Abounding Grace

Larry: Today on Abounding Grace, make it good. It's the basic foundational principle of restitution. And just let that sit in your own life. Is there anything in your life that you need to make it good? That's within your power to make it good? Anything you need to clear up? Anybody you need to speak to? I like that phrase. They should make it good. It's a good thing for the church to be a group of men and women that have made things good, even, equitable.

From Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, this is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're in Exodus 21 and 22 today, discussing some of the laws God gave to the nation of Israel on how to relate to one another. Now, one of them relates to capital punishment. You might be surprised to discover it goes back before the law was given, pointing out that life is to be valued. Here's Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Verse 12. He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. This section follows the commandment to not murder, and we see God gives a mandate for capital punishment. Quite the debatable issue today, but God gives the mandate for capital punishment. This goes back before the law. You can jot it down: Genesis chapter 9, verse 6, with Noah.

It is a foundational tenet for society. Life is to be valued. Verse 13, "But if he did not lie in wait, premeditation," as you might hear it in culture today, "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 with guile, you shall take him from my 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, or 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. Wow. That would change a lot of things in our current society. But again, we're pre-cross right now.

We are looking at a group of people that lived under the heavy hand of the Egyptians where they were treated with a heavy hand. Their lives were not valued. Their lives were not cared for. They were only seen as property. Now God is saying, "No, no. Listen. Murder? There is a death penalty. If the death was accidental, you could go to a sacred place to seek safety until your case could be heard."

We will learn about them later. They are known as cities of refuge. God removes this refuge, though, in cases of murder because God regarded the value of life higher than the value of place. All these crimes mentioned worthy of death were absolutes in God's eyes. They either violated a basic right of a human being created in God's image or were expressions of rebellion against God's revealed authority in the home, the basic unit of society.

Notice verse 18. If men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, but 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. He shall only pay for the loss of time and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed.

If a man beats his servant or his maidservant with a rod so that he dies under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property. If men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no lasting harm follows, he shall surely be punished according to the woman's husband.

And he shall pay as the judges determine. If any lasting 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 servant or the eye of his maidservant and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. If he knocks out his servant's tooth or his maidservant's tooth, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.

If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. If the ox tended to thrust with its horns in times past and it has been made known to its owner and he hasn't kept it confined so that it's killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death.

If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him. Whether it's gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment, it shall be done to him. If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned.

Verse 33. If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls in it, the owner of the pit shall make it good. Mark that phrase: make it good. It's the basic foundational principle of restitution. And just let that sit in your own life. Is there anything in your life that you need to make it good? That's within your power to make it good?

Anything you need to clear up? Anybody you need to speak to? I like that phrase. They should make it good. It's a good thing for the church to be a group of men and women that have made things good, even, equitable. Notice the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to their owner, but the dead beast shall be his.

If one man's ox hurts another's so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it, and the dead ox they shall also divide. Or if it was known that the ox tended to thrust in times past and its owner has not kept it confined, he shall surely pay ox for ox and the dead beast shall be his own.

Striking another person was wrong no matter the reason, and you notice God takes into account the motive. That is what's difficult within ministering and serving with one another. We can't always get to the motive. We don't always know. It's a matter of the heart. We pray for wisdom. We pray that God will help get to the motive.

We pray that God would reveal to you that you might, if you're the one that needs, that you would express what the motive was. But the motive was very important. Was it accidental? Was it premeditated? All these things with your ox. Did you know you had a dangerous animal? Because if you knew you had a dangerous animal, you're responsible. You're the responsible one.

So you can't just say, "I didn't know." But if we've already dealt with something and you did it again, then you're going to be held responsible for whatever your out-of-control ox, or these days, what do you hear mostly? Your out-of-control dog. Cats are nothing, but dogs for sure. Cats don't do anything. I don't even know why cats exist.

That was to see if you're awake because this is a tough chapter. You can substitute ox for cat if you like. Now, let me pause for a second and just speak to a few important truths that you wrestle with because these are difficult things to read in the Bible. You wonder, what's going on? Let me state first of all, a careful understanding in reading of the scriptures, you will come to this conclusion regarding slavery.

Slavery is never condoned or blessed in the scriptures. God never in His laws establishes the right of slavery. It existed centuries before Moses gave the law. When we come into the New Testament, we know in the New Testament that Rome was filled with some 60 million slaves. The instruction to Roman slaves under the Roman government and the Roman system was to be faithful in the place you work.

The kingdom of God is more important than your current social status. Understand that slavery is not condoned, blessed, or established in the Bible. Because of the instruction even in the New Testament, many slaves were saved and those that they reached were also saved. It's interesting, though, that Jesus Christ came to set men free from slavery to sin.

That is the biggest issue of slavery today in our modern-day culture here now. It is not human slavery but slavery to sin. Far more men and women are slaves to sin voluntarily than just about anything else. Jesus came to set you free: free physically, free spiritually. God doesn't condone slavery but recognizes it as a part of fallen humanity and addresses it as such in the word.

Yet He also includes laws that exist to protect and promote human life, even the early delivery you see of a baby of a woman. An early delivery, she is going to be delivering early a human being, a baby already in the Old Testament. The death penalty being imposed for a variety of sinful behaviors. Again, a lot of debate here.

I'm not going to try to change your mind in relation to this, but I believe the death penalty is both a valuable deterrent, not just a consequence for sin. If there was a significant understanding that if you take a life, your life will be taken from you, it would deter a lot of taking a life. It would be used in a great way. And again, you can pray through and understand different viewpoints about this, but understand the deterrent and the consequence.

Before we leave this chapter, I just want to draw your attention back to something that probably sounded familiar to you. It says in verse 23, "If any lasting 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." This is called the *Lex Talionis* or the law of retribution.

The punishment needs to match the crime. That's what we learn here. The punishment needs to match the crime. What's at stake here is the merciful limitation of vengeance. Vengeance is like a nasty feeling that we have to get back at someone, to get revenge and vengeance. If indeed somebody knocked your tooth out, you're going to want to get justice and vengeance.

In your mind, you might define justice and vengeance as, "They need to hurt as much as I do." You then are the one that defines how much they hurt, and so instead of one tooth, you want both. You want both their front teeth. That will do good. Let's take out, you took one but I'm taking two. And then what happens when you take those two? They go, "Wait a minute. That's not fair. It was just one for you and now two, so now I want three from you."

When does it end? Silly illustration of losing a tooth, but doesn't the question need to be asked for you those of you that are thinking vengeance and retribution, when does it end for you? When do you think you'll be satisfied? How do you think you'd be satisfied to receive such great pain or such great hardship from another person?

Do you really think you would be the arbiter of true vengeance or retribution? The Bible tells us that vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. Justice, it's hard to really define justice when you picture Jesus, an innocent man, God in human flesh, dying on the cross for sins He didn't commit. Injustice, the greatest injustice is not what happened to you and me.

The greatest injustice is what happened to our Savior. And there's no retribution to that. He did it willingly. He invited injustice upon Himself. He took the full weight and pain of something we could never pay back. We could never give to Him. We could never even the score. We could never offer back to Jesus all that He's done for us.

So justice is found in Christ by faith, that you can trust Him to sort it all out. Tooth for tooth, eye for eye, but that belongs to the Lord, not to you. You can't be taking people's eyes out or knocking people's teeth out. You've got to give it to the Lord. One of the ways as we learned that you give it to the Lord is you extend forgiveness.

You give, say, "Lord, I know this is wrong." You can admit that something's wrong without taking things into your own hands. We can agree with you that, man, that was, he should have never hit you, never should have knocked your tooth out like you're right. But the way of the cross is the way of humility, of no reputation, taking the form of a servant.

Notice now in verse 1 of chapter 22. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If the thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed.

He should make full restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall restore double. Again, remember they have already been told in chapter 20, do not steal. And now if stealing occurs, these are the penalties.

If they steal, there will be consequences. But again, the emphasis that you see over and over again is making things good and also going above and beyond in your restitution. We saw that with Zacchaeus in the New Testament. Just going above and beyond. It's one of the evidences that God really has your heart where you just, man, I don't want anything to hold me back.

Every time God reveals something, I want to take care of it. Every time God reminds me, I want to make sure it's right. As much as is possible, I want to live at peace with all men is the New Testament principle. Verse 5. If a man causes a field or a vineyard to be grazed and lets loose his animal and it feeds on another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.

If a fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that stacked grain, standing grain, or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. If a man delivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep and it's stolen out of the man's house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. If a thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges to see whether he has put his hand into his neighbor's goods.

For any kind of trespass, whether it concerns an ox, a donkey, a sheep, or clothing, or any kind of lost thing which another claims to be his, has the cause of both parties shall come before the judges and whoever the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor. Again, there's equity. One of the principles that I see lived out continually here coming out of Egypt is to respect one another.

You see that through the Ten Commandments. Remember the first four? Honor and respect and worship God. The second six? Respect one another. Very, very important that we think of others more highly than ourselves. That's what Paul would write to us in Philippians. Now notice this, verse 10.

If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any beast to keep and it dies, is hurt, or is driven away, no one seeing it, then an oath of the Lord shall be between them both that he has not put his hand into his neighbor's goods, and that the owner of it shall accept that, and he shall not make it good.

But if in fact it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner. If it's torn to pieces by an animal, then he shall bring it as evidence and he shall not make good what was torn. And if a man borrows anything from his neighbor and it becomes injured or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make it good. But if the owner was with it, he shall not make it good. If it was hired, it came for its hire.

Verse 16. If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the price, bride price of virgins. Now, according to Deuteronomy later on, this price is 50 shekels of silver.

But I want you to notice sexual sin already is being addressed very early on. Very early on among the nations. This places a heavy responsibility on the man for taking advantage of a woman or a young girl here, marriage age. In this casual sex environment that we live in today, it's important to remember the value of a human body.

That God created sex. It is His gift to humanity, and like fire, it's to be used in its proper context. Fire in its proper context gives heat and gives light, very useful, but fire, as we've seen recently, can go wild and be very destructive. Sex is very similar. Within the proper confines, sex within marriage is a beautiful, wonderful gift that God has given to men and women.

Outside of marriage, it is extremely destructive. That includes even in your mind. It includes what you see on your phone, internet pornography, and what you watch on your computer and when you, as Jesus said, when you lust after a woman or after a man, you've already committed adultery in your heart for them.

Sexual sin carries with it such heavy consequential toll, and He says, "Look, you need to pay attention to this. It can't be overlooked. The young woman is valuable. And if the dad says no, still, that young woman is to be valued. That even if dad says no, you still, you pay the dowry price for the great damage that you have done to her."

Look at verse 18 now. You shall not permit a sorceress to live. Sorcery is such an abomination that poisons society, bringing in idolatry, consulting the stars, bringing in the black arts. It's forbidden in the Old Covenant as a penalty of death. Now, today you might ask these questions: Why isn't it a penalty of death today?

And I'll tell you why. It's a great question. Why is it not a penalty of death today? Because Jesus Christ took the death for that sin upon Himself. And the penalty today is the consequence of unrepentant sin. If a person dies in the sin of sorcery, the black arts, that's why we teach you to stay away from the stuff that will lead you into idolatry and darkness.

Ouija boards, stuff that even Milton Bradley, I think, is the one that makes the Ouija boards. Milton Bradley. Probably the same people, I don't know exactly, but the same people that make Monopoly also put Ouija boards in people's houses to consult the dark. This stuff is serious. It's so serious that God says, "You know what? Don't even let her live."

She can't live among them. Notice this, verse 19. Whoever lies with a beast, this is bestiality, this is sexual activity with a beast, shall surely be put to death. He who sacrifices to any god, verse 20, except to the Lord only, shall utterly be destroyed. Bestiality: death penalty. Idolatry: death penalty. Sorcery: death penalty.

God is saying, "Look, this is not to be allowed." In an age of grace, the death penalty of course doesn't exist for most except for life for life. But the significance and seriousness of these behaviors are eroding our society as it is because of lives that have turned their backs on God. This stuff has been with us throughout the history of mankind.

Larry: Today on Abounding Grace, we've listened in to a portion of Pastor Ed Taylor's study in Exodus. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts, and at oneplace.com.

Pastor Ed, today you keyed in on the phrase, "make it good." And perhaps someone listening right now wants to put shoe-leather to that in some area of their life. So what would be a good next step, let's say in the case of someone who has taken something that didn't belong to them, even years ago?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Make it good. That's what I would say, Larry. If the Holy Spirit is placing upon you that you took something from someone and you need to make restitution, go make it good. At the very least, admit it. I was just sharing this, an interesting question that you're asking because I was just sharing this with the congregation here after a service.

A memory popped into my mind of how I needed to go back to my boss and tell them that I had been dishonest and had been taking from them. I was a new believer and I'm just like, what the Bible says, make it right, make it good. I was so caught up. I want to please God. I want to do what's right. And I was so scared because I needed this job.

It was how I was raising my family, and I was dishonest. That was the old Ed. I mean, it's true and I needed to come clean. And when I came clean, my boss, one of my bosses basically said, "Oh Ed, we knew that. We knew that already." For some reason, they didn't act on it and let me go. God was showing me favor, and we made it all right, and it's in the past.

It's over. I don't, and even though we're talking 30 years now and I've left that company and working for that family for many years, I have a relationship with them still to this day and am connected with them. I got, when I opened the mail today, there was a late Christmas card from that family as I see their family growing up and they've become grandparents.

So making it right, making it good just means you keep short accounts and you do what's right. If you stole something, then make restitution. At the very least, ask for forgiveness. At the very least, let it be an open door that perhaps the Holy Spirit will use to share the gospel. But you make it right.

On a much smaller scale, we do this all the time, or we should do this all the time, where we're asking for forgiveness, where we're keeping our accounts short, keeping it clean so that our hearts are right with God and our hearts are right with others.

Larry: Great advice. Thanks again. And please remember Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. We look to the Lord to guide and provide. And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of *Anger is a Choice* by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips.

This is a must-read for anyone who struggles with anger or is dealing with someone who does. You'll come to understand where anger comes from, how it does or doesn't show up, and what you can do about it. You'll go through an anger inventory and other helpful exercises that offer healing for damaged relationships.

To order a copy today, call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. And be sure to join Pastor Ed Taylor next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus, right here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado, here in Aurora.