Hey teachers, Ben Jennings here and we are in the study that we're doing in the book
of Exodus and this is session 8 and it's in Exodus 21-27 and actually this is our first
because the study is in Exodus and Leviticus.
So this is our first time actually going into Leviticus.
It covers 19, 9 and 10.
This particular lesson is done on what's nationally known as the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
and so the writers of our curriculum as they've come up with a scope and sequence have picked
scriptures out of Exodus and Leviticus that deal with issues that connected this right
to life and dealing with sanctity of human life and treating people with as what they
are and that is that we're made in the image of God and God loves us and God has a heart
for people and so today's subject really is about vulnerable people and relating to vulnerable
people and God's will in relating to vulnerable people.
God had a plan for that and so we're going to see that in this particular lesson and
I hope that this particular video will help you.
So here's the objective sentence like if you're going to put the whole lesson in a sentence
it's this, we should be careful about how we relate to the most vulnerable in our lives
because of three of God's commands to the children of Israel given in Exodus and then
of course we're going to see them in Leviticus.
The first idea here is this idea of exploitation and number one that believers must not exploit
anyway anyone God's plan, God's will that's demonstrated here deals with exploitation
and not doing that.
Let's read verse 21 to 24 it says this,
Now shot neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for you are strangers in the land of
Egypt.
So the first group of people that he says that we should not oppress is the stranger.
This idea of stranger he's specifically talking about people who are not Jews, people who
are foreign, people who are not a part of your native born, you know, for the Jews that
have been other Jews, he's saying this is what we don't want you to do and he gives
them the reason why you are strangers in the land of Egypt.
So he's essentially saying if you were going to, if you treat them how you were just treated
that would be very hypocritical.
You were just treated and exploited as slaves in Egypt don't do that to other people.
So he's calling to them in that particular area.
You know, people who are strangers or foreigners, there is a vulnerability there because they
don't know the language.
They don't know the culture.
That's true in our day.
I think that this is a particularly hot topic right now because of immigration and what's
happened with unhindered illegal immigration in our country.
And we can, this is just my opinion.
I think you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
I believe that you can have an opinion, a political opinion.
Now we're getting to politics, right?
You can have a political opinion about what a country's policy ought to be towards immigration
and it's right to have its own borders.
It's right to have its own sovereignty.
And at the same time, knowing that that's not exactly, you know, what you would have
it be, you still don't have a right for people, even if they are coming across a border illegally
or even if they're in your land and it's not good because of the circumstances of the political
nature of it or the legal status of it.
It still is wrong for people to exploit or to oppress people who are foreigners.
God's very, very clear.
You can hold to both of those positions.
And as a church, like when we have people that are coming that are not from America,
they're there no matter what the situation is, they're there and they need Jesus Christ,
right?
And so that ought to be the way we think about it.
So he goes on to talk about Beyond Strangers in verse 22.
He talks about two more groups.
You should not afflict any widow or fatherless child.
So now there's, we've gone from strangers, you know, to now widows.
These are, we all know what a widow is.
What makes them particularly vulnerable is that, especially in that culture, it was a
very family oriented culture, especially in the wilderness and then off into the Promised
Land, there is no big government social safety nets, none of that kind of thing.
And so the wives were pretty dependent on their husbands for protection, for provision.
Same thing, kids were dependent on their husbands for again, provision, protection.
So people that don't have a husband, people that didn't have a father in that patriarchal
system were particularly vulnerable.
And that's still the case today.
And he's saying these particular people are not people to exploit.
Verse 23, if thou afflict them in any wise and they cry it all unto me, I will surely
hear their cry.
Verse 24, and my wrath shall wax out, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wife
shall be widows and your children fatherless.
I think this is particularly interesting because a couple of things.
Number one, it's pretty obvious that God cares about vulnerable people and he hates people
exploiting people who are either innocent or helpless.
And so God is a just God.
He is a fair God.
And this is a particular problem.
He also says that he is open to hearing the cry of those people who are oppressed.
And so that's a big part of it.
And then he says in verse 24, you have a couple of things.
One, he's going to judge if that's a problem.
He literally says, my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword.
So there's judgment that's coming there.
And then he says, and by the way, if you do this, your wife will be a widow and your kids
will be fatherless.
So it's kind of interesting.
There is a equitable distribution of justice.
He says like, basically, if you mess with widows and fatherless, I'll make your wives
widows and your kids fatherless.
The idea is that like the punishment fits the crime.
And so I think it's pretty clear here that God is saying, don't exploit people and I
care about people who are vulnerable.
You see that pretty, pretty specifically here.
The second area kind of deals with, and actually the second and third point, both deal with
a vulnerability in and around people who are poor.
You'll see number two, believers must treat the poor with dignity.
He says in verse 25, if they'll lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee,
thou shalt not be to him as a user.
Neither shall they lay upon him usury.
So this is somebody who is exploiting people's dire situation for gain, getting rich off
of people through ungodly and unfair lending practices to enrich themselves.
It's a kind of oppression.
And he says it's wrong.
He says in verse 26, if thou shalt take thy neighbor's arraignment to pledge, thou shalt
deliver it unto him by that the sun goes down.
Basically saying, if you're going for the most basic necessity, for instance, literally
his cloak that's going to keep him warm at night as a poor person, because he says in
verse 27, for that is his covering only.
It is his arraignment for the skin wherein he shall he sleep.
He's saying, don't do something that's going to kill somebody.
Even if they agree to do it, don't do something that's going to really harm somebody.
It might kill them.
That might put them in a place because they're in a dire situation where they need the money.
We're not even going to consider that.
He essentially is commending that they give rather than loan for people who are in dire
straits.
Verse 27 continues, and it shall come to pass when he cryeth unto me, that I will hear for
I am gracious.
And so this is clear that God cares about poor people and that he says, you're not going
to exploit them.
You're not going to use them to enrich yourselves.
And that line seems to be that if you're going to make an agreement with them, these are
the boundaries of the agreement that they're not going to agree to do something that's
ultimately going to fundamentally harm them.
That's unjust.
And so that's the second one.
Here's the third one.
Last one, believers must work to provide for those who cannot.
I think it's really interesting.
This is now in Leviticus chapter 19, verses nine and 10.
And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of
thy field.
Neither shall thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest.
And so he's saying here that when you go to harvest time, that there's part of the harvest
that you are going to leave.
He talks about the gleaning.
In the study that I looked at that, that's the stuff that gets dropped in the harvest.
Still good.
Don't go pick it up.
That's kind of like the overflow of what's going on with the farming.
And then he says, talks about the corners, leaving the corners of your field.
And he says, 10, and thou shalt not glean the vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every
grape of the vineyard.
Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger.
So now we're talking about those other two of the groups that he's already talked about,
the poor and the stranger, the foreigner.
Again, people who are vulnerable.
Thou shalt leave them for the poor, stranger, I and the Lord your God.
And so interesting to get to the harvest, what did they have to do?
They had to plow the field.
They had to gather the seed.
They had to plant the seed.
They had to steward the conditions.
They had to do all the things that it takes to have this harvest.
And he says, now what you're going to do is the poor that need to survive, that didn't
have all the resources that you had to do the field, you need to be generous to them.
And this is how we're going to do that.
This is the safety that we're going to provide.
We're going to allow them to pick up of the overflow of the harvest that you have.
You're going to leave some on the edges for them to take that.
And so I think that's a really interesting thing.
It's obviously God cares about the poor.
He cares about their survival.
He cares about the hearts of the people who have to be generous.
I think it struck me as I read this that the poor have a responsibility in surviving that
they do what they can do.
So if they're going to eat from the field, they had to go actually harvest it.
They didn't have to plant it and do all the other stuff, but they could at least go pick
it up.
They could at least go get the grain, get the grapes from the corners of the field.
So they did what they could do.
They weren't just handed things.
They still had to do their part too.
And so that seems to be the system that was set up.
So they wouldn't get rich on this kind of a system, but they would be able to survive
because of the obedience and the generous heart of the people that did work.
So I think the application here is that greed comes when we think that everything we have
is for us.
We ought to give to the Lord.
We have to give in our local church.
We ought to be supporting missions around the world.
And we ought to be quick to help those in our way, our neighbors, those who are within
our influence and the ability to help.
We ought to look for ways to help them.
And that's what we ought to do.
Every church that I know of that would be a part of watching these has benevolence,
ministries.
I had conversations even in the last week with people who are saying, hey, I know of
a particular need.
I have the ability to meet that need of a brother or sister in our church body, and I want to
know how to do that.
How can I help with that?
And I think that's our right way of doing this.
So that's the application.
Is there someone in your life?
Is there someone in the life of your class?
Is there someone in the life of the people in your class that has particular needs that
the church can help with?
And I say church, not necessarily as an institution in terms of it can only happen from the office
or from the church account, but literally among the people that are in the body of Christ
helping each other, this is the kind of thing that ought to happen among God's people.
I think the other thing, clear relationship here with the day is Sanctity of Human Life
Sunday.
And I think that some of the most vulnerable people in the world are people in the womb.
And so I think it's okay for us to say that God's heart towards people who can't help
themselves is he has a heart of compassion, a heart of love, and he wants us to protect
them.
And so on this Sunday, I think that's a good thing to talk about and to encourage the people
in your class to do what they can to take care of people who are the most vulnerable.
I'm really glad that God saw my need and sent his son to give.
He gave so that we could have everlasting life and so we're following the Lord God and
his character and his mindset when we do that.
I hope this helped you think through the lesson and I hope this is something that you can
use to apply to your own life first and then to the life of the people in your class.
Have a great week.