Exodus (Lesson 40)

We trace Exodus 21 to show how God’s law delivers equal justice, protects life in the womb, demands restitution, and ties rights to responsibility. We call listeners to trust the Lord’s simple truths and to seek a justice that restores rather than excuses.

• all lives valued equally before God
• the child in the womb named as a child
• proportional justice as real deterrence
• restitution to make victims whole
• negligence and dangerous animals addressed
• home defense and the boundary of night
• private property rights joined to duties
• thirty pieces of silver and Christ’s worth
• simple repentance, faith, and daily obedience

Church Website — BibleBaptistDeLand.com

Ministry Website — JamesWKnox.org

YouTube Channel — YouTube.com/JamesWKnoxSermons

Sermon Audio — SermonAudio.com/BibleBaptistDeLand

Web Store — Store.JamesWKnox.org

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Study Setup
• 1:04 God’s Justice Without Partiality
• 4:00 The Child In The Womb And Penalties
• 6:36 Eye For Eye And Real Deterrence
• 11:04 Consequences For Harm To Servants
• 12:44 Dangerous Animals And Negligence
• 15:50 Thirty Pieces Of Silver And Christ
• 17:11 Property, Pits, And Making It Right
• 19:00 Theft, Restitution, And Home Defense
• 23:05 Fields, Fires, And Personal Responsibility
• 25:16 Simple Truths And A Call To Trust God
• 27:35 Contact Info And Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida. Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Now here's your host, Pastor James W. Knox.

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. Glad you've tuned in today. Hope you can stay with us for the next half an hour. We are studying together the Bible book of Exodus. We have come to the 21st chapter. God is giving his laws to his people, the nation of Israel, and we are considering the righteous decrees and the holy statutes of God Almighty as we make our way through these middle chapters of the book of Exodus. If you can grab a Bible and follow along with us, that would be a big help to you. But if not, if you're working or driving or just unable to get at the precious holy book, we'll read it carefully, we'll read it correctly, and then we'll comment thereupon, hopefully to the blessing and the admonition of every one. Don't worry about that banging noise you might hear from time to time. It's not inside your head. We've got a little expansion work going on here at the Bible Baptist Church, and we sure thank God for that. It's better than the sound of nothing happening, better than the sound of a dead church. We thank God for souls being saved, uh believers being baptized, lives being changed, we trust for the honor and the glory of God. Now, we're reading today from Exodus chapter 21, and we're going to start at verse number 20. Exodus 21, verse 20, the Bible says, If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Now, God, God, is interested in judgment and justice and righteousness, and a man who kills another man is not excused from that crime because society may have placed a lesser value on the life of the man who was killed than it would on some other man. You are facing the same punishment under God's laws. If you kill a poor man as if you kill a rich man. If you kill a low-ranking member of society, as if you kill a high-ranking member of society. Remember, this is the same God that would come into the purse of the Lord Jesus Christ and die for all men. For all men. He didn't lay down his life for the rich and the noble and the mighty and the important. He laid down his life for all men. Everyone is of value to our great God. Verse 21, notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he should not be punished, for he is his money. So Lord pointing out, look, if you harm, if you harm those under your employee, you're harming yourself. What a foolish thing to do. 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with fetus. Oh no, let me read that again. If if men strive and hurt a woman with tissue mass, oh no, wait, let me read that again. If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, yet no mischief follow. That is, they weren't uh sexually assaulting the woman, they just struck the woman, injured the woman in such a way as to cause her to miscarry. He shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Okay, so this opens the door for two necessary discussions and conversations. Number one, number one, according to God, speaking on the holy mount, recorded in the Holy Bible. Are you listening? According to God, inside that woman's womb is a child. If that woman gives birth, and one hour later she is holding in her arms a child, two days later, she is nursing a child, two years later, she is raising a child. Everybody understands once that birth occurs, that mother has a child. Sadly, sadly, in our nation of animals, sadly, in our nation of evolutionists, we have lost this truth. And it is truth, God's truth from God's word, inside the womb is a child, just as outside the womb is a child. And if you take the life of that child, you are subject to punishment resulting therefrom. Then, then, then the next thing we need to comment upon in these verses, you've heard it said an eye for an eye, but it goes far than that. Did you read it? You read what it said? An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Now, as we talked on the last broadcast, the the idiots who are running our nation, and the fools who are have the responsibility of governing our society, uh, they are just absolutely clueless. They cannot, for the life of them, figure out what to do to stop all this crime. Okay, let me tell you what won't stop it. What won't stop it is making excuses for it. What won't stop it is trying to find someone to blame besides the person who committed the crime. What won't stop it is giving little timeouts of six months or three years or six years to criminals so they can hang out with other criminals and learn uh new and more intensive ways of committing crime. So here's here's here's what God said to do. If a man punches another man in the face and breaks his jaw, here's what you do: you stand that man up and punch him in the face and break his jaw. How about that? If a man shoots another man in the leg, this is what you do. You shoot that man in the leg. That's what God said. If a man breaks into somebody's property and damages their property, they pay in kind for the injury inflicted and the damage done. Now, here listen, here's how messed up your world is. I'm trying to help you out. This is how messed up your world is. A man comes to my home, kicks in my door, beats me senseless, robs me, and steals my property. That costs me. My insurance rates go up. I have medical bills to pay. If I had medical insurance, the insurance company's gonna raise my rates because I actually used what I had been paying for all those years, and then I've got to pay to replace all the all the stuff that this low life stole from me. So I'm out, I'm out money four different ways. Then, then, if this man should happen to be arrested, you know what they're gonna do with him? They're gonna make me pay for his defense attorney. If he's convicted, they're gonna put him in jail and make me pay for his groceries, for his prison guards, and for his upkeep. Now, how is that punishing the criminal? I'm being stolen from again. So the Bible says you don't make the party that has been sinned against suffer anymore, and you don't give the criminal a little time out to lift weights and watch TV and eat three square meals a day. No, you make him pay in full in kind for everything he has done. And that's the only just, equitable, and fair way to handle these matters. That's the word of God. All right, verse 26. And if a man, if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he should let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his manservant's tooth or his manservant's maidservant's tooth, he should let him go free for his tooth's sake. Listen, it's supposed to cost you something to commit crime. It's supposed to cost you something to harm another individual. We've lost sight of that. Our modern world, we got this idea that it's it's somehow uh an act of nobility or of uh kindness or of advanced civilization to show uh more kindness to the person who has been who has done the wrong than to the person who has been wrong. This is madness. It makes no sense at all. And the more you encourage and promote misconduct, the more that you uh accommodate and tolerate misconduct, the more misconduct you're gonna have. You'd think anybody could understand that. But without God, without the Bible, people just lose their minds. 28. If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall be surely stoned. His flesh should not be eaten, but the owner of the ox should be quit. He's paid his debt, he killed that ox. He said, Well, he won't do it again. Not if you kill him. Not if you kill him. Look, it's supposed to cost you something. That's your animal. You want it, you want private property rights? Okay, they carry with them responsibility. You're responsible to keep your animal from trampling someone else. And if it harms another human being, then you're to uh you're to make uh make that thing right. 29. But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, if this animal has a history of uh violent behavior toward humans, and it has been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. It's negligent homicide. It's a death that occurred because of your careless conduct and disregard for the lives of others. You say much of our legal system was once based upon these great truths and principles from the Holy Bible. Then it says verse 30 if there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Man could file a claim, a legal claim, and say, rather than have this man put to death, I want him to pay X number of dollars in compensation for this damage. And we have that in our courts today as well. If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give unto their master thirty sheals of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Look at that, thirty sheikals of silver. That was the price of a female slave or a male slave that was killed by an animal. Do you know what price? Do you know what value the religious leaders of the nation of Israel placed upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ? They gave Judas, they weighed Jesus' price, and they gave Judas Iscariot thirty pieces of silver. That's that's that's their estimation of the worth of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Zechariah chapter 11 and verse number 12. And I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price, if not forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. I don't know about you, I consider Jesus Christ worth more than every piece of silver that has ever been minted since the dawn of time. Not so those who reject him. 33. And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be his. You can have it. It's yours, it fell in your pit. Now, again, there are consequences for actions. That's what God's law is establishing from start to finish. If you, by your conduct, whether intentional or unintentional, if you by your conduct, whether you meant to or not, cause harm or injury to another person's body or property, you must make that thing right. 35. And if one man's ox hurt another man, another's that he die, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money of it, and the dead ox also they shall divide. Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his own. So we covered that, talked about that uh earlier. If a man shall steal an ox, now the Bible, God God told you, thou should not steal. We just read that on the last uh broadcaster too. If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Now, why this increased compensation? First of all, first of all, it's just an ample punishment to make one unwilling to steal, you have to make the penalty for stealing greater than the advantage one might gain from stealing. Now let's suppose, let's suppose you have an ox, and I see that ox, and I know that your prize-winning ox. I know that your ox, which is strong as an ox, I know your ox is the best ox in town. I steal your ox. I travel across the county, and I sell your ox to a man for a thousand dollars. Well, he finds out I stole his ox, he takes me to court, the magistrate says you did indeed steal that man's ox. I want you to replace it. And so I go down to the uh uh to the uh farmer's market, I go down to the uh to the stockyard, and I buy a$200 ox and take it to you, say, there you go, I stole an ox, and now you've got an ox. Well, I have not justly compensated you for your loss. And so God says, We're gonna make sure, we're gonna make sure that whatever, look, whatever that ox you stole was worth, you didn't get five oxen worth of money for it. Whatever that sheep was worth, you didn't get four sheep worth of money for that one sheep. So, so you better think about this. Before you steal a man's livestock and sell it, you're gonna have to repay that man either 500% or 400% if you get caught. That that'd put a stop to that sort of thing. If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, there should no blood be shed for him. Did you see that? I'm gonna read it again. I'm gonna read it slowly because I don't want you to miss it. If a thief, that's that's a man who steals from another man. That's a woman who steals from another human being. If a thief be found breaking up, we call it breaking and entering. You break a door, you break a window, you break a lock, you break a barrier, you break a boundary line. Look, a man enters another man's home. He walks through his gate, he walks through his yard, he walks up his steps, he climb climbs through his window, he's in that man's house without that man's invitation, and and he gets caught. The Bible says if if when he gets caught he is smitten that he die, there is no punishment, there is no penalty to be taken uh uh upon, to be meted out to the man who killed the thief. That's exactly how it ought to be. That's just that's just exactly the way it's supposed to be. You say, Well, what if there's a uh a case of misunderstanding? There's no misunderstanding. If you want to come to the house for a visit, you knock on the door. If nobody answers the door, you come back later. If you want to come to the house for a visit, you uh you uh ring up the number and you say, Hi, I'd like to come over. For visit, and the owner of the house says yes or no. If you get caught in somebody else's house and you're there without their permission, God said, God said, the owner of the home, if he takes the life of the intruder, is not to be punished for it. How about that? You know that that would uh that would cut down on your crime rate. I doubt very seriously, politicians are listening to this program. I doubt very seriously that lawmakers listen to this program. But I'll tell you right now, if you guys start paying attention to the word of God instead of these reprobate morons who are giving you advice, you might pass some laws that would save your nation and help the people you represent instead of uh just uh legislating more wickedness and folly and depravity. I'm just telling you what the Bible says. These aren't my words. I didn't make these things up, I didn't write these things. This is the word of God. Now, verse 3 says, If the sun be risen upon him, and that's when people do their dirty work, they do most of it at night, if the sun be risen upon him, there should be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double. Okay, so here's what he said. If you don't catch the guy while he is in your home stealing from you, you can't track him down and shoot him three days later while he's eating breakfast. You can't do that. But if you do track him down and catch him later, you don't listen to me. You don't put him in jail. You force him to work and pay the full cost of everything he stole, and you work to make him pay for the full cost of the repairs for whatever damage he did. That's how you handle a thief. You don't put him in jail and feed him, you don't put him in jail and pamper him, you don't put him in jail and let him learn from other thieves how to do a better job of stealing next time. You make him work, and that accomplishes two things. Number one, maybe three things. Number one, first of all, he pays back the man he stole. That's the primary uh mission. Number two, he learns the value that the man who worked and bought the stuff he stole attached to the stuff that thief took. And number three, maybe, maybe if he learns how to work with his hands, he might stop being a thief. Maybe, not likely, but it's possible. All right, verse five. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed another man's field, of the best of his own field, the best, not the refuse, not the leftover, and the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. If your animals get out of your property and get onto my property and eat my crops and eat my grain, you are going to pay for it. Now let me say this again. Let me say this again. There is no way that you can read God's laws and commandments for a society and think that anything about communism is correct. There is no way that you can read God's laws regarding society and think there's anything about socialism that is correct. Everything we have read in these specific laws of a holy God upholds the right of private property and upholds the right of a man to protect and defend his own property, and nobody else is entitled to it unless the owner of the property decides to give it to someone else. Nobody has a right to take it or to use it in any way, shape, or form to their advantage. Verse 6 a fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn of the field be consumed therewith. He that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. Got that? If it's your fault, you pay. All of the citizens of the community don't pay. The taxpayers don't pay. They don't steal money from all the working folks and then have the government pay for the damages. No, the man that caused the damage pays for the damage that he caused. It's so simple. It's so simple. So why can't people get it? The same reason that lost people can't find the way to heaven. It's so simple. Jesus Christ died on the cross, he was buried, he rose from the dead. He's got all power in heaven and on earth. He's the Savior, He's the only Savior. What do you do? You own that you're a sinner, you repent, you trust Him, believe the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of eternal life. And God saves you by his grace and gives you life everlasting. It's so simple. So why do men start all these religions? Why do men reject God? Why do they lose their souls and end up in hell? Because they don't believe God is smarter than they are. Why are civilizations and societies and nations and towns and cities in chaos? Because men think they're smarter than God. God's word is so simple. God's ways are so plain. God's truths are so easily grasped and understood. And all the harm and the damage that men do to themselves and to their fellow man, because they won't believe God. How about you? How about you? You've been trying to live your own way? Been trying to do your own thing? Just been ignoring the truth of the Holy Bible? And you wonder why is my life so messed up? Why am I so unhappy? Why am I so depressed? Why are so many things in my life going wrong? I can tell you. I can tell you. You're just not living by the Bible. God wants your life blessed. God wants your life one of joy and contentment, happiness, peace, love. But you gotta trust him and you've got to go his way. I hope you will. Hope you will. If we can help you along those lines, please drop us a note. Our mailing address, 872 Glenwood Road. 872 Glenwood Road. That's in D-Land. D-E-L-A-N-D. D-Land, Florida. The zip code number, 32720. 32720. That mailing address is in the United States of America. You can also go to our website, and there's plenty of help there for anybody that wants to live for the Lord and wants to know the Lord in a better way. That web address is jamesnox.com. You just type in the name, Jamesennox.com. It'll get you right there. You can type in the preaching of the cross. That'll work as well. Whatever's easiest for you. All right. This program is heard by the grace of God and through your help on many different radio stations at many different times. And so we're going to trust the announcer to come on now in just a moment and let you know when this program will be heard again over this particular station. And we hope that at that time you and a friend that you invite to listen with you will join us for the Preaching of the Cross radio broadcast. Until then, I'm Brother James. May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.

SPEAKER_01: 29:25

Or our website, Bible BaptistToland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.