Lesson #26

EXODUS 22
Lesson #26
RESTITUTION, RESTORATION, AND RESPONSIBILITY

• Memory Verse: Proverbs 14:35

• In this lesson we see more of the 639 ordinance of the Mosaic Law that tell us more aspects of God’s character and what God values.

• Read Exo 22:1-15 Honesty and responsibility in dealing with personal property
• The theft of livestock, grain , or money (1-6):
• The ideas of restitution and restoration occur frequently in this chapter and they are introduced in this section..
• These two ideas of restitution and restoration give us an important concept in God’s perspective of justice that is absent from our justice system today.
• The thief must restore the object or animal he originally stole, if possible.
• The thief must pay restitution for the pain and distress he caused.
• Therefore, there is a provision in God’s Law for both restoration and restitution.
• In the word, restore, we see that the victim should be restored to the condition he enjoyed before the crime took place.
• In the word, restitution, we see that the victim should be paid for injury, the pain, or distress he suffered as a result of the crime, over and above the restoration of the value of the object stolen.
• Theft by a person who has no money:
• If the thief cannot restore the object stolen and has no money to pay for restitution, he himself can be sold into slavery for a maximum of six years to pay for restitution. (3)
• The thief killed in the midst of his burglary:
• Because God values the right of ownership of personal property, a person has the right to defend his property even if it causes the death of the thief.
• Today, this right of defense of personal property has been changing to favor the thief instead of the victim.
• However, the Law makes a secondary provision:
• If the theft occurs in the daytime and the property owner kills the thief, the property owner is guilty of manslaughter (3)
• In the case of manslaughter, the nearest relative (the kinsman redeemer) can pursue him and kill him, unless the man seeks refuge in one of the six cities of refuge scattered throughout Israel.
• Arson (6):
• The punishment for arson was restitution, the payment of money over and above the cost of the objects destroyed by fire.
• We can see in our day, the phenomenal amount of money this law would represent. There is the high cost of fighting large brush fires, and the actual cost of the destruction of hundreds of homes. A person committing this crime could be paying restitution for the rest of his life.
• However, because the general public never hears about the punishment that arsonists suffer, there is no deterrent factor in our law.
• Borrowing, lending, and responsibility (7-15):
• Several of the laws deal with man’s relationship with his neighbor concerning borrowing or lending personal property.
• The concept in the Law was one of responsibility.
• In dealing with his neighbor, a person assumes the responsibility for personal property that belongs to another.
• The personal property of a person is an extension of that person. In other words, if you damage another person’s property, it is as though you damage that person, whether it is done by accident, by negligence, or on purpose.
• Therefore, the Law says that there must be restoration. If it was by conspiracy that the loss occurred, there must be restoration and restitution. However, if the judges determine that the loss was accidental and beyond a person’s control, then it was to be left to God.

• “Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both…”

(11)

• The two neighbors agree to leave the consequences and the vengeance to God.
• Read Exo 22:16-27
• Rape (16-17):
• The consequences of rape was marriage which included a dowry or a bride price.
• This law was to protect a virgin.
• With this law, we see God’s high moral and intrinsic value placed on virginity.
• Many people today would laugh and say that this is ridiculous. However, even in the United States at one time, there was a high moral value placed on virginity.
• In the Old Testament, a woman would gain a higher dowry or a bride price for her father if she were a virgin.
• Therefore, to take away a woman’s virginity was the same thing as to steal value from her and money from her father.
• If the girl’s father decided he did not want this man to marry his daughter, the man had to pay the dowry or the bride price and not get the girl.
• The seduction of a betrothed woman was taken more seriously because another man had already paid the bride price and she already belonged to him. (Deu 22:23-24)
• Witchcraft and Idolatry: (18, 20)
• The punishment for witchcraft was supposed to be capital punishment. However, because Israel was so enticed by idolatry and other religions, in spite of God’s warning that this was an abomination to God, they seldom punished people for witchcraft.
• Read Deu 18:9-14
• God specifically detailed the different aspects of witchcraft that the people must avoid.

• “…maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire…”

(Deu 18:10)

• This refers to human sacrifice which the Israelites from time to time did as the pagans did.
• “…useth divination, or an observer of times…”

(Deu 18:10)

• This refers to fortune telling and any form of astrology.
• “…an enchanter, or a witch…charmer”

(Deu 18:10-11)

• These are people who engage in many different aspects of witchcraft such as casting spells or curses.
• “…a consulter with familiar spirits…”

(Deu 18:11)

• This is a person who engages in seances and talks to evil spirits, especially those evil spirits that claim to be a dead family member.
• “…a wizard, or a necromancer.”

(Deu 18:11)

• These are people who hold seances to call people back from the dead to speak to them.
• Why is the punishment for witchcraft so severe?
• Remember that the first commandment was that the people are not to worship any other God. Witchcraft is the worship of Satan, the principal enemy of God.
• Remember that the Israelites had a great weakness for idolatry and other religions.
• It was God’s plan to keep his people pure, following Him, so that there would always be a faithful remnant through which He could fulfill His promises and bring the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
• The punishment for witchcraft is mentioned twice, which tells us that it is important to God and necessary for God’s people.
• There are forms of witchcraft in many areas of society today:
• The celebration of Halloween.
• The daily horoscope in the newspapers.
• Television shows that display evil as something good.
• Satanic games like Dungeons and Dragons, etc.
• Children’s books like Harry Potter, etc.
• Bestiality (19):
• Sexual relationships with animals was a capital crime worthy of death.
• This perverted sexual practice was done commonly by the people of Canaan and among the Hittites. (Lev 18:23-24)
• It is for this reason that God commanded that the Israelites must kill all the people of Canaan when they entered the promised land. This practice was degrading to the people and a perversion of God’s creation. (Lev 20:15-16 Deu 27:21)
• Brotherly love to strangers (20):
• This type of law was unique to Israel. Other middle eastern nations did not have any provision of this type for the protection and love toward strangers.
• The Israelites were not to take advantage of strangers in their midst. They were to deal with them in kindness.
• Notice that God tells them why. He says that they are to remember when they were strangers in Egypt. It is because the Israelites knew how it was to live as second-class citizens under slavery, that they could have sympathy for others in that same condition.
• Read Mat 7:12
• Notice that Jesus says this was part of the law. However, Jesus tells us to do this also.
• We have already established that the New Testament believer is not under the obligation of the Law of Moses. However, when Jesus repeats the commandment for us in the New Testament era, we are to obey it.
• Therefore, Jesus and God, the Father, value brotherly love.
• Based on Jesus statement in Mat 7:12, who is to show brotherly love first?
• You and I are! We must base our treatment of others on how we want to be treated, whether the other person is worthy of such treatment or not.
• Taking advantage of widows and orphans (23-24):
• God said that He would take vengeance against anyone who took advantage against widows and orphans.
• It is interesting that all through the Old Testament the people are frequently admonished to take care of widows and orphans. (Exo 23:11 Lev 19:9-10 Deu 14:29 Deu 16:11,14 Deu 24:19-21 Deu 26:12-13) However, we see that they constantly broke this law. (Psa 94:6 Isa 1:23 Isa 10:2 Jer 7:5-7 Jer 23:3 Zec 7:10 Mal 3:5 Mat 23:14)
• Read Mat 23:14
• Read Jam 1:27
• Read 1Tim 5:16
• James tells the New Testament church that we are to take care of widows and orphans. If they have no other means of support from the government or from other family members, the church is to care for them.
• Charging excess interest for a loan:
• The purpose of this law that prevented the charging of excess interest was to prevent the rich from taking advantage of the poor and from forcing the poor into permanent slavery.
• In reality, it was the duty of a poor man’s brother to lend money to his poor relative without any interest. (Deu 15:7-11) However, a small amount of interest was not considered immoral.
• How much money was considered to be excessive interest?
• More than 1% a month was considered excessive.
• If you loaned a person some money and he gave you his coat as collateral, you were required to RETURN it to him before the end of the day, why? (26)
• The principle is that the Israelite was not to take advantage of a person so as to leave him with nothing….not even enough to cover himself from the cold weather. (27)

• Read Exo 22:28-31 Various laws of consecration
• In the final verses of this chapter, God tells the people that certain things are to be consecrated to God.
• Remember that the word, consecration, means = to set apart for making it holy.
• Those things that were to be set apart for God were some things we have already discussed in our study of Exodus:
• The offering of firstfruits was to be set apart for God.
• The firstfruits was the first part of the early harvest that was given as an offering to God.
• Every firstborn son was to be given to God and then bought back with silver.
• Certain animals were to be set apart for God to be an animal sacrifice to God.
• Those who were set apart and considered holy must not eat of any animal that had been killed by a carnivorous animal. (28)
• The purpose of this was because any animal killed by a carnivorous animal was considered polluted and the blood of the dead animal would not have been properly drained.

• Summary and application:
• We have seen in this chapter that God is concerned with every aspect of the daily life of His people.
• There are a lot of people who think about God only on Sunday and then continue their daily lives as though God is unconcerned with them. On the contrary, God is concerned with all aspects of our lives, not only in this age of grace, but also in the age of Law. God has always had concern for the smallest details of the lives of His people.
• With these small details of the Law with which the Israelites became so preoccupied, we must keep a balanced perspective that Jesus gives us in the New Testament.
• Read Mar 12:29-31
• Jesus said that only two commandments:would fulfill all the Law.What did He mean?
• Remember that the ten commandments were divided into two sections. One section concerned itself with love for God. The other section concerned itself with love for one’s neighbor.
• Commandment #1 Love for God

• The idea behind Jesus’ first commandment is that if you love God so completely, you would never think about making idols and giving worship to any other god, or blaspheming the name of God.
• Commandment #2 Love for others

• The idea behind Jesus’ second commandment is that if you love others so completely, you would never violate that love in any way by stealing anything from another or doing anything that brought hurt or violence upon another person.
• This motive of love is the basis of the idea of restoration, restitution, and responsibility that we see in the Law of Moses.
• The motive of love desires that your brother will come to the end with abundant blessings in every way.
• Therefore, the motive of love from the inner man does a better job of fulfilling the Law than keeping the exterior Law of Moses.
• Taking a brother to court:
• Another aspect of the Mosaic Law brings to mind a problem that occurred in the Corinthian church of Paul’s day.
• Read 1Cor 6:4-8
• Christians in the Corinthian church were bringing other Christians to court and placing legal judgments on them to obtain money.
• Paul condemned the practice because:
• Christians were seeking legal judgments from judges that did not know God.
• The motive for these legal judgments was greed.
• The practice was destroying the unity of the Christian church.
• What should the Christian do if he has a legitimate legal issue with another Christian?
• The two Christians who have a legal matter one against the other should find another believer to act as judge instead of taking it to a secular court.
• The greatest blessing is to take the wrong so as to favor your brother with love.
• What does this accomplish?
• You win the love of your brother in Christ.
• You maintain Christian unity.
• God will recompense you for your loss.

HOMEWORK
EXODUS 23
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Exo 22
• Which aspects of the Law in this chapter relate to your own life?
• How can you specifically apply Jesus’ 2 commandments of Love to that part of your life?

• Preparation for Exo 23
• Read Exo 23:1-33
• Who is the angel that will keep them in the way? (20) How do you know?
• Make a list of the promises God makes to His people:
• Make a list of conditions the people must fulfill:

• Memory Verse: Exodus 23:25