Speaker 1: 0:00

It's good to be together with you all this morning. Turn your Bibles to Exodus, chapter 20. Exodus, chapter 20. Exodus, chapter 20. How many of you have had the opportunity of being in the gallery room or in the hall of the House of Representatives in Washington DC? How many of you have sat in on sessions when the House of Representatives was in session? Raise your hand. Okay, interesting.

Speaker 1: 0:46

So I've never actually been there myself, but from what I understand, there are 23 entrances or doorways leading into the area or the room where Congress meets, and if you can picture a room sort of with these dimensions, but larger, I mean much, much larger. There are five doorways on the west side and on the east side. Then there are six doorways on the backside of the podium and seven doorways on the back wall where the speaker would be facing when he or she's standing at the podium. Above each of these doorways is about a 28-inch in diameter, a round stone marble portrait of various lawgivers throughout history, some as early as Hammurabi. There's several that would include Moses or Justinian. I don't recognize most of them there, but the picture up there is sort of a compilation of all of these 23 different lawgivers throughout history. Now can you pick out the one significant difference in this picture when you're comparing the 23 stone reliefs. The 23 stone reliefs, okay, they're all side profiles except for the one. Okay, yes, very good, thank you. So the way that these stone portraits are organized in the House of Representatives or in the gallery they are all facing wherever they're placed at, they're pointed towards the center back of the room, which is where the top figure, looking on directly at us, is a portrait of Moses, who is considered the lawgiver of, I guess, the law of Moses or the Old Testament law, and there's significance in the value placed on him as the giver of the law of Moses, which is where a lot of America's, I guess, values and law systems would sort of find their roots in. And so, if you can imagine having a session of Congress, and if I'm the Speaker of the House, I'm standing here at a podium and directly in front of me, on the back wall, is the portrait of Moses staring straight back at me. Now, I find this interesting because if this isn't an entirely accurate set of lawgivers, because if it was to be exactly accurate, we would actually see the face of God staring back at us instead of the face of Moses.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Moses is broadly known as having passed down the Ten Commandments and the Old Testament laws, but he was simply the mouthpiece that God used, that God passed down the laws directly to us or to Moses on Mount Sinai. So what I want to do today is actually look at what's called the Book of the Covenant. Over the past year I've been preaching through the Book of Exodus, and the last time I preached I preached on the last of the Ten Commandments and what I want to actually do before we even get into the text it's going to be a while till we even read the text I want to actually do a little bit of review to orient ourselves as to where we're at in this in the story right now. We've covered a lot of ground, so one of the questions that was asked of me last time I preached is okay, so where does it would be helpful to know from time to time.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Where does Exodus actually fit in the overall biblical storyline? And just briefly on that, genesis opens up and Genesis God creates mankind. Mankind rebels against him and is driven out of the Garden of Eden, and perfect communion with God is broken. Later in the book of Genesis, god reveals himself to Abraham, enters into a covenant relationship with Abraham, where he lays out a plan and a promise saying I'm going to restore what was lost in Eden. I'm going to restore that relationship, that blessing on all of mankind through your family, through your children. Your children are going to be more numerous than the sands on the seashore. And then Genesis ends with Abraham's grandson, jacob, jacob's family, settling in Egypt and putting roots down in Egypt. And that's where Exodus picks up. Exodus picks up right where Genesis ends. So it's an ongoing story. Exodus ends, so it's an ongoing story, in Exodus.

Speaker 1: 6:10

There's I've sort of split it up into Exodus into sort of three main chunks. If you could go to the next slide maybe I got the clicker here the next little, I guess. I want to just lay out some of the structure of Exodus to orient ourselves where we're at with Exodus 20. So the first part, part one of Exodus you could call, I guess, deliverance, the deliverance story. This includes the slavery of Jacob's children and grandchildren in Egypt for over 400 years, includes Moses' confrontation, or God's confrontation through Moses with Pharaoh, and then ultimately their deliverance out of Egypt from the bondage of slavery, and that covers like Exodus 1 through 15. So sort of the large first portion of Exodus.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Secondly, the second part of Exodus I guess I've sort of called covenant, and this is the movement that we're in right now. In Exodus 19, we see God reveal himself to Moses and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai and he announces a covenant with them and he actually points them back to the covenant he made with Abraham and he says you are no longer slaves. I've brought you out, I've delivered you out of Egypt and now I am going to make you a new. I'm going to give you a new identity, and that identity is going to be that you're going to be a new nation, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and you're going to be my treasured possession. And part of that covenant is along with that covenant is a promise that I will give you. I'll bring you into this promised land where you will live out this covenant relationship in the world.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Secondly, this is the part we're in right now is God gives the law. Initially, he gives Moses the two tablets with the Ten Commandments. We just finished that and now we're going into what's called the Book of the Covenant, which is essentially a whole list of social and sort of civil civic laws that expand on the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are sort of overarching moral principles from which the Book of the covenant then expands on. So the second I guess the last part then, is where the last part of this section of Exodus Moses and the elders meet God. It says they eat and drink with him, they see him, they have a meal with God, which is just sort of unbelievably mind-blowing, and then the covenant is confirmed through sacrifice. Okay, so the last part of Exodus then is the tabernacle, where God gives instructions for the tabernacle and the idea there is that God wants to dwell with his people. God wants to dwell in their midst. He says I will dwell in your midst and Exodus culminates. The way end of Exodus culminates, there's this grand finale where God's glory comes from Sinai down and fills the tabernacle, which is in the center of his people, which is just a beautiful sort of echo of that of what was lost in the Garden of Eden God dwelling with his people. Okay, so I hope that was helpful to sort of orient ourselves a little bit where we're at in this story. Right now we're looking at the law To transition a little bit, I want to tell a story.

Speaker 1: 10:08

This is a picture of my family, along with some friends and family members. My dad is all the way to the on the left side of the picture, along with my mom, and then myself and my younger sister, amy, and my younger sister, my younger brother, lyndon. This was a day that I remember very, very clearly as a very special day in our family story. This was the day that my dad became a US citizen and I remember, even though I didn't understand what it meant. In all its, I guess in all of its I didn't know what the significance was of it. I just knew that when it happened, the whole courtroom broke out in applause. We took pictures together and we went and ate at McDonald's afterwards. But I remember the months leading up to my dad's citizen exam.

Speaker 1: 11:11

He spent hours studying how to write and read English, how to speak English. He would take classes out at Highland, he studied US history, civics, government, and he spent a lot of time studying the law, the laws of our nation. And as he did that, something happened. The laws that he was studying revealed to him the values of our country and the value system of the founders of our country. The more he studied the laws of our nation. He learned what did the founders of our country value? What were the things that motivated them and that underpinned our way of life as Americans?

Speaker 1: 12:06

This is not entirely different from what's going on in Exodus we have. I'm going to go back just so this picture is not a distraction, if that's okay with you all. Imagine you're a hebrew slave and actually, like, really try to picture and imagine this, because I can, I can. I tend to use the same words over and over and we sort of lose the, maybe our imagination a little bit. But picture yourself as a hebrew, maybe, if you're a man, as a Hebrew, maybe bricklayer, and you're a bricklayer in Egypt and this is all you've ever known. You know that your dad did this, your grandfather did this, maybe your great-grandfather did this.

Speaker 1: 12:59

You were slaves of Pharaoh and your identity was wrapped up in that. You were mistreated, you were abused, you didn't have your own country, you were part of the Egyptian system, but you knew that long ago the gods, or the god of your forefathers, had promised that someday you would be a great nation. It doesn't make sense to you because you're just, you're a slave. But then, over the short period of time, god reveals himself to you and your people through Moses. Moses comes into town and, essentially, this series of miraculous events happens and you're led out of Egypt. You come to Mount Sinai and God gives you this new identity. You're no longer going to be a bricklayer slave of Pharaoh, you're going to be his treasured possession and you're going to be a new nation. You're going to be a citizen of a new country, god's country, a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. And then God himself meets your people on Mount Sinai and gives you the law of what your nation is going to look like. And that law is going to reveal to you and to us what are the values of our God. What does our God value? What kind of nation are we supposed to be, what are the characteristics of our new nation? And that's what's happening here in Exodus, chapter 20. Chapter 20. So why are we? What we're going to do now is actually we're going to read this entire section in Exodus, from Exodus, chapter 20, verse 22, through Exodus, chapter 23, through verse nine.

Speaker 1: 15:01

And some of you guys are just like, oh shoot, I should have stayed at home or I should have gone to Crosspoint. But hang in with me. I want to read a quote to sort of set this up a little bit with the question of like, why even bother with this? Why don't we just skip this and listen to this quote by Philip Ryken. He writes on this section. He says this section of Exodus, which the Bible calls the Book of the Covenant, does not make for very exciting reading. Okay, granted, unless one happens to be a lawyer, which none of us are. He says, frankly, it's one part of Exodus that preachers usually skip. Okay, so I chose not to skip it, and I hope that you guys can hang on with me for this one. As one Bible scholar describes it, boredom seems to set in at this point, relieved only by the golden calf incident narrated in chapter 32. Okay, so that's a while. It's a while until we get to chapter 32 with the golden calf incident.

Speaker 1: 16:05

What we're going to do is we're going to read this whole, this section of laws. It's essentially sort of split up into three sections. Section one is laws about slavery more broadly. Section two is laws about restitution. Section three is laws about social justice, with a lot of other stuff sprinkled in. But as we read this, take note of two things and pay attention to two things. Look at, pay attention to the reasons that the death penalty are given or are used Like, take note of the moments that the death penalty is issued and, secondly, take note of the protections that God gives to vulnerable people like women or slaves and servants. I think that will reveal something to us, and when we're through, we're just going to look at four points that we can draw from this more broadly, as to what does this say about God's character and what does this reveal to us about the kind of society God wanted Israel to become? What does this show us about God's character and what do these laws reveal to us about the kind of society God wanted Israel to become? Okay, you guys ready, you guys ready.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Okay, all right, we are going to start with verse 22 of chapter 20, reading from the ESV. This is right after God had given Moses the tablets which God himself wrote with his fingers. This is right after God had given Moses the tablets which God himself wrote with his fingers. And then this next section he tells Moses to write it down himself. So Moses writes this section down.

Speaker 1: 18:04

The Lord said to Moses Thus you shall say to the people of Israel you have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. Now just think ahead a little bit at the first sort of big incident that happens after this. Israel disobeys, is going to disobey and break the first sort of command that God lays out here. Okay, verse 24. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for you wield your tool on it. If you yield your tool on it, you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

Speaker 1: 19:07

And now going into some laws about slavery, and just a note about this word slavery, the Hebrew word here is ebed, which can be translated slave, or it can also be translated as hired, servant or maid servant. I'm not going to get into this whole idea of slavery in the Old Testament because that's a whole other sermon. But these are some protections I think that God lays out for slaves. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to God and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through within all and he shall be his slave forever.

Speaker 1: 20:23

When a man sells a daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing without payment of money.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Now here we have the first incident of, or the first reason for, capital punishment or death. Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie and wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar that he may die. Here's another one. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man and sells him or an incident, I guess you could call it kidnapping and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall have him thoroughly healed. When a man strikes a slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Now we come into a section where we sort of get our term or the idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, where we sort of get our term or the idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her child comes out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is no harm, then ye shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. In other words, let the punishment sort of fit the crime. Let the punishment fit the crime. When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

Speaker 1: 23:38

And then I just marked down, like for the next, I don't know how many verses in my Bible. I just wrote down ox stuff. So when an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life. Whatever is imposed on him. If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned.

Speaker 1: 24:27

When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, or an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner and the dead beast shall be his. Okay, just I'm going to interject here just a little bit, just to break it up a little bit. Some of these laws, as we're reading them, they're almost just like this is sort of ridiculous, like this makes no sense to us in our modern world. To us in our modern world. But so much of this has to do with maintaining a society that has order and that reflects what I guess God's vision for the world restoring order and peace.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Okay, verse 35. And the dead beast shall be his. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Do you guys remember the story of Zacchaeus? When Jesus comes to his house and Zacchaeus feels convicted of his sin of stealing from people, he says I will repay everything that I've stolen four times or fourfold. I think this is where it comes from this idea Shall repay five oxen for an ox or four sheep for a sheep. If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him, but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be no, there shall be blood guilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whatever it, whether it is an ox or donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double.

Speaker 1: 26:40

If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over or lets his beast loose and feeds it in another man's field, the rest of these laws here have to do with almost like, maybe negligence and not taking personal responsibility or care for what you're doing and your actions, or maybe lack of care having a negative impact on your neighbor. So what do you do? You restore that, you make restitution. If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe and it is stolen from the man's house, then if the thief is found he shall pay double. The thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox or for a donkey or for a sheep, for a cloak or for any kind of lost thing of which one pays. This is it. The case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor. If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep safe, and it dies or is injured or is driven away without anyone seeing it, an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. The owner shall accept the oath and he shall not make restitution. But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. If it is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn. If a man borrows anything of his neighbor and if it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution. If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution. If it was hired, it came for its hiring fee.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Okay, this next section, which is what we're going to end with, has to do with laws. I guess many of your Bibles probably actually just say this laws about social justice. And take note again here there's three laws specifically where death is meted out as a punishment for breaking this law. If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins. You shall not permit a sorceress to live. There's another death penalty Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord alone shall be devoted to destruction.

Speaker 1: 29:35

And this next little section here, I think, reveals God's heart so clearly, his character, and he speaks probably the most strongly where you almost see a visceral reaction coming from him when he sees these laws being broken. He says you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him why you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. He says my wrath shall burn and I will kill you with the sword and your wives will become widows and your father and your children fatherless. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you should not be like a money lender to him and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for it is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body. In what else shall he sleep? If he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

Speaker 1: 30:42

You shall not revile god, nor curse a ruler of your people, something I think our american people could learn a thing about maybe. You shall not delay to offer, from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses, the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. There's the idea of first fruits. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother, and on its eighth day you shall give it to me. You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore, you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs. You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil. Nor shall you bear a witness in a lawsuit siding with the many so as to pervert justice. Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. Okay, we're almost done. We're almost done If you meet your enemy's ox again.

Speaker 1: 31:46

Ox, ox, I guess, I don't know. It has to do with, I guess, farming implements and maybe transportation, and just it's like our equivalent of a minivan or a Ford pickup truck, like if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of the one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it. You shall rescue it with him. You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked and you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know and this is where we're going to end you know the heart of a sojourner, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 32:50

The next section there will be for another sermon which has to do with Israel's mandate to keep the laws of the Sabbath and festivals. So that was about, I don't know, 13, 14 minutes of reading. I actually timed myself when I did it at home and it was between 11 and 12 minutes. Thanks for hanging in with me. Very, very, very interesting. If we just slow down enough to take a slow look through this, this was what God himself, the founder of this new nation, was calling Israel to become. Just briefly, because time is running short, I want to make sort of four I guess four conclusions or observations from what we just read, and if we had another hour I would just do this like a sunday school class and I'd love to have a lot of discussion around this, um, but maybe save that for afterwards, so okay. So observation number one these laws, or God's laws, were practical. God's laws were practical.

Speaker 1: 34:06

Philip Riken has a quote. It says regulations about livestock grazing in a field may seem mundane. However, this is where most of us live most of the time, at the level of ordinary existence. Thankfully, god is as interested in this part of our lives as he is in anything else that happens in this world. The book of the covenant is about living for God, not just when we are standing at the foot of the mountain or gazing at his awesome glory, but when our neighbor borrows a video and fails to give it back, or when someone is spreading rumors, or when an argument turns into a fist fight. In other words, it is about real life. God could have given the Israelites the Ten Commandments and left it there, but he chose to give Moses and the Israelites this long set of laws that would impact small everyday interactions in their lives. I think that's beautiful. I think sometimes the law when we think of the Old Testament law, we think of it as this tremendous burden which it eventually became. But initially, god's heart is seen here in that he wanted the Israelites' everyday existence to reflect his character in the world. All right.

Speaker 1: 35:34

Number two God's laws could not tolerate sin. We see this pretty viscerally in in these laws. We we took note of all the incidences where where god says you must put this person to death if he or she does this thing. And a lot of these behaviors that god couldn't tolerate were practices that the pagan nations around Israel were practicing. Things like bestiality were sometimes part of actual pagan worship practices. God could not tolerate sin and he wanted his people to have that same hatred for sin, to have that same hatred for sin. And so when the nations around Israel would watch in on Israel, would see maybe a death penalty happen because of sin, it would lead them to question why? Well, it's because our God does not tolerate sin. He had called Israel to be a holy nation, set apart, all right. Thirdly, god's laws sought justice for those who were wronged, which is sort of obvious. I guess we saw this idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth this past week actually it was last week I received a letter in the mail I have it right here From Donovan Hill, which is the Dover City prosecutor.

Speaker 1: 37:09

So about a month ago during the night, a drunk driver who didn't have a license and who was underage and who was drinking, sideswiped our little SUV and, like just left a long sort of series of scrapes and scratches on the side of our vehicle and he just kept going. So last week I received this letter in the mail saying we're just writing to you in regard to the traffic accident that happened. Mr So-and-so crashed into your RAF 4. He has been charged with a hit, slash, skip, no operator's license and failure to control and has pled not guilty. Then it says this it says the purpose of this letter is to inquire whether you have any out-of-pocket expenses. And it goes on to basically say If you want to be at the courthouse when this hearing happens, please do so and send us any expenses that you had that were involved with this accident. That insurance does not cover. And so it essentially is a document of um. There's a court hearing happening at the court of restitution. They say, where this guy sideswiped my, my, my car Now.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Well, now, what do we do, um, how do I respond? What do we do? How do I respond? I'm honestly not sure, because if God's law in the Old Testament sought justice for those who were wronged, how do I respond? As a follower of Jesus in the New Covenant, under Moses' law or under this law of the Old Testament, I could probably go to his house and like borrow one of Myron's farm tractors and just like scrape the side of his vehicle. Real good and sort of be okay. Jesus said you've heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, turn the other cheek. If someone hits you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you and that harm you. So, as Christians who are part of the new covenant, we do well to wrestle with. How do we respond when people wrong us and what do we do with this? And then also, god's side of justice. That God is a side of justice. God is a God of justice and he wanted Israel to be a just society and to uphold justice. All right.

Speaker 1: 39:50

Number four God's laws protected the vulnerable and the oppressed. And this comes through just so obviously and clearly. And he points back to the opening of Exodus where he said where Israel was enslaved and they cried out to God. It says and I heard your cry and I remembered the covenant that I made with your father Abraham, the covenant that I made with your father Abraham. And all of Exodus flows out of that remembering, out of that incident.

Speaker 1: 40:25

While we don't abide under the Old Testament law anymore, we do live in a world that is full of oppression and where vulnerable people are taken advantage of, where people suffer, where the weak suffer. So I think what we can draw from this is God's laws protected the vulnerable and he wanted Israel to have his heart for the poor, for the foreigner and for the sojourner, for the oppressed. So as we look around our own society, our own neighborhoods and maybe workplaces, I think we do well to keep our eyes open and ask God, lord, where do you see somebody who's oppressed? Where do you see somebody who's being taken advantage of? And how can I live out this way of caring for the oppressed? I do want to come to a close here. As we read these Old Testament laws, I think we do well to remember that we are no longer under the law, but we're under grace, that the Old Testament law has been fulfilled. All the obligations of the law have been fulfilled in the life and the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 41:50

And Peter says once. He tells us as a church. He says but you are a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation. You're new citizens now. You used to be slaves, but you're new citizens, you're a people. For his own possession that you might proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He says this once you were not a people, just like my dad once was not an American citizen. He once was a citizen of Paraguay who had a different system of laws, a different system, a different culture, different everything. He says but once you were not a people, but now you are God's people, now you're citizens of God's nation, god's kingdom. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So when people interact with you this next week, when they see the way you treat your family, the way you interact with your wife, the way you treat your coworkers, the way you interact with your employees or employer, they will be asking okay, what set of values are you living out, and who is the giver of that set of values? Who's behind that? Is it Donald Trump? Is it Elon Musk? Or is it Jesus? Is it God? Is this living out? Is this person? Are you living out what God has, the value system that God has laid out for us?

Speaker 1: 43:37

Let's stand and have a word of prayer and I'll turn the time over to Sean Father. We come before you in Jesus' name and we thank you that we are sons and daughters. We're citizens of your kingdom and of a holy nation that is trying to reflect your vision and mission in the world. We need help because we're often very broken and we do it very imperfectly. And though we don't have the same practical sort of detailed laws as the children of Israel had in the Old Testament, we see your heart behind them and we follow Jesus' way and his interpretation of them, and we want to seek to live out and reflect your ways, through our lives and in the world around us. All this, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen, you can be seated. Thank you, randy.