Restitution

DEVOTION

EXODUS

RESTITUTION

Ex 22:1-15

22:1 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. 2 "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 3 but if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed. "A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft. 4 "If the stolen animal is found alive in his possession — whether ox or donkey or sheep — he must pay back double. 5 "If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in another man's field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard. 6 "If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution. 7 "If a man gives his neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor's house, the thief, if he is caught, must pay back double. 8 But if the thief is not found, the owner of the house must appear before the judges to determine whether he has laid his hands on the other man's property. 9 In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says, 'This is mine,' both parties are to bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to his neighbor. 10 "If a man gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep or any other animal to his neighbor for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or is taken away while no one is looking, 11 the issue between them will be settled by the taking of an oath before the LORD that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person's property. The owner is to accept this, and no restitution is required. 12 But if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, he must make restitution to the owner. 13 If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal, he shall bring in the remains as evidence and he will not be required to pay for the torn animal. 14 "If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, he must make restitution. 15 But if the owner is with the animal, the borrower will not have to pay. If the animal was hired, the money paid for the hire covers the loss.

NIV

All this is an expansion of the commandment, “Do not steal”.  Why did God need to make a detailed account of his command for them not to steal from one another? All that is explained here would seem to be obvious to them, if they understood what stealing meant. But God knew their hearts and knew they would find some way for one act or another to not be covered under that command. Do men always look for a way to interpret God’s word for their own benefit? It seems this is the case. God had to lay out a detailed explanation of exactly every scenario that was covered under, “Do not steal”. He also made sure that this type of behavior required restitution. It is one thing to be guilty of stealing, but to have to pay back more than they stole was certainly required. This dissertation is actually more about the making of restitution then about the thief. God was showing them all forms of theft required restitution. When we turn our backs on God, we have stolen ourselves from him. All of mankind actually belongs to God, as he is our creator. He not just knit us to together in our mother’s womb, but he knit all in their mother’s womb. What is almost not understandable is that the vilest of people were still knit together in their mother’s womb by God. It is not that he created them evil, but that at some point in their lives they became evil, suppressing any knowledge of him by their evil deeds. When we steal ourselves from God, restitution must be made by the guilty. We need to pay back double or whatever the punishment is, which in our case, is death. But God made the restitution for us. He paid the price for our sin, our stealing of ourselves from him. If we think we own ourselves then we are to go to the judge and present our case. In some sense when we take charge of our own lives, we have taken illegal possession of our self. We have been told in scripture that we are to surrender to God, to humble ourselves before him. What we need to see is that Jesus made all the restitution ever needed for all our sin, even the attempted theft of our own being. Jesus is the Good Shepard and we are his sheep. His sheep know his voice and listen only to him. When we listen to our own voice, we are, in essence, either wandering off from him, or attempting to steal ourselves from him. Satan is no doubt the thief that would steal everything and everyone from God. He would never make restitution, but Jesus already has. Jesus has covered the loss. He has done it all. He has bought us in full. Of course there is also the lesson about our actions and behaviors toward each other, and the ownership of stuff and the taking of another’s things. But the lesson is in the fact, God had to lay out detailed information. Man always seems to try to figure out some way to use to scripture for his own benefit. We make detailed declarations of our statement of faith, or own doctrinal position, proving our case for why we believe what we believe. With over hundreds of denominations, each with a different statement of faith and doctrinal position, it is proof enough that some men are stealing from the one truth of God. There are not multiple truths, at least not enough to go around for hundreds, even thousands of different denominations. God has laid out a specific truth for us, and it is very detailed so that we should not be able to not understand it. Just as he has done here for the people regarding stealing and the making of restitution. So let us not try to either steal ourselves from him or steal his truth, trying to make it our truth. Yet this lesson still is about Jesus making restitution for our sin. 

Pay the Penalty

DEVOTION

EXODUS

PAY THE PENALTY

Ex 21:18-36

18 "If men quarrel and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist and he does not die but is confined to bed, 19 the one who struck the blow will not be held responsible if the other gets up and walks around outside with his staff; however, he must pay the injured man for the loss of his time and see that he is completely healed. 20 "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, 21 but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property. 22 "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. 26 "If a man hits a manservant or maidservant in the eye and destroys it, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the eye. 27 And if he knocks out the tooth of a manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the tooth. 28 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. 29 If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. 30 However, if payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying whatever is demanded. 31 This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. 32 If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned. 33 "If a man uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit must pay for the loss; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his. 35 "If a man's bull injures the bull of another and it dies, they are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally. 36 However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and the dead animal will be his.

NIV

That is an awful lot of hitting or striking of other people, including the use of hands, stones, or tools and even animals. Various forms of punishment from repayment, compensation, to death. What appears to be the point of all this to set the ground rules for a civil society. But why was all these rules needed in the first place? These people must not have been very civil to eat other, in fact, they must have been a group of violent people. It is not much different today. We have a whole set of rules to govern our lives by. We have various punishments depending on the seriousness of the offense. Most of us are not offenders of the laws of our land, as we would suspect must of the Israelites were peace loving people, with a few bad apples in the bunch. Nevertheless, laws, rules need to be set for all the people otherwise they may have become a lawless people. We have seen in the history of our own country periods that appeared to be lawless, or at least the people paid little to not attention to any laws. The Wild West wasn’t called that because of the peace loving people who lived there. Even today it seems we have segments of our society that seem to ignore the laws of our land. It is a good thing we are not among that kind. We certainly do not go around striking one another, injuring each other so we are laid up in bed unable to work. Once again Jesus makes all this law regarding our conduct with each much simpler in just telling us to love our neighbor as our self. There seems to be no reason for any of us to lash out at our neighbor. Of course, even with this command of God regarding loving our neighbor as ourselves and even loving our enemy, we need a set of laws and rules to hold us in check. Why is that? Could we all have that streak of meanness or lawlessness within? The scripture tells us our heart is deceitfully wicked. Yes, we turn from our wicked ways when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, yet we still have not attained perfection. Therefor they still is within us the ability to inflict some sort of pain on another. This may not be a physical pain as outlined in this particular laws God is making, but we can nevertheless cause pain within another’s being, pain that would be an offense again the law of loving them as ourselves. There are even some of the laws of this land many of us pay little attention to, such as the speed limit signs, as well as other rules of the road, even the rule of common curtesy. It would seem we need the rules to live by, both the rules of this land, as well as the law of God. If we did not have any rules or laws, would we live as through we did? All too often we break some of the laws of this land, but more importantly we break the law of God. Because God knows our heart and knows our weakness, and our inability to keep all his commands and because our punishment is death, in his mercy and grace, he paid that debt himself. He reconciled himself to us. He paid the price for our disobedience. If we ever think we do not need Jesus, we are the saddest of the sad. We but Jesus can pay the penalty?  

Respect

DEVOTION

EXODUS

RESPECT

Ex 21:15-17

15 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death.

16 "Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.

17 "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.

NIV

Three offenses in which the guilty are to be put to death. It seems quite harsh to put someone to death for cursing their parents. Surely an all-out attack on them is different than just a curse. Kidnapping is not to be tolerated either under any circumstances. Not sure why the issue of kidnapping or taking another’s servant is included in this sandwich of dealing with parents, but there it is. Could it be connected to a child stealing their parent’s servant, although not specifically laid out as such? This would put the whole of these three in the context of respecting parents from birth to death. This would mean that no matter the parenting skills displayed, a child has only one responsibility which is to honor their father and mother, as one of the Ten Commandments so states. Surely a physical attack on a parent would not bring the death penalty today, nor would cursing a parent, or taking their servant, if they had one that is. However it is possible to attack the character of our parents in the telling of our childhood experiences. We have a responsibility to God to honor our parents, no matter who they were. We may have had a rough childhood. We might have experienced some harsh treatment from the hand of a parent. We could have been the brunt of some form of abuse. We could also have had the best parents ever. The condition of our home life as a child is not issue here, but it is how we speak of our parents now. Some would say that we are the result of our parent’s lifestyle. Some would say having emotional issues is a result of our childhood. All the situations which are explained as a result of how we were reared, in essence, makes us victims of our past. It is this victim mentality that relieves us from any responsibility we have to honor them, unless of course they were perfect parents. Nevertheless how we were treated as children should have no bearing on our behavior or attitude about our parents. In some cases, perhaps most cases, we do not know the conditions of their life as a child and if they are not or were not believers, they would not be aware of this command of God. They may well have been the result of difficult times in childhood and carried that with them all their lives and it resulted in their attitudes and behaviors as parents. However, as believers we must come to grips with the fact that Jesus breaks every fetter. He breaks the chains of our past and sets us on a new course of life, leaving the old behind, with all its attitudes and behaviors.

Eph 4:20-24

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

NIV

This new self is one who honors parents. This new self is one who never brings dishonor on them in any form. If we were mistreated in anyway, we have forgiven them and we now show them honor. There is no choice, no wiggle room on this fact, for it is a command of God. When we dishonor their character or memory we dishonor God. Irrespective of what family we were born into, what our parents were like, it was God who knit us together in our mother’s womb. His sovereignty was at work bringing us life into where he designed us to be, and it was for a designed purpose, a plan for our lives, which ultimately lead us to finding our way back to him. If for no other reason, we should honor the two parents God used to bring us into this life. We are now new creatures in Christ and our lives should reflect that in our respect, our honor of our parents.  

No excuse

DEVOTION

EXODUS

NO EXCUSE

Ex 21:12-14

12 "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. 13 However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. 14 But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.

NIV

Two cases of murder are given to us, the schemed and the unintentional. There seems to be no room for any misinterpretation of the fact if someone killed another because of malice or it was preplanned, he was to be put to death. This is capital punishment and not the harshness of confining a murderer for the rest of his natural life, at the expense of all others. Somehow in our society today many feel the death penalty is too harsh, and lifelong confinement shows mercy. This narrative also gives us the very first sanctuary cities for those who accidentally kill another. We are not sure how this accidentally or unintentional taking of another’s life would happen. Certainly not because of DUI. Nevertheless there must have been circumstances where an accidental killing took place. When we look forward in the scriptures we see places where Moses designated three cities and in other places the Levites were designated forty sanctuary cities. We have those today in some states for the purpose of giving refuge to illegal aliens. Yet what we are learning here is about the taking of another’s life. It would seem this has little bearing on our lives as we would never even consider such a heinous crime. However, as with one of the Ten Commandments which prohibits murder, Jesus expanded this to include much more than taking another’s life.

Matt 5:21-24

21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

NIV

Here Jesus not only expands on the theme of murder, but also deals with this issue of being taken away from God’s altar. In the past when a man committed such a crime he might take hold of the altar of God, finding refuge at the altar. There is even cases within the Old Testament of men taking hold of the horns of the ram on the altar to escape justice. We find that today some people are of the impression that taking refuge in a church prohibits the law from taking them into captivity for a crime. Jesus tells us that we are to leave the altar of God if we have the slightest of ill feelings toward another. We cannot find sanctuary in God, if we are harboring any ill against another. If we think we are alright, being in right fellowship with God and we have anything but love and acceptance of others, we are deceiving ourselves. If we have envy or jealously, or unforgiveness, or a judgmental attitude in any way, we need to rid ourselves of it in order to be in right relationship with God. How can we stand in church and act all spiritual when there is the slightest of bad relationships within our circle of family and friends, and even among everyone we know and are known. Jesus not only expanded this about how we feel toward others, but how they feel toward us. We cannot rightfully enter the sanctuary of God, if we know someone has hard feelings about us. Even if we inadvertently caused them to feel badly toward us and we find out about it, we need to settle it, go to them and ask forgiveness. This comes right back to loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, spirit and body and loving our neighbor as ourselves. There is simply no room for anything else. No fudge room, no excuse, no justifiable reason, period.  

Responsible

DEVOTION

EXODUS

RESPONSIBLE

Ex 21:7-11

7 "If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

NIV

This seems a little strange to be selling a daughter as a servant. Why would a father even consider selling his own daughter into slavery or to be a maidservant of another man? And why would she not be able to go free at the seventh year like menservants do? This may appear to be more like a betrothal rather than as a servant. Yet the fact is a woman did not have the same rights as men in this culture. They were in essence no more than property of sorts. Certainly there must have been love involved among men and woman as we witnessed with Jacob working seven years for Rachel and we were told he loved her. Yet these are the commands of God regarding the responsibilities a man has toward a woman in his care. This case of being redeemed is unspoken as to who should do the redeeming, but it would be her father and only him. He sold her, and he would redeem or buy her back, or pay the price for her. This is how Christ paid the price for us, he redeemed us, he bought us back from Satan, who by default we choose to be associated with. When a man buys or pays for a man’s daughter, it could have been for himself or for a wife for his son. But either way she was to be treated as family and no matter what else happens she was not to be deprived of food, clothing and marital rights. If he didn’t then she was free to leave without being redeemed. How does this all apply to our culture today? It is certain that those who practice Shari Law see women as property who do not have any rights other then what their male owner gives them. But here in this country women have stepped way beyond any of these conditions set out here by God for the people. It almost appears that women today would want to know in what world a man would have that kind of authority over a woman. But it is not about authority, but rather responsibility and accountability of the man for any woman in his household. It also almost appears in our society today many men have abnegated their responsibilities and do not even consider themselves accountable to God for women in their household. Although on the surface this command might look like how women are to be bought and sold, it is actually about the responsibilities men have to and for women in their household. If they are not fulfilling their responsibilities, then the woman is free to leave them, at no cost to her. In all reality God is setting forth the rights of women here rather than restrictions. In our society this whole idea may have gone astray, in fact overboard in the wrong direction. We men need to step up and take the responsibility God has placed upon us. That does not mean we become owners of women, but rather accountable to God for those women in our household. Responsibility and accountable does demand authority. If we are responsible and accountable then we also have the authority. This does not mean we become kings, or demand everything our way, but that we must make the right choices for our family. This has nothing to do about women working or having careers or being in leadership roles within the business community. This has everything to do with men being responsible and accountable to God for women that are in his household. It does not matter that his wife may be the CEO of a major firm, God still holds her husband responsible for her. That is the way God set it up from the very beginning and that is how it will be until the end. We men need to step up if we are not being the man God intends us to be. We are responsible.

Set free

DEVOTION

EXODUS

SET FREE

Ex 21:1-6

21:1 "These are the laws you are to set before them:

2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. 5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

NIV

We have arrived at the Law. It is going to be somewhat arduous to make our way through each and every law set out by God for the people. The idea that Jesus fulfilled all the law so that, in effect, we are not actually subject to the law, per say, as it is impossible for any man to fulfill it perfectly. In fact, this is the reason God is giving the law, to show them they will need a Savior. Yet at the same time any society needs to have a governing set of rules to live by, if it is going to be a civil organization of mutual respect among all the people. In addition, because all the scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, we have to expect there is something which we can glean from these laws for our lives as well. Since we live in a civil society of mutual respect for all people, perhaps some of this would be good for us to adhere to. Just because we are in Christ, does it mean we can simply ignore all this section of the law? That would also mean we would have to ignore all of Deuteronomy as well as Leviticus because they repeat much of these same commands. So what is this six year limit on slavery? First we would know from looking ahead, there are many ways in which a man would become a slave to his neighbor. In addition the original word here actually means servant, and is used many times as a bondservant. This is the case when one willingly or unwillingly serves because of various reasons that are laid out later for us. One example would be if a man became poor and could not pay his debt to another. A person would also become a servant, if he commited the crime of robbing his neighbor and was catch. The point here is that it was possible for a free man to become a servant of another. However, God put a term limit on how long they could serve. This limit seems to be tied to the year of Jubilee, or the Sabbatical year. But the point is there was a time to forgive, to set the servant free. Now there was a provision about his family and how that happened and that a man could remain in another’s service for his entire life. Because we are not living in this law, we are not subject to waiting for the seventh year to forgive. We actually have a far more reaching forgiveness as it must occur immediately upon being wronged. We cannot hold someone in our service for any reason of wrongdoing against us. Now that of course does not apply to the breaking of our civil or criminal law process. Within our society when a person is convicted of a crime against another, we confine them in jail, or prison. That does not mean all crimes are convicted and thus some who commit crimes against us remain free to commit more crimes. But does that give us believers the right of unforgiveness? This especially applies to the one who wrongs us over and over again, when it isn’t a civil or criminal offense. Jesus taught us that we are to forgive, not seven times, but seventy times seven. Perhaps when Peter was asking that question he was thinking about the seventh year of forgiveness, and Jesus make it clear that had nothing to do with it, but that we are to constantly be in the state of forgiveness. It has been said that this seventy times seven was not to apply to the fact a person would commit the same offense that many times against us, but that every time we remember an offense we need to forgive again, for as with God, forgiveness means never bringing that offense up again. So if we remember an offense, especially when in the presence of that person who offended us, we only cannot bring it up to them, but we need to forgive them again, at least within our own being. Telling them we forgive them again, is in essence, bringing it up to them again, reminding them of their offense. In the context of this law, when we forgive someone, we set them free. Just as when God forgave us of our sin, we were set free from bondage to sin. So as we forgive others, we set them free from any bondage or beholding to us. Forgiveness is to set free. 

Low Altars

DEVOTION

EXODUS

LOW ALTARS

Ex 20:22-26

22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. 24 "'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'

NIV

There is certainly a lesson in the design or lack of design of their altar they should make while wandering in the wilderness. The ancients, including the Egyptians, which the children of Israel build for them, had great altars, high and lifted up for worship to their gods. Although the Pyramids were also tombs they may well have been used to worship their gods. The idea was the higher the altar, the closer to heaven it was.  But God tells them not to make a high altar, so no steps should be used to place a sacrifice upon it, or to worship him. Two reasons seem appropriate. They would not have the time to hewn stones to build an altar which needed to be broke down and reconstructed whenever they moved on. They also were not going to be able to carve any image on the earth altar, which was the custom of the altars of the heathen. Images of their gods were carved into the hewn stones used to build their high and lifted up altars with steps up to them. But what is this going up on steps that exposes their nakedness? Several issues come to mind. First the gods of the heathens never came down to the people and spoke with them, so they had to build altars to get closer to their gods. God here on the mountain proves to his people that he comes down from heaven to meet with his people and to speak directly to them. True it is with a great and powerful display of thunder, lighting and shaking of the earth, along with a great thick cloud to cover his glory, but nevertheless he came down to his people. They will not need a high and lifted altar to worship him on. Second this may well be the ultimate lesson for us today. This high and lifted altars of the heathen could represent our hearts. When we lift our own hearts high in an effort to reach God, it truly exposes just how naked we are. That nakedness is the lack of the Spirit within us.

Isa 57:15

15 For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

NIV

As we come to God in his high and lofty place, we come with a contrite heart, a humble heart knowing how majestic and holy he is, and who we are. We need not lift our heart up, lifting up our own service, feeling how good we are, are righteous we are, how wonderful we are being able to check off our list of don’ts and our lists of do’s. We should not lift our hearts up with how great we can pray, using high and lifted up words to impress the hearers of our attempt to reach the throne of God. No, we are to humble ourselves before our God.

James 4:10

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

NIV

He will lift us up! Here it is, no high altars, no high heart, but rather a heart of earth, for we were formed from the earth and it was God who breathed the breath of life in us. If our heart in made of earth we cannot carve any image on it, but we can only sacrifice upon it, sacrifice ourselves to God. When we lift ourselves up in any way, we are in essence carving images upon our heart. Images of self would be the best description of what we carve. Whenever we lift our heart, is it naked, exposed for what it is? God sees our heart, as man only sees our outside, our deeds, our supposed righteousness, our acts of deeds and service, our godliness, which is but a cover up for who we really are, sinners saved by grace, sinners coming to God, with a humble, contrite heart, bowing low before him. Then God will lift us up. Let’s keep our altar low.