Month: March 2024

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 1:18

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“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Today’s post will represent something of an update of a continuing conversation I’ve been having via the comments section of several different posts now with a skeptical friend. Most of it you can find here and here. It has been a learning experience for sure. It has also been a reminder of several different things including the importance of clarity and kindness in our interactions as followers of Jesus with the unbelieving world around us. Perhaps more than anything else, though, it has served as a demonstration of just how true what the apostle Paul wrote here toward the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthian church really is. Let’s talk about why.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 21:22-25

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“When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment. If there is an injury, then you must give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are not many topics hotter in our culture right now than abortion. It was burning pretty hot before the Dobbs Supreme Court decision last year overturning the infamous Roe v Wade decision. In the wild, wild west world created in the aftermath of Dobbs, things have gotten even more intense. As followers of Jesus, our thinking on this matter must be informed by the Scriptures. In that effort, this passage matters a great deal. Let’s talk about what we see here, what it means, and why it matters.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 21:20-21, 26-27

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“When a man strikes his male or female slaves with a rod, and the slaves dies under his abuse, the owner must be punished. However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished because he is his owner’s property. . .When a man strikes the eye of his male or female slaves and destroys it, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his male or female salve, he must let the slave go free in compensation for his tooth.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the charges leveled against the Scriptures by critical scholars and skeptics is that they condone slavery. To a certain extent, this is an argument from silence. Because none of the various authors ever explicitly say slavery is wrong, and because there are several passages (like this one) in which the instructions assume on the existence and even continuation of the practice, therefore, they collectively support it. There are several reasons why this argument is flawed. LEt’s talk about some of them and what to do with what we see here.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 21:18-19, 33-34

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“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or his fist, and the injured man does not die but is confined to bed, if he can later get up and walk around outside leaning on his staff, then the one who struck him will be exempt from punishment. Nevertheless, he must pay for his lost work time and provide for his complete recovery. . .When a man uncovers a pit or digs a pit, and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit must give compensation; he must pay to its owner, but the dead animal will become his.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a world of cause and effect. When one thing happens, something else happens because of it. Sometimes there is a clear and direct line from the one to the other such that the cause of a particular effect is obvious. Other times, a given effect has such a complex tapestry of causes that no one could possibly trace it back to a single event. One of the perils of sin is that it seeks to convince us that we can disconnect effects from their causes, that our actions will not eventually have consequences. What we see in this next law is that God wanted to help the people resist this particular temptation. Let’s talk about how this command helps with that goal.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 21:15, 17

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“Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death. . .Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

My kids are at the age that I wind up watching a ton of pre-teen comedies. Most of these are on Disney. Thankfully, they’re mostly older Disney series that were pretty clean and uninterested in pushing moral boundaries very far. But while there is a pretty wide variety of settings among them, they mostly all have one thing in common. In all of them parents are either absent or idiots. Only rarely are the parents of the main characters (or any characters for that matter) positive examples of what good parenting should be. The net effect here is that a whole generation of kids grew up being constantly bombarded by the idea that parents are at best unnecessary hindrances to achieving all their hopes and dreams. That kind of environment doesn’t produce a lot of respect. That’s too bad because God seems to take generational respect pretty seriously. Let’s talk about what we see here.

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