Okay, well, come on in if you just got here. So we're talking about the law of God and talking about how the Old Testament is profoundly relevant to us. It is Christian scripture. Never forget that, that the entire Bible, Old and New Testament, is Christian scripture because it speaks of Christ. I just remembered looking at Bob. You wanted to make an announcement, didn't you, Bob? Yeah, sure, yeah. I would just like to address those parents who have children in the children's choir that December 14th I know that may seem quite a ways away, but that is the next time that we have the chapel service at Grace Brethren Village. And trying to make a special emphasis to have those kids who are in the choir to be able to attend that day. And they will be singing the three songs that will be singing here in the very near future. And I'm going to go up and announce my plea to the kids later on this morning. And I am going to give them a sheet of paper that is this color. And it has the information for you parents on it. And so please look for it. And we've got some really talented people, including this guy playing his clarinet. that will participate, but I would just encourage that, if at all possible, at 2.30 on that December 14th Sunday, you could bring your kids and have them sing, because the residents really enjoy that. Yeah, it's a great blessing to them. Thanks Bob, thanks for doing that. Thanks also to Bob, he's really been doing an awesome job running that ministry that we do to the elderly there. Yeah, so as I was saying, the entire Bible is Christian scripture, so we shouldn't view the Old Testament as that old obsolete thing that weirdos like me are interested in. Actually, it's for you. It's for you to know Christ, because it's all about Him. and for us to walk in Christ. And so we've been talking about a process for thinking about the law that, where we've focused on, we've looked at a couple of laws and kind of thought through, okay, how does this show us God's character? How is it fulfilled in Christ? How do we now live it today? Understanding that there are differences between Old and New Testament time periods. Today I'm just gonna change our gears a little bit And I'm just gonna give you kind of a big Bible blast where I'm just going to survey really kind of everything that I could find anyway that the Old Testament law has to say about poverty so that you also can see how there are these themes running through as well. And honestly, this is one of my favorite things, favorite ways of studying the Bible. is it's really great to go deep in a given passage, but it's also great to track how the Bible is unified. And so one thing I encourage you to do as you're doing your Bible reading every morning, I hope, is to track themes yourselves. So I remember Pastor Pepo saying once to me that as he was doing his yearly Bible reading, he said, this time around, I'm tracking the theme of light and darkness. I'm tracking the theme of food. And there was the third one that he brought up as well. And he was just really enjoying all the connections. that you find. So track things and you'll be amazed what happens. So this is my attempt to sort of track the theme of poverty in the law of God. And as we're going through this, I just want you to think about what does this say about God's heart for the poor? What does it say about his solution? to poverty, because when we're dealing with poverty, it's not something that's easily solved. I mentioned this book before, but you know, When Helping Hurts, it's a famous book about this, and it's like a real thing, right? Like, we want to show compassion, we want to be merciful, and yet at the same time, sometimes the help actually hurts. So I remember being in one country where I visited and I noticed there were all of these people just kind of like sitting around doing nothing. And I asked the missionary, like, what's the matter? Like, do they not have jobs or something? He's like, well, they don't really need jobs because all they have to do is wait around and eventually a handout is going to come their way. And so like, That's not helping them, right? That's enabling sin. And so how do we help those in need without hurting them in the process? That's what I want you to be thinking about as we go through these. So, first off, just some laws having to do with protections for the poor. So, guaranteed rest. I'm just going to read Exodus 20, verse 10. This is from the Sabbath day law. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work. Now listen to this. Not just you shall not do any work. You shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. And then Exodus 23, 12 builds on this. It says, six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman and the alien may be refreshed. In teens, it's not talking about aliens from another planet. It's talking about people from another country who are in their country. What's this showing about God's heart here? What does it mean to keep the fourth commandment, the Sabbath command? Not just that you rest, right? But what else is showing us about God's heart? Yeah, Anna? Not require somebody else to work for you. Yeah. Yeah, you're meant to be not just a rest taker, but a rest giver. Right? God is the ultimate rest giver. He's the one who brings them out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. and he gives them rest. So also must we be rest givers. He requires that the poor be included in the feasts. So, Deuteronomy 16.11, I believe this is the, Passover, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who's within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are among you at the place that the Lord your God will choose. So did you hear that? So like even if you don't have a household, You should celebrate with Israel. And then another feast, the Feast of Booths, Deuteronomy 16, 14. You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant. You get the idea, right? These guys are supposed to be there too. Don't hold them out or keep them from this joy. It's a joy for all Israel. Then there's also no unmerciful pledges. So a pledge is something that you give to promise you're going to pay a debt. So even this happens at the gym, right? You borrow the basketball. You give, at least this is what I did in college, you had to give your college ID to the guy, and you get your ID back when you give back the basketball. So it's a pledge. Well, listen to what God says about pledges. Exodus 22, 26. If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body. In what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate." And then Deuteronomy 24.6, no one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge. So what's this saying? Translate the law, the principle of the law to me. What's the principle? Put it abstractly. Here we go, Dan, right up here. I'm thinking so you don't deprive someone. And it almost would be like stealing from them. Okay. So don't deprive someone. And I think that the part about it almost be stealing from them, that's where I think the person who loaned to them would say, I'm not stealing from them. They borrowed something from me and this is their guarantee that they're going to pay me back. Right? What's it getting at? I think maybe it's getting at the idea that if you're going to take collateral, make sure the collateral is not something that someone needs for sustenance. Yeah, just to make it. Exactly. Yeah, if you were to take their millstone, basically, you're taking their ability to mill flour, and now basically you're starving them. You take their cloak, now they're shivering all night long, they're not getting any rest, right? So there's some pledges that are just beyond appropriate. You're actually really harming this person here. So yeah, understanding the poverty of the poor. Yeah, Jeremy? I think it shows mercy because it seems that those things are rightful to ask for, but it's a merciful thing to say. Even though it's my right to ask for this as collateral, I'm not going to because of my love for this brother. Yeah, there's a higher principle than like, this is my due. Yeah, it is in a sense your due, but there's something higher, which is, I desire mercy. Yeah. But the right, like it doesn't go as far as taking somebody's life, right? So God clearly says a life of a person belongs to him. So if it's going to go that far, it's too far. So he sets a limit on it. Yeah, good, yeah. And like the millstone one, that would be to take a life in pledge. Yeah, and here's another one. The poor should not have, they should be paid their wages right away. So this is 24, 17, and 18. How do I know? 24, 14, sorry. You shall not oppress. a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he's one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land, within your towns, in other words, a non-Israelite. You shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets, for he is poor and counts on it, lest he cry against you to the Lord and you be guilty of sin. So not delaying, right? Understanding, look, some of these people are literally living hand to mouth, right? As soon as they get it, that's gonna be what they use to pay for dinner. If you don't give them that, they have nothing to eat. Yeah, don't mislead the blinds. This is 2718. Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road. And again, there could be a rich blind man, but the whole point is somebody in their weakness. you're not going to take advantage of that. In that same section of curses on sin, it says this, 2719, cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And what's interesting is that, yeah, like that is balanced then by Leviticus 19.15, which says, you shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. So what's that saying about justice when it comes to the poor? You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, yes. So when we dispense justice, it must be equal weights and measures. You cannot give justice to one simply because of what he looks like, how much money he has, and then take away justice from this other person who may not have as much, or maybe, you know, swap it, you know. What if the poor person robs from the rich person? You don't then say, well, they're poor so they can get away with it. It goes both ways. It really is saying that the justice needs to be blind. That's the picture of Lady Justice. It's a woman who's blindfolded with the scales. She has no idea if the person is, you know, what ethnicity, what wealth status, any of that stuff. One standard for everybody. Good. And then it goes beyond that, not just, you know, oppression in the court of law, but Exodus 22, 21. Seem to have lost this one. Exodus 22. 21, I know I got them all in here. Oh yeah, here it is. It says this, you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will burn and I will kill you with the sword and your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. So what's this showing us about? God's heart. What are the three classes that he's most burdened for? Orphan, fatherless, and widow. Okay, what do those three all have in common? There's lots of things they have in common. Yeah. No husband or dad. Yeah, no one who's there protecting, providing. Who will protect them? God, right? When they cry, I will hear. And you even see the justice in this. Like if you're mistreating them, and you're taking advantage of them, This is what I will do to you. I will kill you such that your wives become widows, your children become fatherless." Like, again, eye for an eye. So God's very passionate about not oppressing those who are easily oppressed. These are classes of people that it's really easy to exploit and to use. And God says, no. He says the same thing about slaves. Leviticus 23, 53 says, talking about a slave, he should be treated as a hired worker year by year. And he, that is the person who owns the slave, shall not rule ruthlessly over him. in your sight." So no ruling slaves ruthlessly, it's just not reflecting the character of God. And then there's this, they must not be required to pay interest on debts. So Exodus 22, 25. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, You shall not be like a money lender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. And again, Deuteronomy 23, 19, you shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. So why does God not want interest on debts to a brother? Why does this matter? Penetrate to the underlying rationale. What's he trying to protect? How is this protecting those who are weak? Yeah. It seems like in exacting interest, you would be making that weak brother even weaker. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and the law we're going to talk about in a moment, where God requires you to lend when your brother's in need, the purpose is to alleviate poverty. And if you start extracting interest, now we're starting to make them even deeper in the hole. And that leads now to the second thing, and the third thing too. Yeah. Appreciate your hustle. Isn't it unjust? We're treating this poor brother better than the rich brother. Okay. So play that one out. Yeah, so like when he says, don't charge interest. Well, interestingly, the Leviticus, or the, let's see here, the Exodus passage says, if you lend money to any of my people who is poor, you shall not exact interest. But then Deuteronomy 23 seems to expand this, and it says, you shall not charge interest on loans to your brother. So just sort of anybody now. who brags on themselves saying, oh, we don't charge interest on, I don't think that's all true. So how did interest come about in general from precipitating from this? Yeah, great question. Are there circumstances in which interest is acceptable or not unbiblical? We have the parable of the talents, where the master says, look, the least thing you could have done, you guy with the one talent, is invested it with the banker, so at least I could have had this back with interest, right? So I'm not sure it's saying, no, it's not saying that all forms of lending that involve interest is wrong. One way we can lend is we can lend to governments or to companies. This is what we call bonds, municipal bonds or company bonds. And so what are you doing? You're helping this company get the capital they need to invest in this new project or whatever. And so what are you doing when you get interest on that? You're sharing in their profits. And that's, you know, you're investing. So that's good. And I'm not even convinced necessarily that all forms of interest between individuals would be wrong. I'd have to think more about how I'd answer that one. But did you have a thought on that? The Deuteronomy scripture you mentioned says, do not charge your brother. So it's just talking about the house of God. It's not talking about borrowing from a company. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. Particularly between brothers, we're here to help each other. Yeah. Good. Yeah, so God has these protections for the poor. He also has built into the law these strategies for alleviating poverty. So we talked about this before when we did Deuteronomy 14, 22 through 29, the law of the tithe, that every third year the tithe is not brought to Jerusalem for the party. Remember that? The holy party in the presence of God. Every third year it's being brought and just sort of deposited there in the town for those in need. And again, it's the classic three, the orphan, the widow, the orphan, and the alien. And then, yeah, there are other laws too. So Exodus 23, 11. Exodus 23, 11. The seventh year you shall let it, that is the field, rest and lie fallow. That means you're not planting anything on it. That the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard. And just building on this, there's Leviticus 19.10. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 23.22. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. And Boaz goes one further, you remember this? He not only leaves the sheaves, he actually has his workers pull out sheaves so that Ruth, who's gleaning after, has like some, just like basically sitting right there for her. Yeah, and then I feel like there's one more here, 24, 22. Yeah, so Deuteronomy 24, 20 through 22, when you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And then talks also about the grapes of the vineyard, same thing. And then listen to the rationale. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this. So what's this teaching us? Yeah. I think that there's a principle here that work is good in and of itself. And it is good for those who are poor and for the needy and the fatherless to actually come out and do the work in the edges of the field. to get up their own food. It gives a sense of dignity, and I think this is where our country has gotten really off track and caused some really bad problems by just giving people handouts. It leads them into really bad circumstances, and it's not the way that God would like the poor to be taken care of. I'm so glad you brought out that this involves labor for those in need. There is a circumstance, the one we first talked about, where the tithe is simply deposited there in the town. You harvested it. There it is. It is, in a sense, a handout. But then there are these other situations where you've got to go and get it. Like, I'm not harvesting all my grapes or all my olives or all my wheat. You got to go out there to the edges of the field and everything. It's there. It's there for you. But you have to go. And like you said, that sense of dignity that comes from working. And I think another piece of it, too, is just remember one thing that all three of those people have in common, the orphan, the widow, and the alien, is they all have no land. No land of their own, most of the time. And so God is providing the blessings of the land for the landless. And this is His grace, yeah. Yeah, good. Yeah, and then there's also required lending, and we just heard a sermon about this about a month ago, but I'll read it again. Deuteronomy 15.7, if among you one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. So here's your brother, he's in need. You shall open your hand to him and lend him whatever he needs. It needs to be what he needs. Listen to this, also Leviticus 25, 35. If your poor brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. So it's required lending, and the question I want to ask on all of these is this. Doesn't that make it kind of forced? How do I put it? If it's legislated kindness, is it kindness? If you're made to lend, is it generous? I'm thinking that it is required because we need to learn to do it. That we would, in and of ourselves, not go as far as God wants everybody to go. And it's something that we need to learn. And again, when you put it into practice, it becomes a heart condition. Yeah, we hope. It's certainly possible that we could just be going through the motions, even when we're just doing it, yeah. I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I mean, I was forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school. Doesn't mean I'm not patriotic or can't say it with conviction. Right, right. Or when we, you know, repent of our sins every week in church. Right. It's mandated. But I would obviously say I'm doing that, you know what I mean? So that's good. I don't think they're mutually exclusive. Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, just because it's remanded, it doesn't mean that it's some hollow thing. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking of something similar, just like the spiritual disciplines. We may not feel like getting up and praying in the morning or reading our Bible, but we're commanded to. So we don't always have to feel inspired to do that or whatever. It's a command from God. Yeah, I had a friend who said, yeah, I don't really want to make my kids read their Bible and pray in the morning, because I want them to want to do it. And I was like, well, I think you should still make them. And yeah, there'll be times where it's just sort of like, yeah, I got to do this, or no breakfast. But in time, it can be something that they want. Did you have a thought on that, Debbie? Yes. Now, if you're just talking about the church and you're talking about God's commands, yes, we should follow those. But I don't see here, I don't see you extracting the money from us. I mean, you're not taking us out of our bank accounts or putting us on auto pay. We're not on auto pay here. And then if you carry it over to the government, Do we like what we see right now? I mean, does anybody like that? For them to come and say, we're going to take this from you and give it to them, that's communism. That's theft. Yes, we should want to do it from our hearts, but even God doesn't tell us to do it. You have to pay to get into this building to worship him. I think there's a line here where he, God is requiring this, like to be a faithful Israelite, you must provide for your needy neighbor, right? And yet at the same time, it's at least not specifying any mechanism of enforcement here. It's expecting that you're going to do it, to do it, yeah. It's also not a gift. It's still a loan. Part of the alleviation of the poor, like that Leviticus 25 continues, if your countrymen of yours become so poor with regard to you, He doesn't want to keep going into debt to you. That he sells himself to you. You shall not subject him to a slave service. He shall be with you as a hired man. And then it goes on to how you treat him and how he gets released at the year of Jubilee with his family. But part of the alleviation is to become a slave of somebody. and serve them, and that's how you get provided for, by working for the person who can actually be your head of household successfully. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and again, it's preserving their dignity by saying, here's this loan, you're going to need to pay this back. And yet at the same time, God does allow that debts will be relinquished in time. So there's going to be these resets. So Deuteronomy 15.2, this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed." And we'll talk under the last point about an even bigger release cycle. Yeah, and here's one other piece, like even when it comes to God commanding sacrifices, one theme is how many times he says, if you can't afford this required sacrifice for your cleansing, well, here you can offer less. So let me read some of these. So this is like, you get unintentionally unclean, you need to offer a sacrifice. It says, if you can't afford a lamb, this is Leviticus 5.7, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he's committed two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering, one for a burnt offering, and a couple others. So like one of these, it's the Leviticus 12.8 is actually relevant. In the case of Jesus being born, it says that if the woman who becomes unclean through the birth of a child, and again, uncleanness is not about sin. Uncleanness is about unsuitability to enter God's house and worship in the Old Covenant because it's meant to be a picture of the new creation where everything is in proper order. And all the uncleanness has to do with somehow disorders in creation. So like fluids coming out from you when the fluids are supposed to be inside of you. So the uncleanness needs to be rectified before you come to worship. God wants women who have delivered babies to come and worship him. And he makes this demand that she bring a lamb. And it says, Leviticus 12.8, and if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering, the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her and she shall be clean. Interesting that when Jesus' own parents come, it says they offer the two turtle doves, implication, they're poor. So we see this like, generosity on God's part here. There's other examples of this where he lowers the bar if it's unreasonable. I really like how Leviticus 27.8 says it. I thought I had it on here. I must have missed it somewhere. Well, it just talks about the reasonableness of it. I'll read it since I've got the mic here. There's the deeper rationale. The law isn't just telling us now in these specific situations, this is what you do this through that. It's trying to capture our hearts. And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then you shall be made to stand before the priest and the priest shall value him, and the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford. And so, again, it's about let's be reasonable here, trying to understand what will not cripple the poor. So any thoughts as you think about the alleviation of poverty? Any thoughts on this? What we're not measuring is motivation, drive, the mindset of what goes on. And then to point out that free enterprise, the principles of, these principles laid out, have lifted 20 billion people out of poverty. And that is somewhat based on sin and self-interest. Because sin and self-interest preserves, it's error is, thinking of yourself and trying to better yourself, but there is a motivation of good to help others. In the big picture, it ends up being a motivation to help others out of this. And I think that we could say that laboring to better yourself is not necessarily sinful. I mean, it could be greed, right? If bettering yourself means you're, you know, trying to get to the point where you can afford gold toilets or something. But like, seeking to better oneself is a biblical motive. You know, what is it? First Corinthians, where he says, you know, be content with where you are, but if the opportunity to better yourself comes along, then take it. I wish I could remember the exact passage there, but yeah, yeah. And so like this is God showing us he wants there to be a way out of poverty. And maybe I'll just talk about the last part here. It's not just alleviating poverty, making it so that people who are in that situation are like comforted and helped, and there's compassion for them in the midst of what they're going through. But then they're actually exit ramps completely out of poverty. So every seven years, the slaves are to be released. And they are also released at the Jubilee every 50 years. Slaves can always be redeemed by relatives or by themselves. And when a slave escapes, they must not be given back to their masters, Deuteronomy 23 says. And then I really like this one too, the Jubilee Law regarding the land. It says here, Leviticus 25. 25 through 28, if your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. Now we're talking about the land, the land that was once for all given to Israel. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it and then return to his property. But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of the jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property." So let's just say, like someone becomes really poor, they become a landless person. God's plan is that they not remain landless forever. That there will come a point, the year of the Jubilee, every 50 years, when that land will revert back to them and their family gets a new start. Like, okay, this is your inheritance forever. You get to stay here as long as you want. And if you sell it off, guess what? You can still have it back in the year of the Jubilee. Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah. Again, were any of these laws practiced? I don't think so. But here's the other point, though. These laws were set out for maybe a perfect Israel that was never to be. And when they sinned, what happened to their land? They were exiled eventually, right? The land's gone. Yeah, it was fulfilled in Joshua 22. He says, here's all the promises and I've committed, I've made and I fulfilled. And the land was one of them, as you've pointed out. Yeah, that's right. But I see these laws as a perfect Israel, but I can't imagine land being changed back in 50 years or something, how that would ever work. Yeah, I mean, we definitely see little hints of this. I mean, in the case of Ruth and Boaz, Ruth, Boaz is the kinsman redeemer for Naomi. And so there's this understanding that Naomi's land, you know, she's hoping that she will get it back through her kinsman redeemer. And Boaz actually does that, even though it means marrying Ruth, the foreigner, another person who actually stood closer in line to Boaz, refuses because he doesn't want to marry Ruth. And so there's definitely evidence that these things, there was some level of it going on. But by and large, it seems Israel was largely apostate, yeah. I think these three things are like you were saying, they're resets. They're not necessarily out of poverty. To be released as a slave is to be released back into poverty with a fresh start. They might have an opportunity to do well again, especially if they have land. it's still dependent on them whether they're going to come out of property, but it is a fresh start. But the second one about escaped slaves, like runaway slaves not being given back, I think part of what that shows also is that a master should be like God, the kind of master that a slave wants to stay with, who's a good provider and a gentle yoke and all that. Yeah, good. And just going back to the reset, like, especially since most slavery in Israel is debt slavery, we're not talking about, you know, chattel slavery where people are being kidnapped and then sold around between different people. Because it's debt slavery, what's going on? It's like, well, you're in debt to me, you know, 300 shekels. and you're not going to get out of slavery until you pay the debt or work the debt off. Well, now what's happening every seven years, zero. You owe me nothing. So that is definitely an exit ramp out of slavery in some respects, out of poverty. So I've had people use these passages of the gleaning to mandate socialism for Christians. What do you think the relationship is between these passages and the government? Or is it speaking to the church? Yeah, wow, big questions. I mean, I think that There's a big difference between this and socialism. Let's just get that out there right now. This is not the kind of thing where there's this sort of forced wealth redistribution equalizing everybody, where the wealth being redistributed is being handed to these people who are doing nothing. There are places where it's just given as a gift, like the first under alleviation of poverty, but as has already been observed, a lot of these involve some measure of investment, like you've got to have skin in the game. That's not what socialism is describing. Socialism also is talking about equalizing everybody, leveling everybody out. And that's just not in God's law at all. In fact, in God's law and in the book of Proverbs, there's this constant refrain of, if you obey, it will go well for you, you will be blessed. And so there's this connection between what you do and God honoring your labor. And, you know, the book of Job's there to remind us that it's not like this simple one-to-one connection where it's like, well, you know, that's the health and wealth gospel, right? But like, yeah, God loves to bless the righteous. Psalm 127, you know, Psalm 128, the pictures we saw just recently of the man who's blessed with offspring by the Lord. So yeah, then your other part of your question was like, how should this be reflected in government? I mean, I think basically, that is where I'm wanting us to land is like, How do we take these principles that we're seeing here and apply them to our lives? And if you are in a position where you can actually affect change on a societal level, on a governmental level, what would you do to apply these principles here? So that's really what I wanted to ask you all. You know, here's my thought question. How does God find a way in all of these things to show mercy while not enabling the poor to keep being lazy? Yeah. I just had a hypothetical question regarding people who are in poverty and then they willingly put themselves under a master. Should that individual who perhaps sold his land and enslaves himself in order to escape poverty for a time, should he, like his master and the law of having the having a tag basically put on his ear and enslaving himself for life. Should he have no kinsmen redeemer, would that land just go back to the tribe or would that go into the masters? Okay, okay. Yeah, so there is this stipulation in Exodus 21, I think, about the guy who decides he wants to stay with his master even when he's allowed to go free. In that case he doesn't go back in the Jubilee or in the sabbatical cycle. He just remains with that man forever as he promised. That's why they take the awl and drive the hole through his ear. What exactly is your question? Would the land that was previously his, that he sold, would that go back to the man who sold it? Would that go to the master or would that go to the tribe in general? Yeah, well, that's a really interesting question. I don't know the answer. I think that would be something that would take some adjudication. Yeah, great question though. processing how these pieces go together. Yeah. I just had a thought, and you can tell me if I'm on the right track or not. I see a lot of similar concepts here, especially with restoring the land and the millstone. Overall, there's like if you're accumulating wealth through exploitative tactics, taking somebody's land or taking somebody's life with the millstone. It's like there's just guardrails being put in place for greed throughout all of these passages. Yeah, and I think we could say that laws that provide those protections and guardrails, like the first part of our outline here, that reflects the heart of God when we are doing things to protect the poor and not let them be beaten down. Good. Yeah. As far as what the government is supposed to do as opposed to individuals, this is all individuals. The law of God is given, and here, you as an individual, as you keep this in your sphere of influence, this is how the poor are provided for. But there is nothing about taxes and, you know, Good. Yeah, and that's part of one of our struggles as we're reading this is we have to remember that in Israel the church and the state are one. And so some of the ways in which we'll live this out in our present time may be more things that we would be emphasizing in a church sphere as opposed to the state doing these things. Yeah. I'm just commenting on what this reminds me of is just thinking of how generous God is and that he, I think this is a good thing to think about, about how we remember that we are poor. That we are all poor. We are destitute without him. And there's no one above anybody else. And yeah, and we have everything we need from his hand. And I think this is when he wants his character within us. something we think about being like him is exemplifying this character of the care for the poor and understanding that we don't have anything of our own self. It is given by him. It's just thoughts. Yeah, great, yeah. And I think that principle of just the kindness of God, towards us should move us then to be kind to others. And I wish I had time for more discussion, but I did, I just wanted to read this little thing. It's on the back over there on the table for Operation Christmas Child. And I was just reading this and I was like, wow, I think this is the heart of what God's trying to get us to do. So I'm just going to read the story. When an 11-year-old girl in the Western African country of Ghana learned about Jesus through Samaritan's Purse program's Operation Christmas Child and the Greatest Journey, she decided to follow him as Savior and boldly share her faith. The girl's name is Epiphany. Through the program, I now know who Jesus Christ is, said Epiphany about the Greatest Journey follow-up evangelism and discipleship program for shoebox recipients. The classes changed my life. I put my trust in Jesus. Remember, like, as we're giving to the poor, You know, these poor kids basically wouldn't get any Christmas presents. There's also an accompanying sharing of the gospel, right? So that tangible love is also accompanied with the gospel love. Shining the light of Jesus Christ in her community, led Epiphany to notice a boy picking through trash from metal scraps to sell for food. She gave him the Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift that she had received, filled with items such as pencils, books, and a pair of blue sandals. She had loved the gift, but decided that the boy named Daniel needed the treasures more. He wears the sandals nearly every day. Daniel was so intrigued by Epiphany's thoughtfulness as well as her excitement and love for Jesus that he accepted her invitation to attend church and began studying the Bible. Before long, Daniel gave his life to Christ. He plays drums during the church's worship services. After Daniel told his mother about Jesus, she also accepted Jesus as Savior and became part of the church. Praise God for how he is shining his light into families, beginning with boys and girls who are making disciples by sharing the gift of Jesus Christ. I think that's the heart of all these laws, is that love begets love. So as we're really loving the poor, and not in the sense of just sort of like, here's this quick and easy thing to kind of make my conscience feel better, but it's actually not really helping, but like really helping them, then that love propagates. So then the one who was poor begins to be activated in a new way to love others. and they themselves become mechanisms for change. So why don't we pray that God would help us to live these things. Lord, thank you for your words, rich instruction to us about how to love and care for those in need. And Lord, we want to live out your character. And we know that's really what's behind all of these laws is just teaching Israel to picture you. And so we wanna picture you. We wanna picture your concern for the poor. We wanna protect the poor from exploitation. We want to help alleviate the poor in their immediate distress. And we want to provide exit ramps for them out of poverty so that our helping doesn't hurt, but really helps. And we know we can't do this without your wisdom and your help. And so we pray, give us a heart for the poor. Help us to really love those in need. And we pray you would be with us in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thanks everybody.