In his sermon 'The Generosity of God and Man,' Scott Brown explores Deuteronomy 24, emphasizing the sufficiency of Scripture in addressing practical life issues, specifically the laws concerning lending, borrowing, and theft. He highlights the importance of preserving dignity, mercy, and righteousness in financial dealings, urging believers to reflect God's generosity in their interactions. Brown explains how these laws, which include guidelines on loans, collateral, and timely payment of wages, demonstrate God's compassion and intention to protect the vulnerable, such as the poor and needy. He also addresses the severe biblical condemnation of human trafficking, illustrating the broad definition of theft beyond physical stealing. Brown uses biblical examples like Miriam's leprosy to discuss divine judgment and mercy, urging adherence to God's laws as expressions of love and community welfare. Ultimately, he calls for a life reflecting God's kindness and generosity, reinforcing Jesus' teachings on love and mercy.

Deuteronomy 24 verse 6, No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one's living in pledge. If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die, and you shall put away the evil from among you. Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy that you carefully observe, and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you. Just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt.

When you linch your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight. You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you, and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

Each day you shall give him his wage, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor, and he has set his heart on it, lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you. Father, we praise your word. We thank you that we can read your letter to each one of us. In Jesus' name, Amen. It's always a special joy to hook this little microphone on because it means I get to preach the words of life to, I think, to a three-year-old, David Hagan.

So hello, David. Good to see you. Well, here, as we're moving through the book of Deuteronomy, we recognize that this was the book that Jesus loved. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Old Testament, and He's constantly going back to it to explain the heart of God regarding all kinds of practical matters in the same way that Moses is doing in this section. Deuteronomy is split up into three sections.

There are three sermons that Moses gives in the last month of his life, just getting ready to go into the promised land. And in the first speech, he casts a vision for God's faithfulness to his people. And it's there, he says, it was there that I carried you. And then in the second speech, which begins in chapter 5, we find the beginning of the Ten Commandments and then all the case laws that describe the Ten Commandments, that fill the mouth, that give us the detail on those. And so we're in the midst of this section Now in Deuteronomy chapter 24 as Moses is explaining each one of the Ten Commandments in this section He's explaining the commandment thou shalt not steal now all these laws here that are before us They They make any nation or any community an absolutely wonderful place to live because of what the effect it has on the people.

And they make for what Moses has already called in the first speech, a wise and understanding people who live by the laws of love and liberty in the land." Now this section also shows us something, it gives us an illustration of something that perhaps we thought about from time to time. And That is, it's an illustration really of the sufficiency of Scripture, and that Scripture is sufficient for all things. Deuteronomy proves this as well as any other book in the Bible. Does the Bible speak only to matters of salvation and theology, or does it also speak to all the practical matters that we bump into in life? And many people feel that there are two categories.

One is that there is scripture that has to do with theology and the Gospel, but then everything else is sort of up to personal preference and up for grabs. But Deuteronomy, we have, in Deuteronomy 24, we've already learned that Scripture is sufficient for very important areas of life. For example, we'll just backtrack at the beginning of Deuteronomy 24, that Scripture is sufficient for remarriage And divorce. And then in verse 5, that scripture is sufficient for how you spend your first year of marriage. And so Moses is expounding on this law, thou shalt not steal.

And These first two laws in chapter 24 have already dealt with the matter of stealing. And the first law has to do with stealing in marriage and how serial adultery steals from the marriage relationships and that spouses own one another's bodies and that it's theft to destroy the marriage covenant through these heartbreaking situations of marriage destruction that's pictured in the first four verses and that you know the marriage covenant brings sin on the land by depriving the land of its blessings. And then the second law in chapter 24 is a law that teaches the state not to steal from a young married couple by taking a young man and sending him off to war. And it's God's desire that a solid foundation would be made for marriage, that a wife would have the opportunity in the first year of her marriage to be so nurtured and cared for that he would not, he wouldn't go anywhere. He would always be by her side to be with her, to set a solid foundation to make her happy.

A husband there is commanded to happify his wife in the first year of his marriage. I can't think of anything more wonderful for a wife to have than a husband who would spend the first year completely dedicated to her happiness. So what we see here is that the state can steal this from a wife, and so can a husband if he neglects it. So Moses is speaking of very practical things, even so practical as your first year of marriage. And now he's dealing with practical ways theft in the covenant community can be experienced, because theft is more than shoplifting.

Jesus said that adultery was more than the physical act. He said that hatred was, that murder was more than just stabbing someone. Moses is doing the same thing here, and he's saying that actually, theft is way more than what you ever might have thought it was. And so now Moses is speaking of these practical ways. All of them foster mercy in society.

What a wonderful community it describes, particularly for care and mercy towards struggling and the poor among us. So now Moses is explaining that Scripture is sufficient for a host of practical matters with handling money and people who fall into hard times. So first of all, I'm just going to give you a view of this and then we'll dive in more deeply. But in verse 6, he is saying that Scripture is sufficient for making loans and collateral. And then number 2, in verse 7, Scripture is sufficient for defining and evaluating slavery and human trafficking.

Number three, in verses eight and nine, Scripture is sufficient for regulating the authority of Levites and having certain kinds of diseases. And then number four, Scripture is sufficient for lending and borrowing in verses 10 through 13. And then finally, in verses 14 and 15, Scripture is sufficient for prompt compensation when you hire people who are poor. So as this chapter continues, there's the sufficiency of Scripture for the responsibility of, as we go on continuing in 24, the responsibility for sin. Is it the father's responsibility for a sinful son or vice versa?

What do you do with the stranger and the fatherless? It's sufficient to understand what how you deal with those and the widows It has to do with whether what do you do when you forget to reap part of your harvest? Or what do you do when you punish lawbreakers when they deserve some kind of punishment? How do you treat an ox when he's threshing? And of course, the apostle Paul speaks of this and applies it very carefully to the life of the church.

What do you do when a brother dies? We also learn, and this might shock you, but in chapter 25 we learn that Scripture is sufficient during a fight. Did you know that? Did you think that there are laws in Scripture that govern a fight? This law here is very interesting and it will be a fascinating discussion.

But when there's a fight between a man and another man, what should a wife not do in that fight to rescue her husband? More on that later in six weeks when we get back from the road trip. Because after today, we're going to enter into a study of the book of Malachi. And then we'll return to verse 16 when we come back in the middle of July. So Chapter 24 is like all the other chapters in Deuteronomy where the case laws are explained and they're full of laws that prove that Scripture is sufficient for everything in life and they're a refreshing contradiction to those who don't believe the Bible can be used for every area of life.

You know, and you always have to ask in any of these laws, what is the general equity of this law? We subscribe to the Second London Baptist Confession of faith, which has a statement on the law. And in our understanding as the leaders of this church, and everyone doesn't subscribe to this as perfectly as we might, the Second Line of Baptist Confession, it states that yes, the laws of Israel have passed away, but the general equity and their moral principle and their revelation of the character and the nature of God, their conviction of sin, their definition of what righteous behavior looks like still matters. And Jesus proves that all throughout his ministry as he's constantly going back to Deuteronomy to talk about very practical and difficult matters. Family matters, promises made, all kinds of things like that.

So now, Let me just make a couple of comments on this matter before we get more deeply into the text. In many churches, the Bible is actually presupposed to be insufficient for many matters. Most people operate in the way of thinking that says that matters of theology and lifestyle are different. And there's kind of a double standard. And we might say that the Bible is sufficient for salvation, but on other matters it's insufficient.

For example, we might think that there are lesser and unimportant things, and the Bible is not sufficient to teach on these matters. And our normal approach is just to assume that most areas of life are left up to our personal preference. And we often have this attitude about all kinds of areas, areas of education or areas of entertainment or areas of premarital relationships or clothing or music or even church structure. When I was a young man in seminary, some of the great theologians were saying the Bible says nothing about church government. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible has a lot to say about church government. But there's this assumption that it's really this ruling principle in evangelicalism that we're just free to make up church as we go, contextualize it as we wish, make it fit whatever culture we might live in. But, you know, that's not our view here. And the Bible does not contain a chart that tells us, okay, here are the important areas and here are the unimportant areas. It would be nice if God provided some kind of a table that stated clearly what issues were essential and which were optional.

And so if we're left without an authoritative chart to tell us what areas are open to our creativity. We're just left to sovereignly choose for ourselves to live any way we want to in these matters here regarding lending and borrowing and all these kinds of things. But God reveals His will, His nature, and His wisdom in every part of Scripture. And so we find particularly in the New Testament, just as well as in the Old Testament, that the Bible teaches us on many, many practical areas. So, many evangelicals are willing to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for matters that are purely doctrinal, and then they dismiss it for matters that are purely practical.

So, Moses here is doing exposition on the law, on the commandment, thou shalt not steal, and Jesus uses the same technique that's revealed in the Gospels. And it's interesting that in Deuteronomy 18, 18, God says something that we should understand. He says this, I will raise them up a prophet from them among their brethren like unto me. And I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him God's Saying I will raise up a prophet like Moses Like Moses and Jesus is that prophet although he is he is he is more than a prophet, unlike Moses in that sense. So, okay, so these laws, they temper selfishness, they restrain hardness of heart, and they reveal the true nature of stealing.

Okay, so let's go into the first one in verse 6. First of all, verse 6, No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one living, one's living in pledge. So this law, if you'll notice, is directed to the lender, the person who's making a loan or giving help to someone who's in need. And there's something he cannot do, and that is he cannot take a pledge for the upper millstone. And the word pledge is an operative and important word, but the borrower gives something in pledge to secure the loan.

He might take cash in trade for a promise or giving his cloak if he does not repay. And so here we find this principle of lending. And in Proverbs 22 verse 27 says that the poor really are warned about making pledges. Here Moses is warning about taking a pledge, but Proverbs 22 speaks about making one. Do not be one of those who shakes his hands in a pledge, of those who is surety for debts.

If thou hast nothing to pay, Why should he take away thy bed from under thee? So here Solomon brings up this matter of taking your bed out from under you, and Moses is speaking of taking your millstone, which is your actual means of making a living. So he's talking about entering into an agreement with someone where the obligation is to take away their livelihood. The upper millstone was used for making a living. Some of you have seen some of the millstones that are on my property.

And they were used in mills in the local community. A family would own a millstone or a mill along a creek, and they would make food for the community. And the ones that I have are mostly upper millstones that came from within 20 or 30 miles of where I live from the 1770s and the 1780s. This law prevents loans that would require taking a man's living away from him. It's a law of mercy.

The scripture has a lot to say about lending. We're commanded in scripture to lend. One of the most important verses on lending is Deuteronomy 15, 8, which says, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in all that he wanted. This is hands open wide. That's the principle there.

Christians are to have their hands open wide and be willing and ready always to lend. That's what Christians do in the world. It's a sign of Christianity when people are free with the things that they have and they lend them. Jesus Himself confirmed this in Matthew 5 verse 42 where He said, Give to him who asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. So Jesus is saying, no, don't turn away the person who asks.

Let it go. We shouldn't be so obsessed with our stuff that we can't let it go, watch it never to be returned. Maybe watch it be destroyed. Praise God. It's space junk.

It's not worth hardly anything in terms of the grand scheme of things, particularly when compared to mercy. Mercy is far more important than stuff. And the Lord Jesus confirms that. In Luke 6 verse 36, Jesus connects lending with love for your neighbor. And he says, but love ye your enemies and do good and lend.

Oh, lending even to your enemies? Whoa, now that doesn't sound right. That kind of grates against my sensibilities, but this is exactly what Jesus says. Yeah, well, it's easier to lend to your friends, and then it's even easier to lend to people who you know will take pristine care of your object of veneration. But then there are to your enemies.

Your enemies might destroy it. But here the Lord Jesus says, no, Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, hoping for nothing again. And your reward shall be great, and you shall be children of the highest. For he is kind to the unthankful and the evil." So yes, you should lend even to those who are unthankful, even to those who are evil, even those who are enemies, even your, and perhaps your friends that would treat your stuff nicely and give it back to you in better shape than you got it. Well, it's certainly better to give it back in better shape than you got it.

I'll have to say I haven't always done that. Maybe some of you. I know some of you haven't done it to me either. I don't know how many books. I don't know how many objects of my own veneration have been released and come back in different kind of condition.

Well, I'll just have to tell you something. I bless God for it. There are a number of laws regarding lending. One is that there's this command to lend. Leviticus 25, though, verse 37, explains that it is unlawful to charge interest on money lent.

This is very clear all throughout scripture. Lending in Israel required a limitation of debt. And then if one would go into an indentured kind of servitude, which was called slavery at that time, not American kind of slavery, totally different brand, then it lasted for six years and it was relieved at that time. God did not want perpetual indentured servanthood to continue. So he limited it to a number of years.

In Deuteronomy 15, we already covered this, where at the end of every seven years you shall make a release." This just gives the heart of God on a matter. Do the seven years matter? Well, here's what really matters. God does not desire His people to be under a yoke of bondage or servitude interminably. But there should be a time of release.

Psalm 37, 21 says, The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. Proverbs 22, 7, The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. So the Bible has a lot to say about about borrowing and lending. There's some people say that borrowing is prohibited in Scripture. There are so many statements that govern borrowing and lending that I don't believe that's an accurate statement to say that it's a wicked practice.

There are warnings. There are two basic principles in scripture. One, the warning that the borrower is the servant of the lender. Be very careful. There are consequences.

You'll have to pay them. It's a stern warning. On the other hand, if you do, here's how you handle it. And that's what Deuteronomy 24 touches on here. Now let me just give you a number of principles that arise out of this.

First, it identifies the dangers and the opportunities of lending and borrowing. It's always a dangerous thing to lend to anyone. It's always a dangerous thing to borrow from anyone. For the lender, to become harsh and unforgiving, angry, wanting his pound of flesh, that's what happens in the heart of the lender, you know, having some sense of overwhelming obligation, you know, that you owe me type of, type of spirit. And then for the lindee, it often happens that the one lent the money hates the lender because sin wells up in his heart.

And these kinds, he may be presumptuous in his understanding of the disposition of the lender or he may accurately discern that the lender has sin in his heart and he sinned against his brother as well. So there are always dangers in lending and so hearts have to be governed by Almighty God. You know It can be an opportunity for the devil. Do you remember that great miracle in 2 Kings, Chapter 6, where the axe head goes into the lake? Remember that?

And in one of the great miracles of the Bible, where the axe head floats to the top. God was so kind in this. But when the axe head went into the lake, the fellow said, oh Lord, but it was borrowed. So it went into the lake, it was borrowed, and he cried out to God, And God made it float to the top. How many times has God bailed you out of situations like that that you've gotten yourself into?

But it identifies the dangers and the opportunities of lending and borrowing. We have to know that the devil is there at the door whenever we lend or whenever we borrow. Another principle is this, is it restricts the exploitation of the weak and really breathes life of mercy into the transaction. It's interesting that Eliphaz accuses Job of doing this, of taking the pledge from his brother, and is stripped naked of his clothing, taking away everything from him. Job was accused of doing that.

I don't think, well, we don't know, but I don't think Job did it. He just wasn't that kind of a guy from Scripture. He was constantly dealing with the fatherless and the widow, and he was taking care of those in the community. He was a great example of a godly man who was taking care of a lost generation of fatherless people. His heart was compassionate for them, and He had them at his table.

It's hard for me to imagine Job really doing that. Job's friends didn't always have the nicest thing to say about him. Amos describes this situation as well in Amos chapter 2. So It restricts exploitation of the weak. And then thirdly, it preserves the family economy and provision.

You know, Proverbs 19, 17 says, He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given he will pay him again. This lending to the Lord, being kind to the poor, helps the family unit to be strong. Rather than taking away their livelihood, you preserve the family economy so that economy can take place in the family unit. Of course, one of the things that we want to encourage people to consider is that in Scripture you find the whole family operating for the economy of that family, and they're working together. And here's a picture of it here.

You take away the millstone, You take away the family economy. Ezekiel 18 distinguishes between a righteous father and an evil son in the way that they lend. And often, I think it's very clear that modern bankruptcy laws, which will allow people to keep their houses when they declare bankruptcy, is a reflection of this law. Many of you have seen going through Deuteronomy, so many of our laws are based on Deuteronomy. And this modern law that does not allow the creditor to take absolutely everything.

Like, I believe modern bankruptcy law goes like this. If you have an automobile and you use it for work, the government can't come and repossess it because you need it for your work. So that's the principle that's here. Another thing that this law does is it prohibits lenders from doing the wrong thing by taking the wrong action. You know, a wrong action, there are probably two wrong actions here.

One is, it's wrong to take that pledge. It's wrong to say, you know, if things don't go well, you know, I take away your livelihood. It keeps a lender from doing something stupid and harmful and sinful. And it also keeps the lendi from entering into any kind of agreement like that. So it prohibits a wrong action.

Psalm 37, 26 says that the godly are generous and that they lend freely. He says, He is ever merciful and lendeth, and His seed shall be blessed. Could we just have a personal conversation about the borrowing of books? Often people ask me if they can borrow my book. The answer is no, you cannot borrow my book, but I will give one to you.

I'll do that. So, and you don't ever have to bring it back again. So if I ever put a book in your hand, don't ever bring it back to me, I never want to see it again. Okay? Because I normally don't anyway.

So it doesn't matter. The parallel passage we'll consider in Exodus 22 explains that this demonstrates godliness. The way that you lend demonstrates godliness. The way that people lend differentiates the righteous from the unrighteous. In Exodus 22, 25 through 27 adds a very important explanation of this law.

What we found in studying Deuteronomy is These laws don't stand alone. They stand across the breadth of Scripture because Jesus says something about it The prophet mentions it the Apostle Paul cites it so you have to see it in its fullness Well, Exodus 22 gives us a tip for what this law is all about. And this is the most wonderful part about it. And I've been so anticipating getting to this verse. It's such a wonderful revelation of why This law is here.

Exodus 22, 25. If you lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, in other words, charging interest. Neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it to him, by that the sun goeth down. For that is his covering only, It is his raiment for his skin.

Wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, I will hear. For I am gracious." For I am gracious. That's it. That's the bottom of the law right there.

For I am gracious and I lend. So This is another law of kindness. It gives us a vision of the generosity of God, explains the wonderful character of God Himself. He is the great lender. And He's been so generous to us.

Think of His generosity toward you. Think of the breath, the very breath that you're taking now as a gift from Him, that He has granted to you. The generosity of God can be explained in a thousand million different ways. And if we just open it up for a moment and said, let's itemize how God is generous. We could go on until the sun went down and into the night, writing them down.

But the summation of the generosity of God is the giving of His Son as a sacrifice for the sins that beset us. That though we've broken every law Jesus Christ was given, He kept every law. He kept every law for us so that our sins could be atoned for. How many of us have broken this law of generosity, but yet how generous God has been toward us. He says, For I am gracious.

So we move from this law of lending to the law of human trafficking in verse 7. This also is a law that explains theft. What is the sin? The sin is stealing someone's physical freedom. The kidnapper here is called the stealer of life.

And who is the law directed to? That's very clear. It's limited here to the children of Israel. It is of his brethren, of the children of Israel. So Israel was meant to police themselves in this.

And then there are two abusive actions that are listed. This mistreating him and selling him. Those are two things that you cannot do to human beings. You cannot mistreat them and you cannot sell them. And then, this is not just judged on an individual level, but this is given to the civil magistrate to execute.

And here you find the terrifying consequence of breaking this commandment. Then that kidnapper shall die. The kidnapper shall die. Now, there was no sanction or judgment against the one who took his brother's millstone as a pledge in pledge. But there's a very terrifying warning here.

And this is a restatement of Exodus 21 verse 16, where we read, And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." This has to do with being caught with a slave. And it's such a heinous crime to enslave a human being like this. Of course, we understand that there are different kinds of slavery in the Bible. Some are lawful, godly acts of mercy to help the poor, to bring them in and to give them a way of moving on. And you sell yourself into slavery.

That was one form of slavery. That's a good kind of slavery. This here explains the kind of slavery that we engaged in in our country's history. This very despicable kind. Now, these are temporal punishments.

The penalty was severe. Calvin says, for we know how God appoints punishments according to as he esteems the greatness of the sin which is committed. So there's a great punishment. Interestingly enough, the code of Hammurabi has it differently. If you want to...

Which law code are you going to live by? Do you want God's heart of the matter, or do you want somebody else's? Well, the code of Hammurabi was very different. The code of Hammurabi offered a punishment for man stealing or for slavery, but the punishment depended on your rank. So If you were royalty and had a slave, you'd be off free.

But if you were poorer and had a slave, you'd be killed. This is the terrible double standard of man-made laws. Where do you want to go to get your laws? Are these from the heart of God or not? And I would just say, take God's laws, they're better.

We're not smarter than God. And for some reason, this punishment is meted out. Now, this is, who executes this? It's the civil magistrate that does this. There are three separate jurisdictions.

There is the jurisdiction of the family, there's the jurisdiction of the church, and there's the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. This is what the civil magistrate does. Individuals don't execute other people for sins. Each one of these jurisdictions has their own limited expression of the good government of God to express the generosity and the kind of service. This is a law of generosity.

This is a law that holds people back from stealing, stealing something so important. And then he explains the purpose of this law, and you shall put away the evil from among you. Again, this statement is made, I believe it's nine times in this section of scripture, you shall put away the evil from among you. This is what happened with Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was sold into slavery, and of course, God worked so mightily in the midst of that, as God always does for his people.

OK, so there are a few things that I just want to mention about this law before we depart from it. This law restricts the breaking up of families by force. To steal from the family is to shatter something of tremendous importance. And it also focuses on this wicked form of slavery. It's interesting, you know, when the earthquake happened in Haiti Recently, remember this church in Colorado who were trying to bring children out of the country?

The United Nations accused this church of human trafficking. That's what they did. That was a false accusation. It's interesting. My father and mother were school teachers in Alaska in the first seven years of their marriage.

And they started out their marriage going to a remote Eskimo village, like 27 miles from Siberia. They flew a whole year's worth of food in, and my mother and father were there in this, I mean this was a real live Eskimo village where they were going out in skin boats and harpooning seals, polar bears, you know, standing at their doorstep knocking at the door, you know, this out on the ice flows and all this kind of thing. And in that, in that, in that Eskimo village, there, there was a little girl. And this eight-year-old girl had been taken into a family, and she was a slave. And my father met with the village council, which was about a dozen men, and they accepted the practice of slavery, even though he appealed to them that this was a wicked thing to do.

So slavery, human trafficking is very real. I read last week that human trafficking is more prevalent today than any time in history. I don't know if that's true, but there's obviously much of it going on, and it's something that God hates. He is a generous God who does not allow his children to be in this kind of slavery. And he desires that theft would end.

Theft is more than just shoplifting. And so then we go to this third law. It's a law regulating the authority of Levites in handling certain diseases in verses 8 and 9. I think this is kind of a difficult section in a way, But I think what we want to say is scripture is sufficient for the outbreak of certain kinds of diseases that the word For leprosy that's used here Is not isolated to you know classic Leprosy Hansen's disease as we know it today, but it refers to many other kinds of skin afflictions that are identified in Leviticus 13 and 14. There's enormous detail on what the Levites were supposed to do when there was an outbreak of this kind of plague.

So Moses is advocating two things. I just want to suggest that this law is about stealing the authority of the Levites, and I'll tell you why in a minute. First of all, he says, take heed. Take heed in an outbreak. It matters when there's an outbreak.

And the Levites will tell you what to do. That's the idea. In Israel, the Levites had kind of medical functions, at least in this sense, in the nation. And secondly, he says, remember Miriam. In verse 9, remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when he came out of Egypt.

When you run across the word remember, often what comes after it is something really important. Remember Miriam. You also are aware of the other statement, remember Lot's wife. Well here we find remember Miriam. Now Miriam was angry at Moses because she wasn't happy with the wife that he took and she was also upset because She believed that God was revealing things to her and they were saying, hasn't God revealed things to us too?

And they rose up against Moses and a great plague broke out as a result. It was rebellion and gossip and It was subterfuge that had worked its way into the camp because of Miriam and Aaron. And the judgment was enormous. But Miriam was trying to steal authority for Moses. And so that's the scene.

So take heed to the outbreak, and then quarantine it. That's the first thing and then understand that affections infections often have a moral cause Leprosy is often the result of the judgment of God Miriam's leprosy was that kind she received she had leprosy for seven days. I believe it was as a judgment from God because of a rebellion against the authority of Moses. And it's, you know, it's, it's, one should always be very careful in how they deal with the authorities they have in their civil government. We're often so cavalier about the way we speak about our authorities in government, or in the church, or even in our home.

Scripture says, he who slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. Now, that should terrify you when you talk about other people in a wrongful way. But here, Miriam was afflicted. She was judged with leprosy because of her slanderous work in the community. And we read in Numbers 12, verse 9, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against them.

And then Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days. We also see this judgment on Gehazi. We also see this judgment on King Uzziah. Leprosy often illustrates not only the judgment of God, but also the mercy of God. You see it when Elisha heals Naaman, the Syrian.

You see it when Jesus heals lepers. One time Jesus healed ten Samaritan lepers in Luke 17, verses 11 through 19. It's interesting that only Moses and Elisha and Jesus ever heal lepers. Check me on that. I'm not aware of any others.

But there are two practical applications of this law. First, it's a law of quarantine and public safety, and the Levites had a responsibility to contain the disease. And then, you know, we need to just ask, you know, what is the general equity of this law? What is the heart of God in this law? And I would just like to suggest at least two things.

One, there is the heart of God to contain infectious disease in the camp. Secondly, that infectious disease can be an expression of divine judgment. We don't like to think about that, because we don't know. Well, it's not because we don't know or we don't like the idea that we're sick because we're disobedient. But the Bible says that some who have taken the Lord's table in an unworthy manner, some are sick and some have died.

So God does judge His people when they sin in various ways. So I think there are two things we have to consider in this law here, and that is public cleanliness and isolation of disease, and then also the whole issue of authority because Moses he says take heed and then he said remember Miriam. Moses is speaking logically he's making connections those aren't two separate things he's speaking you know clearly and in context. You know isn't about stopping pandemics and swine flu's and super viruses and airborne diseases? Well, it may be.

There probably is a principle there. But this had to do with specific leprous diseases of the skin defined in Leviticus 12 to 14. Now, does it apply broader than that? I'm not sure. But he says this, be careful to do what the Levites tell you to do.

And I believe it contains the principle of both quarantine and authority and judgment. That's how I believe it should be understood. And then we turn to a law of lending and borrowing in verses 10 through 13. When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. So here now are more laws of loaning and borrowing.

This one has to do with the stealing of dignity of the one who has received the loan. It assumes lending. It assumes the preservation of relationship and love and dignity in the midst of it. And notice the comprehensive language. If you lend anything, anything, doesn't matter what it is.

You know, The procedure is, if you do lend, then you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. So, if you lend, you cannot go into his house. I have a dear friend who, from time to time, repossesses automobiles that he's sold to people who won't pay him. But he has to abide by particular rules and regulations.

And you cannot go in. There are just a number of things that you cannot do when you're repossessing something. And here, God is actually speaking about this whole matter of repossession. Somebody has something that's yours, it's in his house, you know it's there, you know exactly where it is, And you can't go in. You just can't go in.

You know, there's this common statement that we're all maybe aware of. A man's house is his castle. Everybody knows that. Well, that statement is not a scriptural statement, but it... I hope you understand that.

But it bears witness to this principle that there's something separate. I don't know if I use the word sacred, but there's something wrong about going into a man's house and grabbing something, even if it is yours. And this implies various search and seizure laws and laws of repossession have their root here as well. And there's a qualification here though. I hope you notice it.

Verse 12. And if the man is poor, he shall not keep his pledge overnight. You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you. And it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God." Now, what do we learn from this? Loans do not give privileges of confiscation.

Number two, loans must preserve the honor of the lendee. And number three, loans must be given in a spirit of generosity. The law cultivates this generosity that we see in the heart of God. Number four, it declares the sacredness of a person's household. Number five, loans really create a two-way street.

He owes something to you, but you also owe something to him in the way that you treat him. And then it implies that there may be disputes in the covenant community. And the apostle Paul spoke of this. He said to those in Corinth, it's just better to be wronged. It's better to be wronged.

Let it go. It's better to be wrong than, in this case, stomp into somebody's house, grab it and run and hope he can get out of there before they shoot you or whatever. Hopefully someone in the covenant community wouldn't be shooting you, but they might. If you broke into their house at the wrong time, You know, hey, just for you young men especially, don't go playing jokes on people by getting into their house and scaring them or anything like that. It's a very bad idea.

Because most people don't believe that other people should be in their houses, even for a joke, okay? So now one thing I would just like to mention before we leave this law. Does this teach justification by the law? Look at verse 13. And it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.

Now what does He mean by that? Well this is not justification by the law. There's no such thing. No flesh can be justified by the keeping of any law. It's impossible.

If you break one, you've broken them all. So you might as well forget forever trying to find any kind of acceptance before God through law keeping. It doesn't work. And so it's not that kind of righteousness. There are different kinds of righteousness.

This is not the righteousness that is by faith alone. This is righteous living. This has to do with a quality of life that is a righteous reflection of the righteousness of God himself, of his character. That's what this is. So, these laws were not given to redeem people.

They're not there to make you a member of the covenant. They're just there to establish godly living. And also to convict you of your sins, because you can't read any law without seeing how sinful you are. So they both take you down to repentance, and then they lift you up to a life that's consistent with the mind and the heart of God. It's both of those at the same time.

And this is just another law of kindness that shows that scripture is sufficient for all of life, even when you think you need to take back your property from somebody who's abusing your kindness. And the law is let kindness rule over your fevered spirit of possessiveness, of things that God gave you, but now somebody has it you won't ever see again. And it's wicked of that person to do it, but it's not your responsibility to make it right, at least in these terms. And then we find here the last law that we'll be dealing with here today of prompt compensation versus 14 and 15. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy.

So first there's a situation, it's hiring, hiring someone to come work for you. I don't know how many of you have hired someone to do any work for you in the last month, but that's what this is. You hire them and you pay them. How do you deal with this situation? It's a very practical matter.

And The focus is really the stealing of the fruit of his labor. You shall not oppress your hired servant who is poor and needy. And who is your brethren or one of the aliens in your land within your gate. So it may be an alien or it may be one of your brethren. And then there's responsibility.

And the responsibility is each day you shall give him his wages, and don't let the sun go down on it. Pay him the day he does his work, because he's poor and he really needs it. The parallel passage is in Leviticus 19. It says the same thing, but uses a few different words that I think are helpful. Because they help us understand what God is saying.

He says, do not defraud your neighbor. He uses the word defraud in Leviticus. Neither rob him. You see, God calls it defrauding and robbing the wages that he has hired. And then James 5.5, 1 through 6, though, speaks of this in very graphic terms.

He says, Go now, you rich man, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and your silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were with fire. You have heaped up treasure for the last days. Behold, the hire of the Laborers who have reaped your own fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cryeth. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." And here we find the Lord offering terrible judgments for those who would withhold the amount that should have been given for labor.

Well, There are a number of things here, you know, delaying payment in situations like this is against Scripture. This promotes a godly use of power and authority. It condemns the employer who does not pay. It also helps us understand something about possessions. Our possessions are more than just the things that we might carry with us.

Our possessions have to do with our labor, what we know how to do. And you can rob from a man's possessions. You can steal from him by by pain in late or not paying him at all. Does anybody does anybody have any outstanding? Payments that need to be made go make them, you know, if you've not been timely in it That's the principle that's here.

God desires mercy and compassion for particularly for the poor person here this is This is spoken of in a number of places in Scripture. There is the mercy of God all over this passage of Scripture. So the love of Christ is written on every one of these laws. The generosity of God is breathing in and out and in and out in each one of these case laws that we've just reviewed. And He's showing us His kindness that leads us to repentance.

Do you remember the workers in Matthew chapter 20? There was a man who hired workers. And I want to say that we are the hired workers in this story. The man hired workers, and he hired some early in the morning. And then he went out, and he hired more.

And he offered them a penny a day. And he sent the workers into his vineyard. And then he went out in the third hour and hired some more. And then he went out in the sixth hour. And then he went out in the ninth hour again, and he hired workers.

And then in the eleventh hour he went and he found some who were idle and he said, how come you're not doing anything? And they said, well, no one has hired us. So he hired them. And they went to work in his vineyard. And then it came to the end of the day, and all the workers were to be paid, and they were all paid the same thing.

Even the ones that were hired at the last part of the day, they did hardly any work at all. And those workers complained, and they murmured against the man. And then the owner explains, he says, friend, I do thee no wrong. Dits not thou agree with me for a penny? Take what is yours and go your way, and I will give unto this last even as unto thee.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own." And then the man reveals his motives. He says, "'Is your eye evil because I am good?' And then he said, the Lord Jesus said, and therefore the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. For many are called, but few are chosen. And so here what we find is the Lord Jesus himself, I think, summarizing the spirit of all these laws that we've just read. The generosity of God.

How generously He deals with sinners. How He takes us when we're dead in our trespasses and sins. How He takes us no matter where we are, how much we've messed up our lives. And He takes us at some time during the day. And what does He do?

He pours out His goodness toward us, because He's a kind Savior. Christ never steals from His own. Sometimes people say, If I turn to the Lord Jesus, I'll lose so much. That is so not true. You gain everything and you lose nothing with Jesus.

He is the Good Shepherd. The thief comes in to steal and kill and destroy. But the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for the sheep, and He calls them unto His own. And He carries them in His bosom, and He gently feeds them all the days of their lives, and He sovereignly protects them.

And He gives them laws that are wonderful, that will bring blessing to them, to soothe their fevered brows, to take away the scourgings that have been upon them all their lives. This is your Jesus. This is my Jesus. He is the sent one from this ever kind Heavenly Father who is gracious in all of his ways. Let's pray.

Oh, Lord, we thank You for the sweetness of these things. Your goodness is overwhelming. You've forgiven. You have forgiven so much. And we have returned so little.

But you have been so kind. And now Lord, turn us loose from here to go and do the same. Amen.