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

“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.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 5:13-14 Part 2

“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.  And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’  And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.  Now I have come.’  And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?'”  ( ESV – Read the chapter)

Now, in the first part of this commentary, I talked about Joshua’s response to the commander of the Lord’s army and our need to submit our plans to the Lord if we want to have any hope of meaningful success.  I said something in that first commentary, though, that bears unpacking here.  I said the appearance of the commander of the Lord’s army changed not just Joshua’s response and the way the rest of the story played out, it also changed our whole framework for understanding it.  Let me explain. Read the rest…