Our text this evening is Exodus 21, Exodus 21 verses 12 through 36. Over 2,400 years ago, in Plato's book Republic, You have a group of thinkers in Athens and they are debating one of humanity's oldest questions. What is justice? Several of these men tried to answer the question. Cephalus defined it simply. He said, tell the truth and pay back what you owe. It was all about honesty and settling debts. But Socrates countered him and said, what if returning a borrowed weapon to a friend you borrowed it from is gone mad and now he's going to cause harm? Is it still justice to return it? So Paul and Marcus refined it and he said, well, justice means helping your friends and harming your enemies. Justice is rewarding the good and punishing the bad. On that, Socrates pushed back and said, can a truly just person ever harm another and make them worse? Doesn't real justice improve people rather than destroy them? Then Thrasymachus erupted and he said, justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger. Those in power make laws that serve themselves. The weak obey and call it justice. In other words, might makes right. Well, the debate, as you read it throughout the entire work, exposes deep flaws in every definition we try to give, and they never really reach an answer in the end. The question remained unresolved. And we still wrestle with the very same confusion today. In courts, politics, in our personal conflicts with others, human attempts to define justice often prove rigid or vengeful or self-seeking. We talk about justice actually more than we probably realize, but I challenge all of you to try to define it. What is justice? Can you think of a concise definition? It's far more difficult than perhaps you might think at first. Well, thankfully, God doesn't leave us with any uncertainty. And as we look at Exodus 21, verses 12 through 36 this evening, and we read some very concrete laws that God provided the nation of Israel, He did so for very real life situations. He addresses intentional murder versus accidental death, injuries occurring in a fight, responsibility for dangerous animals, fair compensation for damaged property. The laws that God provides are balanced and protective. He distinguishes premeditated killing from manslaughter and requires proportionate restitution. He wants to hold the negligent accountable while safeguarding the innocent. And so, he answers this question that stumped the philosophers. This is what justice looks like in practice. It is all rooted in the moral statutes of the 10 words that we considered in Exodus 20. God's character is revealed, and here it's revealed in even greater detail as we see the principles playing out, valuing every life, promoting fairness, protecting the vulnerable, and restoring what is broken. So look with me beginning in verse 12 and we will examine God's clear answer to this ancient question. 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 appoint for you a place to which he 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. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and 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. When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is 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. 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. 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 the redemption of his life, whatever is imposed on him. If it gores a man's 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. When a man opens a pit or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner and the dead beast shall be his. When one man's ox butts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price and the dead beast also they shall share. Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox and the dead beast shall be his. Well, as we come to this portion, recall that we've said prior that this part of the Book of Exodus is called the Book of the Covenant. That is the law that's found in Exodus 21 through 23. And remember, last time we said that these laws that we're reading, they follow the Ten Commandments from chapter 20, and in the Ten Commandments we have God's statutes, the abiding moral law. And now, in the book of the covenant, we have the case law, the way that the moral law is being implemented in the everyday encounters that man has with man. And so, the book of the covenant is the case laws illustrating how the broader moral principles are to be applied in the concrete daily life in ancient Israel. Now, this is not an exhaustive legal code. It doesn't cover every possible scenario, although as you read it, you might think that it comes close. But it's representative cases. They're designed to guide judges and the community in making righteous judgments. Phil Reichen writes, it does not give us a complete code with regulations for every situation that might arise in every culture. However, it does provide a set of cases to help us understand the basic principles of divine justice. These legal cases are contained in the book of the covenant that God gave to Moses. Each case consists of both a crime and a punishment. The punishment God gave to Israel as a nation under His direct divine rule do not always apply today, and yet they still help us understand how to seek justice in an unjust world. So as we look at this world, we're looking at a world that was agrarian, very much pre-industrial. It revolved around family households and servants and livestock like oxen and donkeys and communal responsibilities. And the progression we will see moves from the most severe offenses, warranting capital punishment, to lesser matters of personal injury and negligence, referring to deliberate structure that prioritizes the sanctity of life and proportionate justice. Many of these laws present challenges for us because they address a world that is far removed from our modern context. We don't typically arrive at our gatherings on Sunday mornings riding on a donkey. Slavery has been universally abolished. Several months ago, remember, we looked at the threefold division of God's law into moral, ceremonial, and civil. And we identified then that the moral law, the Ten Commandments, is still binding on all man everywhere as God's law, as His standard. While the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ as our prophet, priest, and king, the civil or the judicial law, which we are looking at now, is governed, it was intended to govern the nation of Israel. They were a theocratic nation state. But that governance, the specifics of that governance expired with the covenantal administration. However, that being said, Our confession of faith itself clarifies that these laws expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, but their general equity is still of moral use. John Calvin explains, when these judicial laws were taken away, the perpetual duties and precepts of love could still remain. In other words, since the judicial law of God was based upon the moral law of God, the interpreter of the law, as we read the law, we have to take care to recognize the moral implications of each judicial regulation and not just dismiss their usefulness. A lot of preachers get to this section of the Scripture and they say, do I really want to preach a sermon about someone's tooth getting knocked out? Not really. And so they just sort of skip over it or skim through it. But I think it's important that we get the principles that tie to it even though this isn't maybe the most exciting section of the Bible. So think of it like this. For example, when the penalty for adultery was given in the Old Covenant, it was the penalty of death. It is...it's not wrong in modern society that the penalty for adultery is not death. Nevertheless, the penalty imposed in Israel's theocracy highlights the seriousness and the severity of that particular sin in the eyes of God, and Christians should understand that God finds the sin no less morally abhorrent because penalties no longer exist or are of a different kind. In the end, no earthly legislation will be perfectly just, but the Christian understands that God's perfect justice will be executed on the Day of Judgment. So, as we look at the book of the covenant, We have to keep in mind that the underlying principles of justice and fairness and equity, they continue to instruct us today, even if the specific penalties and the cultural forms do not directly apply. Now, the structure of this passage divides neatly into three parts. Verses 12-17 show us capital crimes, verses 18-27 show us personal injuries, and verses 28-36 deal with criminal negligence. And as we examine each section, pay careful attention to God's concern for people across social classes, His protection of the vulnerable. and his cultivation of a culture that reveres life as sacred. So first, laws of capital crime, verses 12 through 17. This initial segment of the case law in the book of the covenant addresses the most severe offenses against God and against our neighbor, each constituting an egregious intentional violation of the core commandments from the Decalogue. Specifically here, God is dealing with capital crimes that breach the 5th, 6th, and 8th Commandments. I won't tell you what those are. I know you know what they are. We already went in them in great detail. But the prescribed penalty for each of these is death, and it reflects the gravity of these acts. The death penalty serves not merely as retribution, but it is a public declaration of the sanctity of life and authority and freedom, all based on the truth that every human is made in the image of God. By demanding the offender's life, the law of God underscores that deliberate destruction of God's image bearers forfeits one's own right to life. Now, often people want to argue with Christians and say, well, you say you're pro-life, but you support capital punishment? You support the death penalty? Oh, absolutely, because that is the pro-life position. Because why would capital punishment be imposed? It's only imposed for capital crimes, and those are where another person's life has been taken. And so, there's a proportionate justice. We are declaring that life is sacred. Therefore, if you intentionally take life, yours ought to be taken. Now this section progresses logically. It begins with murder, which is the ultimate assault on life. And it moves to assaults on parental authority, undermining the family order that sustains society. And it concludes with kidnapping, treating persons as property. And notice the application of these laws. There are no exemptions given based on one's social class, status, or gender. In the broader ancient Near Eastern context where penalties often favored the elite, this uniform application testifies to the radical justice of God's law. We often hear in our own nation today, nobody is above the law, even though all of us know that plenty of people are treated as though they are above the law. Well, in God's theocratic society, this was not the case. Truly, no one was above the law. And so, let's look at the details. First, premeditated murder we see in verses 12 and 14. The foundational case is stated plainly in verse 12. Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. Very simple. This targets deliberate premeditated homicide, cold-blooded murder. It's executed with malice. The Hebrew verb for strikes implies a fatal blow, and the context assumes that one has intent. Verse 14 sharpens the distinction. It says, but if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar that he may die. In the ancient world, altars were places, they were places of asylum. And so, if you went to the altar and you grasped the horns of the altar, it was thought to grant temporary protection from vengeance. But here, God explicitly revokes that sanctuary for one who is a willful murderer. The biblical command for capital punishment in cases of premeditated murder, it predates the Mosaic law, and it remains an enduring principle. Long before giving the law to Israel, remember God instructed Noah after the flood, whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed. For in the image of God has God made mankind. It's on the basis of God making man in His image that bloodshed shall result in bloodshed. Human life bears the imprint of God's own likeness, and that makes intentional murder not just a crime against another person, but it is a direct assault on God Himself. Such a grave violation demands the forfeiture of the murderer's own life as the only fitting response. Now, of course, execution is irreversible. And so God insists on rigorous protections to ensure that no innocent person is put to death. Capital convictions require multiple witnesses and careful distinctions between deliberate murder and unintentional killing. These standards reflect God's commitment to true justice, and it really carries weight for us as we think through these kinds of issues today. The Bible upholds the death penalty for murder as a just response that is rooted in the sanctity of life. And yet, justice requires more than the penalty itself. It demands a flawless administration of the penalty. We need impartial trials and reliable evidence and systems untainted by prejudice and corruption and error. In a fallen world where bias and mistakes persist, achieving such certainty is often impossible. Hence, the importance of the standard that we insist on in our judicial system of a crime being committed beyond any reasonable doubt. There may be times as Christians when we have a very strong sense that someone is guilty of murder, but if there is any doubt whatsoever, we should not be quick to want to impose capital punishment. It's better that a hundred murderers be left to walk free than we kill one who did not commit the crime. We let the innocence go, and we must. Justice demands it. We have to affirm the gravity of murder while navigating the realities of human frailty with wisdom and caution. We must be very slow in this. Well, in verse 13, it now addresses unintentional homicide. This is a critical distinction. He says, however, if He did not lie in wait for Him, in other words, He wasn't hiding out waiting for Him to show up, but God let Him fall into His hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which He may flee. So what this is acknowledging is divine sovereignty even over tragic accidents. This is what we call in our judicial system involuntary manslaughter. It lacks premeditation or malice. Rather than having to face immediate vengeance, the killer flees to a designated place of refuge, a city of refuge. Later revelation expands this to six different cities of refuge. They're strategically located so that accidental killers could seek asylum from the Avenger of Blood, who was a relative who was charged with restoring family honor through retaliation. And in many ways, here we have an ancient honor-shame culture. Blood feuds, these things could spiral endlessly. But God's provision mandates due process. There must be an investigation. There must be an opportunity for a trial. There must be protection until the high priest's death releases the manslayer. So this system tempers justice with mercy, preventing vigilante cycles while at the same time upholding life's value. Verse 15, assault on parents. Children, listen to this and be very thankful you don't live in ancient Israel. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. The Hebrew verb again denotes severe violent beating. So this isn't just a kid gets angry and kind of smacks his mom or something like that, but this is a severe violent beating far beyond a childish slap or a moment of rebellion. This is aggravated assault, potentially life-threatening, directed at the very authorities that God has placed over the individual. Now, ordinarily, non-fatal assaults warranted lesser penalties, but violence against parents escalates to capital status because it strikes at the very heart of the fifth commandment. Parental honor undergirds societal sustainability. Assaulting one's parents subverts divine order. Significantly, the law protects mother and father equally, which was a radically counter-cultural idea in a very patriarchal world. The fact that the mother had the same rights here as the father would have been radical in the surrounding nations. Verse 16 deals with kidnapping, "'Whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death.'" We addressed this briefly last time dealing with slavery, but this directly violates the Eighth Commandment, man stealing, treating an image bearer as merchandise. While the Old Testament regulated existing slavery, as we have seen, it unequivocally condemns man stealing, the essence of forced enslavement. The law holds not only the kidnapper and the seller guilty, but also anyone found in possession. Verse 17, cursing parents, whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. This is parallel to the physical assault. This addresses verbal repudiation. Curses means more than casual disrespect or angry words. It's not just a kid getting mad and mumbling under their breath, I hate you. You shouldn't do that. You'll be ushered into next week at my house if you say something like that. This involves formal public denunciation, like invoking divine judgment against one's parents or utterly rejecting their familial duty. In a society where, particularly in ancient Israel, where elderly parents depended on their children, such rejection could be life-threatening. And again, there was equal protections here for mother and father. So, collectively, these capital crimes safeguard the most fundamental goods, life, family authority, and personal liberty. The death penalty, far from cultivating a culture of death, reinforces a profound culture of life by declaring certain acts utterly incompatible with God's high society. Under the new covenant, while the church does not execute capital punishment, the gravity of these sins persists. Unrepentant evil must be purged from our covenant community through the discipline of the church. These laws reveal God's fierce protection of the vulnerable and His demand for justice that mirrors His very own character. That's the first major category, capital crimes. Moving on to laws of personal injury, verses 18 through 27. These address non-fatal bodily harm with a punishment or a restitution of monetary compensation and practical care instead of execution. This reflects a graduated system of justice. Penalties proportioned to the severity and the intent of the act, emphasizing recovery over vengeance. Now in the ancient Near Eastern context, many law codes imposed fines or other penalties. They were graded by social class, often treating lower status individuals, including slaves, as mere property and they had very minimal protections. However, Israel's law uniquely extends substantial safeguards to vulnerable groups like slaves and women and the unborn, demonstrating a higher regard for human dignity. Verses 18 and 19 show us injuries that result from quarrels. When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or his fist and 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 his loss of time and shall have him thoroughly healed. So if you have two guys, they get in a bar fight and one gets knocked out cold and he has to go to the hospital, he might be there for a few days, but if he gets up and he walks out, You'll be okay if you're the one who put him there. You just need to pay his hospital bill and pay for his lost wages. Don't get any bar fights, guys. It's not smart. But this case envisions these sort of spontaneous brawls. using improvised non-lethal kinds of weapons like fists or stones instead of a sword or a spear. So the injury is severe enough to cause great harm, but if he walks away, he's fine. However, if the man does die, capital punishment is enforced. And so, he has to cover all of these sort of wages if the man lives, compensation for his lost wages, his medical expenses, all of this once he gets out. Verses 20 and 21 and verses 26 and 27 deal with injuries to slaves. These laws, and I can't overemphasize this, these laws provide unprecedented protections for slaves. Nowhere else in the ancient world do you see this. Verse 20, if a man beats his male or female slaves with a rod and the slave dies under his hands, he shall be avenged. Avenged implies capital punishment. In other words, God is equating the killing of a slave with the murder of a free person. If the slave lingers a day or two before dying, no additional penalty applies as the master's economic loss serves as self-punishment, presuming disciplinary intent rather than murder. Permanent maiming, however, you permanently maim a slave such as destroying an eye or knocking out a tooth that requires immediate release of the slave. In other ancient codes, injuring a slave typically at most incurred a fine, but God grants slaves bodily integrity rights comparable to free persons with freedom and compensation to deter abuse and to affirm their humanity. Very important. Verses 22 through 25 deals with injuries to pregnant women and the unborn. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined. as the woman's husband demands of him, and it shall be given as the judges determine. But if there is 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, bruise for bruise." So this bystander scenario involves accidental harm during a fight. The description here is describing premature delivery of a child. It says, if no harm follows to the mother or to the child, a judicial fine compensates the offense. If harm does occur, however, the penalty is an eye for an eye. Now, we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But notice here critically, very important particularly today, the unborn child receives protection as a person. Harm to the fetus triggers the same penalty as to the born individual. God applies His law without distinction, affirming the unborn's intrinsic value from conception. Interestingly, in our own legal code, if someone kills a pregnant woman and the baby also dies, they are charged with double homicide. But that woman can go and have her baby killed by a murderer called a doctor and the majority of our nation will celebrate it. The double standard is shocking but not surprising in a fallen world. The Bible is clear. This child is a human being and to do anything to intentionally cause or even unintentionally cause it to die is homicide. So these cases of personal injury, prioritize restitution for non-capital harm, uniquely safeguarding slaves and women and the unborn. They cultivate a society, revering life, again, across all stages and all statuses. And we, as Christians, we need to be the most vocal about that, that life is precious no matter what. the unborn, those who have severe disabilities, those who are elderly, those who are at the end of their life, things like euthanasia and suicide, all of these things we should be vocal opponents of and very clearly oppose while still upholding the justice of God in something like capital punishment. We need to understand the categories and how they work out according to the moral law of God because all of them communicate God's justice and His moral way that He has determined that man shall function within society. Well, the last set of laws that God deals with in verses 28 through 36 are laws on criminal negligence. So it shifts the focus to cases of unintended harm arising from one's property or possessions. The emphasis is on criminal negligence rather than deliberate violence. Unlike the premeditated murder or direct personal injuries that have already been addressed, these scenarios involve accidental deaths or losses where the owner bears responsibility for not preventing foreseeable dangers. The underlying principle is proactive diligence. Individuals must manage their belongings and particularly in this society, their animals or hazards that exist on their lands in ways that safeguard their neighbors. This extends the command to love one's neighbor as oneself into very practical everyday responsibilities. It's holding people accountable not only for what they actively do, but also for what they negligently allow to happen. And so in a society that depends on livestock or communal land use, such laws prevent chaos and cultivate a culture of careful stewardship. These negligence laws primarily revolve around animals and physical hazards, but they progress from human fatalities to property damage. The penalties blend retribution, destruction of a dangerous animal, for example, with restitution, financial compensation. And in severe cases, it allows for ransom. That introduces an element of mercy that is mediated through community judgment. So let's look at a few of these examples. Verses 28 through 32. when a goring ox causes human death. I know this is an issue we deal with regularly, so we need to really understand what to do here. If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be clear. So, for a first-time offense with no prior warning, this ox has not yet received a ticket. The animal alone pays the ultimate price. It is stoned to death and its meat is declared unfit for consumption. The owner escapes liability as the incident is unforeseeable since animals can act unpredictably. But it's penalty enough that his ox has to be put to death. Because that is a huge financial responsibility for him. However, verse 29 escalates for known dangers. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been worn but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death. Habitual aggression coupled with the owner's prior notification and failure to confine the animal renders the owner culpable. Negligence becomes equivalent to manslaughter warranting capital punishment. But even so, mercy is still possible. We should think about...there are instances where we could actually think about this sort of thing with people's pets. They're dogs, right? They get out and you always, oh, that's such a nice dog. Yeah, until it ripped your neighbor's face off. You hear it all the time, they're so nice, they're so gentle with my kids, until they're not. But this is the same kind of thing. And then when it happens more than once and three times, the owners need to be held responsible. That's exactly what God is saying. But even still, mercy is possible. Verse 30, if a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. So the blood money likely, determined by judges or the victim's family, it allows commutation of the death sentence, allowing loss while permitting atonement. But notice the law applies uniformly. If the ox gores a son or a daughter, to him shall be done according to the same rule. For slave victims, the ox is still stoned, but compensation is fixed at 30 shekels of silver paid to the slave's master. This was the standard slave price. Their lives too demanded accountability. Verses 33 and 34, open pits causing animal death. When a man opens a pit or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner and the dead animal shall be his. So what's probably going on here in most instances is that someone is excavating a cistern or a well for water. and it imposes a duty to cover it securely. We have to keep it covered. And failure to do so resulting in an animal's death requires full restitution. The negligent digger has to pay the market value for the lost animal and he gets to keep the carcass. But this holds individuals responsible for hazard on their property, preventing careless endangerment of their neighbor's livelihood. Remember, this is how they make their living, this is how they feed their families, so this is a big deal. Verses 35 and 36 deal with animal on animal harm. We're getting into the weeds here. When one man's ox butts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price and the dead beast also they shall share. So, in unforeseen cases, both owners share the loss equally by selling their surviving animal and dividing the proceeds of the meat. But if the goring ox was known to be dangerous and unsecured, the owner of this ox shall make full restitution, he shall give an ox for an ox, and the dead beast shall be his. The negligent owner fully compensates by exchanging a live animal for the dead one, bearing the entire burden. This set of laws extends neighbor love into preventative responsibility. We should be careful to secure known dangers and mitigate hazards and maintain safety in communal spaces. Foreseeable risks demand protective care. If we fail to act responsibly, we should face liabilities." And that is...the application for that for us today are many. There are so many things we could point to where that is the case, and we'll think about a few of those in a minute. But I will say, I'm very convinced that one of the things that should be punishable in some way is if you let your dog go to the bathroom in my yard and you do not clean it up. Don't let it in my yard in the first place, but if you're going to, at least pick it up. I don't want to smell it, I don't want to see it, I certainly don't want to step in it. Let's do something about that together. We as EBC, we're going to start a petition, Broward County, we're making it happen. Well, as we look across the landscape of all of these verses, we can find these parallels. There may be many things in our own judicial system that we don't like. There are certainly many laws that don't make any sense to us. But there are some things that do make sense and have a particular correlation with what we see here in the covenant code. The reality is that most societies recognize that we have to bear personal responsibility for our actions, and ownership entails duties to prevent harm. We are required by law, for example, to have liability insurance for our vehicles. If you have a swimming pool, you have to have a barrier around it so someone can't just come by and fall in. If you insist for some reason on owning a pit bull, you have to keep it on a leash and not let it attack your neighbors, children, or pets. If you own a business, you have to follow certain safety rules. And if one of your workers is hurt on the job, you have to provide for their medical care and lost wages. A lot of this is annoying. Some of it is very burdensome. However, as we think about it, even though it can be very expensive for us, we can see parallels with these kinds of laws with God's laws in many instances. Ultimately, we see throughout the covenant code that God is calling on His people to cultivate vigilance. He's teaching us that true righteousness involves not just avoiding evil, but actively safeguarding the community through diligent stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. And now, a big part of this is what we call lex talionis. I've mentioned this before, but we have to go back and spend a little bit of time here from verses 23 through 25 at the end. The principle here, lex talionis is Latin for the law of retaliation. It's very familiar to all of us. And this principle has often been misunderstood in both ancient and modern contexts as a mandate for brutal, literal vengeance. Popularized misinterpretations such as Mahatma Gandhi's quip that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind portray it as a cycle of escalating cruelty. Others have wrongly invoked it as a biblical sanction for personal retaliation or settling scores tit for tat. But in reality, lex talionis actually functions as a restraint on punishment that deliberately limits retribution to prevent the excessive vengeance that was rampant in ancient honor-shame cultures where any kind of perceived injustice might provoke disproportionate response. So, far from endorsing sort of this barbaric approach, this formula establishes proportionality and moderation, ensuring that the penalties precisely match the harm inflicted, no more and no less. Evidence from biblical texts and Jewish interpretive traditions strongly indicates that lex talionis was primarily compensatory rather than literally retributive. Except in cases of premeditated murder where life for life demanded execution and no ransom was allowed, penalties for personal injuries typically involved monetary fines that were scaled to the damage sustained. The Hebrew phrasing in verse 23, you shall give or you shall pay, uses a term that frequently denotes financial payment, as in verse 22, it's fine for a premature birth without harm. Rabbinic sources consistently interpret these verses as requiring compensation for damages of loss of limb, pain, medical costs, unemployment, and humiliation. And so, this resolves most non-fatal injuries through restitution, making literal mutilation inconsistent and unnecessary. Literal application would actually contradict the humane spirit of the law and create some absurdities. The framework is intended to cap punishment at an objective equivalent, protecting victims from undercompensation while curbing an offender's family or judges from excesses. It embodies divine justice. It's measured, it's impartial, and it reflects God's character who repays according to what one deserves. But remember, Jesus references this in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." This has got to be up there in a list of the top misunderstood and misapplied passages in Scripture. Jesus is not abrogating or contradicting God's law. Rather, what He is doing is He is correcting the Pharisaic and scribal misapplications that were prevalent in the first century, where they twisted lex talionis into justification for personal vendettas or insisting on the strictest possible retribution without mercy. Jesus is addressing the heart attitude in interpersonal conflicts. In other words, He's saying believers should not demand their full legal rights when they're wronged personally, but extend grace, absorb evil rather than seek retaliation. This fulfills the law's deeper intent, upholding public justice that is administered by magistrates while offering forgiveness and mercy to those who do us wrong in our personal ethics. So, we have to think about those categories. It is not wrong that we as Christians should insist on criminal and civil penalties when we have been wronged, even if forgiveness has been sought and granted on a personal level. These are two separate realms that they have their role. This is how God functions. A murderer can cry out to God for forgiveness, and by faith in Jesus Christ, what's going to happen? What will happen? He will be forgiven. He will be welcomed into the kingdom of God based upon the righteousness of Christ alone. That doesn't dismiss the penalty for his crime that should be rightly administered by the magistrate. When someone is a murderer, very clearly, very evidently, it is 100% provable, we know this person has murdered. They become a Christian, the response from Christians is not now to say to the magistrate, well, he's a Christian now, so we shouldn't follow through with this penalty. That's simply not...we're operating in two different realms here, one in which we need to insist on justice in the civil magistrate, while at the same time insisting that this man has now become a brother in Christ, is forgiven in Christ, and we will see him in heaven. He's just going to get there before us. But this is God's wisdom in curbing human excess and safeguarding human dignity through measured consequences. Now, we just covered a lot, and you may hear all of this and you think, this is exactly why I skipped through these chapters in my scripture reading. It's a lot of laws for Israel. It's all kinds of stuff. It's boring. We're talking about teeth and eyes and oxes and all that, oxen, I think. I'm doing my best to help us apply this, but we have to keep in mind that all of God's word is important and all of God's word is useful for us. So we can't write it off too quickly. Every sermon, as much as I wish it was, every sermon cannot be a plate of bacon with a side of cheesecake. Sometimes we have to eat vegetables. Not cauliflower, you should never eat cauliflower. Or beets, ugh, tastes like potting soil. But you get the point. We can't just skip around the Bible and read and study and think about the things that we think are most exciting. This is the nitty-gritty life-level stuff that really does matter, even if it's not all of the excitement we've seen in the previous chapters of Exodus. So, three big practical takeaways that hit right at real life, and we'll be done. One is that punishments should fit crimes. There's a proportionality in justice. God doesn't want runaway vengeance or endless feuds. He wants fairness that restrains evil without escalating it. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth wasn't a license for payback. It was a limit. It was a mercy in a violent world saying that responses have to match the wrong that was committed. Secondly, we learn that we need to take careful responsibility in loving our neighbors. whether it's keeping an eye on your ox or your dog or your car or your words or your actions, you are responsible for the negligence that you might cause. This is loving your neighbor in the everyday by being thoughtful, vigilant, and quick to make things right when you mess up. So, if you are in a parking lot in South Florida, I'm really working on this in my heart, and someone backs into your car, and they just drive off and don't ever say anything or leave a note or whatever, you're gonna be angry about that. Don't be that person. If you cause damage to someone else's property or you're negligent in some way, make it right. That's exactly what God tells us to do. Don't just say, well, they're not here, sorry. If it happens to you, and I'm sure it's happened to a lot of us, it's happened to me twice since I've moved here, I'm okay, I promise. Deal with it. Do the right thing. Thirdly, the preciousness of human life. Over and over and over again, these laws scream that people are not property, people are not accidents. Life is sacred. It is made in God's image from the slave to the free, from the born to the unborn. Harm a person and it is serious because every single human being is created in the image of God. So all of these rules, they're not just ancient rules for a theocracy, they're reflections of God's holy character. God is just and caring and fiercely protective of the lives that he has made. But these laws also expose something in each and every one of us. They show what true justice demands, they show what perfect neighbor love looks like, what honoring the image of God in every person really requires, and if we're honest, all of us fall far short. We neglect responsibilities, we harbor resentment instead of mercy, and we devalue people, born and unborn, in thousands of subtle ways. The law is perfect, and because it is perfect, it reveals that we are guilty. We deserve the full weight of that proportional justice pointed right back at us. That's why God's law isn't the end of the story. Every law that God gave points us forward like a spotlight to the one who fulfills them all perfectly. When Jesus came, he didn't toss out eye for an eye because it was wrong. It was right. It was just. But he took it deeper. In the Sermon on the Mount, he wasn't contradicting the justice of the law. He was showing a higher way for his people, a way of mercy that breaks the cycles of vengeance. And then he lived it. On the cross, Jesus didn't demand an eye for an eye, did he? He didn't demand an eye from those who really deserved it. Instead, He took the full proportional punishment that we owed. Life for life, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. The innocent one died so that the guilty could live. He bore the justice of God so we could receive the mercy of God. That's the gospel. The preciousness of human life proven in the blood of the one who valued us enough to die for us. If you're a Christian, this should fill you with gratitude and be a reminder of the importance of seeking the wisdom of God and the help of His Spirit to live in this world like Him. Careful in responsibility, quick to forgive, fierce in protecting the vulnerable because we've been shown unimaginable mercy. Some people believe that if human beings try hard enough to obey God, they can be saved. But believing that is to have an understanding of the law that is a much lower bar. Jesus raised the bar infinitely. The fact that we can only be justified by grace rests in a very high view of the demands of God's law. Why can we never be saved by our moral efforts? It's because the law of God is so magnificent and just and demanding that we could never fulfill it. There are other people who believe that God is not really alienated from the human race because of our sin. In this view, all Jesus did on the cross was exhibit God's love for us. There was no punishment to take the penalty that needed to be paid. There was no divine wrath to be appeased. But again, in this view, we have a much lower view of God's law. On the cross, Jesus actually saved us by standing in our place and paying our debt to the law of God. And if the Lord takes His law so seriously that He could not shrug off our disobedience to it, that He had to become a human and come to the earth and die a terrible death, then we must take the law that seriously too. The law of God demands justice and love for one's neighbor. And people who believe strongly in the doctrine of justification by faith will be passionate about seeing God's justice honored in a fallen world. So if you're here tonight and you've never trusted in Jesus, maybe these laws seem distant and maybe even harsh to you, but hear this. The God who demands justice is the same God who provided it in His Son. You don't have to face the full weight of God's wrath, which is exactly what every one of us deserves. Jesus already did. And so the scriptures call you, God calls you, the Lord Jesus calls you, trust in Him today. Receive His forgiveness by faith alone in Him alone. Exodus 21 is a window into a God who's just and loving and ultimately in Christ is our Redeemer. I'm thankful for who God is. I'm thankful that God has revealed a righteous way of life. I'm thankful that I can say with all honesty that I fall far short of what He requires, but by faith in Christ alone, I don't have to tiptoe through this life in fear. In Christ, we have the forgiveness of our sins and everything necessary by the power of the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ each and every day, loving justice and doing mercy to the praise of His glorious grace. And so, may God's law continue to drive us to that understanding and that realization that we might love Christ all the more. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we do thank you for your law. Working through passages like this at times can be challenging. It requires us to engage our minds and to think hard and to make applications and to understand things and instances that in many ways are far removed from the world in which we live today. And yet, Lord, you are so kind in your word to reveal these things to us. to help us to see exactly what you do mean, that we can live in a way that is right according to your word. So Lord, help us to not just ever look at any part of your word and sort of skim over it and pass over it and think this doesn't matter, it doesn't apply in any way to me, but rather help us to see what is there, what is right and true and necessary for us and our instruction that we might be a more godly people. We want to do Your will. We want to walk in obedience. Lord, we know that we fall far short, and so we thank You for sending Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to do that which we have no possible way to do on our own. And it is in Him that we rest, and it's upon His righteousness that we stand. And so we thank You that by the blood of Christ all of our failure to uphold Your law can be cleansed because in Him it has already been punished. We thank You for Christ, and it's in His name we pray. Amen.