Decerning God's Mind (Lev. 25:17-22)

11/7/2008 9:46 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Discerning God’s mind

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Lev. 24:17-22

            Message of the verses:  “17  ‘If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.  18  ‘The one who takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life for life.  19  ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him:  20  fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.  21  ‘Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death.  22  ‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God.’”

            I have gone over this principle or law before when I studied the book of Exodus, but it seems that I have forgotten exactly what it is that God was saying to Moses and to the people of Israel, so it is good that I am going over it again.  Just in case that I forget it a second time this principle or law is also in the book of Deuteronomy.  Dr. Wiersbe says that this speaks of the punishment fitting the crime and it is called “lex talionis.” The principle in this section is if a man would hurt his neighbor in a certain way his punishment should not be more than the crime that he had done against his neighbor.

            Jesus spoke of this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:33-48 and in that passage He spoke to believers and this was not for a government to follow.  In a note on this section in Dr. Wiersbe’s book he says that perhaps Moses and our Lord were saying, “If you have the fear of God in your heart, you won’t try to retaliate when people mistreat you.”  (See Romans 12:14-21)

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I guess that this section of Scripture has some pretty deep meaning for me because of what happened to Sandy when she had her surgery last year.  I have never been real comfortable with getting an attorney to handle what happened to her, but that is what we did.  I felt that there was compensation due to her because the doctor went against our wishes when she took Sandy’s lymph nodes out and therefore should give her compensation for not following her wishes.  After reading this section and looking up different verses I am not so sure we did the right thing.  I do know this and that is that Sandy has been very angry ever since this has happened and that does our relationship no good what so ever.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.     Trust the Lord to keep us safe and in His hands as we move forward in our country that I believe is under the judgment of the Lord.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-4

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that  as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

11/7/2008 11:15 AM