Exodus 21:12-27

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. So glad to be with you today. We are still moving from Genesis to Leviticus and I have both coffee and I found my glasses. So we have a lot to talk about today. Some really interesting laws, some principles that the Lord will teach us about how he was going to govern Israel and so why don't we have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word Let's pray father we thank you so much For who you are.
We thank you for your word And we pray father that you would please help us to understand it this morning We pray lord that you would teach us and that we would be able to wrestle with these things and that the principles of them would be applied to our lives we need your spirit lord please give it in jesus's name amen all right here we go we are at exodus chapter 21 Exodus chapter 21. Last time we had talked about different laws with servants. Now we get into different laws with violence. And so these are different laws where there's fights and bodily harm that happened to people. And so it's going to be helpful for Israel to have these laws.
He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from the altar that he may die. And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He who kidnaps a man and sells him, if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death. And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
If men contend with each other, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, then he does not die but is confined to his bed. If he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted, and he shall pay only for the loss of his time, and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed. And if a man beats his male and female slave with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he has his property. If men fight and hurt a woman with a child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, Then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.
Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A. What's this about?
B. What's the best verse to summarize this? And C. What are we called to do in response to this? What is this about? These are, again, the case laws, the sundry laws. These are if if things happen, here's the tests. If if this happens then you are to act this way and these are largely concerning of violence what happens And so it starts off with verse 12 with murder Right. He who strikes a man So he dies shall surely be put to death This is what in the ancient Near Eastern world was called lex talionis, right the It's a law of proportion, right? so you if you kill someone the Penalty is death It's eye for eye life for life but Not every time somebody dies.
This is this is this is what is a very very helpful principle in the Old Testament law code for Israel is It's dealing with real life. It's not saying that this is good just because it commands it, but it recognizes that there's things that happen in life, tragic circumstances like 13. However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
It says there is a time where People are gonna fight. God knows the Israelites are still gonna fight. And they're fighting each other and he didn't mean for him to die. They just got into a spat and people were hot under the collar. They were angry. They went to blows. He didn't mean for him to die.
It just happened. is going to be a place and God's going to establish later on in the law in Leviticus and in Numbers, sorry Numbers and Deuteronomy, he's going to establish cities of refuge, places for this person who's committed manslaughter to go. So there's going to be a difference in God's law between the Israelites who murder someone and the Israelites who commit manslaughter. Now, a question to ask is, does this mean that it's OK for them to fight? No. No, it's just that God knows that this is going to happen. And since he knows this is going to happen, here's how an equitable justice is going to be meted out. And then verse 14, though.
But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, Then you shall take him from my altar that he may die. If this was premeditated murder. But what's the Lord saying here? If this was premeditated murder, even if this guy goes into the into the tabernacle and cleans the hold of the altar, not even him trying to take refuge in the sanctuary is to be able to save him. He is to be put to death. Why? Right.
Because this this other human whom he destroyed was made in God's image. Many Jewish writers rabbis and and philosophers have written about how if Someone is to kill one human. It's as if killing all humans It's a violation against God himself Because man is made in God's image. And so this is this is the highest peak of affront against God beside adultery or beside Beside idolatry And so it's that serious.
And then interestingly, verse 15, and he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. I'm going to bring up verse 17 with that. And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 15 and 17 are verses that are saying there's going to be people who are going to throw out the fifth commandment.
They're going to invoke the name of God, and these children are going to, and I think in light here, this is talking about pubescent or grown children. They're starting to beat their parents, and they're starting to curse them. They're invoking God's name, and they're saying, I wish God would just kill you.
I hate you that much. Saying that's the type of rebellion that will upend all society. Because again, to dishonor your parents shows your heart. And if it's that severe, this is not talking about a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, right? While that is wrong and we warn them, this is talking about children who could inflict harm on their parents. I think this would also apply to adult children. When their parents get really old, there's elder abuse.
This is what this is talking about. That's not allowed. Verse 16, smashed in the middle there between these verses about parents. Kidnapping, man stealing is not allowed. It's a capital offense. Again, you're stealing a person's freedom. You're stealing a person's means of income. You're stealing a person who has a right to their own labor, a right to their own family. And this is a capital offense. This is not something lightly glossed over. And then verse 18. Again, this law of violence.
If men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, then he does not die, but is confined in his bed. If he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted. He shall only pay for the loss of time. and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed.
Right, this is saying, all right, God knows that there's gonna be fights, people are gonna get contentious with each other, gonna fight with each other. If you're gonna get in a fight with someone, you better be ready. Because if he doesn't die, and this is women too, right? If that other person's gonna die, you are in charge for their loss of wages, their loss of time, and their medical bills.
The perpetrator must take care of the person that was injured. This is a law of restitution. They're not allowed to just get in fights and get away with it. No, there's going to be punitive and restorative damages done. You're going to have to take care of that person. God is a God of equity. Do you see? If you're going to get into a fight, here's what's going to be, here's the system of weights and balances to make sure that justice is done here.
And then it goes on, verse 20. Now, again, I'm going to smash two different verses together because I think it's important because people have taken verse 20 and have justified a certain type of slavery that's evil. And so we're going to read verse 20 and 26 and 27 together.
If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property. Verse 26. If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go. for the sake of his tooth. If a master this is master-slave relations right and if a master is going to beat his slave then that slave even if he's loses an eye or loses a tooth that slave is free.
Completely free. This is a radical change in the laws of the day that a slave would have a right to their freedom even if they were just bodily harmed. Knock out a tooth, knock out an eye, they're free. Doesn't matter how much you paid for their six years of service, they're free.
Now, if you beat a slave, again, this is just talking about the reality of the time. This is not God saying, hey, you know what? I want you guys to beat your slaves. Yeah, that'd be good. No, that's not what this is talking about. But when this happens, a slave dies. It's going to be a sad, sad day. This is this is one of these law codes that is tough. How is that master to be treated? That's not the death penalty. That's a hard thing to swallow.
Because God is talking to a sinful people in a sinful culture. He's not talking about what should be. He's talking about how will they have equity. And what we'll see as, again, we go through the New Testament is the Lord wants something better for society than this type of stuff. He's dealing with real life.
We'll come to this. This is what Jesus points out with the laws for divorce. Moses gave this to you because of the hardness of your hearts, not because this is what he wants. He gave this because he knew that you were sinners. So here's this law that is trying to preserve their human dignity and yet recognize that this is a different station in life, different ugly reality of what goes on.
And then verse 22 through 25, if men fight and hurt a woman with a child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished according to the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. and this is one of these case laws that God is saying here's a scenario where guys are in a fight again a woman gets hit she's bystander maybe she's trying to break things up maybe they're just absolutely out of control and and they hurt her and she gives birth prematurely she's pregnant with children recognize that a woman who is bearing child is extremely vulnerable health wise. So she gives birth to these children, whether it's one child or multiple children, gives birth to the child.
If that child is born prematurely, they're going to have to pay, right? Pay for the medical bills, pay for the loss of time. She might have to be in bed for five months and then the baby comes prematurely. Those men are responsible for her and for that child, right?
Because of their, their heat and their anger and their stupidity and going for a fight. Guess what? Now you're going to have to pay to take care of her, whatever the, her husband and the judges say is right. But It's the Lord who is knitting together that child's body in the mother's womb. And if that woman is to give birth prematurely and that child is dead, either stillborn or miscarried, that child was alive and now it is dead. And those men or the man who struck her. It's capital punishment. Why? Because of what we saw in verse 12. He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. Notice, this isn't the manslaughter laws that we looked at in verse 13.
But this is how much God takes seriously the innocent life of the child in the mother's womb. and the life of the mother herself. If you do this, it rises to a whole new level of violation against God and his laws. So he says it's capital punishment.
That's how much God values the life of a child. And in an ancient Near East, not even in an ancient Near East, we just have to go to the medieval times, Having an heir, having a child was a major, major deal. And so you need children to work the farm, you need inheritance to be able to get passed down, right? The next generation is seen as a blessing.
So God raises the level that high and he says, this is what it's going to look like in my people, how much they're going to value life. So this is what's going on. in this passage, all these sundry laws about violence and what's going on, what does it teach us about God? God is a God of equity and of justice. He's in some ways turning and changing the laws of the land, giving them new ways of thinking about justice that are going to develop more and more over time, especially as we see these laws explained to us by Jesus and as the Holy Spirit gives the writers of the New Testament new interpretation of how we should have understood these laws. And what we see is that God values human life. What we see is that God is the one who has given us life and breath in all things. And it is God who sees humans as made in his image and have dignity and honor from the littlest to the oldest, slave and free. Slave isn't to be oppressed and unborn children to be protected.
And in the real life situations of life, this is ugly. But even in this, there needs to be equity. So how does that apply in our lives, right? What are we called to do in response to all this? I think we are to be people who are equitable. People who respect life. I think we need to take seriously what Jesus says, right?
It's not just about these laws thinking, well, I haven't violated any of these. I haven't committed murder. But get to the heart of it. If you've been angry with your brother, if you've said to him, you fool, you've already committed murder in your heart.
We must be those who are lovers of peace and not brawlers and fighters. That's what the Lord desires of us. That the spirit of Christ would be in us, that we would love one another. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we pray that you would By the power of your Holy Spirit through our risen Lord Jesus Christ, give us freedom from outbursts of anger and brawling and wrath. Let us walk peacefully. Let us be reasonable. Let us be those who extend mercy.
But Father, we do thank you that you are a God of equity and of justice. And we pray, Lord, that we would be those who would respect human life. for we are made in your image. In Jesus's name, Amen. May God the Father watch over you. May the Son be a constant source of hope and an anchor for your soul. And may the Holy Spirit be a comforter and a helper to you this day and forevermore.
I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.