Those Injured by Animals (Ex. 21:28-32)

6/27/2008 6:55 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  Those injured by animals

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 21:28-32

            Message of the verses:  “28  "If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished.  29  "If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.  30  "If a ransom is demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him.  31  "Whether it gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.  32  "If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.”

            As I have looked at these laws that God has given to Israel through Moses they are laws that are fair and this is the case of the law that is here in these verses.

            Sometimes it is hard for me to find spiritual truth in these passages, but it seems that God will always give me a nugget from His Word as He has promised.

            Now if a man has an bull and it gores a person to death the bull will be stoned, but not eaten because it had been defiled by the evil act.  The owner of the bull will not be punished, however if the bull has had a habit of hurting people and then kills someone then both the bull and its owner shall be put to death.  Now there are a couple exceptions to this penalty of death.  If the family of the victim wants compensation for this act then the owner of the bull can pay them what the family requires of him.  There is no distinction between a male or female victim.  If the bull would kill a slave then the owner would have to pay thirty pieces of silver, but the bull would still have to be killed.

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that when Judas went to the priests to find out what they would pay him to give Jesus to them that they paid him thirty pieces of silver, the price for the death of a slave.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In the Jewish Law a slave was worth thirty pieces of silver, which probably was quite a lot of money, however I would suppose that slaves in other countries were not worth this amount if any at all.

            In the eyes of God I am worth much more than a slave because God sent His only Son into the world to pay the price for my redemption and the cost to God was so much more than thirty pieces of silver. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. I have to trust the Lord with the outcome of the colon test that I am going have this morning, and also I have to trust the Lord to get me through this test as He has the past two times.
2. Now that the Hawaiian job has been given to Tim’s company and I am scheduled to leave on the fifth of July I will have to leave this in the hands of the Lord as I have tried to in the past.  There was a time when I truly would have been upset if we would not have been given this job, however because of all of the delays and all the things that have been happening in our family I would not have been disappointed if this job would not have come through.  I have prayed about this a lot and have left the outcome to this in the Lord’s hands and am thankful for answered prayer.

Memory verses for the week:                      Colossians 4:12-13

12.    Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

13.    For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. 

6/27/2008 7:30 AM