Exodus 20:22 - Exodus 22

We're going through Exodus here on Wednesday night so open your Bible please to Exodus. We're going to finish out the last few verses of chapter 20 as we get started tonight. Exodus chapter 20. Up to this point, we've been dealing with a lot of drama, and it's been mostly exciting. A lot of fireworks, and supernatural manifestations, and the glory, and presence of the Lord. I got to tell you though, things are about to come to a screeching halt as it relates to the drama part of it. Because as we finish out the last few verses here of chapter 20, and then get into as many chapters as we are able tonight, things are going to slow way down. I want to tell you that. Because as we get into this section and these chapters, the Lord is going to begin to speak to the people of Israel through Moses about their lives and how to live them in terms of giving them information morally, civil rules and regulations, social laws. I want to remind you of something. The nation of Israel just came out of Egypt and they are literally just a couple of months or so in the wilderness with the Lord, and they've been in Egypt for over 400 years, a little over 400 years. Guys, do you understand? That's longer than we've been a nation here in the United States? I want you to think about just their lives and how these people think. They have learned the ways of the Egyptians as far as how you deal with life, how you deal with marriage, how you deal with problems between other people, how you conduct business. All of that is the Egyptian way, that's all they know. And remember the Egyptians were pagans. And so the people of Israel, and by the way, another thing to keep in mind is that these people who came out of Egypt, there were a lot of non-Jews with them. Some Egyptians came out with them, even slaves from other nations took the opportunity to come out. So there are mixed bunch, but it's predominantly Jewish, but there's a mixed bunch. And whenever you have a mixed bunch, there's going to be influences that come from those people.

But these people know nothing of YAHWEH. They really know nothing. They've been 400 years in Egypt. There's been no synagogue. There's been no ongoing teaching. These people are clueless. And the reason I point that out is because I want you to understand that in the coming chapters and even in the coming books of the Bible that we're going to be covering after this, the Lord is going to slowly and gently move them away from what it was to literally live like an Egyptian into an understanding of His moral law, and His goodness, and how He wants them to treat one another. I'm going to address an objection that I get quite often before we get actually into these verses, because I'm going to tell you right now, God is going to address slavery here, but He's not going to forbid it. And that really messes with some people's minds. It is not uncommon at all for me to get a note, email, or whatever, with the question, pastor Paul, why didn't God condemn slavery in the strongest terms and just forbid all aspects of it? Why did He give them directives for how to deal with slavery and so forth? And I'll admit that is a challenging question. First of all, you need to understand something, the word in the Hebrew that is translated, slave, referenced a wide range of social and economic positions within the culture. There are a lot of Bible translations that take that word that the ESV will translate, slave, and they translate it, servant. They soften it and make it servant. Well, it's not a bad translation because in many cases, we're just talking about servants. But you need to understand something. Slavery as it existed back in those days, wasn't all bad. I know it's a touch point today. I know that, but it wasn't all bad. What the Bible calls slavery, you need to know, was not always a system of physical abuse and exploitation. It just simply wasn't. And that's the way we think of it today. In fact, back in that culture, slavery was actually a fairly effective way for people to repay debts. When you owed someone something, there wasn't a sheriff, who'd come to your door and start confiscating your goods so that you can pay back your debt. They had to have a means of doing that, and slavery frankly was one of them. But they wouldn't chain people to a door or to a post or whip them. They simply put them into a position, whereby through serving, whoever they owed money to, they would repay their debt. And when the debt was repaid, they'd go free.

And so these were some of the common ways that the term, the Hebrew term, slave is actually used. But secondly I want to also make you aware of the fact that God is going to repeatedly remind the people of Israel that they were once slaves. And He's going to say, you're to treat other people the way… Just remember the way you were treated and be careful about treating people the way you were treated. He's going to talk about slaves. He's going to talk about sojourners. He's going to say, remember you were sojourners in Egypt, and so I want you to be careful not to exploit, and to harm, and abuse the sojourner, and the slave, and that sort of thing. But there's a third reason that I believe God didn't just come out at the beginning and just say, okay, this slavery business, knock it off from here on out. And the third reason is, sanctification is progressive. Let me explain what I mean by that. I'll do it by asking you a question. When you came to Christ, Did the Lord instantly remove from you every evil action, evil thought, or evil motive from your life? Did He just tear it all away? Did He rip it all away from you all at once? No, He didn't. Did He? Yes, when you came to the Lord, life changed. But it was on that day that He began that work. Right? Well, it's the same way with Israel. That's the way He works with His children. He doesn't waltz into our lives and just burn down the house. He comes in and starts to redecorate room by room, slowly and surely. Let me show you a passage from Philippians. Paul wrote this in the New Testament. He said,

Do you understand? Do you see what Paul is saying here? He's saying God begins, when He comes into our life, He begins a good work, but that work goes on progressively. That's what I mean when I say sanctification is progressive. Right?

In the Book of Hebrews, we read this from

For by a single offering (and He's talking about offering His Son on the cross) he has perfected for all time (perfected, past tense) those who are (present tense) being sanctified. You stand perfected before the Lord positionally, but in a practical, day to day sense, you are being sanctified. And I just want to encourage you, that you should thank the Lord every day that He didn't come in and sanctify you in a day or an hour, because you wouldn't have lived through the process and neither would have Israel. Okay. If somebody ever throws that question at you, well, why does the Bible condone slavery? The Bible doesn't condone slavery, but when God came into the life of Israel, He began the work of progressive sanctification. And there was a point in time where they got rid of slaves and that was… By the time Jesus came along, they weren't dealing with slaves anymore in that sense that they did in the old Testament. But it took time, and God gave them time, and He's really patient. And I think you should thank God. In fact, if somebody ever asked you that question, you should say, you know what? You should just thank God, He's patient with you. Thank Him that He's patient with you. Otherwise you wouldn't be here to talk about how good He is. Anyway, these passages that we're going to be looking at here are going to show that God works with His people, progressively. Guides them ever so certainly toward a specific goal. But for now He's going to address slavery and things like that. These first 5 verses, as we end chapter 20, we're in verse 22, He's going to deal with… In fact, I'll put this on the screen. In fact, I'm going to do this before each chapter, okay? And since we only have a few verses here. Directives for constructing and using altars

All He's going to deal with here is some Directives for constructing and using altars. But the reason this is important guys, people, the old Testament altar is a picture of Jesus okay. That's why it's important. He says in verse 22,

And some Bibles say, “dressed stones.” What that means is, I want these to be just raw stones picked up out of the ground. I don't want you to bring worked stone; something that a craftsman has fashioned with a tool. All right. In fact, He's going to talk about that here. He says,

In other words, that's just another way of saying, this is a holy thing. But what's all this thing about stones? Why not? I mean, doesn't God give man the ability to take a tool and a hammer and carve that stone in such a way that it becomes beautiful, and it maybe even interlocks nicely with other stones, and fits better, and stuff like that. Yeah, He does. But you see, remember the altar is a picture of Jesus and what He did for you and me on the cross. And so the first thing the Lord says is, if you want to approach Me and the altar is the means by which they approached God, He said, first of all, you have to approach Me with the shedding of blood because that's what the altar was for. For the shedding of blood, the sacrifice of animals. That's the first thing God is saying. But the second thing on this prohibition of using a tool is a reminder that you cannot add anything to Jesus. You take Jesus as He is. And so He says, when you put together an altar, you use stones and you just leave them as they are. That's going to be good enough. Don't try to add to the altar with your own talent, or ability, or usefulness, because that is tantamount to somebody saying,

I believe in Jesus, but I also got to be a good person. I have to add to what Jesus did. When somebody says to you, oh, I believe in Jesus, but I also believe you got to be a good person to go to heaven. What they're saying is Jesus wasn't enough. What He did on the cross wasn't sufficient. That's what they're saying, even though they don't realize it. And they're saying, I have to add to that in order to make it work. And God is telling the Israelites here through this symbolism, there's nothing you need to add to make redemption work. I've provided everything you need. I've provided the stones for the altar, the animals for the sacrifice, and I will give the forgiveness. You just simply come to me with a humble heart and accept it, but don't try to add to it, and don't try to make it look fancy. Right? This is more than God just being peevish about how they make altars. There's meaning behind this. All right. Chapter 21. Let me show you on the screen what we're going to deal with. Some of you might want to get up and leave. I'm just kidding. This is not your usual devotional study through the Bible. Okay. Chapter 21 Outline A. Guidelines for slaves (21:1-11) 1. Rules for Hebrew slaves 2. The bond-slave 3. Protection for young women B. Instructions about murder (21:12-14) C. Punishment for physical abuse toward parents (21:15) D. Punishment for Human-trafficking (21:16) E. Punishment for cursing one’s parents (21:17) F. Rules about altercations (21:18-27) G. Death by animals (21:28-32) H. Laws about restitution (21:33-36) We're going to talk about Guidelines for slaves. And then within the context of that, He's going to give Rules for Hebrew slaves. He's going to talk about The bond-slave. This is going to be the introduction to the bond slave. I'll explain what that is. He's going to also talk about when women are involved in that servanthood and how they need to be protected related to that. (Protection for young women)

He's going to give Instructions about murder, and then He's going to talk about various Punishments for physical abuse toward parents, for human trafficking. He's going to talk about Punishment for even cursing your parents. How many of you'd be still alive? He's going to talk about Rules when men get into altercations. He's going to talk about a Death that is caused by an animal. How do you deal with that? I don't, I have no idea how the Egyptians dealt with it, but what God is doing is, He's giving His guidelines. And then He's going to talk about Laws about restitution, and that's going to spill over into the next chapter. Look with me in verse 1.

2 When you buy a Hebrew slave,… Or in other words, when someone takes on a Hebrew slave, and that means a fellow Jew, right? And by the way, a fellow Jew could come to you as a servant slave for a lot of different reasons we've already mentioned. One of those might be to work off debt. Another reason could be as restitution because he stole something and now he needs to pay restitution. It could also be because that person was born by parents who were, when he was born, slaves. And so now he's a slave by birth, and that is a possibility. But anyway, these are the rules for fellow Hebrews. We're in the middle of verse 2. He says,

Now, can I have you pause there for a minute? This is one of the ways we know that servant slave hood in Israel was completely different from what you and I might remember as a very dark period in American history. Regardless of whether the debt or the restitution was repaid, after 6 years, they go free. Because in the seventh year, that's that Sabbath year and it doesn't matter if his debt is paid off or not, he goes free. Okay, boom, done, so he is released at that point. God is showing them mercy and encouraging them to show mercy to one another, and then He gives some further directives concerning Hebrew servant slaves. He says in verse 3,

Or go free with him.

Now, this is what's interesting about this. This is the very first reference in the Bible to what we call, the bond slave, or the bond servant. Now, when you get to the Greek, this becomes an interesting word. You might say, well, pastor, Paul, didn't you just tell me by the time the New Testament came around, that kind of slavery was now gone. Yeah, it was. Paul used it referring to himself. Paul used this very same Hebrew word converted to Greek, which by the way, is the Greek word, doulos. And he used it to describe himself, but it's often hidden in English. Let me show you this on the screen from Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, It doesn't tell you much, does it? You know what? That word, servant, there in the Greek is, doulos. You know what Paul was saying? Paul, a bond slave of Christ, Jesus. And again, here's what a bond slave means. A bond slave was someone who came to his master and said, I love my master and I never want to go free. And I pledged myself to my master for life. Get it? Here's what Paul comes along and says, I am His. I am His for life. I'm a bond servant. If you look this very verse up in the Greek, you will see that it says, a doulos of Christ Jesus. My son in law has doulos tattooed on his arm. I'm not super big on tattoos. Probably because my grandpa had a tattoo on my arm. My maternal grandfather had one and all I knew was his tattoo when he was really old, it looked terrible. I don't know, it was faded and ugly. And I remember looking at it going, I'm never going to do that. But anyway, they've gotten popular, but anyway. But my son in law did that because he wanted people to know.

And it's, people ask him all the time and he actually has it in Greek. He has the Greek letters tattooed on his arm and people ask him all the time, what's that mean? He says, well, it means doulos. They go with that. Ah, witnessing opportunity, and that's what he does. He tells people about Jesus and how he is a bond servant, or a bond slave of Jesus Christ for life. Anyway, this is the first reference to it. And you can see that God is making accommodations for this sort of thing. Verse 7.

I know you're probably gasping right now. Once again, this was done from time to time to help the family out, pay a debt. And this usually happened for that reason because the father himself was involved in servant slave hood to pay off his debt. But it's not getting paid off very quickly and so his children, once they come of age, he could also sell off as a slave to pay off that debt as well. I know it doesn't sound great, but it did happen. Anyway, it says,

And the reason for this people, is because it is assumed that the master has taken her as a wife. And you'll see that as we keep going. It's not explicit in this first statement, but as you keep reading, you'll see it, right? But what it's basically saying here is that she would not be set free in the seventh year if her master was willing to fulfill his responsibilities. But then it goes on to say in verse 8,

Now, this is interesting. You might notice that even though she has apparently done something to displease her master, still by him refusing to live with her any longer, he's the one breaking faith with her. You see what's going on here? The Lord is giving these… These were protective elements for a woman in society. There weren't very many ways to protect a woman in that society. And God is incorporating protection for women in that society. And it goes on to say in verse 9,

In other words, he has this female servant and he decides, hey, she'd be a great wife for my son, and he says, son, you need to marry this girl so forth. It goes on to say,

In other words, as soon as she marries his son, she is no longer a slave in his home or a servant in his home. She needs to now be treated like a family member, right? There you go.

If he refuses to care for this woman properly, because he's taken another wife, she's free to leave. Again, this would alleviate a woman's suffering of being in the home of someone that refused to take care of her because he had taken on another wife and he happened to like her better. And I'm sure this happened a lot in that culture taking multiple wives was a very common sort of a thing. And yeah, this is another example where people will say, why doesn't God just come out and say, hey, no taking more than one wife. Why did He allow that for a period of time? Well, it's the same answer that I gave you before, as it relates to slavery, because sanctification is progressive, and so He dealt with them where they were at for a time being. Then again, by the time Jesus came along in that timeframe, the whole thing of, polygamy and it was pretty much done. But it was still going on, and God was dealing with them, and simply giving them rules and guidelines in the midst of those situations. Now we're going to talk about rules and guidelines regarding physical altercation, so if a couple of guys start duking it out, how are you going to decide what to do or how to deal with it? Very simply. In verse 12,

Because He says, I don't care, if you struck him to the point where he died, then you struck him hard enough to want to kill him. And as far as God is concerned, that's premeditated murder. And so He says, that guy gets the death penalty.

and that's a biblical way of saying, he didn't plan. Our justice system, calls it, malice a forethought. And that’s a fancy way of saying, you planned over a period of time to hurt someone. And so that's what this is saying. If he didn't plan to hurt him,

And these places are not even designated yet, but when they come in to the promised land, God is going to tell them to designate certain cities as cities of refuge. And if someone, if two guys are hanging out and one accidentally kills the other, the man who is still alive can flee to a city of refuge and there he is safe from any family member of the deceased person avenging the death of their relative. Because you see, it was a very common thing in that culture to believe that it was the right. You have a right, if someone in your family is killed, you have the right to go kill the person who killed them. That was just accepted. And so God had to incorporate these cities of refuge into the nation of Israel. He tells them here, I'm going to appoint places. Well, this isn't going to happen for 40 years, but this is something that God is telling them that He's going to do in the case of accidental death.

You might say, well, what's he doing at the altar? Well, people would go and cling to an altar as a means of pleading for their life, pleading sanctuary. Almost like the city of refuge is going to be, but He says no, no, no. If they did it willfully, if they planned this thing out, there is no plea for mercy, they must be put to death. That's all there is to it, so yeah, there you go.

And we're talking about adult children, okay. We're not talking about a 5 year old having a tantrum and socking you in the knee, or that sort of thing. We're talking about an adult child, who tries to hurt his mom and dad.

There's human trafficking for you. No stealing people, and selling them on the black market, and getting money, and that sort of thing. That is a capital crime.

Cursing your parents, a capital crime. We even get an example of it later.

In other words, he will pay for any cost to make sure this man gets back on his feet and is completely healed. This is an interesting guideline showing the responsibility that went along with two guys who just start duking it out, and one of them gets really injured to the point where he loses the ability to make wages for him and his family. Hey, and that could spell the difference between eating, and not eating, or starving to death. And so God incorporated this rule in Israel that if you're responsible, then think about this next time you lose your temper and get into a fight, that if you hurt this guy to the point where he has to be in bed for a while, and he loses wages, that's on you. You got to take care of it. It says in

In other words, the one who struck and killed a slave is guilty of murder. And that's the same, right?

Meaning, the assumption here in this verse is that the man had no intention of seriously inflicting injury on his servant slave. And so he's clear. Yeah.

Stop there, we need to talk. Two things, first of all, He says, but if there is harm to the baby, then He says, you shall pay life for life. Does that surprise you? What He's saying is this baby's life is considered no less important than an adult who's killed. That's what He's saying.

Now I want to go over this principle of justice that He gives in verses 24 and 25. I know you've heard the saying…, people will say all the time, well, an eye for an eye, And when they say it, what they're doing is they're giving justification for vengeance. That's the way people use it. Somebody will hurt them and they'll go get back at them and say, well, why'd you do that? Hey, eye for an eye man. And they quote it like it's God's way of putting his stamp on approval of approval on their stupidity. That's not what's happening. In fact, this whole principle of eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, is not about justification to give them what they gave you. It is to prohibit unfair reparation. What that means is, if somebody… Wow you get in a fight with somebody and they knock out your tooth, you can't go burn his house down. Okay. Why? Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. That's what God is saying. You must limit…, in other words, the penalty must fit the crime. You with me? If somebody comes and burns down your house, you have no right to go over to his house and kill him, right? The penalty must fit the crime. God established this principle, not to give justification for vengeance, but to keep things from getting out of hand. It's gotten out of hand in our justice system. We now incorporate all kinds of interesting things into penalties. And we'll talk about emotional damages. How do you put a price on emotional damages? Well, you can't. Does it depend on how loudly someone cries in court or whatever? Or it's basically just what the jury or judge decides. They think this person has been emotionally compromised, so they'll say, okay, 1.5 million, or how about 1.6 billion emotional damages? Well, God's Word established an eye for an eye to keep that kind of stuff from happening. That's exactly why. Once again, if you hear somebody quote this and they say an eye for an eye, and that's their way of saying, I've got him back the way he got me, you tell them, well, actually you're wrong because that's not what I for an eye means at all. There you go. Now, what follows here in verse 26 and on, are some examples of this fairness doctrine, sort of an idea.

In other words, the slave isn't going to just go hit his master, take out his eye, he just gets his freedom. I think that's pretty good.

Even a tooth…, do you see what's going on with slaves? First of all, after 6 years, they go free, but even if they get knocked around, they get to go free. It doesn't matter if they've been there a week. They get to go free. You can see what God is incorporating. He didn't come in there and say, all right, no more slavery. What He did is he tested his people by saying, I want you to treat people humanely. I want you to treat people honestly and sincerely and I think it was kind of a test.

Because you can’t always control an animal. However,

What's that do for you? Isn't that something? This guy, he's got a history of a gnarly animal and he's been warned. He's been warned by the local elders and so forth who came to him and said, listen, pal, this thing is mean, keep that thing tied up. Don't let anybody…, but he doesn't listen and it ends up killing somebody. He pays with his life. Wow! That's responsibility. Now there's a chance that the person who lost someone to this mean animal, could be gracious, compassionate, merciful. Look what it says in

The person whose family is being, is representing, the deceased person can say, listen, I don't want him put to death. I know it was his fault, but instead I choose to give him his life and just impose a fine. And the judge would say, all right, you name it, what's the fine.

Now, more laws about restitution. “When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.” He's obligated to compensate the owner of the animal, and for that cost of the animal. “When one man's ox butts another's, so that it dies, (now you have altercations between animals) then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share. 36 Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.” Presumably, to slaughter for food. Chapter 22. Let me put up the information that we're going to cover here in this final chapter. Chapter 22 Outline A. More laws about restitution (22:1-15) B. The Law regarding virginity (22:16-17) C. Sorcery, Bestiality, and Idolatry (22:18-20) D. Laws about compassion toward strangers, the disadvantaged and poor (22:21-27) More laws regarding restitution, interesting Law regarding virginity. He's going to talk about Sorcery, Bestiality, and Idolatry, and then Laws about compassion towards strangers, the disadvantaged, and the poor. We'll go through these pretty quickly. “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.” This is the law, restitution. I like restitution. I wish our justice system had a system of restitution. There are rare examples of this, but if somebody goes to jail for destroying someone else's property, I think they should be required to restore the person's property. Instead, what do we do? We take them to jail, we feed them, and clothe them, and educate them. And they don't have to do anything in the way of restitution. And we wonder why within 18 months, they're back in jail or prison. Okay, end of soapbox. “If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, 3 but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.” This is a little wonky, I got to tell you. In the ESV, let me put this up on the screen in the NIV. If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 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. Basically what this is saying is the guy came in to steal in your home, but he had no intention of hurting you. And so, if this all happened in daylight hours, then you don't have the right to kill him. I know that might differ with your own sense of self-defense. Because sometimes in our culture, thieves come in wielding a gun, or a knife, or some other thing. But this is for a thief who came into a home to steal because he was just, he was hungry. And these are the guidelines that God gave related to that, because this person had no intention of inflicting any bodily harm. “If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double. 5 “If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, (in other words, he lets his animals in there to graze) or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard.” Because they didn't often have fences, so that I imagine that would happen. “If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution.” In other words, you'll pay it back, pay back the loss. “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 (the thief) shall pay double. 8 If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God (in other words, appear before the appointed judges) to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. 9 For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before God. (and again, that means they must appear before the judge) 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, 11 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.” In other words, he says, I promise I didn't lose your animal or whatever. And if he makes an oath before the Lord, then owner of the animal is to accept that oath. “But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner.” In other words, they're assuming he didn't secure it sufficiently. “If it is torn by beasts, (in other words, ripped to shreds by a carnivorous animal) let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn. 14 “If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution. 15 If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution; if it was hired, it came for its hiring fee.” Yeah, I think you see what's going on there. “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed (in other words, she's not engaged to be married) and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.” In other words, if a man lies with an unmarried woman, he must take her as his wife because he acted as if they were married. And this is of course, where, this has been continued on for years and years. It wasn't until really all that long ago that people truly, believe that if there was any sort of a physical relationship between man and woman they ought to, they need to get married, right away. “If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, (because maybe he's a rascal) he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins. There you go, it's going to cost him.

Sorcery or witchcraft were considered one and the same, and they are not allowed in Israel.

That's bestiality.

Or as the NIV says, must be destroyed.

So don’t treat people, the way you were treated.

You cannot charge interest to a fellow Israelite.

And that's because God had mercy on their firstborn sons at Passover, remember.

And the reason for that had to do with eating meat that had blood still in it. God hasn't talked to them yet about that specifically, but He's going to in later chapters about taking care not to eat meat with blood still in it because the blood is set aside for the sacrificial system and its special. We're going to stop there at the end of verse 22. As I said, these chapters, these are not, these aren't your warm fuzzies. There's probably aren't not any verses here you're going to pin up on your fridge, to give you a warm feeling when you wake up in the morning or something like that. It's not going to be a memory verse, I dare say. But this is God's Word and we need to look into it and see what it's all about and understand what the meaning is behind these things, and understand God's intention for training His people in the right way to treat one another. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You for the time that You've given us tonight. Lord, studying Your Word, no matter what we're studying, it's always beneficial. And so we just continue to pray that You would open our hearts and enlighten us and fill us with wisdom and truth. We thank You. We praise You. We worship You in Jesus precious name, amen. God bless you.