tonight we come to the second section here in exodus last time we looked at slavery laws in exodus chapter 21 and now tonight we're looking at certain capital offenses and laws from verses we'll consider verses 12 through 27 ending on verse 27 and the well-known passage for an eye for eye and tooth for two which actually is in verse 24 let's give attention tonight to the word of the lord this is god's word beginning at verse 12 whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death but if he did not lie in wait for him but god let him fall into his hand then i will 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 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 the 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 two may the lord bless the hearing of his word i wonder how you felt reading that i'm somewhat curious if i were to go around and survey how you felt reading that it was a little bit how i felt writing it by the way it was a challenge this particular section of scripture was um i'm finding these to be very challenging section of scripture but then as i was working through it and in god's providence this morning we had looked at the very application of jesus dealing with the pharisees abuse of the law of god he was working from exodus chapter 21 so this meant a lot as i was able to put these two sections together and i hope we appreciated the great truth this morning that the lord was after in our devotion to him in our worship of him he is after the heart isn't he he wants worship from the heart he desires it from the heart that was what he exposed as the problem uh with people drawing near to him with their mouths but their hearts were far from him and that as we look to christ for help as we look to christ for forgiveness and salvation appreciating that he came as he announced right out of the gates in the Sermon on the Mount that he came to fulfill all righteousness and obedience to the law of God, that it would now become something sincerely desiring and desirous in our hearts to want to obey God's law out of thankfulness for so great a salvation. That's what the scriptures teach us. I think it's easy tonight in this discussion as we look at all this and try to put everything together from the old and the new, that it's easy to sort of think of the Old Testament that there was something different intended in the Old Testament with regard to obedience. We shouldn't forget that a covenant of grace was made. We shouldn't forget that that was God's intention in the first gospel announcement in Genesis 3, and that it was God's intention when he cut the covenant with Abraham to make a way for sinners, to make a way that they could be right with God and to enjoy fellowship with him it would be wrong to miss that and forget that as we are studying the law of God and so that same kind of response to the need for Christ Abraham saw Christ's day and believed it Abraham believed the promises of the gospel Abraham had the gospel preached to him Abraham understood and was justified by faith alone Abraham knew what he needed so that the same spirit and the same understanding should have prevailed in Israel to understand grace and to understand the need for Jesus their Messiah and to look forward to that to his coming one of the ways that Israel would come to appreciate this or at least should have is to see and understand what life was like under the law of God that's what the new testament is constantly presenting to us and teaching us about the old testament there's a reason Paul would call the old testament a ministry of death i think you just read about it didn't you what it was like to live as an old covenant saint and god in this particular section had put into place certain civil laws for israel that's what we're studying now the civil laws that were to regulate them in the theocracy when if you will to put it in very simple terms when church and state was one but it would be wrong to read these laws and think that god was after something different than what we learn in the New Testament. Seeing that the New Testament was the fulfillment of everything that was given to and promised to Abraham. So that tonight as we study this, we come and meet the very same God with the civil laws teaching Israel about what? Their heart. It's really important tonight. So that they would look for Christ who has the pure heart, that he would save them and bring them to the land and the city that Abraham looked for. So I struggle with this. I struggle. How do you break this down? Many ways this is explained. Many ways these laws are explained are to sort of break them down by looking at the different capital offenses and the different degrees of offenses that are given here. But I really wanted to make sure we don't miss in doing that the main point that God here is after in showing and teaching Israel about the heart he said and he would say in Deuteronomy circumcise your hearts and then he would say I realize I need to do it the Lord your God will circumcise your heart so that where we are tonight was exactly where Jesus was in Mark chapter 7 he was thinking of Exodus chapter 21 which is really remarkable as we're studying Mark 7 where he would indict the religious leaders of his day he would indict the scribes and the pharisees selecting something from exodus 21 to show absent hearts and that's what jesus was saying whatever they had done to the law of god was a sad departure from its design and that's really important isn't it so here are the three points that i labored to come up with tonight i think it helps when you have complex passages to do this the first is that you should love your neighbor from the heart we're going to look at this the second is you should love your closest neighbor from the heart and the third is you should love the least of your neighbor from from the heart and then we're going to understand by the end of this what ultimately motivates and sets us free to love in this way you say where do i get all this about love love is the summary of the law you know when it was declared you the summary being you shall love the lord your god with all of your heart soul mind and strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commands depend all the law and the prophets that was jesus that that's what jesus of course made very clear coming out of the book of deuteronomy and you see that in where god began last time we spent some time looking into God's laws regarding slavery. And his point was to say, dear Israel, you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Remember? We studied this. And you experienced the most awful abuses in the land of Egypt. You were put under the worst institution possible in the land of Egypt. You were beaten. Your infants were killed. You suffered great persecution. But I fought for you. And I came down for you. And you know what I did for you. I gave you Sabbath. I gave you rest. I gave you a Sabbath day to enjoy on your wilderness journey. Anticipating the Sabbath to come. Anticipating the rest. So that when what became of the ancient practice of slavery in Israel, it would now be unthinkable for them to become like Egyptians. Absolutely unthinkable for them to treat their neighbors like the Egyptians treated them. And so what we had in chapter 21 to begin this was a new way forward for how they were to love their neighbor. It wasn't some kind of forced thing. The Lord directly condemned slave trading and buying and selling. You read that tonight, man-stealing. It was a program, in a sense, to rehabilitate people, and we see this from Leviticus, who were thieves and who were poor in Israel. They would be given as slaves, and they would be purchased. Yes, the Bible doesn't condemn, in the Old Testament, the ownership of human beings, but there was a qualification with that. It was for a six-year period, with the goal that in the seventh, they would be set free to rest. That was always the principle of Sabbath, that the Lord was actually teaching them that as he had set them free they were to help people with the goal of setting them free so that when they left the house after six years of slavery they would load them up with all kind of benefits and send them out just as the lord had sent them out of egypt what a way to love your neighbor we saw god cared very much for how slaves were treated by their masters because there was a direct correlation to the Gospel. Direct correlation. How does the Lord treat us as His servants? Well, now He calls us friends in the house, doesn't He? And what kind of a master do we have? I don't ever want to leave this house. I don't ever want to go anywhere else. That's why I quoted Peter. Do you want to leave, said Jesus? Of course not. Where else would we go? This is where we have life in the house of the Lord. This is where we find the words of life. This is where we were set free by hearing the gospel proclaimed. The goal of what He was doing to set them free. God cared about all of this. We are freemen, and that affects now, in everything we do, how we love one another. Well, that now sets the stage for what is to come. It certainly does. Lo and behold, what comes next? Well, God now gives a series of laws dealing with love for neighbor to deter abuse and crime. They really break down into categories that describe the different way we relate to our neighbors. That's how I'm doing it. And that's why I mentioned here the closest of neighbors and then those who we regard the least. So that what we have here then in Exodus chapter 21 are a bunch of case studies and case laws dealing with the preservation of life. among neighbors dealing with valuing our neighbor's lives loving our neighbor's lives who are very important made in the image of god so we begin tonight in verse 12 and you'll notice in verse 12 as we have moved out of the slavery laws he says whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death god wanted the punishment here to fit the crime and here in this particular case that if you struck somebody so as to murder someone and definitely a distinction between murder and killing it was over for you in the old covenant it was done that was the principle of retribution its intention was to preserve life what makes this interesting is that in god's civil law he makes a distinction and this is what i really wanted i believe in these case laws he's doing specific things so that we stop and reflect on the distinctions that he's making and you would say wow that's very intriguing how he just switched up and made a distinction and a particular situation is now presented to us to have us think why this why that and here he makes a distinction what is described here as murder in the sense of homicide as we would put in our terms with malice aforethought which means somebody goes out and intends intentionally goes out and desires to take somebody's life the lord said yes the death penalty stands life for life god knew what he was doing with it of course i don't have to go into when there's no restraint in a society what happens anymore when people get off with their sins they don't take anything serious there's no fear and this is what the lord desired restraint it was one of the intentions of the law and to remember that the intention here was the preservation of life that it would be very serious for somebody to think about killing and murdering somebody but this was not new That's what I, as I sat back and looked at it, this was not really new, was it? No. From the beginning of creation, you remember after the fall, what happened right after the flood, and what was said, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man. So this particular law in Israel, we have not seen just only in Israel throughout history in the theocracy. It was something that God did even in investing the state with the sword. That's why you have Romans 13, which makes this very case that it has the responsibility. And it's important to say now this is why Jesus said the church doesn't fight with the sword because the church and the state are not one, but we're looking at the theocracy here. but in the next breath i want to ask the question what stands out to you in this section well i'm sure you said well it's got to be verse 13 i know he didn't say that but i want you to look at verse 13 however if he did not lie in wait but god delivered him into his hand then i will appoint a place felt uh god let him fall into his hand then i will appoint for you a place to which he may flee two people come together they have a heated disagreement with each other and in the moment of maybe it's intense passion something happens and you'll notice how the lord wanted it stated here god delivered him into his hand meaning that it was totally and outside of the intentional intention of the person when whatever happened to murder him but god let him fall and in the moment of passion outside of his control he dies the lord allows this the lord says if that particular case happens i'm going to provide a place for him to go and flee there were cities of refuge you remember throughout and they would go to these cities of refuge and even guilty parties would run and they would put their hands on the altar. If I had time, I'd go into the story of Joab who did this when Solomon was commanded to strike him down, remember, because he had killed unjustly and it was his just reward. Holding onto the altar, I head into the church, I'll be okay. When this particular city of refuge was opened up and people had this happen, they would go in there and then the judges, the judges would determine if the crime that was committed was done with as we say malice of forethought now i'm really moved by this because god was making a distinction in intention wasn't he so that when you have a distinction in intention the question that should come out is what is god looking at the heart he was teaching them about the heart he was about the heart it wasn't just that god was a bloodthirsty God ready to destroy at the slightest infraction all sin is deserving of judgment don't get me wrong but that he taught them about the sins and intention of the heart so that we were now and in these particular sections working in a way to show us the path of murder making this distinction he then moves in to verse 18 if men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with a fist and he does not die but is confined to his bed if he rises again and walks outside with his staff then he who struck him shall be acquitted he shall only pay for his loss of time and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed what's the Lord doing there? he's having them think a lot about where anger leads in these cases let's say you got into the fight and you strike and he doesn't die god says you got to compensate you need to make up for all the lost time that person has very just but when you begin to put this together and you look carefully back at verse 12 it's the same scenario if you strike a man and he dies verse 18 is the same scenario only now that he didn't die and in this particular section the lord is the one presented as holding the life in his hand. He could have allowed the man to fall or not. But in both cases, what should Israel have drawn the conclusion? The outcome, whether somebody lives or dies, whether they get in a fist fight, really hung upon the Lord's mercies. Everyone should have asked, in this particular case, this is dangerous stuff. Why? Who can control the anger that resides in the human heart? that's the question and what if God lets the man fall I'm done what if he doesn't it was really an act of mercy God in his law showed something very clear here God looked very carefully at the intentions of the heart this is why the Heidelberg says that when God looks at murder he hates the root of murder which is that internal hatred I remember not long ago I went over I was driving and I went into another person's lane without seeing him and boy did this guy let me have it I got road rage let me tell you I even got the bird and I got waved over to the side of the road and you know I felt the same rage come over me in that moment I'm ready to pull over deal with this guy and then i thought no pastor gordon you better not do that you can just imagine it going in the news pastor gets in a fight on the side of the road i was angry and i was amazed at how road rage just comes over people think about it how quickly road rage comes over people and how things spiral out of control all the time imagine what might have happened had i pulled over what if passion had overcome there would have been serious consequences i don't know what they might have been what if i punched the guy and god let him fall i'd have got stoned in the old testament i was angry well now you can appreciate a little bit of what the pharisees did to the law of god when jesus comes along in matthew chapter 5 and he says you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment notice that you have heard that it was said remember this morning i say to you you have heard that it was said he is now engaging the pharisees tradition he's engaging the tradition of the elders you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment and jesus says you've really lightened the load on yourselves no no no No, no, no, no. Let me tell you how this goes. I say to you, the correct intention of the law of Moses was, whoever is angry at his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And don't go holding the altar. Don't head up to the altar. You leave your gift behind and go make it right. He is right in Exodus 21, isn't he? Heart's all over this. You remember the proverb, a person may think his own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the hearts. He's weighing all of our hearts. That's the first thing, the first principle of love your neighbor, love your neighbor. As the passage moves on, we see the call then that it gets a little more personal. Now I want you to love the closest of your neighbors, and then I want you to love the least of your neighbors. Verse 15, and he who strikes his father or mother shall surely be put to death. And you'll notice that he adds to the same penalty to those who curse their parents. Same penalty. He who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. That deterrent had everything to do. And you'll notice here, we're interacting tonight with, in these particular laws, the fifth and the sixth commandments, aren't we? We see the moral substance right here. So that what's moral here, we're pulling out of this and applying very strongly, even though we're not in the theocracy. The deterrent had everything to do with how we should love our parents. The commands did. And it's extremely important because notice that such actions against the family, against parents, receive the death penalty. As I was working on this, I thought to myself, notice how caring the Lord is about your parents and for your parents. We probably don't appreciate this as we should. There was no social security in those days. There were no rest homes. There were no retirement places. Parents had the obligation, children had the obligation to care for their parents. And the Lord expected that when the children became adults of the parents' age and the parents became old, that the children would then care for them and provide for them and help them. So at the act of cursing a parent was not some careless word flung out in the open against their parent. As bad as that must have been, and as much as the Lord detested that, the act of cursing a parent in the ancient Near East was akin to disowning your parents in their need. Divorcing your parents, as we have put it in our terms and in our culture, which can happen. And the Lord is saying, I care about your aging parent. Notice this. If a person attacked his parents or disowned them, immediate death. Now that opens up this morning, doesn't it? That when we come to Mark chapter 7 and Jesus is engaging the Pharisees, studious, keeping of the law of God, he would say to them, well, you have sure found a fine way to break the law of God for the sake of your tradition. Let me tell you how you do it. And what did he choose? This one. This one. Where he said, you guys make your money and then you say in pious devotion to god oh this is corban this is devoted to god and your parents sit and rot away over here you hypocrites you have made the commandment of god of no effect for the sake of your tradition what a fine way you found out of that one you have no love for them you have no burden for them there's no love to care for your family when nobody else to care for your parents when nobody else is going to do it i have to say that's been one of the saddest things that i've seen in the ministry children have had parents who have loved them provided for them and cared for them and in their old age no interest not even a visit no care no love parents who can't even care for themselves now i think this is so beautiful what the Lord's protecting here. Maybe we've been taught to live off the government and think the government will do it for us. Jesus didn't. The fifth commandment still applies. And when the fifth commandment was given, the Lord had a direct intention knowing that culture. And he had this primarily in mind. This was not just for the little boys and girls to obey their parents. This was for every age to love their parents who are still here. And now you can appreciate, It goes beyond that. It goes beyond blood. You can appreciate when Jesus is on the cross and He looks down at His mother and He looks down at the disciple whom He loved and He says, Behold your mother. Care for her. I'm leaving. And I need you to show love for your neighbor by caring for her. That's your mom, John. Imagine if we thought like that. Imagine the witness of that. It's just so powerful, isn't it? One more category tonight. Notice that's the closest. Love your closest neighbor. Love the least of your neighbors. Two more categories show up here tonight. Slaves and the unborn. It's just remarkable, isn't it? Verse 16. Whoever kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he's found on his hand, shall surely be put to death. I will not put up. with man stealing you don't have that right that person is made in the image of god you do not have the right to play god and go steal them that's what's going on with man stealing and the slave trade that's what's going on with all of the stuff that we're seeing today ownership of people even though god had permitted it in certain cases as we see here it was never to be something that man did by theft that's controlling his image and then you see again how much god cared for the treatment of others not just others but those in society who were the and we looked at last time the down and the outs the rejected and the poor the lord wanted them protected so that when a man strikes his servant and slave male or female with a rod and the slave dies he will be avenged who cannot just beat your slave cannot just beat your servant but if the slave he says survives a day or two he is not to be avenged for the slave is his money well the point here and i know that sounds so foreign to us because we're we don't we don't live in this culture the point is the clear point of this entire passage was i want them treated fairly and i understand that when you're taking people in who were the poor and thieves they may and we all know working with people who are very difficult but down and outs we know how they can take advantage we know what they can do that does not give us the right to treat them terribly that's what the lord's saying there was provision to the owner if the slave was difficult but the lord says even in that i want him protected how so if a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it he gets to go free she gets to go free even if they lose so much as a tooth they get to go free well that's regulating it you don't want to lose your workers that's care he's saying love them so the prevention was to prevent owners from tyrannizing their servants and you remember the the intention last time you're trying to work to bring them to rest Gospel. You're no better. But then he takes us to the most moving of all. Look where the case study takes us now, lo and behold. Verse 22. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there's 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 judge is determined, But, here's the distinction. Notice it. Here's what the Lord wanted highlighted. Notice it. 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. Two men get into a fight for whatever reason in the process. And notice how absurd this case study seems to us. Of all of them, you could have chosen. This is not a vast collection of case studies. It's a very selective choice of case studies that the Lord gives us. Look at this. If two men get in a fight and they harm a woman who's with child, God just provided a care for the one neighbor you rarely think anything about. Who? The infant in the womb. There are so many implications from that. The Lord knew what the culture would do to unborn children. The Lord knew what future generations would do to unborn children. In the process of the fight, she gets hit. Gives birth prematurely, no harm. Still, there has to be, judges have to decide the payment, but if there's harm, strict retribution. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and so on. Who does the Lord have his eye on? If you ever have anyone tell you that the Lord and we don't believe that the infant in the womb is a human being, you can go right here. The harm the Lord raises is inflicted on the little unborn helpless neighbor in wombs who has no way to defend themselves. That's my view of the fetus. That's my view of what's happening in the womb. I care about that neighbor. And I'm going to give the strictest penalty to anyone who harms that least of all neighbors. You know what this law is called, right? It's the Lex Talionis. On this one. Let me ask this question this morning. I asked you the question this morning, what is the most wicked place in America? How'd you feel? When I said at your heart, You know, when Matthew records Jesus saying that, that it's the heart, you know the first two things he chose to say that come out of the heart? Evil thoughts. Murders. How do you think God looks at the heart of a people who can murder 54 million little babies in his image, unborn, in a country? Think about it. Love the least of your neighbors. Now, let me ask you a question I said this morning as we looked at this great passage. This law of strict retribution is here right in front of us. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand. The Lord says, I'll defend them. I want to ask a sincere question tonight. How do you think you've done in loving your neighbor? In the old covenant, what Paul called a ministry of death, It would not have gone well for you unless you had Christ. I want everyone to just for a moment, we'll close here in a minute. Look back at verse 18. 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. Let me ask you this question. What if that read, when men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or his fist and that man dies, then if that man, the verb means here to rise again, then if that man rises again, you shall be acquitted. If that message were found in the Bible, wouldn't that be a marvel and a message too good to be true? Guess what? That's the message of the Bible. That's exactly what happened. The evil thoughts and murderous hearts, we struck a man. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And he died. I know the old covenant had been over. But this man was the son of God. Got up the third day. And today you're acquitted. That's the only basis anyone in Israel ever stood so that when David himself could commit murder from the heart with Uriah, the law of Moses gave no provision to forgive him, but the covenant of grace did. And that's the gospel. And that's the basis on which we stand. And you see, that truth changes hearts so that Jesus would come along in the new covenant and the Sermon on the Mount, and he would say, you have heard that it was said, I'm going to now go after these Pharisees and their tradition again. You have heard that it was said eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Lex talion. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you or take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with them too. Give to him who asks you. And from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. The Pharisee had said, you've done something wrong to me, i get to do it back you accidentally hurt me i get full retribution it's like these scammers who come up and nail you or hit on the brakes so that you punch into them so that they can get the money and jesus was saying that's not the intention of the law the intention of the law was not a cold retributive way of taking advantage of your brother without love oh no no no no the purpose of the law was to protect people from glaring injustice. That was the purpose. To promote the love of your neighbor. When Jesus was teaching this, when it comes eye to eye, tooth for tooth, the person who hurts somebody else should do all in their power to now go and make it right. That should be the changed life. The law said you shall give life for life, tooth for tooth. But the person who gets hurt should do what? Give mercy. That was the intention. That's what you've received. Christ taught us something about love. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. I give you that command. It wasn't that love was never commanded before. It was that we never knew love until He showed us love. And now with redeemed minds, forgiven by grace, understanding it all these scenarios in your life all these things that happen in your life when you get the bird out on the road these are opportunities to love your neighbor when your neighbor offends you to love your neighbor for to this you were called because christ also suffered for us leaving us an example you should follow in his steps who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but you know what he did he committed himself to him who judges righteously who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you are healed don't get me wrong judgment day for all of those who don't have jesus will be eye for eye tooth for two but that's why we preach the gospel and we are never more like Christ than when we show this understanding by loving our neighbor as we have now been taught to love. And that's where we stop tonight. As we've received mercy, let us forgive. Let us be merciful to our neighbors, long-suffering, patient. Don't be difficult to talk to. People are going to do dumb things to you. People are going to offend you. So what? Love them. Love your neighbor with sincerity of heart because that's how you've been loved by Christ Himself. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a wonderful passage to learn so much about your intentions in the law of God, but so much about our own hearts. Thank you for loving us and giving your best so that we might enjoy forgiveness tonight. We confess that, Lord, from the heart, it is so true that proceed evil thoughts we're constantly dissecting and trying to determine the actions of people and the motivations of people and then we plot all sorts of things or say all sorts of things and murders then follow. Help us now to love as we've been loved. May it be a great motivation to love since we have been forgiven and to now have opportunity to show mercy when we are hated. Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness and for instructing us in righteousness and for your justice. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.