Principles from the Judgments

[0:00] And continuing to move through the book of Exodus, we're coming up on some several chapters, three chapters of what's called judgments. You can look at the very first verse of this chapter. It says, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

[0:16] He's already given them and verbalized the Ten Commandments, and we understand those to be written and engraven in stone. Now these are judgments that are to be set before the children of Israel.

[0:27] If you recall, there were judges that were set up, and when they move into their new land, there's going to be individual cities. And in the gate of those cities, the judges would come and assemble and sit, and any cases would be brought before them.

[0:45] What God did now, He put out what we might call verdicts. He's already given the Ten Commandments. Those were the rules. Now these are the judgments, as in these are the consequences for transgressing these commands in certain situations or in varying degrees.

[1:01] And some of what we see and study in these three chapters is going to be new material. But I think simply a lot of this is just sub-points to the commands. It's kind of a reiteration or a specific application to what is a broad command.

[1:18] And I'll give you some for instances, just a skimming of these three chapters. One of the commands is, Thou shalt not kill. So notice in chapter 21 and verse 12, He that smiteth a man so that he die, here's the judgment.

[1:32] The command didn't give you the judgment. The command said, This is what you don't do. This is the rule. Now here's what you're going to do if that happens. The judgment is, He shall be surely put to death. The same thing is true in verse 15.

[1:44] And there's various reasons for putting somebody to death. Look at verse, let's see, you know the other command, Honor thy father and thy mother. Well, 15, He that smiteth his father or mother shall surely be put to death.

[1:58] In verse 17, He that curseth his father or his mother shall, there's the judgment for violating and for maybe a certain degree of violating that command, is putting them to death.

[2:11] Another command is, Thou shalt not steal. And chapter 21 and, let's see, verse 16, talks about stealing a man and selling him.

[2:23] And there's a judgment. Look at chapter 22 and verse 1. If a man steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore. There's the judgment of what happens if somebody's guilty of violating the command in a specific way.

[2:37] Another command was, Thou shalt have no other gods before thee. And in verse of the same chapter 22 and verse 20, he brings this back up about sacrificing to any other god, save to the Lord only.

[2:49] What's going to happen? He shall utterly be destroyed. That's what's going to happen. In chapter 23, there's some cases of false witnesses. One of the commands is bearing false witness.

[3:01] 23 verse 1, raising a false report. Verse 7 talks about a false matter. And we've covered these verses and read many of them. One of the commands is about the Sabbath day.

[3:12] And there's more than just one Sabbath day. There's Sabbaths of weeks. And that comes up in chapter 23 as well. And verse 10, 11, 12 talks about Sabbaths of years.

[3:26] Finally, one more thought is there's a command not to bow down to graven images. And in 23, 24, there it is again. And what to do if you see those images?

[3:37] You overthrow them. You break them down. You destroy them. And if that's found out, it doesn't say it in this particular verse. But they are removed from the people.

[3:49] And a lot of death going on for violating certain commands. So these are the judgments. We've turned to a lot of these verses in the previous week, especially with the Ten Commandments. We've read a lot of these verses and portions already.

[4:02] And so now let's consider, and let's come back to chapter 21 at the beginning there. It's obvious that we do not submit to the Old Testament law. Like that's pretty, we all get that, right?

[4:14] We don't go back to Exodus and say, okay, now how do I find favor with God? I need to gain and earn righteousness by God. So I need to obey, obey, obey all of these words.

[4:26] Although we don't submit to it, there's, we've already seen this and we'll see more of it. There's much to learn of the mind of God when we study these passages, how he addresses things or how he even expects his people to address situations in life.

[4:41] And what I'll say, just like everyday life stuff is going to start coming out of these passages. And so how God says to address it. And I think there's some principles that are going to emerge from these judgments.

[4:53] Although we will not be putting each other to death, and though we will not be following through with certain elements of their Old Testament law, certain principles will become very relevant, I think, and expressed here.

[5:09] And I want to look at a few of them today. And I'm not going to explore every statement with you, because I really am not intending to try to spiritualize every element of the Old Testament law and the judgments and the statutes to you today.

[5:21] I don't find value in that. But I think there's principles that will emerge as we read and study these things that will relate, things that we absolutely do deal with commonly in our day.

[5:34] And so let's take a look here in chapter 21. And I'm just going to read the first four verses to begin. And really today we're going to try to cover the entire chapter here, maybe not every phrase, but chunks of it.

[5:48] So verse 1 says, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

[6:00] If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master hath given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons and daughters, then the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.

[6:18] Now we're not going to make some spiritual application to owning a slave, and to start going into that and trying to make sense of that. But there is an issue that arises here that I see in this passage that is common today, and it's the issue of entitlement.

[6:36] Of entitlement. And I want to notice a few key points from the verses here before we get into this. In verse number 2, we read at the end of that verse that that servant shall go out free for nothing.

[6:50] So when he serves his six-year term, the seventh year he gets to be released. Free for nothing. The master owes him nothing, and the servant doesn't need to pay some redemption price for him to be able to walk away free.

[7:06] The case has been settled. And so the debt is considered paid. He's free to go. And everything's resolved. So there's no strings attached in this thing.

[7:17] In verse number 3, If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. The same way he came in. Again, the master owes him nothing.

[7:28] If he had a wife, then she'll go. If he came in with a wife, he'll go out with a wife. And now verse 4 is the one that's just going to sound a little foreign to us. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters.

[7:45] Isn't that kind of odd to the way we probably think here? But the statement is the wife, the woman was the master's property. The servant for these six years was also his property.

[7:57] And if he puts the two together, and he gives the woman to the man to have a wife, and they have children, that's great, but she is still the master's property.

[8:09] And it sounds foreign to us because of the way we marry, and our intentions with marriage today. And we're not ever under the yoke of a master. But I want you to understand that the servant is not entitled to anything that belongs to his master.

[8:23] Even if it's a wife that is the property, and even if she bears children, sons and daughters, it is still to be considered the masters. Now that sounds foreign to you, but I want to cover this as an issue that arises, and is applicable to today, as the issue of entitlement.

[8:41] I want to give you an example here that you can relate to. In some jobs today in this world, there are certain benefits that comes with the position, with the job. Maybe you get a company car.

[8:52] Maybe you get a gas card to fill that company car up with gas. That's a perk of the job, or maybe even a necessity to the job, depending upon it. Some jobs give employees gym memberships.

[9:05] Some companies have assets that their employees have access to, because they're an employee, and there's properties, and just, there's different things like this. The position may come with a secretary, or it may come with a team, for you to work with, and to give duties and specific things, but you don't get to take any of that with you when you leave.

[9:25] You don't get to dismiss yourself from the job, or retire, and say, okay, you guys are all coming with me home, right? We're going to start working on stuff around my house. No, that doesn't work.

[9:36] All that stays with the boss. That's the idea here. And I know it's a little bit foreign with the wife and the children thinking, because we see it differently, but understand that that wife is property of the master.

[9:48] And the thought, though, while it sounds, oh, that's terrible, don't break up the family. Well, the option for the servant is, don't take the wife, if you don't plan on sticking around.

[10:01] Don't have the wife and have children, if your hopes are to get out of here, when my term is up. You have to understand that going in the door. So that's just the example of how this would maybe look in our life today.

[10:13] Now, a principle that emerges here out of these thoughts, of these judgments, is that no one is entitled to anything more than what they have agreed upon.

[10:24] People today imagine that they deserve more. It's all over our society, and they don't. And I'm not going to be hard on you here. I don't mean to be hard on you, but I've got to make the point.

[10:35] If you're hired for a job, and you agree upon a wage, when Christmas time comes around, why do you expect the boss just to start shelling out hundreds of dollars into your pocket?

[10:48] Well, it's Christmas. You give a Christmas, but some companies do that, and we love it. But why do we expect that? Why do we think you're entitled to that?

[10:59] Why do you expect that because I was hired, and I worked for six months, I deserve a raise? Why do people think they deserve raises? Now, if the company has it in the policy, hey, every year you're going to get one of those, what do you want to call it, an analysis of your performance-based analysis, something like that.

[11:22] Now, they are up for a raise. We'll check it out and see. So, you know what? Every time the year comes around, you know what you expect? More money. Give me more money because I worked here.

[11:33] But here's a thought. Again, I think companies and cost of living increases, and I think those things are valid, and I think if they want to increase your wages, so be it, and I think it's a good thing, obviously.

[11:48] But have you proven that you're worth more than the wage they're paying you, is the question. Have you proven, based upon your performance, that I'm worth more than what we agreed upon?

[12:00] So I should get a raise. It's fair. That's a good question for you to consider. Or do you just show up and put in your eight hours? Barely. Because if so, why do you feel so entitled when it's raise time?

[12:15] Why do you feel like, I should get something because I'm still here, and other people have left? Again, I'm not being hard on you, and I don't want to twist your arm over this thing, but I want you to get the concept of this issue of entitlement there.

[12:31] Because showing up for eight hours is the expectations, and that's what you agreed to. So how are you entitled for more than you agreed upon? It may not be something that's guilt-ridden in your life, but it is in our society, and it is in our culture, and in our generations today.

[12:50] And the job thing, that's just an example of this. It shows up, and it goes a lot deeper. When somebody says, well, I have errands to run today, so everybody just needs to get out of my way.

[13:01] Well, I'm behind on my payment, so other people should be helping me out, and caring about my problems. You have no idea how many phone calls and emails that goes up to this church of people thinking that the church is going to shell out money because they fell behind on their mortgage, or fell behind on their bills, or their electricity is going to get cut off, and they're just reaching out to the church.

[13:24] Maybe they'll give us money. It comes all the time. People saying, well, I just got out of rehab, and I don't have a place to go, and I'm living in my car, and would you pay my hotel bill for me? I mean, it's all the time.

[13:37] We would be dead broke if we were compassionate upon everybody that asked for money here. There would be no money to give. And why do people feel like they could reach out to a church?

[13:48] A man showed up here one morning, I want to say it was a Sunday morning, maybe a year ago, I'm not positive, but he showed up before Sunday school. It was like 8.30 in the morning, and people out here fellowshipping and talking, and I could hear there's a new voice.

[14:00] There's a guy out there, and so I walked out there to meet him, and I heard somebody's like, oh, there's the pastor. Go ask him. And I thought, oh boy, what does this guy want? And he came up, and he's like, you know, wants to get off to the side and have a conversation.

[14:12] Hey, I'm trying to get to Montana, and I just need gas money. It's all I need. I've got to go see my so-and-so, and this and that. And he just went with his whole story. And I said, well, I'm sorry you're in a bad spot like that, thinking if what you're telling me is true, because I don't know you, and I don't believe you, but nevertheless, I just said, but I said, these people of this church work hard, and they give their money to the Lord, and the money that this church possesses is from their hard work and their obedience to Christ in gifts.

[14:48] I said, it would be wrong for me to just shell out the money that these people have to some stranger who just says, I want money. I said, if you were coming here to this church, and you were part of our fellowship, and you ran on bad times, we might feel more obligated to help you out.

[15:05] And as soon as I just kind of, he could sense it wasn't going, and they were like, okay, well, I was going to think, he was gone, because he wasn't here for anything, and he just wanted money in his pocket, and he felt like, I'll go to a church, they'll give it to me.

[15:18] And it's in our society, this thought of, well, if I have a need, you should be paying or fixing my need. Our government isn't really helping us too well in some of that way. They're almost training us to feel entitled, that they owe us.

[15:33] I have a headache. I have car trouble. Society should make allowances for me. I've been irresponsible with my money. I haven't been faithful or diligent to my job, but you should be taking care of me.

[15:48] It's just a foolish, selfish issue or attitude of entitlement. The other day, I saw a woman that had her hands full with things, and she wasn't a homeless lady, but she had her hands full, and she was leaving a room, and the door was shut, and I just, I wasn't like focused on her, but I could see peripherally her coming, and I could see the entire scene of this stuff she was taking with her, trying to make it in one trip.

[16:15] And I saw like, oh, she's going to the, so I hopped up, and I opened the door for her, and she thanked me, and she went on out her way. And that was great. But if I would have sat there and been more engrossed and didn't see her, and if she would have went to that door and just stood there and said, excuse me, hello, my hands are full, you know, like you should be getting up and stopping what you're doing.

[16:37] What's she saying? What would she be saying? She'd be saying, what I'm doing is more important than what you're doing. You need to stop what you're doing and come and assist me. I don't want to take two trips.

[16:48] Because I don't want to take two trips, you help me. Why don't you carry it for me? She could have had that, that attitude, I probably wouldn't have been so motivated to hop up and help her. I might have just said, take another trip, lady.

[17:01] Don't be, don't feel so entitled. But thankfully that wasn't the case. But you get the idea. What are people saying when they act like that in this world? And they act like that quite a bit.

[17:12] They're saying, I'm more important than you are. What I'm doing today is more important than what you're doing today. And you should be getting out of my way. You should be helping me.

[17:23] And it's an attitude of entitlement. And in this passage, you see, there is no entitlement. If there's an agreement, that's the end of it. And when it's filled and it's settled, it's done.

[17:34] You don't owe anybody anything. And before we move on, just know this, and if it's not in you, praise God, but you'll see it and be around it, that this attitude of expectation and I'm entitled to something is a selfish and it's a wicked attitude.

[17:50] And believers in Jesus Christ are to be different. The Bible says that we're to be clothed with humility. That we are to be, to in honor, prefer one another.

[18:02] We're to care for one another and love for one another and bear one another's burdens. But we're not entitled to people coming and dropping everything and doing things we want them to do.

[18:12] So don't allow your society or your surroundings to shape your thinking about what you deserve. If there was ever one person on this planet that put their feet on this dirt that was entitled, it was the Lord Jesus Christ.

[18:29] He was entitled to anything and everything because he was worthy. But he didn't take that upon himself. He wasn't that guy. He was clothed with humility.

[18:42] He humbled himself. He took upon him the form of a servant. He was made a minister. And gave him his life a ransom for many. So let that attitude and that mind be with you.

[18:57] Not this issue or attitude of entitlement. I want to move ahead in this chapter, in chapter 21, and skip ahead. We already hit some of the verses in the teens and mentioned them and we've already covered them.

[19:10] And we come up to verse number 18. And we hit another section here that I want to kind of extract a principle from. And notice there's an issue here of life that we can learn from.

[19:20] In verse, it's the issue of conflict. And notice I want to read verses 18 to 27. And notice how many, how much striving and smiting is going on here.

[19:31] In verse 18, if men strive together and one smite another with a stone or with his fist and he die not but keepeth his bed, if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit.

[19:46] Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So we'll just take this by sections actually since these are different things. So here's somebody inflicting personal harm.

[19:59] But it's going to cost them, the one that was the aggressor or the one that inflicted the harm. And so if you like to settle your disputes with your hands and you like to say let's take it outside, well the judgment is it's going to cost you in the long run and you will not be innocent.

[20:16] And if you cause it in such a way that he can't work, then you're going to pay for that. That's the statement. That's the judgment for this issue of conflict. Another one's in verse 20 and 21.

[20:27] If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. What's that? The master doesn't have the right to take the life of the six year servant or maid.

[20:43] The one that's there to serve him. He can't take their life so he's going to be punished. In what way? Verse 12. He that smiteth the man so that he die shall surely be put to death. That's already been established.

[20:53] That's the judgment. Verse 21. One, notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, which is a reference to he wasn't hurt that bad or that severely, but he is laid up for a few days for recovery purposes, then the master, he shall not be punished for he is his money.

[21:13] And the idea is if you hurt him in such a way that he can't work for you, well, that's on you, bud, because you're the one that's hurting now because he's not going to be getting any work done and that's your money and that's your property.

[21:24] But if he hurts him in such a way that he kills him, oh, well, you don't have the right to do that. All right, now moving on to verse 22 through 25. Here's a popular one. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her and yet no mischief follow, he shall surely, he shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine.

[21:48] 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. Now, many misinterpret this as an anti-abortion passage.

[22:02] They suggest that the baby calls the unborn baby a life and they interpret it to mean that that the baby is, if the baby dies, then the unborn baby is killed and therefore you have to give life for life but that's never, that's not the case and it doesn't happen.

[22:20] Nobody's put to death for a baby that's an unborn baby being harmed. Here's what's happening. If men strive and hurt a woman, the woman gets hurt.

[22:33] The woman is with child and her fruit departs from her. The Bible word depart is death. Paul said, to depart and be with Christ is far better. Simeon said, now let thy servant depart in peace.

[22:46] when Rachel died and her soul was in departing for she died and it's a death to this unborn baby. That's what the fruit departs from her means.

[22:56] It doesn't mean the baby's born and the baby's healthy and the reason I can say this with all certainty is this word with mischief. Yet no mischief follow. So to read, if you read it one way, it's not going to make sense.

[23:10] If you read it the right way, that it's the mother that gets harmed and no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished according to the woman's husband lay upon him. He's punished because he, with the striving of men and her fruit departed from her and that's on them.

[23:26] So he's punished for that, for the harm to the unborn or the loss of the unborn child. But the mischief has to do with the woman. If any mischief follow to the woman, then thou shalt give life for life.

[23:42] If she dies, then that man's responsible. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. How does that apply to an unborn baby? Hand for hand, how does that apply at all?

[23:54] Burning for burning? The baby's not getting burnt in the womb? None of that applies to the baby. It all applies to the woman. That's what it says in verse 22, hurt a woman.

[24:06] She's the one that's getting hurt. And so, if you read it that way, it'll make sense as you get it through. I know, I'm not trying to be unsympathetic toward the abortion situation. I'm not for it at all.

[24:17] You shouldn't, obviously. But this is not a passage that calls the unborn baby life, and therefore, a man has to be put to death because a baby dies, or an unborn baby is harmed and is stillborn, or so forth.

[24:31] So, let's understand what the passage is saying. Anyway, no more than that. Let's go on to verse 26 and 7. But if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

[24:47] If he smite out his man's servant's tooth or his maid's servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. So, there's a lot of swinging going on in this passage and striving and smiting and there's damage being done.

[25:00] And these last two verses, 26 and 7, if there's any permanent damage inflicted upon the servant while he is serving his master, whether it's a man or a woman, the obligation is that, or rather, his obligations to his master are now terminated.

[25:16] He's allowed to go free. He permanently damaged his body. This relationship is over. And that's the ruling or the judgment when a master is beating his servant.

[25:27] If he hurts him in such a way that it's permanent damage, he's out. And you're out. So, now, issues of conflict is what we want to take a look at.

[25:37] Here's some judgments and a few situations that are brought up involving conflict. Surely, there are far many more that could be brought up. But where one party or another, they go at it and things go beyond words or things get physical and get violent and somebody gets hurt.

[25:56] Now, most scuffles in this world don't get to this level of permanent damage. Most scuffles get broken up. Most scuffles go to the ground and eventually somebody yields and somebody concedes and it's over.

[26:11] It doesn't get to where they lose their eyes or they're permanently damaged and they won't be able to walk again or something. And so, when it gets to that case though, as he's talking about, if somebody hurts another with permanent damage, they don't get to walk away from that and pretend, well, they shouldn't have started it.

[26:29] I finished it. They don't get to cop that attitude. It went too far and now, the aggressor in that one or the winner, if you want to call him that, is now guilty for allowing their emotions or their anger to take over and for them to smite their brother or hurt them in such a way.

[26:47] Now, a principle in this manner is that your anger and your actions have consequences. And you're responsible for any harm that you inflict upon others.

[26:58] and you don't get to have a pass because you say, well, they provoked me or they had it coming. Somebody cuts you off in traffic, you don't have the right to get a hammer out and beat their windshield in and say, well, they should, no.

[27:10] You're responsible for that damage that you caused. And if the damage is done, you're responsible to make it right. Now, here's a thought of what ought to happen in these situations.

[27:23] Flip over to Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25. And the first few verses describe judges. And these are the men that are to pass these judgments and to enforce them.

[27:41] And so, Deuteronomy 25, verse 1, if there be a controversy between men and they come unto judgment that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

[27:59] It shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed.

[28:11] Lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem violent to thee. So first of all, this is how to handle the matter. Instead of going outside and handling this, the way to handle the thing is to take it before the judges, before the neutral party or somebody who's going to see it level-headed and not emotionally in with a hot head.

[28:35] It's never to take it into your own hands. The other thought is that the punishment that's dealt out and given is to be limited so as not to despise your brother or for him to seem vile unto thee.

[28:46] The brother that does wrong is supposed to receive punishment, learn from it and then be better and not learn from that mistake. I should not have ever started that or done that or whatever the case.

[28:57] He needs that opportunity to be punished and to learn from it. You don't get to take matters in your own hands and do such bodily harm to him that he's who seemed vile unto you.

[29:09] He's blind now and he's going to be a beggar the rest of his life and therefore rendered vile and that retaliation is not within your power or right. That is what's called vengeance and God says vengeance belongs to me.

[29:23] I will repay. And so in the meantime let's get a little church age doctrine on this. Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans 12 and let's take a peek here at something that Paul tells us in these matters.

[29:39] Whereas the judgment in the Old Testament was an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth equal reciprocal punishment.

[29:51] Paul tells us to be different. Paul tells us to be innocent. In verse 17 recompense to no man evil for evil. That's an eye for an eye.

[30:03] That's burning for burning. Stripe for stripe. You hit me I hit you back and now we're even. But Paul says don't do that to any man. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

[30:14] If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men. Now in some cases it's not possible especially if you're a father and somebody's messing with your wife or with your children.

[30:27] You can't just live peaceably with that person. You have a duty. But if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably. Verse 19 Dearly beloved avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord.

[30:44] Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in doing so thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil that's a good one to underline be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.

[31:01] What a tremendous concluding statement to striving and to smiting and to vengeance and to enemies and to recompensing evil for evil be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.

[31:18] And what are you going to do? Well you allow God to judge the offenders if it's possible for you to maintain and to live your life and it's not so affected by this enemy or evil doer you allow God to judge them leave it in his hands and in the meantime you display an attitude of love and forgiveness and charity and blessing and peace as much as lieth in you because that's what God has done to you.

[31:46] That's what your father in heaven has shown you when you were enemies with him he reconciled you to himself by the death of his son not by the death of you. You didn't pay for your sins Jesus Christ paid for all of your sins against him.

[32:00] So that's the attitude we take going into this life and being in conflicting and facing conflict with others we come not that it doesn't make you a sissy it actually makes you stronger when you lean on the Lord and pour it over to him and say God you're going to have to handle this I want to be righteous I want to be innocent I don't want to flip out over this thing give me grace and help me to be humble and that's taking a different approach and that's harder you do realize when your buttons get pushed it's easy to flip out it's easy just to let it fly to say words and to do actions that you can't retract you can't undo it's harder to be patient and to endure suffering and suffer as a Christian as Peter says and leave it in God's hands it's harder and so there's judgments back here for issues of conflict because when men live with men and women live with there's going to be conflict there's going to be pride there's going to be battling and at odds with one another and that's just part of this life unfortunately but we have some principles to pull from this and we cannot be guilty and have our anger and our actions causing situations that then we're guilty and so

[33:29] God help us to remain innocent in these areas of conflict it's not easy and some people I know how it is I'm just like you some people just get under your skin they just push your buttons not everybody but some individuals just have a way and that's when you see that and you feel that you sense that you're going to have to get on your knees I have to do it and say God help me not to say something dumb that would cause problem that would hurt help me to watch my mouth help me to be humble and help me to be a servant the way Jesus Christ was because I don't want to be the one that's responsible for something that I shouldn't have done and so God help us to take that into account too now there's one more in this passage we're back in Exodus area we'll read to the end of the chapter now from verse 28 on and I'll just be brief with this but there's another area and this area is the area or the issue of negligence of negligence when somebody is supposed to do something and they don't or they're careless or they're reckless and it causes harm to another take a look at verse 28 if an ox gore a man or a woman that they die then the ox shall be surely stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten but the owner of the ox shall be quit but if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past and it hath 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 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 that means so the ox was known the master was negligent and should have kept him in and should have been paying attention but some damage happened and maybe the party say the father of his son says look

[35:28] I don't want anybody else to die over this I don't want any more death so he can pay a sum and a daughter according to judgment shall it be done unto him verse 32 if the ox shall push a man servant or a maid servant he shall give unto the master thirty shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned 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!

[36:11] the dead ox also 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 negligence is not acceptable and God does not allow for one's carelessness and recklessness to be overlooked and here's the reason this is so relevant today because people love to say this it's not my fault it's not my fault that's on you you should have known better you should have seen that you should have been aware you should have figured it out no actually God's saying no it is your fault if you've been negligent if you've been careless if you've created a situation and someone else that's innocent got harmed from it it is your fault and pretend that it's on them they should have known better no you're responsible for any hurt or damage caused as a result of your carelessness and all these situations where somebody's to be blamed for their negligence it's the owner or the offender we'll call them that's expected to make it right now

[37:30] I remember borrowing a hammer drill from a brother in Christ to do a job and it is a hammer drill that had a chisel bit on it and I needed that chisel bit to chip up some concrete and running a pipe and I've handled hammer drills for years and years and years years and years and years I won't even get into it all but bigger sizes the big ones the small ones the diamond bits the holes the chisel bits everything I've run a lot of pipe through walls and concrete poured I felt confident and I'm getting started going on this that bit just snapped and I've never snapped a bit like that from the little minimal work that I was doing and I thought what in the world my first thought was that piece of junk that bit was a piece of junk some Chinese junk that just snapped off it should never have

[38:31] I mean that's not American made for industrial purposes and that was my first thought and I was probably right it probably was just a piece of junk because it never should have snapped like that or it was already faulty and you know stressed and whatever but I realized I can't go back to this brother in Christ and say hey thanks for your piece of junk drill you let me borrow even if that felt true I had to replace that thing why?

[38:57] because I was responsible I used it he didn't break it I broke it and so I went to Home Depot and got him a good bit and spent the money and replaced it because it was the right thing to do and not only that because he was a brother and that would have been a bad thing if I went back and said hey this is on you that thing was no good it couldn't get the job done that I needed now if I rented that thing from a place then I would have a case right I would be able to say hey this thing's junk you rented me this and it should have been better quality but that wasn't the case here and so I had a responsibility to make it right and I needed to do that and so I did it and I think this is a case where we need to understand where God puts these judgments out here and he's not letting people just get away with stuff and be negligent and careless and reckless and then say it's not my fault and it's just a principle it's just a virtue that ought to be instilled in your heart that you don't get to go through this life and just have everybody fix things for you that you mess up and if you cause something then you owe you have to make it right that's just integrity that's something that should be inside of you if your dad and mom didn't put that in you then let God put that in you in the word of God you can get this and get this for life you don't have to make excuses everywhere you go and say well I never was raised that way well they didn't do this for me that's not the case the word of God is giving us his mind on these day to day things that happen how to handle them we're expected to follow and fall in line when these principles line up and are relevant for us today

[40:33] I want to give you one more thought this is off topic a bit but this is I couldn't help but think of this when I read about this ox over and over it talks about an ox one time it mentions an ass falling into a pit but the predominant animal is this ox and the ox is a powerful beast and the ox you can't overpower that beast just a man against ox you're going to lose every time but the owner of the ox is expected to control his ox and to limit his ability to harm others to keep him in is what it was said there in verse 36 he was expected to do that and this stuff here reminds me of something that's inside of every one of our mouths this ox reminds me of my tongue because it's powerful and the bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue and that ox if it gets free it can cause a lot of damage to a lot of people and I'm expected to bridle that tongue and to control that tongue and to submit that tongue to the Lord Jesus Christ but if I don't that unrestricted tongue will hurt and will destroy and my careless reckless just run in my mouth because I'm angry or I'm upset and I can just

[41:55] I just feel like I was wrong so I'm going to vent it can cause a lot of damage behold how great a fire a little fire how great a matter a little fire kindleth and so that's just an end note food for thought that I was reminded of that tongue when I read about how that ox can get loose and can do much much damage now let's close here and remember we're dealing with judgments and this is just the first of three chapters of judgments we're talking about governing humans humans that make mistakes that have bad days that are forgetful that get angry with each other and have to deal with issues one with another with their brother with their neighbor but we have to learn that we cannot live selfishly and pretend that it's all about us and that we deserve more than we we cannot expect others to do more for us and to take care of us but rather we need to take personal responsibility when it comes to conflict we can't take matters into our own hands and settle them to our liking because pride will take over and it will never be justified and it will never be correct it will never be righteous so we leave it in God's hands because he's always righteous and we leave the vengeance to him and if it's a case where you really have to get something resolved they'll then do what they do you take it to a neutral party and you sit down to somebody who's going to be just and fair and not lean one way or the other and they're going to try to do their best to help and that's biblical and that's something

[43:27] Paul says you take it before the believers if it's something you can do better yet what Paul actually says beyond that in 1 Corinthians 6 is suffer yourself to be defrauded why don't you rather do that I know why because you don't want to be defrauded you don't want them to get away with it and so you want to make sure they pay but Paul says the Christian attitude is to have a humble and lowly spirit and so in areas of conflicts we need to learn how to handle them with a Christ-like spirit and manner and let God sort out those things that need sorted out and then finally we need to learn to be responsible for the damage caused by your beast and keep that thing penned up amen alright father we're thankful for these judgments this morning a little different style of study but lord may it bear fruit in our lives as we seek to be men and women of integrity and men and women of humility that will follow the word of God and allow this book to change us and to make us into the servants that you'd have us to be lord give us victory over our flesh and over the anger that rises up when we are at conflict with folks that we don't get along with at work at home we're going to face conflict it's part of life god help us to respond right and reveal to us where we're wrong and where we're shallow and where we're weak as believers and let the mind of Christ be in us lord please instill these truths in us these principles that we might be people of God and that it might be known and that the fruits of righteousness might grow forth to the glory of God we pray this in Jesus name amen