So my goal is to get through two chapters. Really, if you've looked, if you've read it, chapter 19, chapter 20 gives us a list of laws, obviously. And chapter 20 gives us the consequences for those laws. So it's kind of a recapitulation, really. If you look at my notes, there's nothing earth shattering in here. It's almost like a little summary of what's in the text. So I think what we'll do is we'll read through the text slowly and think about it. And then maybe we can branch off, because I mean, Really, what we need to do is kind of talk and think through some of the ramifications of these laws. Most of them, in this Christian community, we all agree with. But I want us to think through some of the things. What was the setting? How different it is compared to the other cultures And really, we act like these things don't go on today. But really, just about everything that's in here happens today in our societies now. We might say, well, there's not slavery. But yes, there really is. It's just not the slavery that everybody recognizes that we had in an early part of this country. But there is slavery. I mean, there's people being trafficked all the time. So let's open with a quick word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this study, Lord. Lord, let us consider, give us some insights into things that are so familiar. Let us look at it from your perspective today. You gave these laws, and it's not just for It's for our good. You're telling us how you design things. And Lord, let us consider why this is so difficult to follow these, to be obedient. So Lord, may your spirit be with us. May we consider, may we just see something and think of of your world and the way you've created it, your created order. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. That's what I want to do. I want to, okay, so let's look, I want you to get, go with me on my big picture journey, because this is who I am. We're in Exodus 19, right? We got the covenant, God has brought them out of Egypt. He redeemed them. We know all the miracles. We know the plagues that happened. God was in charge of all of this. So he's blessed these people. He's done something for them. They're making a covenant. And he says, I am your Lord. I am your sovereign. I am the suzerain, as they liked to refer to it back in those covenant era days. I will bless you, but I am the Lord. I am the sovereign. Okay? So there was always the idea, if you don't follow me, you won't be blessed, which is kind of really implying you will be cursed. So they make the covenant, they go on with some laws, but the good part of Exodus is the details for making the tabernacle so that God's going to tabernacle with them. He's going to be present there. So the relationship is there. And think about, all these laws really have to do with relationships. If I lose track of that, I've kind of lost the whole thing. He's not doing this just to... It's not just a taskmaster thing. Everything about him is relational. He's telling us how relationships work. And it goes to show you how difficult a time we have with relationships, because we can't... We're not totally obedient. So they make the tabernacle, right? We move into Leviticus. Now we start with the worship, right? Okay, there's a relationship. God's their sovereign, okay? God has approached them. Now, with the sacrifices, it's now how does we, how does that person, how do those people in that economy approach God? If you approach me, these are the sacrifices, these are the cleansings, these are the methods. I am holy, I am separate. It's relational. This is the way you have to come in relationship with me. So they're getting this idea that they're not holy. So we went through all those. We saw the different flavors and the different aspects, the different symbolisms for all these sacrifices. and the holiness of God and our sinfulness and separation from God. So we're at that point, right? Then we have Nadab and Abihu. And they're consumed with fire. We don't know exactly. I've looked at the commentators. We're not sure. The only thing we know is they brought strange fire. That was the only real thing we had. But when we went to Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, right there in the beginning of the chapter, he talks to Moses, he says, tell Aaron not to approach me in the inner part of the, you know, you can't come into my presence. And yet, what he's telling them is, in that chapter, this is how you do come into my presence once a year. It seems to me, I don't know what happened with Nate Abinabayu, but somehow they were Whatever means they were trying to approach God's presence in the wrong way. That seems to be my takeaway. Again, it's a holiness thing. So, let's go back to Nadab and the Bible, we're at chapter 10, right? And then what does he do? He goes into all these things. Cleanliness, you know, kind of look at the highlights of it, right? Chapter 11, right? He talks about foods, clean and unclean animals. Right? All these different foods. Chapter 12, he talks about motherhood and how The natural thing, and God told them to fill the earth, right? And to have children. But this, after motherhood, they're not clean to come in. So we're learning all these things, these tests for leprosies. And we said leprosy is a broad term. It could be any type of scab or infection. Could be from a burn, okay, that's even mentioned in there. You can't approach God. So we're seeing all these cleansing of a leper, cleansing of a leper's house. He's telling us, you are separate from me. You are not holy. I am holy. I'm showing you the means to do it. And then he goes into, It leads up to the ultimate right, the Day of Atonement. There's a one day a year that all the sins, and that's the way I read it, it says all sins in that chapter, all the sins can be paid for. And so God will, he's reconciling the relationship again. Then we move into 18, which we did last week. Well, excuse me, 17. Let's start with 17. 17 was a short chapter. You remember that? And he talks about the two big things was he didn't want them eating blood, was it? And for the life is in the flesh. And he says, don't eat the blood. But he wanted to meet the sacrifices brought to the sanctuary. And he says it in verse seven, really, they shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons, and it might just be goat, there's a question about that, with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generation. So they don't want the sacrifices to whatever whatever they were using to some other deity. And it could be anything, right? They're playing the harlot. It's a relationship. And it's so hard for us to get into that relationship. There was that relationship with God. But we find other things to worship. And that's the issue here. So 17, we move into now the practical behavioral side, which we might call the moral, but I call it behavioral. Worship me. Worship God. Don't worship other things. 18. He talks about sexual things, and we say, oh man, there's a bunch of perversion, I'd never do that. But what is the, to me, when I step back and look at this, what is the essence here with sexual relationships? It's between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, it's probably one of God's Designs, it's one of the most bonding and binding things between a male and a female. And we know the differences between the two. It bonds them together. It's the relationship. And what is the nucleus to that relationship of a husband and a wife? It's the family. I mean, this is huge, right? And what do we do? We mess it all up. We take And they did it almost from the beginning. This is just a kind of a, again, this is the fall. They messed up sexual, sex was one thing, marriage is another, right? No. It's a whole part of the thing. It's that relationship. When you come outside and do all these different things, it does not work relationally. You know, and again, it's a sin against God. All these things, we are taking God's created order and then we want to do it our way. Well, what about this? Why don't we do it this way? I mean, does this really matter? God's saying, I think God to me, my takeaway from this, God's not saying, well, I'm not trying to restrict you, I'm trying to show you how it works. I designed you, I created you, I planned you, I got all this together, and you've got a better way of doing it than I am. That's really what we're doing throughout all this sin, aren't we? We're saying, I have this way of work, I like this. And God's going, no, this is the way I designed it. Follow the rules. These are the instructions. 19. He talks about idolatry and worshipping others. You know, when you enter the land, and so we'll look at this. But 19, he's really talking about, OK, now how do you treat other people? What are the relationships? Before we get into this, and again, my notes are, there's really, even as you read the commentary, there's not a whole lot there that's not right there in the text on the surface. I find two big things in this one, right? Love your neighbor as yourself. That's really the essence of this. Love your neighbor as yourself. And then he goes on and he says, love the foreigner as yourself. And isn't that what God's kind of summed up in Jesus in the New Testament? He goes, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and will. Love your neighbor as yourself. These are the two greatest commandments. If you do these, you fulfill the law. Again, it's relationships. How is this going to work? Chapter 20, really, he just tells us, what he says is, he tells us, and again, probably some of the things to note in Chapter 20, look at how he comes down on some. Some of them deserve death. Some of them, people would just be maybe cut off or, but even that, I think we undermine that. We'll look at that a little bit. What does that cut off mean? I don't want to get ahead of myself. Really, there is going to be consequences for this. Let's read through chapter 19. Really, because of the time, if there is something, I want you to speak up. Um, all right, so let's read through this slowly. If you, if you have some questions besides the TV, please, because really, uh, again, most of these laws, most of these laws are, are kind of straightforward. Um, so I'll start off with, let's kind of read through this chapter. Let's read it slowly and think about it here. When the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And how do we do that? And really, I think what this chapter does, these are some of the practical workings out of being holy. He goes, OK, you say you want to be holy? Okay, practically how do you do that in everyday life? Here's the laws. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father and you shall keep my Sabbath. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make yourself molten gods. I am the Lord your God. You get a little gist there of what's going on. I am the Lord your God. Right? You're going to see that all throughout here. Do not turn to idols and make yourself more than it is. Now, when you offer sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it and the next day. But what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense. It will not be accepted. Everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord, and the person shall be cut off from his people. Somebody want to read me 9 through 14? Now when you reap the harvest of your land, You shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, so as to profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse the deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind. But you shall revere your God. I am the Lord. So many read 15 through 19. to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the light of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Somebody read 19 through 22. You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man, and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death because she was not free. But he shall bring his compensation to the Lord to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed. And he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed. Let's see. Somebody want to read 23 through 29? When you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised. Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten, but in the fourth year all its fruit shall be whole. Praise to the Lord. And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you in its increase, I am the Lord your God. You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying. You shall not save around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you, for I am the Lord. Do not prostitute your daughter to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. Let's see, somebody want to read 29 through 32? Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot so that the land will not fall into harlotry and the land will become full of lewdness. You shall keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or to spiritists. Do not seek them out to defile, to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. You shall rise up before the grave-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God. I am the Lord. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. You shall do no wrong in judgment and measurement of weight or capacity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hymn. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall thus observe all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them. I am the Lord. So a couple of things, this is, and I gave this to you last week so you could kind of look it over. I know everybody's busy, but this is a good little outline. It kind of gives you the big picture so you know where it's going. Wenham says this, he says, and a lot of them break this up a little differently. I mean, everybody has a different outline, but There are multiple topics in this chapter, but it would be noted that each paragraph is marked off with, I am the Lord, and then sometimes your God. So he says it both ways. The chapter falls into 16 paragraphs arranged in three sections. And so what he's saying is there's four paragraphs, four paragraphs, and eight paragraphs in each of the three sections. All Ten Commandments are quoted or alluded to. The Ten Commandments. So, theological themes. This is Ross's. The holy chapter's theme is the holiness of the people. You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. This chapter reveals the traits and actions of holiness, what holiness should look like. Devout worship, honesty, justice, charity, and love. The other major theme in this chapter is love for your neighbor and love for the alien living among you. That's verses 18 and 34. Israel's love for God was the foundation and means by which the people were to love one another and love the foreigner and stranger. The love expressed here is not emotional love, but love expressed in action. Holiness and true love are the two principles that are the essence of the New Covenant and the foundation of living out the heart of will of God. So, and that's kind of the essence to this. And when you think about, you know, going through these, We can go through the motions and do certain functions, but there were a couple of things that I kind of thought spoke to me. So again, with time, if anything, We don't have to really go in order. I'm really looking for your feedback. If there's anything in here that jumps to you, speaks to you, let's talk about it. Because really, most of these notes, it's pretty much a recapitulation of what it is, right? We know that God is holy. Isaiah 6.3. I think I'm speaking to the choir choir here. I assume most of you are familiar with this passage. Isaiah 63, Isaiah's caught up into the sanctuary, the heavenly sanctuary in spirit, or with God, right? And one called out, the seraphim, cherubims, and the flying over, and they say, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And I didn't quote this, but what does Isaiah say? He goes, man, I'm ruined. You know what I mean? I'm not holy. I come from a people with unclean lips, and my lips are unclean, right? He sees the difference there. It just penetrates. We are, in Romans 8.28, which they call the golden chain, those who you know, predestined or, you know, called. What is, let's read that. Let me read that real quick so I get it. I don't want to paraphrase it because I'll miss something. I'll say in 28, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that we would be the firstborn among many brethren. And then he goes with the chain. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called. He also justified, and these whom He justified, He also glorified. So, there's this sanctification, but what is the goal? It's to be conformed to the image of God, the Son. We are to be holy. And obviously, we'll never get there till full glorification, but we're in the process, right? It's to be holy. Honor your parents in the Sabbath. Again, you can see he's kind of going with the family structure. I mean, this is critical, okay? Again, I think 18, I mean, we have all these guides on different sexual acts, and it's because it's to be confined in a marriage. And what comes from a marriage is that you're supposed to populate the earth, and of course that's a family structure. So here we are. Children have to obey. Because really, the parents are showing authority, right? It's the essence, and hopefully that authority is ultimately going to point them to the full, the authority of everything, God, right? But you can see how sin comes in, and the family's in trouble, is it not? What's the divorce rate here? 50 plus percent? And in some sections, it's way higher. Yeah. So I mean, again, to me, I just see all these laws, all these rules, everything has to, it ultimately comes to relationships. If we're gonna, we can't do relationships without God. And even with God. We still, it's a work in progress. Is it not? Believe it or not, Laura VC from time to time, and I'm not, holy. It is interesting to me that when God is making these laws and he wants them to follow them, it's individuals. How am I going to be holy? Individually. You want to live holy. And that's how a country is run. Legislation doesn't make it. And he's speaking to the people one on one. You have to remember to be holy. And these are the rules that will help you to be holy. You'll do a difference. And that's still the same way. If you're going to live as a citizen of America, you're going to live in your neighborhood. Your next door neighbor. They should be able to see that we have a difference. A different law abiding in us. A different law lived out in us. And no country, no country in the world, no matter what you legislate for Washington, will be good until it's applied individually. And that's why, and that was, I think, my point with Chapter 17. The transition, and I said this when we went over Chapter 17, the transition is, OK, You know, we went through all the sacrifices, we went through the holiness, I showed you, you were unholy, I gave you the Day of Atonement, now you have to practice it. And really what some of the commentators are saying is, if you don't follow God, you will live like the pagans. This is your only hope. And 17 is a short chapter. It's basically saying, bring your sacrifices to me. Bring to me your sacrifices. And I think that should be a broad thing. Let's not just think of that economy. For application, it's my life. It's everything I bring to God. It's easy to say, but that's not easy to do, is it? And it's kind of in line with what you're saying. You can't legislate this stuff. And you're right, it is individually. It's responsibility. You know, with predestination, and you really get into all that, and I've heard different theologies on it, and some will talk about, you know, talk of this debate about free will and all that. God is sovereign. We all agree with that. He gives us a lot of choices, doesn't he? Gives us a lot of choices. All you have to do is look around and see the choices we're making. He gives us a lot of choices. It is. I don't know if you were saying this, but this is what I'm, you know, you're right. You can't legislate it. It is individual. And individuals have choices. You know, what choices are you making? You're responsible, and there will be consequences for your choices. That's what we're trying to teach you guys in the jail ministry that we're involved with. And they have to realize, I don't want them feeling guilty. I want them to see their story, and I want them to say, OK, what choices did you make? Bad things may have happened to you, you were out of control. I get it. You know, we all got a sob story in a way. But, what choices did you make? And they have to pull back and see that and then not feel guilty about it so that they can actually look, okay, when this happened, these are my go-to choices. Right? And it's... Yeah. And you can't... The other thing is, We agree with all these laws. Why is it so hard to do? Why is it so hard to do this? You all know. I'm waiting for you to answer. Why is it so hard to do this? Yes. Sin. And we say that. The reason I want you to say that is because We got to realize sin is powerful. God knows we're in sin. He cursed us, right? We were cursed from Adam and Eve. We are in sin. We as Christians, we recognize that. We say, yeah, we're sinners. But we need to realize, I'm a Christian, but I still have part of this flesh, this nature. I am in sin. The only way I'm going to overcome this is with God. If I'm trying to do this just by being obedient to these laws, there are certain things I can do and I'll look good. But I can't change the heart. And I can't change the attitude. But God can. I've seen it with addicts. I've seen people, I had a guy I did jail ministry with, he was addicted to crack cocaine for 17 years. That stuff is really addictive. He got saved and he went back to it once, but he quit just like that. That was God. Don't get me wrong, he's not perfect. He's got other things he deals with. But God can change the heart. God can do it. But as a matter of fact, without him, you're not going to do it. Yes. Yes, we need to be obedient. But at the same time, we need to be seeking God. That's what he's talking about. Bring your sacrifices to me. I'm the source. Yes. I'm thinking of the role of the Holy Spirit in this Old Testament. Saints and the Jews and all. He's the spirit of truth. He's the one who convicts you of sin. So I'm thinking like this, all that's the, at this time, God, this is going on. Before even the law was given to the Israelites, they were used to be sinning because they've learned all this stuff, you know, from Egypt and all the neighbors. And they didn't think of that as sin until God. gave this law that don't do this, don't do that, no, it has become a sin, and well, don't do this, otherwise you will have some punishment. But I'm also thinking that in between this, since there is a Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, the conviction of your sin, do you agree? So, I'm thinking like, since the Holy Spirit's job is to convict us with sin and righteousness and judgment, so when they sin, the Spirit of God is like convicting them that they're sinning. But there is no righteousness of Jesus Christ at the time, you know, to them to lean on, but I'm thinking also that God was allowing them to Think of their sin that they're going against God so that they would repent. So I'm thinking of repentance as the, you know, go-to for God's grace, before God gives them grace. I mean, because you cannot obey unless you have grace from God. You know, because on your own we are dead in our trespasses because we live in our flesh. Our flesh loves to do evil. We cannot do the good stuff because we love our sins. So we need grace from God. Some people on this Old Testament Israelites, how would they get the grace from God unless they repent? You mean how? I think, again, number one, it's God. So number one, obviously he didn't make me his spokesman. I'm studying the word. I'm reading what his word says. Number two, God opens the heart. God, you know, faith. Okay, those who had faith, and we've talked about this before. I'm going to, I know, and it says in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon people, and there's, in John, Jesus is telling them, I forget what it is, 14 or something. But anyway, Jesus is telling him he's going to go away. He's in the upper room. It's like, I think, 14 or 15. And he's telling him, you know, I'm going away. He's preparing on me. He goes, I'm not going to leave you alone. There's going to be another comforter. He goes, you have the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit, but he will be in you. It's future. So there's a difference, you know, the New Covenant were sealed with the Holy Spirit. That's never put that way in the Old Testament, but the Holy Spirit came upon people. The point is this, is that, yes, they had faith. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. It says that in Genesis 15, 6. It must have been the Spirit. I mean, the God is one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right? You're not really, you're not, you have to be careful about how we divide them up. If you're, yeah, I believe they were getting, their consciences was being convicted by the Holy Spirit. I was thinking about doing a study, to look at the Holy Spirit and to do a study on it. There's a really good book out by Walvert, and it's thorough, it's scriptural, and he goes through a tremendous amount of scripture about it. And it's difficult, because the question you're asking is, and they don't really It's somewhat of a gray area. What was the, how did the Holy Spirit work in the Old Testament and how does he work in the New Testament? We have scriptures, but it came upon them. Yeah, they were convicted. And then you go to chapter 20. If you don't obey your parents and like that, you honor them, you die, you know? God kills you. Again, I was taught. I don't mean to cut you off, but I was talking to somebody this morning. Remember, that's the other thing. We are dealing in Leviticus with Israel. Israel is a nation. I know a lot of the woman I was talking to asked me about some of this. She goes, I'm not dispensational. I'm going, OK, whatever. But it's a different economy. This is a nation. The church is not Israel. He's dealing with the people. These people are going to have a nation. They're going to have a land. He's dealing with them differently. You see what happens. He's cutting them off. They're being put outside the camp. This is the way he's dealing with them. You've got to recognize that the church, we are not Well, we don't have a nation, we don't have a land. We are a collective body, we are the body of Christ, but it's different. And so you're going to see some different things. And this is part of it. Why? Because he wants his nation pure. This nation was to make God's name great to the other nations. He says that in the Prophets. Ezekiel, he says, you basically made my name mud. He goes, but I am going to restore you. Now Ezekiel's writing right about the time when this happens. Ezekiel may be in Babylon. The nation is going to be crushed and carried off to Babylon. It's going to destroy Jerusalem. But it's a different, this is Israel. These are an ethnic group. This is sons of Abraham that he's called. He's dealing with them differently than he does with the church. And when I say that, in the essential things for salvation, for godliness, for holiness, and all those types of things, he's not dealing differently. It's the same story, because he's God. I know it's difficult, but there is a difference. We don't kill people nowadays, say, for homosexuality, right? And he says in 20, they should be murdered. In chapter 20, if a man has a woman and his daughter, they're supposed to be burned. That's serious. Okay? And it's not to say, well, look at it from God's point of view. What God is saying by that is, this is serious. This really goes against my creation order. That's what you're doing. We just worry about it. Ultimately though, think of it, this earth, this life is short. Right? We need to say, okay, what happens? Do we go to eternity with Christ or do we go to eternity with separation from God? It's the same thing with these people. OK? Only we see this as harsh because it's being played out on Earth while they're existing. But somebody who's practicing these things now, right, it's appointed for man to die once and then to judgment. Romans 9, 24, 26, I can't remember. These, this is God's holiness here. And he's telling us how to live. And the thing of it is, is that we, because we want to do these things our own way, and it's what he's, all we gotta do is look around at our world, and the things that we're doing, this, Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes, nothing's new under the sun. They've been doing this for like, you know, We want to do it, but relationally, it won't work. It just won't, it doesn't work. Our relationships are our big, if we look at the church, anything in life, our relationships are our biggest obstacles. Look at some of these things, he says, and I'm just zipping around because I want to hit the, slander, he says, you know, when people slander, Right? Don't slander one another. Because he talks about fair judgments, right? Don't judge the poor one way and the rich another way. You know, don't favor the rich, don't favor the poor, really. Or, you know, and vice versa. Right? To have just judgments. And it's not easy, is it? We have pre-perceptions or kind of tainted perceptions of things going into it. He says, don't slander. How many people have been guilty before any evidence came out from slander? It's horrible. We are harming each other. Words do matter. You know, people are guilty before they're even tried. They don't even know what the evidence is. They slander them. They say things and there's no evidence. But it's about relationships. Relationships are very difficult. And that's what I just want us to get to recognize. You know, we were watching this show, and it was one of these detective kind of things, and this one girl made this statement. I thought, man, this is really good for a secular show. She says she was looking at this woman, and her husband was saying, you know, they were friends of theirs, and she had to ask her some tough questions. And the husband says, man, you upset so-and-so. And she says, you know, I'm trying to get to the truth. I'm trying to find out what happened to this other girl. And she goes, you know, people, there's things going on in people's lives because we don't even know. We don't really know these people. And it's, you know, she being a detective, you kind of find the things out. But it's true. These laws are for relationships. If we do it our own way, it won't work. And it's hard to get to that relationship. I mean, that's the beauty of being glorified. No more of this false stuff we got to put on. Won't that be great? Everybody's got secrets. Everybody in this room's got secrets, right? No more of that. That, to me, is heaven. No more falseness. No more facades. I know I'm off the thing here, but I mean, you see the laws. Any of these come out to you? Do not hate your fellow countrymen. Oh, here's another one I like. Verse 17. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. That's the hard part, isn't it? When somebody does something wrong, You know why we get anger and everything else? It's because we don't tell the person. We tell each other, or we tell the people that we know. You know what so-and-so did? But we don't go to the person who did it. It's hard. I mean, we may not get the response we want. They may become angry with us, but really, if we're If we're going to grow, we have to tell the other person, really, what you did was harmful. This is what it did to me. Or what you did was wrong. We talked about this a little bit last week. Somebody brought up homosexuality. Well, what about the people that say you have to accept them? I'm not sure exactly. I don't want to put words in their mouth. But how could we say, you know, Is it unloving to tell them what they're doing is wrong? I think it's unloving to tell them it's OK or to be accepted. I accept you as a person. As a person, you're a person. I see the image of God in you. Your practice of this or that, it's wrong. You shouldn't do that. It's not easy. That's loving. Reproving each other is not easy. I bet everybody in here can think of a time where somebody did something and we didn't say anything to that person. But, you know, we were thinking about it. Anybody else? Anything jump out at you? Did you read through this? We've just read through it. Did anything jump out at you? Every time I read this, I just see that God is interested in the person, and a society is going to break down in the lower parts. I mean, in the families, in the neighborhoods. And he's trying, they're gonna have to live 40 years together in this wilderness. And he's trying to tell them how to get along, and that makes them holy. If you were legislating laws for our country, we would not do it to an individual. We'd be making these sweeping statements, and we wouldn't even get into being ugly to your neighbor. That's why it's God that's talking. He's interested in the holiness of the person, And it starts right at the very source of your family, your village, your town, and so forth. But that's why there's a difference in His laws and in man's laws. Because man doesn't see us as evil. They see us as we're really pretty good, and we'll just encourage you to be gooder. But God's getting it at the heart, and you can't miss it. That his laws are not our laws. We wouldn't have put them in if we were having a committee meeting. This would not have come up. That's why it's important that we see when you honor your father and your mother, it says, that the law may be that your lives will be long in the land. That your days shall be long in the land. When we say that to our kids, Jimmy, our son, says, yeah, you only Divorce is everywhere. Immorality is everywhere. And it's really true, you live long in the land. If you obey, and a kid that doesn't obey his parents, doesn't obey his boss, doesn't obey the policeman, doesn't obey the teacher, it starts in the basics. Only Sarah Cooper. Again, we could go through each one of these. And again, most of us would. There's nothing really theologically that we can't grasp. It's right here in the text. It's kind of straightforward. But you're right. You said something. They were going to live 40 years. And it was another thing I was thinking about. Also, again, put yourself back in their situation. What are they? Two million plus people. They're in a camp. That's a small town. You know what small town is like? Anybody grow up in a small town? Laura used to go back and visit her grandparents in a small town. She went out one day and was riding on the back of this motorcycle, and her grandmother said, don't go too far away. People will talk about it. Well, they were just exploring around and nothing. But they went up on the top of the mountain. She said by the time they got back, her grandmother already knew about it. But think about it. They had to live 40 years. Think of the proximity. You know everybody's business. One of the things in chapter 20 that we're obviously not going to be able to go over, but he talks about, and I can't remember offhand what, like if somebody sacrifices to Moloch, which is one of the gods, There is a retribution if the family or the people around him don't report him. There's a responsibility for the community. He's got this nation, and he wants them holy. And part of your responsibility is to tell the elders or whatever, if somebody is doing this, they are culpable and responsible if they don't. I thought that was interesting, too, because what do we do? It's like, well, I mean, I like this person. Maybe it's a relative of mine, a father, a brother, I don't know, a sister, and whatever. It's like, I don't want to turn them in. Right? Think about it. It's difficult. But that's a responsibility. God holds them accountable to that. It's to be holy, to be separate. That's my question. And God knows, even if you don't know. So, but then if the punishment here is cut off, does it mean killing or just separation? Well, see, and there, that's a good question. And some of them think maybe it's a premature death. And I'm glad you brought that up because that phrase cut off Typically, one of the things, and the commentators seem to emphasize this, if somebody is, well, we talked about in 17, offering sacrifices out in the open field, right? A lot of times, people would never know you did that. But the Lord would say something like, that person will be cut off. And that's the thing we have to remember. God, we act like God doesn't see what we're doing. And those people would probably be doing the same thing. And what he's saying to these people over and over again, you'll see that phrase, cut off, cut off. Typically, that's what he's saying is, God sees it. You're going to be cut off. Now, he could do that in a number of ways. Your health could go bad. You know what I mean? You're not going to be blessed. God sees, and that is one of the essence of that phrase, cut off. Okay, you may think you've gotten away with it, we say that now, but we don't think this way. God sees, God knows. God sees what you're doing, and you will not be blessed by this. Remember, it's not like he's the big God with the stick. He wants to be the God with open arms. I want relationship with you. I am holy. You can't come to me in your way. I've told you what the plan is. And he also knows, again, God knows he cursed the people. He knows we're sinners. He gives us a day of atonement back then. He gives us Jesus Christ. He goes, You can't do this. You need to come to me. That's humbling yourselves. Catch yourself this week. See how many times you do stuff on your own. Maybe things you didn't pray about. I catch myself doing it all the time. Scott and I were talking about it one day, how many times we're doing things You know, we're way down the road with whatever it is, and we're going, you know, I guess I ought to pray about this. I think about praying about it up front, you know what I mean? But, you know. These are child sacrifice. So I'm thinking that cut off maybe not just a blessing, blessing. I'm sorry? The scene is they're offering their children to Moloch as child sacrifice. So I'm thinking maybe the cut a grievous punishment, like probably even death. And the worship of Moloch is child sacrifice, but it was more than that. There are other aspects of it, too. And sometimes, too, God will name something, and really, he's thinking about, to the people, it could be a broad category. Don't be worshiping these false gods. Moloch you're going to hear about, but there were other ones, and you see the names of them in the Old Testament. And oftentimes, you know, it's kind of like an idiom or something like that. You say something and you mean, you know, a whole category of things. It's like, so yeah, the worship of Moloch did include child sacrifice. There were some that were debating that, but with archaeological stuff, they've definitely found remnants of child sacrifice during this, in that area. But it meant more than that. There was other aspects of worshipping Moloch than just that. So, again, do you believe in God or not? Are you trusting in God or not? I mean, that's faith, isn't it? Have faith in God for all these aspects. And it's a process, people. I mean, again, We need to know our story. Our story is that we're being sanctified. We're not glorified. Any thoughts, any last minute thoughts? Yeah, I like chapter 19, verse 32. Read it to us real quick, and then we'll read it. Do you have it? All right, let me find it. What it says is we pay attention to the attachment of white hair. I was going to bring that up. Just by going through life, even if you don't do a good job of it, even a secular person, there's a lot of things you learn just by going through life, isn't there? And of course, those of us, the more we walk with God, the more insight and wisdom we've gotten. So yeah. Yeah, if you don't learn from the past, you repeat it. And we tend to repeat it, don't we?