Chuck Smith discusses Exodus chapters 21 and 22, emphasizing the importance of God's judgments and laws as guidelines for judges in Israel. He explains that these laws were not meant for personal retaliation but to ensure justice and order in society. Smith highlights the term 'Elohim' used for judges, indicating their role in representing God's authority in judgment. He also reflects on the responsibilities of judges and the moral implications of their decisions, urging humility and accountability in their roles. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the significance of serving God willingly, drawing parallels to the concept of being a bondservant of Christ.

Exodus chapter 21, God said to Moses, Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. Now, the judgments are really for the judges. Do you remember they appointed 70 to rule over the lesser, or they appointed men over the thousands, men over the hundreds, men over the fifties, men over the tens, to judge in the smaller matters so that they would only bring the major cases to Moses. So that Moses wouldn't be bogged down as Jethro said, Hey, you're going to kill yourself, you know, standing here all day long and judging the matters of the people. So, these are the judgments for the guidelines for the judges who are judging in these matters that are brought before them. These are the judgments, the guidelines for the judges. These are not an individual kind of a retaliation kind of thing that you're supposed to take, but these are the standards that have been set for the judges. And the term judgments refer to the standards set for the judgments. Now you read of God's statutes, of His ordinances, of His law, and of His judgments. These are one of the things you read about. The judgments of God are different from the statutes. The statutes are different from the ordinances. The ordinances are different from the basic law. And so, all is comprised in the law, but these now are the guidelines for those men who were chosen to be judges. Now, it is interesting that here in verse 6 and then in chapter 22, verse 8 and verse 9, the word judges in these verses is the Hebrew word Elohim, which is the word for gods. And the judges are called gods because they are acting in the place of God in bringing God's judgment upon man. Enforcing God's judgment upon the particular situations. They were acting in the place of God and thus the term for the judges was gods, Elohim. And thus, in the New Testament, when the Pharisees were arguing with Jesus in the Gospel of John, and when He declared the fact that before Abraham was, I am, and they took up stones to stone Him, Jesus said, I've done many good works among you, for which of the works are you going to stone Me? And they said, not for the works that you have done, but because you are a man and continually insisting that you are equal with God. And He said, did I not say, or did the Word of God say that ye are gods? Then why are you going to stone Me? Because I say I am the Son of God. Now, in the Word it said, ye are gods. In other words, here in Exodus, these men are called gods. Those who were to judge and enact God's judgment on men. It doesn't mean in any wise that they were as the eternal God, the Creator of heaven and earth. It just meant that they were acting as gods and in the place of God, in the fact that they have been given this responsibility of judging men, and thus, men's lives were in their hands. And thus, acting for God, they were called Elohim, gods. The word Elohim refers in the Old Testament to many different gods. It is not a term used exclusively for the God who created the heaven and the earth. The Bible recognizes that men can have many different gods that are not true gods. That is, they are not the true God. They are God as far as they are the ruling master passion of a person's life. David said, the gods of the heathen are vain Elohim. Recognizing that heathen had gods, but they weren't true gods. And God challenged, if you be gods, if you be Elohim, then prove it by telling us something that is going to happen before it ever happens. And thus, the term Elohim refers to that which is the master guiding principle or passion of a person's life. Now, I went into that to give you just a background to the Scripture that Jesus referred to in the Gospel of John because the Mormons, because of that one reference of Christ to this Scripture, ye are gods, have built the whole doctrine of man's progression into God. And that if you are a faithful Mormon and your marriage has been sealed in the Mormon temple and you've gone through the rites and you wear your underwear and the whole thing, what that has to do of making you a god, I don't know, but you can be one. And you will be gods. That's their teaching. And you and your wife who has been sealed to you in marriage will be able to go to a planet and you will be able to start your own little world on that planet. And other Mormons and good people, Christians and all, who weren't faithful, true Mormons all the way, who didn't quite make it to the God stature, will be your angels and will serve you in your own system that you inaugurate and you will be god over that planet and you will watch over that planet and develop and so forth the whole life form and style and all from your offspring there in some planet in the universe. Now, that is the acknowledged, recognized goal of the Mormon. Now, Brigham Young did something that has upset a lot of Mormons in that he has carried this particular concept back one step instead of forward one step. If you carry it forward one step, every Mormon will acknowledge that that is the goal and that is the purpose and that is their desire to be God and their ascending the scale in progression into godhood and to have their own planet and take their wife and begin their own little experiment on a planet someplace. Brigham Young carried it back one step and he said that Adam was a good Mormon who progressed into God and he brought to the earth one of his celestial wives Eve and they began to have their children and that they began to populate the earth and that Adam is our God and the only God with whom we have to do. Now, Mormons get very upset about that and they say, oh, you've taken what he said out of context. But I challenge you, read the whole context of that sermon and you'll find that it isn't taken out of context. It is actually consistent with the Mormon doctrine. But it takes it back one step instead of forward one step. And why not? If you and your wife can be a God on a planet someplace and start the whole thing off, why wasn't Adam a man somewhere in another planet within the universe and became faithful and true and all and ascended into the godhood and of course, brought one of his celestial wives Eve and started the whole thing? Now, that whole system of thought and idea taken from one little verse in the New Testament where Jesus said, did I not say in the law, ye are gods. And from that one little verse, this whole system of thought and doctrine that you're going to be God providing you're a faithful Mormon and so forth has come out of that one verse of Scripture rather than researching and finding out what that Scripture was referring to. Not at all a progression into the godhood as such. It's not what that is teaching. In fact, that desire to be God is the thing that has started the whole problem with the human race and with the angels prior. When you read of Satan's fall in Isaiah 14, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. And he goes on to tell of his will against the will of God. The fifth statement of Satan was, I will be like the most high. Shakespeare has someone saying, O Cromwell, flee ambition, for by this sin did the angels fall. I will be like God. When Adam and Eve were in the garden and Satan came to Eve to tempt her to eat of the fruit that God had forbidden, what was the enticement that Adam held out to her? The day that you eat of it, you will be wise as God. And so that desire to be wise as God is the thing that he used to trip Eve up in the garden. Be like God, be as God. So it is the same thing that is being held out to people today. But the word judge as Elohim does not refer at all to the living eternal God who created the heavens and the earth, but men who are appointed to judge in the cases that are brought before them and in judging are representing God and are acting for God, holding the lives and the destiny of these men in their hands. It is so that the judges will realize the awesome responsibility that they have as a judge. There is one occupation I would never want and that is to be a judge. To me, I could not live with myself if I were a judge. I would have too much difficulty in worrying about making a wrong decision, making a wrong judgment, realizing the awesome responsibility that here is a man, his life, his future is in my hands. It would absolutely destroy me to think that I had sent a man to prison for five years for a crime he did not commit. And that's one occupation I would never want. But unfortunately, those men who have that occupation have more or less taken, I think, from judges the concept of gods and so many of them act as though they are God and want to be treated as God. When they walk into the courtroom, they want you to all stand and bow and so forth and come before them and offer your pleas. And the attitude that many of them have is reprehensible. They need to realize the awesome, awesome responsibility that they have. And rather than making them proud, it should humble them and they should come in, I feel, in a very humble way to sit in judgment realizing the awesome responsibility that is theirs. Now, this whole chapter 21 deals with the judges and deals with their judgments as it does on into chapter 22. So, this is addressed basically to those men who were to occupy the position of a judge in Israel and they were to judge over the various matters. And so, he starts laying out certain basic laws that will govern, first of all, the position of a servant. If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. So, here we find again the six-in-one pattern. Six days shalt thou labor, do thy work. The seventh day is the day of rest. If you buy a Hebrew slave, six years shall he serve. If you were a Hebrew sold into slavery, six years you would have to serve, but the seventh year you go free. And I believe that this six-in-one pattern is significant, not only in a day, but God established it in a year also. He established the months. The seventh month of the Jewish calendar was to be a sacred month. And the day of atonement and so forth came in the seventh month along with the feast. It was a sacred month in their calendar. And then the six years, they were to sow their land. The seventh year, the land was to just grow of itself. They were just to eat of that which came from the land. They weren't to sow it. They were to give the land to rest in the seventh year. They failed to do this and God got after them later for their failure to do that. And in as much as for 490 years that they were in the land, they didn't give the land the rest, God said, you owe the land 70 years of rest. So, you can stay in Babylon for 70 years and the land will get its Sabbaths that you robbed it of the whole time you were living there. And so, God gave the land its rest, its Sabbaths, as He shut them up in Babylonian captivity for 490 years. But I believe that the pattern will also carry out that for six, and this is in a thousand year cycles, for six millennia, the earth will go on in the bondage to Satan, sold out by Adam. But the seventh millennia will be a restoration, the freedom, the return to God. And thus, it makes the age in which we are living extremely exciting because we're getting very, very, very close to the beginning of the 7,000th year. Now, how long before Christ, Adam fell in the garden, we don't know for certain. Somewhere around 4,000 years before Christ, Adam turned this whole system over to Satan. Living now in 1979, we realize that we are coming very, very close to the seventh millennia. Satan has ruled. We've been in bondage for just about 6,000 years. But we look forward to that glorious 7,000th year when man has been delivered, when the earth has been delivered and will be restored, and we will live and reign with Christ upon the earth for a thousand years in the glorious kingdom age. So, this six and one pattern has been established by God. I am convinced that it will also follow in thousand-year cycles and that we are coming extremely close to the end of Satan's reign and dominion and rulership over the earth and over man that the day of redemption is very close. And that's what Revelation 5 is all about. As Jesus takes the seven-sealed book, the title deed of the earth, and lays claim to that which He redeemed with His own blood. And then in chapter 19 of Revelation, returns to establish God's kingdom upon the earth. So, it's a very interesting law. Now, if He was sold of a slave and He came in by Himself, He will go out by Himself. If He were married and His wife came with Him, then His wife can go out with Him. But if His master has given Him a wife and she has borne Him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and He shall go out by Himself. The slave had no rights at all. No rights of possession. Therefore, if you were sold as a slave and while you were a slave, your master gave you one of the other slave girls for your wife and you've had a couple of children, now the seventh year has come, it's time for you to go free. You can go free, but you can't take your wife and children because she belonged to your master and thus the fruit that has come from your relationship also belongs to Him because you had no rights of your own, of possession, while you were working for Him. You say, well, that seems very hard and cruel. Yes, it does. And it's hard for us to even imagine such a thing. But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the gods, the Elohim, translated judges, correctly so. He shall also bring him to the door or to the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve Him forever. So, you've had your wife and your children and you say, hey, I love this. I love my master. He's treating me good. I love my wife. I love my children. I don't want to go free. I want to serve Him. Then he brings you before the judges and there your master takes an awl and he runs the awl through the lobe of your ear and he pins you to a post. With that awl. And then you would put a gold ring as a rule in the pierced ear, which was the sign of a slave by choice. It indicated that it was a slave by choice. You had willingly submitted to this life of slavery. Now, there is an interesting prophecy concerning Jesus Christ that declares, My ear hath He pierced. So, Christ, in a figurative sense, had a pierced ear inasmuch as He by choice submitted to the will of the Father, who being in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet emptied Himself, became of no reputation, humbled Himself, and became as a servant, the pierced ear servant. It was service by willingness. He willingly submitted Himself to the Father's will to serve. And thus the prophecy, My ear hath He pierced, referring to Jesus Christ and His serving of God. Now, in a figurative sense, I have a pierced ear in that I am glad to take the title of Chuck, a bondslave of Jesus Christ. It's slavery by choice. I don't have to serve Him. I don't have to be His slave. I want to be His servant. I want to be His slave. I really want everything that I possess and am to belong to Him. Not to lay claims to things for myself. But what I am and what I have are His, the pierced ear. And all of the New Testament writers beginning their epistles would write, Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ. Peter, a bondslave of Jesus Christ. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. They love the title. And I know of nothing better that could happen to any of us than just to be a bondservant of Jesus Christ. A servant by choice. Oh, that He would bring us to the post and run the awl through our ears that we might demonstrate that we are servants by choice. It isn't forced upon us. We don't have to be. But I love Him. I love my Master. No one's ever treated me so good. I've never had it so well. I love serving Him. And thus, it is the choice of life. And the choice of being a bondslave was irrevocable. That was it. Once your ear was pierced, that was a choice of life, an irrevocable choice. And so the law of the servant. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. And if she please not her Master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. But to sell her to a strange nation, he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. So, it's the idea of actually, a man bought their wives in those days and they became like a servant or like a slave practically. You bought her. She belongs to you. And so they had this form of dowry. And if you took a wife, you paid the dowry. Now, a dowry wasn't such a bad deal. Actually, what a dowry was, was alimony in advance. The father would figure how much it would take for her to live. If you should decide you don't want her after you're married because divorce was quite easy. Find out once I've purchased her, I don't like her. Then, let her be redeemed. She doesn't have to stay there and take my guff forever. But I don't have any right to sell her to a strange nation. But she should have the right of her dowry. She can live off of what I paid to get her in the beginning. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then let her be redeemed. Verse 9, And if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. And if he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. In other words, he's got to go ahead and pay her alimony and take care of her and so forth. And if he do not these three unto her, then she shall go out free without money. So, it was tragic, but that's the way their customs were in those days. Women had very little rights, so you've come a long way. Why have you come a long way? Because of Jesus Christ. Hey, women still have it tough in a lot of cultures. If you don't believe it, you just go to some of these other areas, New Guinea, Guatemala even, close by. Look at the lot of the Bedouin women. Man, they have it tough. You women can be thankful for what the Lord has done in liberating you. It is actually because of Jesus Christ and His declaring that we are all of us children of God, and in Christ there is neither male nor female. The distinctions are broken down. It is Christ that has put us all on an equal footing and an equal plane and has taken away any concept or idea of a superior sex. That God favors men over women or vice versa. It doesn't exist. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And it is the Christian ethic that has done so much to give the woman the rightful place of equality with a man. But such does not exist in cultures where the Christian gospel has not had a strong influence. Be glad, women. You're not a Muslim. If you don't believe that, just read what Khomeini is doing to the women there in Iran, and you'll find out that being a Muslim woman wouldn't be so easy. Many of you wouldn't last long under his reign. Now we deal with assault and battery and murder, manslaughter, first and second degree in manslaughter. Now, he that smites a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. And if a man lie not in weight, but God delivers him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place whether ye shall flee. So if you, first of all, are guilty of just plain murder, capital punishment. But if it was accidental or just not a premeditated thing, then God was going to appoint a place where you could flee and be safe. There were called cities of refuge that they established. And you could flee to a city of refuge and there you would be safe from the avenger. Now, if you would kill my brother, then I would be obligated to kill you because you killed my brother. So if it were an accident, and yet I'm mad at you because you were foolish in doing it and I'm wanting to get retribution and kill you, you could flee to a city of refuge and there you would be safe. As long as you stayed in the city of refuge, but if you came out and I caught you, then I could kill you. But you had to stay in that city of refuge. So God appointed these city of refuges at strategic points in the land when they came into the land. So God is promising that these city of refuges would be appointed. Now, if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, this would be premeditated. Your purpose of coming is to slay him with guile, deceitfulness. Thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die. In other words, you may even flee to the altar of God, but they can take you right from the altar of God and kill you because yours was a premeditated action. And now, several things for which capital punishment was to be given. He that smites his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. The law said, honor thy father and thy mother. He that stealeth a man and sells him or kidnappers or if it be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. He that curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. They didn't have nearly the problem with juvenile delinquency in those days that we have today. And if men are fighting together and one smites another with a stone or with his fist and he did not die, but he's laid up for a while and he's able finally to get out of bed and walk on a crutch, he that smote him will be acquitted, only he shall pay for his loss of time until he is thoroughly healed. Now, if a man smite his servant or his maid and shows you what little rights the maids and servants had, if it's your servant or maid, you smite him with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But it wasn't capital punishment. Notwithstanding, if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished for he is his money. In other words, if he lingers before he dies, then you won't be punished because actually, you've lost your own money. He belongs to you. If men are striving and hurt a woman who is pregnant so that she aborts, actually, the child that miscarriages, has a miscarriage, and yet no further danger or mischief follow, he shall surely be punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him. And he must pay whatever the judge has determined. But if any further mischief follow, then you are to give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, and if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish, then he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. But this eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burning for burning, and so forth. Now, men have begun to misinterpret this law as if someone had struck you in the eye that you have a right, not only a right, you've got an obligation to smack him in the eye. In other words, they made it an obligatory thing. You knocked out my tooth. All right, man, you've had it. I've got to knock out your tooth. Tooth for tooth. And Jesus said, you have heard that it has been said. Now, really what the Lord is doing here is limiting. Because there is a perversity about our human nature that doesn't want to just get even. We want to more than get even. It used to be when my brothers and I were growing up, scuffling with each other. You know, we'd be sort of boxing and all. And maybe he would catch you one. What do you want to do? You want to catch him one back just a little harder. And so many times where we started out just playing, boy, we ended up in a full-fledged fight. Because you keep getting harder and harder and harder and wanting to get, you know, get back at him a little more. And you start out just sort of with a game and playing. But boy, you end up really just going at it. And that is human nature. So, this was to put a limitation. An eye for an eye, not two eyes for an eye. A tooth for a tooth, not three tooth. Three teeth for one tooth. Three tooths. And so, the purpose of the law was that it would not exceed the limit of what you could do. But they had begun to interpret it as an obligation. And so, Jesus said, hey, look, I say unto you, if a man smites you on the one cheek, turn to the other. You know, don't seek retribution. Don't seek to get even. And so, Christ gave a whole new concept to this. It isn't, I'm not under an obligation to black your eye because you black mine. Better to forgive. Better to pass it over. And so, Christ was showing actually that the law was intended to curb man's spirit. And to curb that spirit of retaliation, that desire to retaliate. But it had become misinterpreted by the Pharisees. Now, we deal with the person dealing with his servant. If he hits his servant in the eye and the servant loses the eye, the servant goes free for the eye's sake. If you knock out a tooth of your servant, of your maid servant, then they get to go free for the tooth's sake. If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox will be surely stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted. But if the ox were known to push with his horn in times past, and it has been testified to his owner, and he did not keep him corralled, but he has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and his owner also will be put to death. You've been told that your ox is bad, that it's out there goring people or trying to gore people, and you've been told about it and you do nothing to corral it or to restrain it, then you are responsible for what your ox did. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for ransom for his life whatever is laid upon him. So, you could buy your way out of that one. Whether he have a gored son or a gored daughter, according to the judgment, it shall be done unto him. Now, if the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned. So, it is interesting that Jesus was sold by Judas Iscariot for the price of a slave that had been gored by an ox. That was the amount. If a slave was gored by an ox, you were to pay the master thirty pieces of silver. If a man shall open a pit, if you dig a pit and you don't cover it and an ox or an ass falls in, then you've got to pay for the ox or the ass to the owner of the beast who was slain. If one man's ox hurt another, that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide the money and the dead ox also they can divide and barbecue. So, if it be known that the ox has been used to pushing in the times past and the owner did not keep him in, then he shall pay for the ox and the dead one shall be his own. In other words, you get the whole thing. He killed your ox, he has to pay you and then you get the dead carcass also. If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it, the wrestlers, or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, four sheep for a sheep. You see, in those days, they were interested in taking care of the innocent party. Now, something's gone wrong in our judgments today and we're interested in the rights of the criminal. We're no longer interested in the rights of the person who has been victimized by the crime. You're out of luck, but let's guard and protect the rights of this criminal. Oh, things are getting so bad that I'm afraid that vigilante groups and the KKK are going to arise. Something better happen. Watching on the news this past week in the Los Angeles area, a woman was walking along the beach and two men started talking with her. Foolishly, she went to their apartment or they forced her, I guess, into their van. According to the story, took her to their apartment and there viciously abused her, raped her, broke her jaw. And the neighbors heard the woman screaming and called the police. And the police responded to the call. When they came to the door, the guy wouldn't let them in, so they broke the door down, found the woman bound and gagged in a closet, beaten up horribly, broken jaw and all. But now, this man is out on parole for raping women. He's been charged with rape. He's been charged seven times and is actually out on bond pending charges of rape. But now, this whole case is about to be thrown out because the officers really had no right to break his door down to find out why the woman was screaming and crying inside. They violated his rights. And so, all of the evidence, the woman beaten up, her story and everything is no good because they didn't say, please, may I come in and look around inside? Well, they said that, but he said no. Oh, I'll tell you. Talk about rights. What about the woman's rights? Something's gone horribly wrong in our whole system. We really shouldn't call our system of justice anymore because really, there is so little real justice. You say, how come there's so much? Well, we're in what is really just and what God is talking about justice and not the perversion that we find created by... I better not say it. We're on the radio. Now, if a thief is caught breaking up and is smitten that he dies, there shall no blood be shed for him. But if it is daylight and you catch him, then you should cause him to make full restitution. And if he has nothing, then he is sold for his theft. And if the theft is certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be an ox or an ass or sheep, he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or a vineyard to be eaten and he shall put his animals and shall feed them in another man's field, then the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard shall he make restitution. In other words, if we're neighboring farmers and you set your sheep over in my field to graze and they're eating up my field, then I get the best of yours. I can go in and just help myself to the best that you've got. If fire breaks out and catches in the thorns so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn or the field is consumed, he that kindled the fire shall make restitution. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep and it be stolen out of the man's house, if the thief is found, let him pay double. If the thief is not found, then let the master be brought to the judges, the Elohim, to see whether he has put his own hand to his neighbor's goods. For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, ass, sheep or raiment or for any manner of lost thing which another challenges to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges of the gods and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double to his neighbor. Now, if a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep it and it dies or is hurt or driven away and no one sees it, then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he has not put his hand to his neighbor's goods and the owner of it shall accept thereof and shall not make it good. In other words, if you ask me to keep your ox and somehow it is stolen or it strays away, then I come to you and I say, I swear by God, I didn't touch it. I don't know what happened to it. Then you have to accept the fact of my oath that I really didn't touch it, that I didn't go ahead and butcher the thing and put it in my locker. So, then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he did not put his hand to it and if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. If it be torn in pieces, then I bring you the torn pieces and I will not have to make good that which was torn. Now, if a man borrows out of his neighbor and it is hurt or dies, the owner thereof being not with it, you shall surely make it good. If I borrow your horse and I overwork the thing in the heat, then I got to pay you for your horse. But if you come with it and it dies, then I don't have to pay you anything because then I've hired both you and your horse. It came for hire. Now, if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall surely endow her, give her the dowry in order to be his wife. And if her father utterly refuses to give her unto him, then he shall pay the money according to the dowry of virgins. Thou shalt not, and now we get a lot of little rules here again with capital punishment. Thou shalt not allow a witch to live. Bestiality is condemned with capital punishment. He that sacrifices unto any god save to Jehovah only, shall be destroyed. Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry unto me, I will surely hear their crying. Now, the next couple of cases here, God tells how that He will stand up in defense of the weak and of the poor. So, be careful. Don't take advantage or seek to take advantage of persons that are already disadvantaged. The tragic thing to me is that so many of the charlatans prey upon people who are already in sad condition. They're already sort of broke. And they have ads in the paper, earn money in your own home. And they get you signed up, you know, where you'll give all kinds of contracts and all you have to do is buy this $500 machine and so forth and you can start making all these things and you'll have all these contracts. You make so much money. And what you do is you end up 500 bucks further in the hole than you were and you're already in trouble looking for a way to get out. And there are people that prey on the people that are already disadvantaged. I got a letter this week and perhaps if you're on his mailing list, you got one too. And the letter said, Dear Charles, I've been thinking about you lately. And while I was here on my knees before God, I was holding your name up before the Lord in prayer. Somehow, I feel there might be something wrong. Is there any problem? Charles, write me and tell me about it. And please also enclose a gift because I'm facing one of the greatest crises of my whole life. And he went on for four pages telling me of the great crisis and the sacrifices that he's going to have to make in order to do the great things that God has called him to do. I wrote him back. And I wrote, Dear... And I won't tell you his name because you probably got a letter too and you thought he's just writing to you personally in that knee. I wish I could come and visit you in your home and sit down and explain to you personally what my problems are. I wrote back and I said, It might be a good idea that you would start teaching the Bible on television, but maybe you ought to read it first and read 2 Peter where he talks about the false prophets who through feigned words would make merchandise of you. I said, I don't like your computer letter. I'm insulted by it. You insult my intelligence. And they are just feigned words by which you're trying to get some bucks from me. I said, you say you're willing to make sacrifices. And I was told recently by a Presbyterian pastor in Palm Springs that you paid seven hundred... Or, I didn't tell him how much you paid, but I know. You paid several hundred thousand dollars for a new home in one of the exclusive areas of Palm Springs. And your son also bought a home of almost equal value in the same area. Are you willing to sacrifice that? If you are, then maybe I'll be willing to give you $25 of my meager salary, but not so that you can live lavishly. Oh, I was angry with that letter. I was angry not because he deceived me, because I could see right through the whole thing. I was angry for all these poor little widows out there on Social Security. It said, if you don't have $25, why don't you see if you can get it someplace? Because I'm really desperate. And for all these poor little widows that are going to get that, dear Mabel, I've been thinking about you this week. And as I was in prayer, I had your name here before God. And oh, Mabel, I'd love to come to your home and sit down with you right there in your house and tell you the problems I have. Dear little old Mabel is out borrowing $25 so she can send it to him because she doesn't know any better. That's the thing that upsets me. Now, when Mabel is hungry and is crying out unto God because she doesn't have any food because she sent her food money in response to this plea, God is going to hear Mabel's cry. And this guy's in big trouble because God says he hears the cry of the oppressed and he will respond to it. And so, God deals now with those that are oppressed and oh, this kind of stuff, oh, it upsets me. I get taken off their mailing list in a hurry because I usually respond to them. I can't stand it. I said, David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken or God's children baking bread. What does that make you? They take me off their mailing list in a hurry. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child if you afflict them in any wise and they cry it all unto me. I will surely hear their cry. And my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with a sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. And if you lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer. Neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." These people that are going around and taking away people's houses, saying, well, we'll loan you money. Sign all of these contracts and you find that you've signed your house away and they sell it out from underneath of you. Boy, are these people going to have to answer before God. That's horrible the things that are done. If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment for a pledge, deliver it back to him by the time the sun goes down. Now, if you come to me and borrow money because you're really in desperate and I say, well, what are you going to give me for the pledge? I'll give you my coat. Before the sun goes down, I'm going to give you that coat back because you see in those days, they didn't have blankets. They used their clothes. They just wrapped themselves up in their coat and that was their covering. For it is his covering only. It is his raiment for his skin. Whereby when he's trying to sleep and if it comes to pass, he's cold and he cries unto me. I'm going to hear where God declares, I am gracious. The Lord is very gracious towards the poor, towards the oppressed. His ear is open to their cry. Man, if you're oppressing them, you're the one guilty of oppressing them and they're crying unto the Lord because of your oppression. Look how you're trampling on dangerous grounds. I love God for His desire and concern and care for the poor. I love God because He is gracious and that He does take care of those who are oppressed and cast down. Oh, how I appreciate God's graciousness. Thou shalt not revile the judges nor curse the ruler of thy people. I'm glad he didn't say you're going to be put to death if you do, but thou shalt not nonetheless. Actually, what does the New Testament teach us? Pray for those who are in authority over us and that's really our obligation and responsibility, pray. I wouldn't want to be a judge, but neither would I want to be the president. In fact, I wouldn't want to be in the legislature. I wouldn't want to have to answer for, you know, the stuff that goes on anywhere in government. I'm glad I'm a bond slave of the Lord and not a... They used to call them what? Civic servants? Boy, how we've changed. Now, thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors. The firstborn of thy sons shall thou give to me. You're not to delay. You're not to put off paying your dues to God, the tithes, the first fruits. You're not to hold back or delay on that. Well, if we have enough, then we'll give it to God. But actually, you're not to delay to offer your first fruit and the firstborn. Now, God, remember, the firstborn in Egypt were killed. So, from that time on, God claimed the firstborn. So, your firstborn son belonged to God. Now, if you wanted to keep him, you had to buy him from God. And you could redeem him. You could keep him, but you'd have to buy him from God. The firstborn son belongs to God. And that was true of your animals. The firstborn animal always belonged to God. If your cow got old enough to begin to have calves, the first calf belonged to God. From then on, they were yours. First one belonged. If you wanted to keep it, actually, then you'd have to buy it from God. But you were to the firstborn. Likewise, shalt thou do with thy oxen, with thy sheep. Seven days it will be with its dam. And on the eighth day, thou shalt give it to me. So, let the mother keep it for seven days, nursing it. The eighth day, it belongs to God. Ye shall be holy unto me, neither shall you eat any flesh that is torn of the beast in the field, but cast it to the dogs.