This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.
Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Leviticus, chapter 24, at the end of the chapter. And that means that we only have three more chapters left. Three more chapters, and we will be through with the Book of Leviticus will be three fifths of the way, 60% of the way through the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and the meat of the beginning of the Bible. Meaning, really, you get the whole understanding of God, and you get to get to the place where then we'll begin to talk about entering into the promised land, working by faith, and understanding how to do that on a personal level with Joshua and Ruth, and one, and two, Samuel and some of those books that help us understand that relationship and how to do that. And so I'm excited. I'm excited that we're able to get through the book of Leviticus. It is a book about them all. And so it reveals the character and nature of God. And, well, it reveals because God created everything. In many ways. It reveals the character and nature of. Of our creation and what we live in. And we come to one of those passages that is really, really famous as far as the world in the world, or one of those passages that is, I would say one of those things is well known throughout the world because people quote it, and because it is a. It's the basis of a form of justice that. Well, I would. I would say, not only is in the room, but it is a form of justice that is. Is effective and important, because without it, there likely would not be a criminal justice system anywhere that would be effective. And so the understanding that's important. But I think there's other things in here that we don't need to miss as we come across something that's famous in scripture. Don't miss the little things that may be really, really big but are hidden because everybody's focused, or especially the world is focused on, well, the big stuff that you think is big, and I don't. He says, whoever kills as many, whoever kills a man shall surely be put to death. And this is the beginning of an understanding retributive justice, meaning justice that is based off of retribution. Meaning if you do this, then, then it's just that that be done back to you. And also that in little children we understand that. We understand that retributive justice. Justice, and as far as a justice system, is the probably more, more than likely most effective type of justice system, when you do something wrong, there is a price to be paid that is taken from you. Now, how you set that up and how that works and how it's nuanced is really, really different throughout the world. And sometimes a retributive justice system can be really unjust rather than being just. Say, for instance, you, uh, you dishonor somebody and they kill you. Well, that's, that's not, that's not an equal retribution. It's not, it's not an infinite. I've already said it. That's, that's the, that's the passage that we're getting to. It's not, it's not it. There's no equivalence to it. It doesn't work out. And so just because you have a retributive justice system doesn't mean that you have a fair, a good justice system. It just means that you have a justice system that fits the way the world operates. And so, understanding that a retributive justice system needs to, needs to say, okay, we're going to take an equal from you, something equivalent from you that would cause you next time to consider whether or not you wanted to do something to someone, to hurt someone, to take something from someone and lose that thing from yourself. And so in many ways, time spent in confinement, meaning time spent in jail or prison, is a form of retributive justice. You do this. And so now we're going to, we're going to cause you to have to sit on the sidelines, take a time out. In fact, really, that is what that is, to take a time out from society, because we, we don't think that you understand that you should not do whatever you did and is, and if you're going to do that, then we're going to have to sit you on the sidelines for a while. And so whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. Now, notice right next to that is whoever kills an animal shall make it good animal for animal. Now, why is it important to see them two, those two together? Well, it's important to see those two together because a human life is not the same value as an animal life. Now, we live in a society that has strayed so far from scripture that that understanding falls, falls on deaf ears for many. But the facts are that animals are not the same value as humans. And that's not really arguable in the way God created the universe. Humans are sentient beings. Animals are not. Humans have a human. Humans have an eternal aspect to them. Animals do not. And understanding that animals are valuable, that animals are important. My dad was as conservative an individual as you're going to find. But he didn't like that we were hunting down all the whales in the ocean so that his great great grandchildren might not be able to see a whale because someone decided that they were going to hunt down. I'm not saying that environmentally, I'm not saying that culturally. I'm not saying that animals are not a value. They are great value. They're just not of human value. And that's made pretty clear in this passage. He says, if you take a life, you shall surely be put to death. But if you, if you kill an animal of someone else's, you don't have your life taken. You, you must pay them back the cost of that loss, which is another animal, meaning that humans and animals are not the same. A equals a and b equals b, but a does not equal b, and they're not the same. And so that understanding that idea is important. We shouldn't list it because it's really the eye for an eye and tooth for tooth passage. We should see that when we're setting up our justice system, when we're thinking through the processes with truth justice, because most justice systems have, have a strong aspect of retributive justice in them. Do they always need that, be retributive? No, not necessarily. Sometimes they need to be reckless, reclamative. They need to bring about reclamation or bring about someone's best. But just because that's the case, just because that's going on, doesn't mean. That doesn't mean that the justice system that is retributive doesn't help. It does help. It usually is the next step. But when someone has an issue, say, maybe they have a drug abuse issue, sometimes it's very helpful to get them to get them into a rehab, get them clean, and help them learn how not to walk in that addiction, and that would not be true. Retributive justice that would be, well, it would be us giving them a reclamation, giving them an opportunity to have their life changed. So it's not always impermanent that every aspect of the justice system be retributive. It's just important that at the end of it, there is retribution. And because if you don't have it, most human beings will not live by the justice system at hand. And so verse 19 is the, is the most famous passage. We're on it. He says, if a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, and he has, as he is done, so shall it be done to him. Oftentimes we don't hear anybody read that first part. What I'm saying is if you hurt someone, if you, if you disfigure them in some way, then, then that disfigurement needs to be passed on to you. That is direct retributive justice. That is equivalent, exact retributive justice. And that's what the old testament teaches. It doesn't teach over, it doesn't teach life or insult or a million dollars for a $10,000 automobile. It doesn't teach that. It teaches, it teaches a life for a life. It teaches a fracture for fracture. And in fact, that's what it says. So shall it be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he is caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him. So what do we have? They, if he breaks a bone, his bones broken. If he takes an eye for him, if it takes a tooth, a tooth for him. Now, in all actuality, in Alabama law, as far as the way it's been carried out, there is kind of, there is a sliding scale of value that we have set in our justice system for these things. If you break somebody's bone, we figure out how permanent that is, how long that person's going to have to live with that pain, and whether or not it's going to be a permanent pain. And then we make a estimation or a calculation based off of that, of the value of that. And the retributive justice in Alabama is not an eye for an eye. It's a lot of money for an eye and a lot of money for a fracture and a lot of money for a tooth. It's a retributive justice. That's money for injury, and that's for people who didn't do it intentionally, didn't do it criminally, but did it, did it as a result of negligence or not doing what they should do and costing somebody else something of great value. Now, there are two aspects to that also. There's the civil system, which involves not criminal activity, but negligence. And then you have the. The criminal system that involves somebody actually doing something, like taking someone's life, like robbing them, like raping them, like stealing from them. And that system of retributive justice involves also oftentimes incorporate incarceration rather than. Rather than taking, doing to them what they did to someone else. Now, that being said, if you take a life and it's so depraved that it proves that you are the type person that does not value others lives, then you might be sentenced to death. In Alabama, and even last week, we put someone to death who had taken lives of others, that it was quite apparent that he did not value human life at all. In fact, he just did what he wanted to do, rather than doing what is right and placing value on human life. And let me say this. That's. That's kind of the core of this whole understanding. And the understanding is, is that human life is valuable, that God. God valued it so much that he sent his son to become it, to become human, and that the life that his son had was given so that human life might flourish, so that human beings might receive eternal life from him. And so God's great love was that he valued human life so much that he was willing to not only become human, but he was also willing to give that life so that human beings might live eternally with him. And so we understand that human life is of great value and that which hurts or destroys human life. It should be, there should be rules, there should be laws, there should be justice systems that mitigate that, that stop that. That try to keep that from happening because it's of great value to God. Verse 21 says, and whoever kills an animal shall restore it, but whoever kills a man shall be put to death. We see that dichotomy again. Animals are not the same as humans. You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country, for I am the Lord your God. Now, here we see God saying, race does not matter. Background does not matter. Family lines do not matter. Human life is valuable no matter where we find it, no matter what form it may take, whether they be really, really white with crystal blue eyes, or whether it be dark, dark, black with dark, dark eyes, no matter how we see them, how we find them, whether they be seven foot tall or three foot tall, no matter how that comes about, whether they be healthy and strong or sick and weak. No matter how you find human life, it's of great value. You shall have the same law for the stranger, for one from your own and one from your own country, for I'm the Lord your God. We're not willing to value one type of life, a human life, over another. All human life is valuable. All human life is valuable. It's valuable to God. And so when you come upon someone that's not the same as you, maybe they're not from the same family, maybe they're not from the same background. Maybe they're not from the same country. Maybe they are not from the same race over. Although in the United States, that may be a little bit different because we are melting pot. And as far as DNA study says, I come from about three or four different continents. So my background is very, is very varied, although mostly it's northern european, but have african, I have a little bit of asian. And so I've got. I've got some, some background from different parts of the world. And so sometimes what we try to split ourselves into, we really can't, because we're. We're from those places ourselves. We're not pure bloods from one race. In America, oftentimes, people who you may think are one race are really a hodgepodge of many. That being said, it does not matter. That's irrelevant. Life is important, and all human life matters. And we should, we should love our neighbor, and we should treat them the same as even our family, and we should give them the respect and love that God has given us. And so that understanding is a biblical understanding, all the way back to the book of Leviticus. Verse 23 says, then Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they took outside the camp him who had cursed and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses. Now, this passage is one of those things where we see retributive justice taking place. This young man dishonored or incinerates, blasphemed God's name and his word, and the retribution for that was death. Because if you blaspheme the one whose character brings about retributive justice, the one whose character gives value to life, if you blaspheme that name, you blaspheme the source of the value of life, which is God. And God, God is the one who has placed great value on every human life, every human being, every individual. When we start breaking them into groups, rather than treating them as the individuals that they are, the individuals with their own will, their own life, their own background. When we start doing that and not placing great value, every single person as a single individual human being, when we stop doing that, we. We blaspheme God. Because God loved each and every one of us, and he gave himself for each and every one of us. So I think that's one of those passages that we need to think through. We need to consider and understand that it's not just an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. It's about the very nature of God, and it's about his value on human life, which is very, very great. As you go today, I pray that.
The Lord will bless you and keep.
You, that he'll make his face to.
Shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace.
Today. In Jesus name.
