most part of the person. I just realized I put it on the wrong side. Okay, whatever. There he is. Okay. All right, he's still got one, yeah. He's got his heart there, and that innermost heart is not, we're not talking so much about the physical heart, we're talking about the driving force of the human being, the very center of the human. This includes everything that we call your soul, right, your will. your desires, all of that is bound up in the heart. So you're supposed to love God with the very core of who you are, your heart of hearts. In other words, not just externally, but in the depth of who you are, love him. And then with all your soul, really not what that Hebrew word means, it actually is the entire person. is what is being referred to by the word often translated soul and the reasons for why it's translated soul is There's like a long history of interpretation thing but so heart innermost part of you and then the second one really is not so much soul as person with all your person in other words, you know your your entire body every every part of every member of of you know you and And then the last part, often translated strength, really also is misleading. It's your sphere of influence. We'll call it sphere of influence. And the idea is you have stuff connected to you that is yours, that you have power over, your money, your stuff, your home, your relationships, your vote. you know, all these things that are in your sphere, right? And so you're supposed to love God in these ever-extending contexts, right, with every part of who you are. It's all supposed to be offered to God in love, right? I don't know, that helps me understand what he's talking about. So love God that way, and then love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the two great commands. And then what happens is the law then expands on what those two commands mean with the 10 commandments. And the first four are primarily about how to love God, and then five through 10 are primarily about loving your neighbor. Although, of course, as we're loving our neighbor, we're doing that because we love God, right? So it's not like these are mutually exclusive things, right? But the point is, the 10 commandments are an expansion on the two great commandments. And now, this is the reason why I'm doing all this, is to set up now the case law. And it's called case law because it's always like scenarios, like if this happens, then this, if this happens, then that. Whereas 10 Commandments are just straight up, do this, don't do this, right? So the case law is all these like little instances that explain the nuances of the Ten Commandments. And the really important thing to realize is that they are not exhaustive. The category of what we have in case law is really more wisdom than it is like a modern law code, you know, like if you've ever looked up like, you know, Dayton, Ohio laws or whatever. Like, it's like very exhaustive, right? It's covering every scenario. That's not what a case law is. It's more about wisdom. It's like, now, I want you to understand the principles that will guide your living of these things. But, again, just remember, all of this stuff is about love God, love your neighbor, right? So as you're internalizing that and remembering these are still the two great commands that govern us today. we're gonna see how the case law is profoundly relevant to being a Christian in the modern age, yes. This may be going out in the brambles a little bit. That's fine, yeah. But oftentimes, Jesus in the New Testament, when he quotes, like, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind gets inserted in there for strength. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that just a? Thank you, yes. Yeah, if you read Matthew 12 and other places where he cites Deuteronomy 6, He adds this extra noun, right, with all your mind. And I think what he's getting at is he's trying to get us to realize, you know, we talk about person, it is your body, of course, and your soul, and of course your mind as well. And it's, again, it's bringing out like every dimension of who you are, yeah. Aren't the case laws also like, not just wisdom, like Proverbs kind of principles, but weren't some of them actual scenarios that happened and then Moses, as he's dealing with those, is giving an example of what he needed to do to apply the Ten Commandments? Yeah, another category that is also very valid, and I'm glad you brought this out, is the idea of precedent. And this is, of course, used in modern law today. How do you apply these laws in all these very difficult, controversial scenarios? Well, part of what you do is you look at how they've been applied in the past. And on the way to precedent, oftentimes a case can be won. So yeah, these are instances of precedent, no doubt. No doubt many of the things we're about to hear, there was a legal issue where they brought the issue to Moses, like they're supposed to do. Moses rendered a judgment from the Lord, and then that was preserved in the case law. Great, yeah, thank you. All right, so hopefully that was clear enough. And now what we're gonna do is we're gonna step through just a handful of these, as many as we can get through in the time allotted to us. And we're going to ask two questions. First, how are they developing the Ten Commandments? In other words, which of the Ten Commandments are they developing? Because that will help us understand the root principle. And then, how does it help us understand one of those Ten Commandments? How does it deepen? our sense of what it means to keep those laws, because if we can understand the principle, then we can use that principle in other cases too. So let's look at Exodus 21, 12. Exodus 21, 12. Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death, but If he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will point you a place to which you may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar that he may die." Okay, so what's the command that this is developing? Thou shalt not kill, and let's just remember, although the KJV has put it, thou shalt not kill, it's not a good translation in the modern English anyway. It really is just as ESV has it, thou shalt not murder. So there's a word in Hebrew that means kill, and kill is a general word, right? Murder is what we, when we talk about unjust killing, right? So Genesis 9, he says, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. Obviously there's such a thing as just killing, right? Someone who's a murderer ought themselves to be put to death by the state. Is that murder? No, that's justice, right? So the commandment really is, like you can see right there, Exodus 20 verse 13, it's you shall not murder. And now we get a little more detail about what's involved in murder. What is 12 through 14 there in chapter 21, what is it bringing out about what constitutes murder? Yeah, Anna? Yeah, okay. I think, yeah, go ahead, Mike. Yeah, the distinction is like the one we still have today, it's the difference between premeditated murder, sometimes called today murder in the first degree, and manslaughter. When, say, you kill someone in just a sudden bolt of rage, you find them doing something or whatever it might be, but it's just not premeditated. Right, yeah, so it's bringing out the premeditated aspect of it. And that's right there in verse 14, right? If a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, and that idea by cunning, right? Like they're plotting how this happens. And And this is really important, right? And by the way, the part where it says, you shall take him from my altar, what's happening? The person is going, grasping the horns of the altar as a way of saying, I'm taking refuge here, you can't kill me. I'm taking refuge in the place of God's worship, which we actually see in 1 Kings 2 with Joab grabbing the horns of the altar and things like that. And there are circumstances where you can actually take him from that refuge and put him to death, notwithstanding his attempt to take refuge there. Whereas there are other situations where God appoints these cities of refuge where a person can go and they actually cannot be put to death when they're in that place of refuge. So another scenario that comes out in Deuteronomy, I think I have it in here, Deuteronomy 19.5, the axe head coming loose, right? You got two guys in the forest, they're chopping down trees and they're swinging the axe and the axe head flies off on accident, strikes the guy, he dies. And let's say the family is really upset and they think, you know, oh, this is a deliberate thing. Well, that person who did that can go and they can take refuge in a city of refuge and If it is established that it's inadvertent, they will be safe, they cannot be put to death, right? So I don't intend to belabor this too much, but I want you to understand something about the commands. Again, what would you say is the core principle he's trying to illustrate? Yeah, Anna? It has to do with the motivation. What is motivating the person to do this thing? Like in the axe head flying off, there's no motivation at all. It was a complete accident. Just like somebody hitting someone with their car because the person just ran out in front of them. Whereas, you know, there's a lot of motivation that goes into actually cunningly planning to murder someone. Exactly. And if you can establish that, the point is, Now we are in the category of what the sixth command is talking about. And this is really important, right? It's not just the form of what took place. It's the motivation as well. Yeah. Aren't cities of refuge pretty interesting in that they didn't have prisons, but they had these places where if it wasn't established that you had killed somebody on purpose, you have to live there until the high priest dies, and it's like all the people are in the same place who can be watched and have some kind of accountability over them, but it makes the rest of Israel kind of more safe. Yeah, yeah, I think that might well be part of the principle. Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, Jeremy? I thought it was interesting that there's that little phrase there, but God let him fall into his hand. So it's talking about God's part in it, God's sovereignty. Yeah, that's right. There's an acknowledgment right there, a tipping of the hand to the providence of God. Like, this is what happened, right? And it's not random. is in charge of everything, even these accidents, so-called. Yeah, thank you. And then even in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is talking about, you've heard, do not murder. But even if you say to your brother, you fool, the motivation there is to tear down your brother. Yeah. Yeah, and so when Jesus is teaching that, I hope you realize that idea that the motive matters, and it's really the motive that is core for constituting the sin of murder, right? Obviously, there's the action as well, which makes it more grievous, but when Jesus says, when you have the motive to murder somebody, and that's in your heart and that's there, you need to recognize that is the seed of murder right there and the sin of it. And so when he does that, again, we shouldn't be like, oh wow, this new teaching, right? He's developing what's already here in the law. I was just thinking about hatred and how hatred in the heart is the beginning of murder. How many people, if there was no consequence, have so much hatred that they would kill somebody? Yes, that's right. But they're preventing themselves from doing so because they don't want consequences or whatever. So that internalized thing in the heart of the person is what murder is when it comes out. That's what it is. It's still in there. Yeah, excellent. Thank you for that. Let's look at another one. Same chapter, verse 28. When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall also be put to death. All right, now, probably very few of us ever have to think about horns or oxen and whatnot. This is, This is not exactly a scenario that's very common in the modern period, right? But the issues are very, very relevant. So what's this bringing out? Well, first off, okay, what command? Sixth Commandment, right? Again, it's about murder, right? All right, so what's the added principle here? What is it contributing now? Yes. say that the sphere of influence part, like you have control over your animals and your property. So if you have a dog that is known to bite people, you need to have the dog put down probably or put barriers in place so that no human being is harmed by that dog. And it's your responsibility ultimately to prevent your animals from taking someone else's life. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, Sherry. Yes. So even in a broader scenario, if you are a car manufacturer and you know that a certain model has brake issues or something like that and you don't notify the people who own that vehicle, they're put at risk. So I feel like negligence is a big part of this. Yes, negligence is a very big part. Yeah. Just tagging on with what Sherry said, I think there's an economic aspect to this too, right? Your ox is the means of plowing your ground. And so if you allow your economic interest or your profit to endanger the life of another person, you are liable. Yeah. Why, why would someone keep a dangerous ox around? Well, for that very reason. Right. Um, and so there's a temptation. here, right? And so let's think about this a little bit more, especially in light of the previous one. The previous one was all about evil intent as a core part of murder. What would we say in light of 28 through 29, the one we just read, what would we say to somebody who says, the owner of the ox who says, well, I didn't mean to hurt anybody. Yeah. Well, I think this, I mean, this goes to, it's negligence, but it's a kind of negligence that is evidence of reckless disregard for human life. Yes. So it's not just simply, oh my goodness, I forgot to put the ox in the, I forgot to lash the gate. Right, right. It's more of a, I don't care, and I have good reason, a reasonable person would know that this ox could kill someone. It's gored people in the past. So you're acting with, yeah, I know someone can die because of my lack of restraining the animal or whatever, but I don't care, let them die. So it's worse than negligence. There's intent here as well. It's not just an accident. In other words, if you are negligent about something that's a serious safety issue like this, it counts as intentional. It counts as the murder. And there is a choice that's being made, whether you perceive that you're making it or not. When you'd say, I'm not going to do anything to protect other people from this, we're choosing something there. Right, so let's again return to the axe head scenario. If the axe head flies off and strikes the person on accident, oh no, right, this is horrible, didn't mean to do that. Okay, but what if the axe head were already loose and you knew it? Right, now all of a sudden it's not the scenario of the axe head accidentally flies off and it's an unintentional killing. Now it actually is, right, yeah. I just think it's interesting to look back at this in light of what I believe was a recent ruling with the school shooter in holding the parents responsible for that child and his behavior. Excellent connection. That's right. Yeah. Why was she held accountable? It's the same principle. Exactly right. Yeah, so let's just think for a second about how we would apply this principle in the modern time. Where are there Sixth Commandment issues all around you? Definitely, yeah. I do think that part of what needs to be considered and careful is this whole scenario of risk. There's lots of risks, right? There's the risk of owning the animal or having a car or whatever. But it has the principle of something happens, So that now you know that it's a greater risk than just like a questionable, like possible risk. Right. You know what I mean? That's right. So there has to be that precedent established that constituted as an actual risk that needs to be taken care of. Yeah, or a higher risk than normal. Right. Where everybody understands there's going to be a risk when you drive your car, right? Like the example Sherry gave, if you know that there's some big safety issue on this vehicle and you don't do anything about it, well now it's at that higher level. Thank you. Yeah, Betty. I'm struggling with the motivation aspect in terms of if it's criminally liable. It seems these issues are clearly, these are your actions, this is what you're gonna be accountable for. Right. And as soon as you get into the motivation, you get into other territory. Yeah, thank you for that. I do need to nuance that more. Obviously, in the case of this owner with the socks, we're not saying that there's like evil intent or like, ha ha ha, I'm going to let this guy roam around and hopefully it'll gore somebody. Right. But there is a choice. And this is what I'm trying to bring out. There is a culpable choice in not taking the needed measures to protect other people. And that There is an intentional aspect to that. Is it on the level of first degree murder? No. This is not some killing by cunning kind of thing. But it is culpable negligence according to the Sixth Command. And so there's lots of examples of this in the present time. If you've got live wires in your home, you don't do anything about it, or you've got this big pit in your yard that people could trip over, Or even things like, you know, you're just kind of going through town, you notice this sharp object on the ground and you don't pick it up, right? Or if you leave dangerous objects in the path of children. You know, even protecting ourselves, right? Like the sixth commandment is not just about protecting the life of others, but ourselves. You're using dangerous equipment and you're not wearing protective gear. You know, telling our kids not to run with scissors, stuff like that. All of this is kind of built into this and I hope you start to see it's a broad reaching command, right? Yeah. At working in insurance, I've seen a couple of scenarios where people didn't fence their pool and a child ends up drowning. And then they are liable because they didn't take the right precautionary measures to protect others. That's right. Excellent example. Yeah, it falls under the category of like the parapet around the roof, right? When they had the flat roofs in Israel, you were supposed to put a guardrail around it, or offense around it. It's the same principle. Good, yeah, and just one more point regarding murder. I just thought I'd throw this in. Again, this is my advisor, Dan Block, points this out, that as you're reading this in the Book of Exodus in the context of ancient or eastern law, like the law code of Hammurabi, What's so striking about this is that there is no distinction for class or gender or race. Everybody is held to the same standard. And so, you know, in Haber-Rabbi, if you kill a noble, you know, higher consequences, whereas if you kill a slave, not that big a deal, you're only fined, right? So like, God here is showing that we're all image bearers. Good, let's keep going, because there's a lot of principles I want to get us thinking about. Let's look at Exodus 22.1. Exodus 22, actually one and two. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief is found breaking in and is struck, oh actually no, I did just want to do verse one, yeah. Okay, so when we look at this, he steals an ox or a sheep and he kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for the ox, four sheep for the sheep. What command is this developing? The eighth command, right? I shall not steal, right? And what is the added principle that it's bringing up? What's it mean to keep this command when it's been broken? There are restitution and a If I'm looking correctly, a restitution and beyond, which I think is also a principle in other parts of scripture. Yes, yes, exactly. It's a restitution that goes beyond simply replacing it. Why would that be justice? Why wouldn't it just be, oh, give the ox back or give the sheep back, yeah. Because it gives you There's motivation included to not steal the ox in the first place because I could just say well I need the money. I'll steal the ox get the money and I'll repay him in a couple months, right? So there's no reason not to except you know for shame. I guess yeah, I mean there's There's the added motive not to, the way in which it prohibits us from wanting to. Good, what else might be a reason for why it would be just? Yeah, Jeremiah. The idea of damages, that while that object was stolen, your opportunities, your potential earnings or whatever in modern times are eliminated. Yeah, all of a sudden, now you don't have that animal. And yeah, along those lines, what if this animal was, you know, especially kept for breeding, right? And it was a particularly strong ox that you really wanted to see propagated. Well, now that you can't get that back, right? There's also no penalty without having something like that, because if someone's going to steal something and the only consequence is to give it back, and they're like, oh, you got me. Well, I'm going to try it on that guy. If they catch me, I'll just give it back. If they don't catch me, well, I won. Yeah, it's connected to what Mike was saying, but that's, yeah, that's well said. Yeah, so this idea of restitution is built into the command, thou shalt not steal. Yeah. You can also consider that there's a limit on the restitution, like five times or four times as opposed to 10 or 20 times. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, we can't go off, go crazy in terms of damages. There's a proportionality. And here he's illustrating what those proportions might be, like a four to one or a five to one ratio. Good. Yeah, now let's take a look at another one. Again, we're looking for principles here. We're looking to become wise readers of the law and realize that tucked into those very simple commands, you know, you shall not steal, there's a lot. There's a lot of principles built into those. And so what we're doing is Westminster Confession 1.9, we're letting scripture interpret scripture. The only infallible rule of interpretation is the scripture itself, right? So let's look again at another one, 22.21. 22.21, you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him. For you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. And then just skip a little bit further down to 23.9. You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner. For you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. Okay, so very similar. Here's kind of a challenging question. What command is being expounded upon here when he says, you shall not wrong a sojourner. This one may not be as obvious. The second greatest, excellent. Yeah, it's really, it's a way of kind of capturing all of the second half of the law, whether we're talking about murder, adultery, stealing, false testimony, coveting. Sorry, what was that? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it's expanding. Okay, this is what this means. And it's saying, particularly, you should not do this for a sojourner. Anybody understand what a sojourner is? This would be like a resident alien, somebody who's not Israelite, but who is living in Israel. So we think, for example, of Ruth, right? That would be a sojourner. Someone who's there for the long haul, she's not just passing through, she's living there, but she's also not an Israelite, right? And actually in her case, and maybe that's not the greatest of illustrations, because she actually said, your God shall be my God, and your people my people, so in a sense, maybe that's not the best example. But anyway, that's what the word Sojourner means. So what's he bringing out here in terms of the deeper, what's the deeper principle that he's saying here? should know wrong a sojourner, for you are sojourners, or you know the heart of a sojourner. Yeah, right? He's a redeeming God that cares for the whole world. He's not just the God of one little local group of people that are, yes, His particular and chosen people, but He's drawing all people to Himself. Beautiful. Yeah, and even we think, based on what you just said about Him caring about all people, you know, Exodus 19.6, I will make you a royal priesthood, you know, a priesthood What's the idea? The whole nation is mediating the presence of God to the nations. He cares about the nations. He's, I will bless you, Abraham, so that you may be a blessing to the nations. So this then helps us to understand who is being protected by these commands? Whose interests are being protected by these commands? Is it just Israel? No, it's everybody, right? Everybody, including the sojourner, right? Again, my advisor has this great piece on the... The Ten Commandments, not so much as like commandments as like a bill of rights, where it's protecting the interests, particularly of God, but also of the innocent, right? And it's saying, look, you who are in power, you who could abuse this sojourner and exploit them, and literally there'd be nothing that that person could do to get you back, you're the one in power, right? I care, God says, about that person, and what's going on with that person is something that in my eyes is unjust, and I don't want that, yeah. So, Pastor, maybe you're going here, and apologies if you are. But, you know, just one of the things that I've been just blown away in my time within a Reformational church is just how our forefathers in Westminster Divines actually interpreted the Ten Commandments. on the positive end, and it's to your point of the Bill of Rights, just how our obedience is a blessing to the nations, and it's not just a thou shalt not. It's what we get the opportunity to do because we love God. Yeah, and thank you for segueing me there, because I was going to say, in a sense, this command is developing five through 10, you shall not wrong the sojourner. What's implied here, if we get the principle that he's saying, it's not just don't wrong the sojourner, but where else do we see the word sojourner in the Ten Commandments? It's actually in the fourth command, where he says, rest on the Sabbath day, and give rest to the sojourner and all the other people in your household. So, you know, you shall not work, but neither shall your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant, nor the sojourner who's within your gates, right? Or even your animals, right? And so part of what we do in keeping the command not to wrong the sojourner is we also look out for the good of the sojourner, right? The positive flip side is also enjoined. Right, it's not just don't murder, it's also have regard for the life of your neighbor. Seek what promotes life. It's not just don't commit adultery, it's also seek what promotes chastity. All that, good. And I think there's one other thing too. You should not wrong the sojourner for your sojourners. You should not wrong a sojourner, for you know the heart of a sojourner. Think about the rationale. What's that rationale showing us about what it means to love our neighbor? Yep, and what do you mean by the golden rule? Like, what are you thinking about? As you would have them do unto you. In other words, empathy, right? Compassion. In order to keep the 10 commandments, you need to remember what it's like to be them. Right? And so if you're not using your imagination and remembering, for example, hey, I remember what it was like to be a soldier. That really was bad. It really stunk when the Egyptian slave driver would really work us to the bone. I don't want to be that guy to this guy because I know what it's like. Right, and so practicing empathy and thinking about what's it like to be them, would I want this, right? No, well okay, then don't do it, right? Good. Good, okay. Hopefully you're not getting weary yet, but I just have a couple more I wanted to bring out. There's a lot of principles here. Let's look at 2228. Okay, 2228, you shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people. You shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. Okay, so which command is this one developing? Or commands? Yes, okay, how so? Okay, yeah, the first great command, excellent, yes. Yeah, and do you remember which one of the first four commandments bring out this idea of not reviling God? I mean, obviously. I don't mind to try, but I was wondering if you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, perhaps, and then also in the six through 10, the bearing false witness against your neighbor could possibly be in that same realm. Yeah, there's not taking the name of the Lord your God in vain, which going like five years back when I did the Ten Commandments, I tried to argue, I think, that that's talking about representing God well. And of course, that means all the things that the Shorter Catechism talks about, about not blaspheming and honoring God's names, titles, attributes, and ordinances and all that good stuff. But yes, we care about not reviling God. Blasphemy is a grievous sin. In fact, a capital punishment for that in Israel. But also, Todd's bringing out not speaking evil against your neighbor falsely, the ninth command. And we could also say the fifth command, right? Honor your father and your mother. Who is included in that? Is it just about your father and your mother? It's about authorities, right. So not cursing a ruler parallels other passages that talk about not cursing your parents, right? So the idea is if someone is in authority over you, whether you like them or not, honoring God means honoring them. We're not going to ridicule them, call them foul names, whatever. There's a lot tucked in these, right? Honor your father and your mother. Okay, that's very particular. It sounds like, well, I gotta just focus on not dishonoring my father or my mother. Well, actually, God's saying, I care about honoring a lot of other people too, right? And if you understand the principle, this person is placed over you and has authority over you because of God. Therefore, you need to do that for the other people who fit that category too. Yeah. Good. All right, here's another one I thought was really striking, 23.4. If you meet your enemy's ox, now whose ox is it? Your enemy's. Or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it. You shall rescue it with him. OK, so what's the principle that this is adding to the law? Yes. I think it must be contained in the loving your neighbor part. And it goes right along with Jesus saying we should love our enemies. Yeah. Do good to those that persecute you. Not the first time that's happened in scripture. Everybody says that, right? And also, shoot, I forgot what the other thing I was going to say. When you know to do good, but you don't do it, that is sin. Excellent, yeah, if you know what is good to do and you refrain from doing it, that is sin, right? Yeah. Preservation of life in this law of loving your neighbor. So this, even if he's your enemy, like Anna said, if you know to do good and you don't do it, you are not on the mindset of preservation of life for even your enemy's sake. Excellent. Yeah, and there's a sort of happenstance element to this, right? It wasn't like God saying, you know, go out and rescue all the helpless animals out there. It's more just like you happen along on this situation, right? And it's saying, look, this now becomes your responsibility. Like you weren't seeking this today, this wasn't on your to-do list, but here it is. It now is your responsibility. This reminded me of the Good Samaritan situation. Yeah, excellent. It's a very similar principle. And what's great about that connection is the Samaritan seeing this person who was, what, his enemy. In this passage, it says, your enemy or the one who hates you. So we've talked about kind of the happenstance element here, but that is a very important part of this too. What's this bringing out? Yeah, Jeremiah. Tagging onto what Jeremy said, the parable of a good Samaritan, if I remember correctly, was told in response to the question, and who is my neighbor? Yeah, that's right. Excellent. Who is my neighbor? Does it include the guy who is always reviling you? Yes. And how many times have we, as parents, heard this, right, from our kids? Well, he hurt me first. Oh, well, that makes it okay, right? No, right? So do we as adults deal with this as well? Well, like, he's always had it out for me. I'm just, that's his problem. God's saying no. You actually, you need to love without regard to whether you're being loved. The fact that they don't love you doesn't then alleviate the need to keep this command, which is a really big deal, right? Because in a fallen world, there's gonna be a lot of people wronging you, and you're gonna be like, well, I think I'm gonna take a pass on love of neighbor in that instance, and God says no. Doesn't this also tie into common grace? Yeah, how so? Well, God sends the rain on the just and the unjust, so we need to have that same attitude in our heart. Yeah, exactly. Who is God? He's the God who sends the rain on the just and the unjust alike. He gives sinners who do not love Him, do not acknowledge Him, He gives them life, breath, health, food. In the same way, we should seek to do good, even to those who hate us. And what will happen? We will become sons of our Father in heaven. We'll be good pictures of Him. Good, yeah, so again, every one of these laws is theologically driven. All of these are in some way asking, God showing us, this is what it means to bear my image. If you want to be a good picture of me, then you really need to care about loving your enemy. If you want to be a good picture of me, you really need to care about purity and about all these other things. You can't say, oh, I love God, and then you don't like picturing God. The two go together. Yeah. All right, one more before I have a few concluding thoughts. Let's just look at 2319, the second half. He's talking about first fruits, and this is part of a section where he's laying out some feasts, I believe, yeah. And then at the end of all these feasts, he says, you shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. And we're like, What? Okay, some of these other ones I understood, but this one, like what on earth? Like this just seems so random, right? But think about it. What's a mother's milk meant to be? for nourishment, for life, right? So what are you doing when you take this young goat and boil it in its mother's milk? Well, you're taking that which was made for life, right, and using it. I mean, the goat's already dead, I guess, but the point is, you're really cutting against the grain of creation, right? And I was trying to think about, man, that's a really deep, thought, God saying, look, don't distort creation. Don't distort, like understand how I made the world and please follow the grain, you know. If you ever cut wood, right, like it's one thing to cut with the grain, much easier. Cutting across the grain, much harder, yeah. Yeah, well back to my earlier point, too, about the preservation of life. When God created the world, he gave man dominion to act in it as he would, caring with compassion and giving life and preserving life. All that is tied into this, also this principle. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, so God created the world to be abundant. He says he gave the animals the fruit of the ground and he blessed them. In other words, he wanted there to be thriving. So I think at least part of what this is bringing out is all of these commands in some way are about obviously love of God or relationship with God, but it has this outflow into creation. Are we living with the grain of how God made the world? If you're keeping God's law, the answer is yes. And what's that going to create? It's going to create thriving. It's going to create an abundance of life. The book of Proverbs is like, the way of the Lord is the way of life. The way of sin is the way of death, right? Follow God, life. Follow Satan, disobey God, ignore his law. It will always, always, always lead to death. And as we think about that, And as we meditate on all the principles we've talked about today, I hope you see that there's a lot involved in these two great commands, the 10 commandments that God has given us, right? There's a lot involved in being a wise and good image bearer. There's a lot of dimensions to love of God and love of neighbor. As we're thinking about all of these case laws, kind of as a whole, and the kind of view of the law that it gives us, How does that point us to Jesus? How does it show us Christ? And I think there are multiple right answers here. How are these laws, with their very high view of holiness, showing us Jesus? Excellent, yeah, Jesus took the death penalty for us. And yeah, the wages of sin is death. Again and again in this, I don't know that we read one of the laws that mentioned capital punishment, but again and again it talks about he shall be put to death or he shall be stoned. What happened on the cross? Jesus taking the penalties of the law on himself for us. Excellent, other thoughts? Yeah. in order to love his neighbor as himself, so that we could be welcomed into the life and love of God. Yeah, Jesus' life is the greatest incarnation of all the love principles that we've been laying out here. He loved us from the heart in all of the dimensions that that calls us to. I always like to turn things back to the relationship between a husband and a wife. And this is like God explaining to man his love language and what pleases him. Good, yes. Yeah, this is what pleases me. So now that you're in Christ, just to connect the dots to Jesus, right, now that you belong to him and are united to him, this is the kind of life of love I'm looking for. And it is not just sort of, you know, being that nominal Christian who doesn't look too bad in the eyes of other people, but whose heart is far from God. I actually really care about your motive. I really care about whether you, in the instance of the ox scoring, I care about whether you're valuing your economic gain over the safety of your neighbor. I care about those things. So I want you to care about those things. Yeah, Mike. I think another way it points us to Christ is as we read through them, it's like, well, I broke this one, I've broken this one. And then you look in scripture and every man in the scripture has broken at least some of them, some very spectacularly. And the only one who hasn't is Christ. Yeah, that was the big application that came to my mind, too, as I was thinking about this, was Romans 3, 9. What should we say? All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written. None is righteous, no, not one. We are all breakers of the Ten Commandments. When you start to realize from the case law what actually is incorporated here, that it is not just the actual act of murder, but it's the intent. And it's the failure to seek life, you know, the sin of omission, not just the sin of commission, right? Like when you start to get that huge, very high picture of holiness, then you realize, oh boy, I didn't line up like I thought, right? I really need Jesus. I really need him, yeah. Well, I was just going to say that it's like looking at all these commandments, like it's causing us to kind of go deeper. There's a certain amount of sacrifice that's going on because like Jesus sacrificed for us. We're going to have to sacrifice a little bit to show the love of Christ to our neighbors. Exactly. These are costly things, aren't they? That's right. And you start to realize, whoa, you know, to be holy, it's going to cost me more than I thought. Yeah, I wish we had time for one more, but I should probably pray. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for showing to us your holiness. And when we consider how holy you are and how you say that we are to be holy as you are holy, we start to realize from the case law just all that's involved. And it is a staggeringly high thing. And yet Lord, as we consider these things and as we're humbled and as we really have to confess that we have not kept your law from the heart in all these dimensions that we've been seeing today, we know that you don't want us to feel beaten down or discouraged, but instead you sent your son so that we could actually keep these laws from the heart and that you would make us to be law-keeping people, people who are good image bearers in the deep sense that the case law demonstrates, and so we pray. Help us to care about holiness. Help us to lean on Christ and his sufficiency to be holy as you are holy. Help us, Lord, not to be quick to deny sin as though, even though we may not have done the actual letter of the law. We know, Lord, there are times that even in those circumstances where we really have broken the spirit of the law. And so we pray, give us contrite, humble hearts, for we know that a contrite heart you will not despise, that's an acceptable and beautiful thing in your sight, and help us to live in the deep holiness you call us to live in. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.