrous nations around them had these altars way up in the air. And that's not what God wants. That's the opposite of what God wants. He wants us to come to him humbly. He wants us to approach him on his terms. Now there's symbolism here as well. Any altar constructed to worship the true and living God ultimately points to the cross of Jesus Christ. Because the Old Testament sacrificial system was a symbol to point to the ultimate sacrifice for sin, Jesus. The purpose of the altar we're reading about here was to sacrifice an innocent animal in place of a sinner who deserved to die. And of course the purpose of the cross of Christ is to provide an ultimate sacrifice, a final sacrifice for all sin, for any of us who put our faith in Jesus receive forgiveness because of his sacrifice. So that's why God forbid his people from constructing an altar in the likeness of anything he had created, lest the altar itself become an idol. And that's why he forbid his people from using tools on it, because we can't add anything to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Beginning with verse one of chapter 21, God expands and clarifies the Ten Commandments. He begins with cases about people, and then some case law about animals, and after that some case law about things. And there's a reason for that order. Because God values people more than he values animals, more than he values things. People are made in the image of God. Animals have life, different from plants. And things are just things. So there's an order to this. Also, we need to understand that this section is instructive to us about how God wanted his people to live under the covenant. The Ten Commandments, that's God's moral law. Those apply to us. Nine out of 10, we talked about it, nine out of 10 of the 10 commandments are repeated, reinforced in the New Testament. They have direct impact on us today. We're still required to obey them. We are not required to obey and follow every verse we're going to read in this section and the following sections. So don't get freaked out. We have to do animal sacrifice. No, we don't. We are living under grace and I am thankful for that. When I read what the priests had to do, because I read Leviticus recently, and they had to be doctors, dermatologists, butchers. I'm very thankful to be a pastor, to be able to teach God's Word. Now, we can certainly learn from this section of Scripture, but our application needs to be more general. Here's what I mean, God cares about people, and he treats them equally and fairly, so he's giving us examples of how to care for other people, how to treat other people fairly. So some of these rules apply to our time and culture, and some of them don't. Before we dive in, I wanna deal with one other issue, sort of the elephant in the room, because the first section we're gonna deal with is slavery. So we need to understand, and I've talked about this before, I'll have to talk about it again, I'm sure, but slavery as we see it here, especially this section about Hebrew servants, is different. This is different from most of us have the context of American slavery. This is not the same thing, and that hopefully will become obvious as we go. American slavery is completely morally wrong. And I think before we start into this other form of servitude, it would be good for us to see what God has to say about it. So there's a verse coming up in our study today that's going to tell us what God thinks and how he would judge American slavery. Here's how this works. Unfortunately, there are still places in the world today where people are stolen from their homes and taken away and forced into slavery. And it's wrong. It's horrible. There's a biblical term for that. It's in verse 16. And the word is kidnapping. The word kidnapping means steal. It's the same as the commandment that says you shall not steal. So, do you know what the penalty was? If you kidnapped a person? Death. Okay, so if you've ever wondered, well what did God think about this? We could discuss it at great length, I'm sure. But God calls that kidnapping, and in his economy, for his people, his form of government, under a theocracy, the penalty was death. He hates it. It was immoral, and it is where it is practiced today. So that's any form of kidnapping, any form of slavery, the way we think of slavery, American slavery, any form of human trafficking, God hates it. It is a sin, and in his economy, Old Testament dealings with his people, it would have been punishable by death. Does that make sense? I want us to understand that before we go into this section. So this is the third section of the outline I gave you at the beginning. These are laws concerning servants, or slaves. Starting with chapter 21, verse 1. Now these are the judgments, or your translation might say rules, or laws, or even ordinances, which you shall set before them, the people. If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years. And in the seventh, he shall go out free and pay nothing. So what are we talking about? This is about Hebrew servants. There's another passage, not part of our study in Exodus, over in Leviticus that deals with foreign servants. But you may be wondering, how or why would one of God's people need to or want to become a servant? That seems weird. So the first thing we need to understand is that there were no credit cards back then. There were no mortgages. There were no auto loans. There were no personal loans. There were no payday loans. It was different. We deal with debt in different ways today than what they could do. There were no pawn shops. If you were indebted to someone, whether by unfortunate circumstances or perhaps you had broken the law and you had to repay. If you couldn't pay, then you have a problem. What can you do? You can become an indentured servant in order to pay off that debt. That was about the only way you could repay the debt you owed. They didn't have, go back 200 years, debtor's prisons. That's not the way they did it. So in order to pay off a debt I cannot pay, I would make myself an indentured servant. I would say, I will serve you. I can't pay this debt, I will work to pay it off. Second thing you should understand is that you must note that there was no social welfare system. Nothing like what we would understand today. The government wasn't looking out for people in any way. There weren't even homeless shelters. So if you were in a situation of extreme poverty, then this was a way to become an entered servant that you could have your food, clothing, shelter provided for. You were working for it, it's not like somebody was giving it to you, but it was a way that you could survive if you were extremely poor. So to summarize, this form of slavery was a common way to work off a debt you couldn't repay, and here's the difference. What we think of as slavery, you're a slave for life. This was for up to seven years. It would be no more than six years because of the way God set this up. What's more, the servant who owed you money would become part of your household. In some cases, you had to train him, or we might say rehabilitate him, prepare him to do the job of your household. And according to Deuteronomy, at the end of the sixth, seventh year, the seventh year when you have to let this person go free, you can't send them out empty-handed. Isn't that what God did for his people? He didn't send them out empty-handed when they left Egypt. You had to give, if you had flocks and herds, you would give him a starter flock if you were In the agriculture, you would help him get started to get a vineyard planted or whatever. When this servant who had served you for six or perhaps right up to seven years, when he goes out, you're gonna help him get established. Why? So that hopefully with the tools you've given him, the training you've given him, and the gift you're giving him, he's not gonna have to go back into slavery. So this is a good system in many ways. I'm not saying that any of us would want, I'm not going to sign up for that, but it's very different from what we think of in terms of slavery. Now I'm going to share, just to clarify further, I want to share a couple other quotes with you, one from the Life Application Study Bible. They said that the Bible acknowledges the existence of slavery, but never encourages it. I agree with that statement. Because there are people who will say, I reject everything in the Bible, because it says that there should be slaves. Well, no, but it does regulate slavery, and John Corson talked about that. He said that God was not introducing slavery. It's not that it was unique to their culture. He wasn't instituting slavery. He wasn't saying, this is what you should do. But rather, he's regulating it. And the same principle is seen in Matthew 19. Remember that Jesus regulated divorce? He wasn't demanding divorce. What he said was, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, allowed for divorce, in certain instances, and regulated it. So we're gonna see that here, and we're gonna see it one other place later today. When the servant went out free, certain rules applied, and that brings us to verse three. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, that's a sharp object, and he shall serve him forever." So in some cases, the servant preferred to stay. He could go out free at the end of his six-year term. but maybe he had children, maybe he had been given a wife by the master, and it wasn't her time to go out free, so I'm going to stay. Or maybe it was a good situation. We talked about those who were extremely impoverished. Maybe this is a better situation than what I could get anywhere else. I want to stay. And there were times that happened. If that happened, there was a ceremony for that. The servant appeared before the judges to confirm, it is my intention, I am staying, I am becoming this person's servant for life. And the ceremony was that the master would then pierce the servant's left ear with a sharp object and the servant would serve him for the rest of his life. Now in case any of you are wondering, I'm not commenting here on pierced ears for men or women. That's not the purpose of this. But that's what it meant back then. That if you had a hole in your left ear in that time and place, then that meant that you were a servant for life, for your master. Now what's interesting is when we get to the New Testament, Jesus has adopted us, he has put us into the family of God. We are joint heirs with him, if you will, brothers and sisters with Christ in a way. We have that family relationship with God. He calls us friends. We have all of that, praise God. But how do Paul, James, Peter, and Jude describe themselves. They call themselves a bondservant or a slave of Jesus Christ. That's probably the context in which they were saying that. That I am voluntarily a slave of Jesus for life. That's how they were choosing to identify themselves as they wrote some of their letters. Continuing, verse seven. If she does not please her master who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights. And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free without paying money. Where's the equality in that? Well, what's being described here is actually an arranged marriage. That this female servant, perhaps the girl's father, is in debt. And what he's doing is actually going to give an advantage to him and to her because he's going to be able to take care of some or all of his debt by arranging this marriage for her and probably put her in a much better situation because she's going to be married to the master or possibly the master's son. That's probably what's being described here. That idea I shared with you a few minutes from John Corson, God is not endorsing polygamy. I don't know if you picked up on that in here, but if he takes another wife, God's not endorsing that here. But what he is doing is regulating and frankly giving rights to women that didn't exist anywhere else at that time in that culture to protect them. He was required to care for her equitably or to let her go, what does it say? Free. To give her her freedom, she's no longer a servant. Now there's a shift at this point at verse 12. Now we have rules regarding violence. Verse 12, he who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. We talked about this when we talked about the commandment, the sixth commandment, thou shalt not murder. And this spelled out the death penalty for premeditated murder. But there are times if he did not lie in wait, that's a way of saying if it was not premeditated murder, Then he can run to one of the six cities of refuge that would be established later in the promised land and avoid the vengeance, because again, this is part of that culture. This was an interesting question for me this week. That time and place, someone in your family is unjustly killed, we would say murdered. Now somebody in the family is supposed to go after that person and get vengeance. Who in your family would be that person? Anyway, that just came to my mind as I was reading this. So in order to avoid the vengeance of the deceased person's relatives, you could flee to the city of refuge. Verse 14, but if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from my altar that he may die. What does that mean? That means that in certain cultures it was common I'm going to claim immunity by going into the altar. I'm going to maybe even grab onto the horns of the altar, and then no one's going to mess with me. God's saying, no, if you premeditated, if you chose to kill somebody, hatred, you lay in wait for that person, it doesn't matter if you cling to my altar, you are going to be killed as your sentence. Verse 15, and he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hands, shall surely be put to death. And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Three quick verses in a row talking about the death penalty. So in keeping with the fifth commandment, no verbal disrespect, and it's not just one time a child says, I hate you. No, this is ongoing rebellion. That person would be killed. Same thing, if you were violent toward your parents, is what's being described here, then the death penalty. And then here's the verse I was talking about earlier. Kidnapping is a form of stealing, and that was the eighth commandment. So that also was a capital offense. Verse 18. If men contend with each other, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to his bed, if he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted. He shall only pay for the loss of his time and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed. in a situation when two men were fighting, regardless of who did what, regardless of who started it, if one person was severely injured, then the other person was required to pay for his care and to pay for his lost time at work. That was the regulation. Verse 20, and if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive for a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property. John MacArthur wrote about this, that punishment of slaves was considered the right of the owner, but did not allow for violence. Judges were to decide the appropriate punishment if the slave died. And if the slave lived for a few days, then losing the slave was punishment enough, according to this statute. Verse 22, if men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. If no harm follows, what that means, she may give birth prematurely, but the mother's okay and the baby's okay. then the husband and father can appeal to the judges and say, he should pay this much in damages, but that's all that happens. On the other hand, this is saying that if there's a death of the mother or the baby, in other words, a fetus is a human being made in the image of God, then their capital punishment would apply in that situation. Verse 23, but if any harm follows, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. There it is, that's what we were referring to earlier in Scripture reading. Because Jesus referred to this eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth in Matthew 5, 38. And the principle of retaliation, there's a Latin word that it goes by, it's called lex talionis. And although it probably sounds harsh to us, it's actually setting limits on what in that historical culture was barbaric. If I were, I'm not talking about in God's people, but in other cultures, if someone does something against me, and I'm rich and I can hire a lawyer, okay, he caused this little problem for me, but I'm gonna destroy him. And they could. And some of the sentences they were meeting out weren't appropriate. So this is limiting, okay, a tooth for a tooth. It's not, I lost a tooth, I get to knock out all of his. That's not appropriate. So that's what this is saying. It's actually limiting the sentencing and limiting the avenging relative. So this rule was instituted as a guide, like sentencing guidelines. for a judge. It is not for personal relationships. That's how it was being abused by the time of Jesus. So another way to say this is that this rule made the punishment fit the crime. You know that statement. So it was avoiding some of the abuse that was going on in other cultures at that time. So in the context of personal relationships, what are we supposed to do if we're not supposed to beat somebody's brains out, that is not what this is calling for. So what is it saying? Romans 12, Paul says it this way. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance belongs to God, it doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to you. Part of faith in God is that he will do what's right. Again, I mentioned this in the scripture reading, it's not saying that we cannot defend ourselves, it's not saying that we have to stay in an abusive situation, that's not what I'm saying. But it is saying, that we can trust God to avenge us. A lot of times I think of Joseph in this context. He was abused a lot of different ways, one of which was the kidnapping we were talking about earlier. His brothers sold him into slavery. And we know how that went once he got to Egypt. It started off pretty well and then went downhill from there. But he trusted God. And when his brothers were before him, he didn't deny them food. Eventually he forgave them. Continuing, verse 26. If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth. Interesting that we just started off with eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and now he's talking about if his tooth gets knocked out, if his eye gets damaged. So as someone pointed out, any personal injury brought freedom. to that servant. Thus, the master's power over the slave was limited, and that was unprecedented in the ancient world, that there could actually be a limit on the powers of a master over a slave. Yes, that's how God wanted it to be. If there had to be slavery, then it needed to be done that way in that time. Now we're gonna shift gears and talk just a little bit about animals and we'll continue that next week, but picking up at verse 28. If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. But if the ox tended to thrust with its horn in times past and it has been made known to its owner and he has not kept it confined so that it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death. If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him. Whether it has gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment, it shall be done to him. If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. What this section is doing is placing legal responsibility on the owner if the animal misbehaves. That price, 30 shekels of silver might sound familiar to you, because that gets repeated in Zechariah and then in Matthew, because that's what Judas was paid to turn over Jesus. Verse 33. In that time and place, it was common, you might dig a big hole in the ground, it might be a reservoir for water, it might be in stone, or it might be to house grain, like we would use a silo for, but whatever the reason, if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it, the owners of the pit shall make it good, he shall give money to their owner, but the dead animal shall be his. So it's saying, don't allow your negligence to cause someone else his life or livelihood. We dealt with this some when we were talking about the sixth commandment, not to murder. If one man's ox, verse 35, hurts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it, and the dead ox they also shall divide. Or if it was known that the ox tended to thrust in times past, and its owner has not kept it confined, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his own. If an ox killed another ox, the owner of the dead ox would receive half the value of the live ox. And this person went on and said, but if the live ox was prone to aggressive behavior, the owner of the live ox would have to pay full price. Whew, that's good. Don't you feel better? You know what to do this week if your ox misbehaves. That should be a real load off our minds. The point, again, is that God is fair. He cares about even the small details of our lives. His people had been slaves in Egypt for generations, and now that they were free and he was making a covenant with them, he wanted to tell them, to teach them, to train them how to live. Do you remember, we don't know exactly how many people were there, there are disagreements, but possibly as many as two million people are camped together. for months at a time. There are gonna be interactions, there are gonna be things that go wrong with neighbors. And so God is teaching them, this is how you interact as my people. However it was in Egypt, this is how my covenant people are supposed to love one another. He's teaching them how to live. So those main points again that I want you to remember this week, much more so than the laws about oxen, the fear of the Lord leads to obedience. If I have a disobedience problem, it's because I have a wrong view of God. The fear of the Lord leads to obedience. God cares about his children. Do you know God cares about you? He knows you by name. He thinks about you. God cares about his people. And then God treats his children fairly and calls others to do the same. And we can learn some of those principles at least from these laws. Believers, do you fear the Lord the right way? How's your fear of God this morning? Do you love God and worship Him exclusively in the ways that He's told us to do? And do you love your neighbor as yourself? There's some way in which the Holy Spirit's saying, hey, you can work on that here. One more reminder, the altar was a symbol of the cross. That was God's provision. We can't do anything about our sin problem, not on our own, but he's made a way. He has provided for our atonement. He's provided for our redemption because he himself came and died in our place. And for that, we're grateful. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our Father, would you continue to work your word into our hearts? Some of this is obscure, some of it's unfamiliar, and some of it doesn't even apply to us today. But it was important enough for you to record for your people, and it's important enough for us to study. So Lord, would you help us to glean from it what you want us to, that we would be mindful this week of loving you, of worshiping you exclusively, and loving our neighbor as ourself. In Jesus' name, amen.