But let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to some passages that if we are to be honest, we struggle with. Maybe even we don't like them. Lord, I pray that I would be faithful in preaching it. And I pray, Lord, that you would be the teacher and we would be the learners. That you would be the Lord and we would be the servants. I pray that through our time together as your people, as a family of God this morning, that we would learn discernment. that we would learn humility, and that we would be better equipped to live as your people each day of our lives. Thank you that we could ask you for these things. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, I'm not going to read the passage this morning because it's lengthy, but of course we'll be going through it this morning. I hope maybe you read it before you got here so that you kind of know what we're coming to. One of the things as you read these verses in Exodus chapter 21, Exodus 21, and we're not going to be talking about verse 16 this morning. We'll see. I'm not sure what we'll do, but this morning is verses 18 to 32. And one of the things you might wonder as we read our passages, why were these specific examples chosen? I mean, think about two men fighting and there happens to be a pregnant woman standing nearby. And she happens to be hit and then she happens to give birth prematurely. And you think, why that scenario? How often are two men fighting and there's a pregnant woman who doesn't get out of the way, right? I don't, you know, you wonder, well, But I don't know the whole situation, it was just a scenario. Why was that one picked? And why were these picked when you could, I talked to the kids this morning, I'm like, if you wanted to give every possible situation and scenario that could ever happen, that could ever need a ruling, how big would that book need to be? Like I can't even imagine or fathom. So God here, he's got three chapters. Three short chapters of scenarios. Why are these the ones picked? One of the things we need to understand is that Ancient Near Eastern, I wish I could think of some other simpler way to say it, but all the other nations back in that time, Ancient Near Eastern law codes were very different from the ridiculous law codes that, not always ridiculous, there's good law codes. We think of tax codes this morning that we were talking about in Sunday school, those are rather ridiculous, that we have today. The point of these case laws in Exodus was not to anticipate every possible scenario. Obviously, that wasn't their point. Otherwise, you have to have a massive book. Rather, it was to provide paradigms or examples to guide the judges in their rulings. But that's not good enough because the reality is, if I'm looking for a paradigm, I don't even have enough paradigms, right? I mean, just give me just paradigms for all the examples I could have, there's still not enough. So it's not just paradigms here. The point of these sample case laws in your handout, and by the way, in your handout, I wrote a whole lot of my sermon out. So, I mean, you could practically read along with me if you want at some level, but I gave it to you there for you to take home and look at. If it helps you to read, do it. If not, just, I'll tell you when the blanks come. All right, so model is the first blank. The sample is to model the perfect righteousness and justice of all God's judgments. And then, as these models of righteousness and justice were carefully studied and pondered, that's the point. Here's a model of God's perfect righteousness and justice, so I'm gonna carefully study this. I'm gonna spend a good bit of time pondering this. Israel's judges would then learn true wisdom, in your handout, wisdom. enabling them to judge justly and righteously in every conceivable situation. You know, I think, well, that just seems too good to be true. Every conceivable situation? Based on these three chapters? Yes, because what these chapters are teaching is wisdom. We're all about proof texts. Like, give me a verse for that, give me a verse for that, give me a verse for that, and there are verses for that. But that's not the approach that God wants us to take. And what happens is we get caught in the trap of, you don't have a proof text for that, so I'm free, I can do what I want. God doesn't work that way. If we were to have proof text for everything, how big would the book be? And so we have to remember that all of our lives, every single aspect of our lives, I'm not exaggerating, is to come under the authority of the law giver. And to do that, we have to learn wisdom, which is sorely, severely lacking in the church today. So with this background in place, let's take a closer look at these samples of the perfect wisdom and righteousness of God. Verses 18 and 19. And you know, just some of the things that people do to serve in the body. And I know he doesn't want you to know this, but Tracy Short fills up the water so that I can, I have water so my throat doesn't get dry. Just all the things that people are doing, serving behind the scenes, no one knows about. That's the way the body works. Isn't that wonderful? So I'm just gonna take a drink here. Verses 18 and 19 says, when men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, and I want you to think about this, think, okay, what's wisdom here? He strikes the other with a stone with his fist, the man does not die, but takes to his bed. Then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear, only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall have him thoroughly healed. So here's the situation. You've got two men arguing. and quarreling with words. They're not throwing punches yet. They're just having a heated disagreement. And as the words and as the quarreling keep heating up, it escalates to the point that one of the men strikes the other one with a stone or with his fist. Now, the one who got hit, he doesn't die. Because if he died, there's another law for that, okay? If he doesn't die and he's injured to the point that he's confined to his bed, he's bedridden for a time. Eventually though, he recovers enough to begin walking around with his staff outside, which is, I think, just the implication that he's on his way to full recovery. Okay, what should be done? You're the judge. You're the judge, you're the jury. What should be done? What does justice look like in this situation? What's the righteous judgment of God? Well, God says, he who struck him shall be clear. What? In other words, he who struck him shall not be punished. No punishment necessary. At first, that might not make sense to us. Didn't he do wrong? What's the answer? Yes, the guy who picked up a stone and hit the other guy so that he's confined to his bed obviously did wrong. Or punched him in the face? That was wrong. Should he be punished? Apparently not. Now, let's think about this. The role of human courts. is not to take the place of the final judgment. Now that's something that's really important for us to get, because that's what we want. We want the final judgment today. Don't we all? Until it comes down to me. Then I don't want the final judgment today. The role of human court is not to take the place of the final judgment. That's why, you know, just because someone confesses and repents and believes after they've murdered someone doesn't mean that you necessarily get off without the death penalty. See, human justice at the human level is not the substitute, nor does it take the place of final judgment. When we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, So, yes, on that day the man who struck the other one with a stone may well inherit eternal punishment. See, that guy who just hit someone with a stone and God says he doesn't need to be punished, when he dies and stands before God, he may very well be punished and even inherit eternal punishment. So we've got to see that. So also might the man who was injured, by the way, because he's a sinner too, and I don't know where his heart is, But this day, in a human court, is not the final day. It's not the final day of the punishment of the wicked. So on this day, there's only one issue, and that issue is justice. Or we could say, in your handout, fairness and equality between a man and his fellow man. Now, I'm not talking about socialism here. We're talking about, not economics, we're talking about jurisprudence, justice. So, the fact is that, let's think this through. The fact is that both of the men were quarreling, right? Neither one of the men was willing to abandon the quarrel, because if one of the men had abandoned the quarrel, it wouldn't have escalated to that point. And when you keep fighting and it keeps heating up, what happens? Both of them knew what happens. It's just that one of them got around to what happens before the other one did. If you will not abandon the quarrel, you should not be surprised when the other person attacks you physically. Indeed, if he had not attacked you first, it might have been you who threw the first punch and no doubt you're wishing it was you who threw the first punch, right? So here's a clear cut case where no one deserves to be punished. Now, I want us to, what is it about our thinking? See, our thinking is, Wait a minute, no, he did worse, so he gets punished. God says, that's not justice. You are not taking into account the reality that both of them were thoroughly guilty. And I'm looking for justice, fairness, and equality here. So God says, he shall not be punished. Or we could say, they both deserve to be punished. But that's a punishment that awaits the judgment seat of God. For right now, in this human court, the issue is just one of justice. Now, here's the righteous judgment of Yahweh. Only He shall pay for the loss of His time and shall have Him thoroughly healed. So, on the one hand, He's got to pay for all His hospital bills. Now, today, that would be different. We can't draw too many parallels here. His hospital bills back then weren't hospital bills, right? On the other hand, reimbursing him for the time he was laid off of work because he couldn't work. So that is just. Now, this should make you think twice before striking a person, right? If you know that while he's in bed, I have to pay for him to get better and also pay for the work he's losing. But it's not a punishment. That's not a punishment. That's just fair. That's just making everything even. It would be different if you both struck each other at the same exact time and you were both consigned to bed for the same period of time. Now everything's already fair. We don't have to do anything about this. No judge is needed. The point is, just and fair. So, beyond this, beyond this, no one was allowed to go. There was to be no jail time, no flogging, no suing for mental and emotional damages. There was only to be justice between a man and his fellow man. Now, as we think deeply about that, I think it challenges some of our human so-called ideas about justice. But what do we have here? I'm gonna say this over and over again. As I reflected and meditated on this, it all made sense and I began to see that what I have here is abundant justice and perfect equity. And I just kind of shook my head. I was like, wow. All right, verses 20 to 21. When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged. But if he survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for he is his money. So let's think about this. By the way, if you have the NIV translation, I'm just going to say straight out, I believe it's just flat out wrong. So, they don't like what this says, and so they put words in there that just aren't there in the Hebrew and that change the entire meaning of the passage. But if it says what it appears to say in the Hebrew, where is justice here? Why would a man be striking a slave with a rod? Well, in the Bible, the rod, I mean, it specifically says with a rod. So the rod is connected with discipline or punishment for rebellion and disobedience. That's what the rod is connected with. Proverbs 10 and 14 and 26, a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, a rod for the back of fools. And in Proverbs, fools are adulterers, thieves, murderers, fools are all those who don't fear the Lord or walk in His ways. So what we obviously have to assume is happening here in Exodus, in this story, in this scenario, is the master is striking his slave because he played the part of the fool. Number one, he didn't submit to his master's God-given authority. His master is his authority. His master may be wrong, but he's his authority in whatever he told him to do. Number two, it's likely this slave has broken God's law by maybe stealing from his master or even defrauding his master in some way. There's no way we should be assuming an innocent slave here. In the same way, we shouldn't be automatically assuming a harsh and cruel master. Now, the God-given right of the master was to discipline or punish his slave as a member of his household with the rod. And the more serious the offense was, what happens to the discipline? It becomes more severe. The striking with the rod should naturally be expected to be more severe. The slave should know that. Everyone knows that. The worse your sin, the worse the discipline. Our ideas about corporal punishment today are certainly not grounded in any way, historically or biblically. The problem then is not that the slave has been severely disciplined with the rod. The problem is if he dies while he's being disciplined. If that happens, then it's obvious the master lost all control of his actions in a fit of rage with the result he now has blood on his hands, the master does. And for this, the slave, it says in the Hebrew, shall surely be avenged. In other words, being avenged, he shall be avenged. It really emphasizes that. But what happens if the slave survives his discipline for at least a day or two and then dies? What does justice look like in that situation? Now, we talked about slavery a few weeks ago. We have to get out of our ideas of slavery today, of human trafficking. Let's bring in verse 16. God says, If anyone steals a man and sells him, or steals a man and is still found in possession of him, he shall be put to death. So clearly God did not approve of human trafficking or the slavery that the world has seen today. This is not the kind of slavery that was back then, that we're talking about. And that's another sermon that we already preached. So what does justice look like now? Now, the slave lived for one day, two days, after the disciplining. And then he died. God says, the slave is not to be avenged on the master, for the slave is the master's money. Now, I can tell you one thing. God could easily have said, the slave is to be avenged. He's making no concessions here to culture. He's making no concessions to hardness of heart. This is just God's righteous judgment. How do we understand that? Well, first of all, what God is not saying, He's not saying that the slave is the master's property, like his chattel. It's not what God is saying when He says he's His money. In other words, there's going to be a whole section of laws relating to property, right after this section relating to human life. So, even the Book of the Covenant, it separates between human life, which slaves are human life, and property, which slaves are not property, in those terms. So, the point here is just this. If the slave, if the guilty slave, okay, survived his master's disciplining for at least a day or two. The assumption is this, it was not the master's intention to kill the slave. I mean, if it was his intention to kill him, he just would have killed him. Therefore, when God says he is not to be avenged for he is his money, There's two things going on here and this is a real, let's think about it. God's reminding us first of all that while all human beings are created equal, not all relationships are created equal. That is unbelievably essential. We confuse we're all created equal with I'm equal with my master in the relationship. No, I'm not equal with my master in the relationship. In the relationship. I am equal with my master before God as a human being. But I am not equal with my master before God in this relationship of a master and a slave. That's entirely different. That is massive. We do not understand that. That's one of the reasons we have problems with passages like this. So, if the slave has died, then if I'm the slave who's now dead, so I'm not thinking as a human being about it, but if I have died, as far as I'm concerned, I have died only as a result of the exercise of my master's rightful authority in response to my rebellion and insubordination. That's the first point. But then there's also this. Let's just think about that again. I was the slave. I was insubordinate. I refused to acknowledge the God-given authority of my master. He disciplined me with the rod as was his God-given right. Two days later, I died. Why did I die? because I refused to submit to the institution of God, really. Not that slavery itself is an institution he invented, but one that he acknowledges and that does not in any way, as we saw, contradict our worth and value as human beings in the image of God, if that institution is practiced in light of God's word. So, that's why I died. I don't have room to be whining and complaining. If I had room to be whining and complaining, then my master should be avenged and God said he should not be avenged. What is our thinking? See, that's the first point. The second is this. It's quite enough of a hardship then for the master that he's now lost all of the money and service represented by a slave with no hope of ever recouping it. Now that's a significant loss. You have your slave who's now died, and you're not just given another one, and all his labor and work that he did for you is now gone. So if there was some guilt, now by the way, you say, well, I want to know what was in the mind and heart of that master. Human corpse cannot go to the mind and the heart. What court can? God's court. And so if there was some guilt in the thoughts and the motives of the master, he will one day stand before the judgment seat of God, who sees all and knows all. We have to not forget about that. Final judgment comes when the judge sees everything and knows everything. But we are not to think that we can get all of that judgment today, now. For that matter, if you think about that, even the slave's death may only be followed by a much severer judgment on the final day. Did you think about that? The slave just died as a result of his master's discipline. You know what? That may not be such a good thing for him in terms of further judgment on the day of judgment. For right now, the issue is only one of justice, of fairness, and equality between two men who are both accountable to God. And that's exactly what we have here. As I looked at this and reflected on it, and worked to bring my thinking into line with the righteous judgments, the wisdom of God revealed in his righteous judgments, I saw abundant justice. and perfect equity. But it's a justice and an equity that very much contradicts our notions of what's just and equitable. Verses 26 to 27, we're going to skip some verses and move on. When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth. Alright, so let's think about this. Once again, why would a man be striking his slave? And by the way, you might say, Timothy, why are you working so hard to make these look good? Well, because I'm not God and God is, right? I don't have to work to make them look good. That's not what I'm doing. I'm working to seek to bring my distorted and twisted views and understandings into lying with the God who defines what justice is, and who will ultimately make all things right. So, let's try to do that. Let's do this here, humbly, humbly. Why would a man be striking a slave? Well, the assumption here is that no one hauls off and hits someone for no reason whatsoever. So, when the master strikes his slave, well, some people do, and they're sadistic people, right? And maybe we had some slave, well, we did have slave owners like that, many, I'm sure. That's not what it's talking about here. You've got a master of a slave, and among the people of God, and the assumption is, he didn't just haul off and hit him out of the blue for no reason. We have to assume disobedience and insubordination on the part of the slave. But, now there's a problem this time. because there's no mention of the rod here. And the rod is the appropriate instrument for discipline. The rod, by the way, too, was for the back, not for the face. So, what it seems we have here is a slave's disobedience and insubordination followed by the master losing control and lashing out at the slave in the moment in an illegitimate way. Now, if the slave suffers no permanent injury, Then in the end, what did he get? He just got what he deserved. And the master remains accountable for his actions only to God. See, when I say the slave deserved what he got, that doesn't mean that the master isn't accountable to God for what he did. He'll stand before the judgment seat of God and give account for what he did when he hauled off and punished his insubordinate slave. But what if the slave suffers some permanent injury? What does justice look like in this situation? What would you do? Oh man, I'm out for blood now for that master. Well, first of all, the slave should have been more mindful that he was the slave. and his master was his God-ordained authority. When we start thinking, well, I'm equal, and then we start ignoring relationships that God recognizes, then we end up only getting what comes to us. When a slave flaunts the authority of his master, he has no moral high ground to go around whining and complaining because my master struck me in the face. Nevertheless, it wasn't right for the master to do that, to discipline his slave in that way. And so, as long as he doesn't suffer permanent injury, well then you've got two wrongs, and they're even. And the slave is the slave, so he's the one that got hit, so this is the way it is. But if, He suffers permanent injury, most likely without his master's intentions. The master did not intend to knock his tooth out or to ruin and take away his one eye. Then there must be justice, fairness, and equity. Now, if I'm the slave, of course, I want punishment and vengeance. I want the last day now. But I should be careful what I wish for if I'm the slave, because who is it really that deserves punishment and vengeance in the end? As quoted somewhere, we're all eager to deal out death and vengeance, right? And then I'll change the rest of it. But the reality is, who is it that really in the end deserves death and vengeance? So here's God's righteous judgment. As a result of the loss of his tooth or his eye, the insubordinate slave shall go free. Is that justice? Yes, it is. Yes, he will have to live the rest of his life without a tooth, or without an eye, and he'll want it to be the tooth that he's living without, right? But even if it's the eye, this is not entirely undeserved. And now, while the slave has been granted his freedom, with all of his debts erased, The master, on the other hand, has forfeited all of the money and service represented by his slave with no hope of ever recouping it. So, justice. And once again I ask, how can we not marvel at this model of abundant righteousness and perfect equity? And how can we not be... What's the word? Second week in a row I'm looking for a word. How can we not be concerned that maybe we're not sure if this is abundant righteousness and perfect equity? What does it say about our ideas of justice? Let's go to verses 28 to 32. 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 also shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. If it gores a man, son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to the same rule. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned." Okay, we'll work our way through this and then we come to really the conclusion. I'll go back and pick up the middle one. If an ox with no previous record, kill someone, then the ox is to be killed and the owner of the ox is not guilty of wrongdoing. That makes sense to us, right? So far we agree. But even though the owner was innocent, do you realize he still suffers a pretty heavy loss? I mean that ox, that ox is a huge part of his livelihood and it's killed and then he's not even allowed to eat it. The owner's not being punished. He didn't do anything wrong. But the fact remains that it's his ox which took a human life. And so if the owner of the ox understands what human life is, human life, the image and the likeness of God himself, then he's not going to be complaining of unfairness, is he? He'll be humbled before the wisdom and the righteousness of God's judgments. Now, what if the ox was accustomed to gore in the past and he didn't keep it in and he was warned and then it killed someone? Well, then the ox shall be stoned and its owner put to death. Notice this is not a prison term. It's not a flogging. It's death. The owner never wanted that to happen. He never wished for someone to die. He didn't have ill feelings towards anyone. But this doesn't change the fact that even though he knew what his ox was doing, he didn't keep it contained. And so, he now has blood on his hands. So, if we thought some people got off too light, now what are we thinking? I don't know, this seems a little harsh. I mean, I think he should have a severe penalty, but death? See, what are our ideas of justice? Do we understand truly the nature of human life is that created in God's image and likeness? See, we've got to get that. That's another fundamental thing we've got to have drilled into our minds. And so, he has blood on his hands now, this owner of the ox, even though he wasn't even maybe there at the scene. So my assumption is he must die at the hands of who? The avenger of blood. Or as we saw a few weeks ago, the redeemer of blood. Now the point here is not vengeance. You were supposed to keep your ox in and you didn't and now he's killed my family member, I'm gonna kill you. No, the point is not vengeance. Neither is the point, the punishment of the last day because who knows, the owner of the ox may enter into eternal life. Because he was a believer and that was his flaw there. The point is justice and equality. And also, on the other hand, making atonement for the land for the blood that was shed in it. Remember Numbers 35, blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that's shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it. Now, it's true. As a general rule, no atonement can be made for the blood except by the blood of the one who shed it. Well, who's that? That's the ox, right? In this case, by extension, it's the owner of the ox. But we've already seen one exception to this. Let's say that you shed someone's blood unintentionally. Where can you run to? City of refuge, right? And you can stay there, and you must stay there, or your life is forfeit. You stay there until the death of the high priest. whose death is accepted as a substitute for yours. Now then, here we have another exception to the general rule. In the case of the negligent owner of the ox, he is not technically the one who shed the blood, right? The ox did. He might not have even been there. He didn't wish it on anyone. And so, depending on the circumstances, it's possible and it's permissible for the Redeemer of blood to say, I want to let the owner of the ox live. And so we read, if a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. Now the point here is that if I'm the Redeemer of blood and you're the one who let your ox out and it killed my family member, I could say, okay, I'm not going to take the justice that's required, but you cannot just not die like that, and that's it. Okay, off the hook. No, there must be a ransom price. God himself requires it. This isn't about a family that's greedy for money. You know, like some families have no heart and sort of like, oh, I guess I didn't really care about that family member. I'll take the money. No, that's not what this is about. This is about a family that truly desires to let the owner of the ox live. And so therefore, their only other alternative is to require the ransom. This is not a fine. It's not like you're saying, well, the worth of that person was so much money, so yeah, that'll be what the fine is. No, this money has no connection at all with the life of the person who was gored. You're not saying, well, let's see who that person was and that should be what the fine is. That's not what's happening. The money has everything to do with the life of who? The owner of the ox. And that's why it's called a ransom. This owner, it's his life that's going on here. The owner of the ox deserves to die. And so, because the avenger of blood, the redeemer of blood is letting him live, he therefore has to pay a sum to buy his life. which is otherwise forfeit according to God's law. The point of the ransom then is not vengeance, it is not mental and emotional damages. So we shouldn't imagine any huge ransom price that's going to make anyone rich. That's not. Since the Redeemer of blood desires the ox, the owner of the ox to live, the point of the ransom is to symbolize that the owner of the ox has been spared. Not because he's innocent and didn't deserve death, but only because of the mercy of the Redeemer of blood and ultimately the mercy of God himself. Now one thing we need to realize here is that, and this is going to be crazy for us, you might think, well, if you're a true believer, you'll always let the owner of the ox off, right? That's not true. Remember, it was God himself who required the death penalty. While also providing for the possible and probably unlikely exception of a substitute ransom. This is not about, this is about justice. And God is a God of justice. This is what we're to see happening in this world. God ultimately sees, God shows mercy, and at the final judgment, things may come out in ways that we're not able to bring them out here. But we're reading Numbers 35. You shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer. He shall be put to death. So if you went out and with malicious intent killed someone, you're not buying your life back for anything. You're dead. And you shall accept no ransom for the unintentional killer who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. I mean, if you're living in that city of refuge, you're not buying your life with money so that you can go out and live where you want. No, if you go out and do that, then you die. And so here in Exodus, though, we learn that this is the one case where at the discretion of the Redeemer of blood, a ransom may be accepted for the one who is not killed with his own hands, but who still bears responsibility because of his negligence. Whether the owner of the ox is put to death, now this is where we come down to the end of it. Whether the owner of the ox is put to death or whether his life is spared by the payment of a ransom which is accepted by who? the family concerned, the redeemer of blood. He's the one that decides, the close relative of the one who was killed. So if he doesn't accept a ransom, he's dying. And if he does accept a ransom, it has to be paid, he decides what it is, and the judges determine as well. Either way, either way, we see that there is perfect justice and equity, and that all of God's ways are true and right. After clarifying that sons and daughters are to be dealt with according to the same rule, in other words, they're not to be treated as though they were lesser humans, we finally read in verse 32, if the ox gores a slave, male or female, and why did I spend so much time on everything I just talked about? Because it's essential for understanding this, I believe. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned. Now when we read that, We asked this question, is the owner less deserving of death just because it was a slave that was killed? Do you ask that question? Is that what we think? And the answer is no, not at all. First of all, notice the result for the ox. What happens to the ox? It's stoned, and why? And it's not allowed to be eaten, it's assumed here, that's the assumed assumption. Because a slave is just as much the image and likeness of God as anyone else. That ox just took a human life, the ox must die and it must not be eaten or even touched. Okay, second of all, notice that the payment of 30 shekels of silver, what is it? It is the ransom for the life of the ox's owner, at least that's what I believe it is. which was otherwise forfeit. Why is the owner of the ox paying this 30 shekels? Well, one reason is to ransom his life, which he deserves to die. So why, then, is it assumed in the case of a slave's death that the owner of the ox who killed him can always ransom his life? Look what's being assumed. In this case, pay the ransom. Why? Well, the answer is simple. Because if the slave is killed, if the owner of the ox is just killed and there's no ransom paid, we have to realize that the death of the slave by the ox, his death meant a very significant loss, financial loss for his or her master. And so now not only do you have a man guilty of not keeping his ox in, but a man guilty of having robbed another man of a portion of his livelihood. And so in this case, God simply requires that the owner of the ox, who did not intend for anyone to die, who did not wish for anyone to die, and yet was negligent and irresponsible, he must pay for the he must ransom his life with the payment of 30 shekels of silver to the master of the slave who was killed. Notice also that the ransom amount was the same, 30 shekels, whether the slave was male or female. Once again, is there any injustice here? Partly by faith and partly through study and pondering and reflection, I will stand up here and answer unashamedly before you today to the contrary. We can only marvel at the abundant righteousness and perfect equity of all God's righteous judgments. So we come to verse 22. And our last case before we conclude, when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, and the ESV is translating very literally because people interpret it different ways, so they want to leave it so that you can interpret it in the different ways, but I think it's pretty clear. But there's no harm. He shall surely be fined as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. Now, part of this is, why was this illustration included? I think one obvious reason is to affirm the equal worth and value of the unborn. And also the care with which a woman, and especially a woman with child, should be treated. Isn't there something about when you see that there's a woman with child, there's something like, you know, you watch out for her. There's just something about that. And then if it's a woman, that's in itself right there as well. But I think that's what's going on here, just affirming that and saying, okay, that needs to impact then your enforcing of justice. So if while two men are fighting, a pregnant woman is accidentally hit, neither one of them meant to hit her. causing her to give birth prematurely. This is my interpretation along with, I think, many others. If there is no harm to either the child or the mother, then a fine must be paid. And you say, what, no harm, what? Well, here's the reality. The life of the mother was not affected ultimately, and the life of the baby was not affected ultimately. That's the point. But I think even though it's not a literal translation, the point is captured by the NRSV when it says, and yet no further harm follows. So both are needed, I think, and you can't do both at the same time. The point of the fine, why the fine? It's this, a premature birth, accidentally induced by violence, is already an injury. Now, it didn't cause anything lasting or permanent. Life with the baby went on fine. Life with the mother went on fine. But that in reality, in and of itself, was an injury. And it was inappropriate. And here we have a woman with child. And so therefore, true justice only requires, and yet it does require, a fine. Perfect justice. and righteousness. See how God makes the distinction between affecting your life. There's no emotional damages here. It's not about mental and emotional damages. It's about, here was a woman with child. They ought to be protected in every way. And yet you've got two men fighting and one of them, she suffers the violent effect of their fight and gives birth prematurely. The reality is that both mother and child are fine. So, nothing needs to happen except for a small fine. And this isn't going to be anything that puts anyone out of business. But a fine as the husband determines and the judges allow. Because that was an injury in and of itself. Perfect justice and righteousness. Now then we come to, and here in these verses, These verses are quoted essentially three times. All of the times, they're in the middle of something. I mean, I would have thought these verses are going to come at the end, the grand finale, right? But no, they're just stuck right in the middle. Because it's like at this point, God's just saying, okay, here's the point. Here's the point in everything we've been talking about and everything we're going to still go on to talk about. And it's this, he says, but if there is further harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. I'm not self-righteous or arrogant when I say this, but there are a lot of arrogant commentators out there who dare to say, that God is not consistent in His application of these verses because He didn't apply them faithfully to the slave and the master. I think they've missed everything and everything. And it's not because I'm passionate for being right or for finding others wrong. I'm passionate for the honor and the glory of the God who will only deal justly. So in other words, what is God saying here, but if there is further harm? Notice, look at that. But if there is harm, and we're like, what harm? I need specifics. What happened? And then tell me what to do when that happens. Right, because that's what we've been getting so far. But he doesn't say, this is the one place where God doesn't say what the harm was, or what it looks like, if there's further harm. So what's he saying? In other words, for all the numerous situations and circumstances not sampled here or anywhere else in the Book of the Covenant, you shall apply the wisdom that you have learned from your careful study of these righteous judgments. in order to be sure that true justice and righteousness is always done. I feel like I want to read that again, but we're already on to the next page. So, you just underline that or go back and look at it later. You see, the point of eye for eye and tooth for tooth is not personal vengeance, as in the day of Jesus, they were applying it. When Jesus quoted those verses, he wasn't contradicting God's word, he was contradicting sinful man's bad interpretation of it. The point here in Exodus is not personal vengeance. You poked my eye out, I'm going to poke your eye out, right? No. The point is, Not even that these verses are to be woodenly or literally applied. That is not the point. Many of the righteous judgments we've seen this morning do not literally apply these verses. So the master who struck his slave and he lost his eye, God did not say that the master's eye should then be gouged out. He didn't say that. Was God then being faithful to his own word? Well, God doesn't, yes. Yes, He was. What these verses have done, what these case scenarios have done, is they have perfectly modeled. They have, all the things we've just talked about this morning, they have modeled the principle. that summed up in these verses, which is, what is the principle in eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burn for burn, and whatever else it said there, foot for foot, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, what's the principle? It is this, equity, fairness, justice, and righteousness. And it takes a wise man who has studied and pondered the judgments of God to be able to know what tooth for tooth means. what eye-for-eye looks like, what stripe-for-stripe means. So one conservative, and in quote, one conservative evangelical commentator dares to say, and I'm not hiding the fact that this makes me angry, One of our sample case laws this morning, he says, if there is a law without which the Old Testament would be nonetheless for wear, it could be this one. Another conservative evangelical commentator says, of one of the other laws we looked at this morning, the clear implication is that the life of a free person is worth more than that of the servant. He gives no clarification and based on other things he said, I will not give him the benefit of the doubt. And so these conservative evangelical commentators set themselves up as the righteous judges of Yahweh Himself. But before then, we judged them too quickly and I knew where I was going with this. And yet, I'm angry. What about you and what about me? How many of us have been embarrassed of these verses and how quickly, how quickly do I, how quickly do we justify? How many, how often are, and there's a word for it, but how often do we feel like we're in the place of making sure God looks right? How quickly do we feel the need to justify God? Who is it that needs to be justified? We do, and now I'm using a different definition of the word. How quickly do we justify the righteous judgments of Yahweh as concessions only made necessary because of the culture and the times and the hardness of people's hearts? We're going to see that, yes, there were times when Moses said things based on the hardness of people's hearts in Deuteronomy. But we have to be careful that we don't too quickly just say, well, God only said that because he had to. Or on the other hand, how often do we try too hard to make the text fit better? Like I believe the NIV has done at some places in this chapter. We want to make the text fit better, with our ideas of what is fair and just. I will suggest to you this morning that nowhere in this book of the covenant does God ever make any concessions to anyone or anything. Now, we've talked before about why these same laws are not to be applied within this new covenant community of the church, or even necessarily in our state governments. So this is under the old covenant, but that doesn't mean that it was not fully just and right. Everywhere in the book of the covenant, all that we see, I believe is the ideal application, not concessions, but the ideal application of perfect righteousness and justice. Indeed, it should almost literally take our breath away. But if we cannot see this, and I struggled to see it at times this week, if we cannot see it, then where does the problem lie? In God or in us? Certainly the answer is in us. See, if I start out with the assumption that my thinking is the definition of justice and righteousness, well, then I'm going to go down a certain path. But if I start out, if I sit down to prepare this message, And I start out with the assumption that God is the definition of justice and righteousness. And I won't talk the way those commentators talk. And I'll prepare in an entirely different way. And I'll learn wisdom. We will learn wisdom. Either way, we haven't rightly understood God's righteous judgments or we've been blinded to the beauty of those righteous judgments by our own so-called wisdom. So I ask this in your handout, have we set ourselves up as the righteous judges of God? And none of us are going to say we have. I mean that sounds horrible. But you know what, even if it's not here in Exodus 21, there are other times, all sorts of times in our lives when by our decisions, by our choices, by our decision to live this part of my life outside of the authority of God because there's no proof text, because there's no specific case law that specifically addresses this part of my life, right? We set ourselves up as the righteous judges of Yahweh. And when someone comes along and challenges me on this lifestyle choice or decision or this that I've made, well then I say, I say, no, no. That doesn't make sense to me. I don't agree. Even if they challenge us based on God's wisdom, based on wisdom gleaned and learned from the Word of God. And so we are the judges. We do this all the time. Have we set ourselves up as the righteous judges of God? Or do we humbly desire to carefully study and ponder all His ways that we might learn true wisdom? That we might learn to truly think His thoughts after Him in every single situation and circumstance of life? In every single one, we want to think His thoughts after Him. The Bible is not about a comprehensive list of proof texts. It's about teaching us true wisdom and the fear of the Lord so that you might choose the path of righteousness in every single part of your life. So you may not be called to be a judge in a human court, deciding between cases, deciding between two men or two women or a man and a woman. But you are. You are in this sense. a judge who decides the decisions you're going to make in every aspect of your life. And in making those choices, in making those decisions, we are called to carefully study and ponder the ways of God revealed in His Word so that we might then know how to live our lives at every point, in every place, at all times. Do you carefully study and ponder all God's ways that you might learn this wisdom, that you might truly learn to think His thoughts after Him in every single situation and circumstance of life? after this morning and after this week for me, and I feel kind of bad because I had all week to be pondering these righteous judgments. But after this morning, how can I not humbly bow before this display of infinite wisdom, perfect righteousness of all God's judgments? And how can I not then Think about this. Think about this. How can I not long for the day when God creates new heavens and a new earth in which there is only righteousness? I want to read these two passages before we sing. Isaiah 11. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. And a branch from his root shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. So Isaiah 42 says, Behold, whenever it says behold, make sure you behold. Look, see, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you. Thank you that though we live in a world where there are the miscarriages of justice all around us, and even though we live in a world where even when true justice is done, it's not yet the justice of the final day. I pray that you would enable us to remember our King. whose rulings are always just and only righteous, and how one day He will come and all the earth will wait for His law, an earth in which there is only righteousness forever and ever and ever and ever. And Father, I also pray that you would help us to humble ourselves before your thoughts, your righteous judgments. Help us not to arrogantly set ourselves up as your judges. Far be it from us. Lord, I pray that even as you gave these case laws to model your ways so they should be carefully studied and pondered, help us as we live our lives to study, to carefully ponder your ways revealed to us in Scripture so that we might have the wisdom to live justly and righteously under your law, in your authority, in every breath that we breathe, in every part of our lives. Father, I just pray that you would convict us and forgive us for the ways that we have exempted our thinking from being conformed to your word just because we didn't find any specific part. I pray that you would forgive us. Forgive us for the ways that we would be our own gods. I especially pray, I just pray for everyone, but I pray for our young people. that they would be models to us of people who are learning wisdom. Lord, to You be glory. And again, we lift our eyes to You, worshiping You and bowing before You for all Your perfections, for all Your ways. They are beautiful, wondrous, amazing, beyond us. We bow before you, in Jesus' name, Amen.