Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20100214.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
H. God's Clarifications Of The Ten Commandments In His Exodus 20:22-23:33 "Book Of The Covenant"
2. Clarifications Regarding Human Relationships, Exodus 21:1-36
a. The Valuing Of Personal Human Dignity That God Desires
(Exodus 21:1-11)
  1. After giving Israel His Ten Commandments, God CLARIFIED the REASONS behind these commands in the "Book of the Covenant" supplied in Exodus 20:22-23:33, Bible Knowledge Com., O. T., p. 140; www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, "Book of the Covenant."
  2. Exodus 21:1-11 of that book explains God's INTENT in giving His SABBATH law was to show that HUMAN DIGNITY is BASED on GOD'S having MADE MAN in HIS OWN IMAGE so that EVEN VULNERABLE Hebrew SLAVES DESERVED to be HONORED:
    1. Though the Exodus 20:22-23:33 "Book of the Covenant" corresponds in content and form to other Ancient Near Eastern law codes (Ibid., jewishvirtuallibrary.org), the Exodus 21:1-11 section on Hebrew slaves uniquely stresses "the protection of the slave and the preservation of his human dignity," Ibid. (emphases ours)
    2. That emphasis reflects God's burden behind giving the Sabbath rest command in the Ten Commandments, and we clarify this as follows:
      1. Ancient Near Eastern pagan man viewed himself as a slave laborer to capricious creation gods, and the seventh day as a day of bad luck for him, Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos , 1974, p. 65.
      2. In contrast, Genesis 1:26-27, 31 with 2:7 shows a Good God made man separate from other life forms to exist in His own image so as to rule the earth, and He established the Sabbath for man's good:
        1. After God made man directly from the earth and separate from the animals on the sixth solar day (Genesis 1:26-31), He established the seventh solar day as the day of rest, Gen. 2:1-3.
        2. Jesus later said this rest was for man's benefit, Mark 2:27.
      3. Thus, in great contrast to paganism, if a Hebrew sold himself as a slave to another Hebrew to pay off a debt, his dignity , based on the fact that he was created by a Good God in GOD'S IMAGE, required that in his seventh year of servitude, recalling the original seventh day of REST, his Hebrew master was to give him rest from bondage by FREELY RELEASING him, Exodus 21:2!
      4. In summation, in giving the command to observe the Sabbath rest in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:8-11), God wanted His people to view man as an honorable entity for whom He considerately provided rest since man bore His own divine image, Exodus 20:11.
    3. More directives on honoring Hebrew slaves since they had dignity in bearing God's image are supplied in Exodus 21:3-6 as follows:
      1. The Hebrew male slave's dignity as being in God's image required his master to release him with his original family, Exodus 21:3.
      2. The Hebrew male slave's dignity as being in God's image required that if the master had given him a wife when he served as a slave, if the slave wished to stay with his master, wife and children who his master owned, he could choose to be his slave for life, 21:4-6.
    4. However, not only was the male slave created in God's image, but the FEMALE slave ALSO existed in His image (Genesis 1:27), so even a VULNERABLE young female Hebrew slave had dignity before God, requiring that her master give her proper protection, Ex. 21:7-11:
      1. Hebrew young women were at times sold by their fathers to more wealthy men or men of higher social rank so that their daughters might have a better life, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 141.
      2. Such a young woman became her master's concubine or wife, Ibid.
      3. However, in the Ancient Near East's male-dominated world, a young female slave was vulnerable to abuse, so God required her master to protect her as she existed in God's image (Ex. 21:7-11):
        1. If the master did not like his young Hebrew female slave, he could not sell her to distant pagans, a hardship for her, 21:7, 8b.
        2. Rather, he had to let her family redeem her (Ex. 21:8a) or give her to his son as a wife (21:9) or provide for her livelihood if he took another wife (21:10) or freely release her (21:11); Ibid.
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

The subject of human dignity is a colossal one in today's world:

(1) Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, with secular humanist and Marxist ideologies that it impacts, hold that man as a species is the apex of the evolution of life, that his dignity is derived from his role as a species. (B. Davidheiser, Evolution and the Christian Faith, 1976, p. 69-70; baptistpillar.com/bd0372.htm, s. v. "Secular Humanism")

For this reason, Darwin's "survival of the fittest" idea in the theory of evolution is seen as necessary for man's progress as a species, that it is then good if society as a whole advances at the cost of its "less-fit" individuals, that abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research are all good as they "cull" out "less-fit" humans! (Ibid.)

(2) On the other hand, America's founding fathers, in their July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, wrote that " . . . all men are . . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life . . ." ("Text of the Declaration of Independence," Compton's Encyclopedia, 1973, volume 6, p. 53) (emphases ours)

By "unalienable" in that context, the founders asserted the individual retains the right to life from his Creator, that it is not in any way transferable to any other party, including society as a whole as Darwinian, secular humanist and Marxist ideologies suggest!

(3) This ideological clash came to a head in our nation last year when Betsy McCaughey critiqued Dr. Ezechiel Emanuel, a top health care adviser to the President. She noted in her July 24, 2009 New York Post article, "Deadly Doctors", that Dr. Emanuel claimed in the Nov.-Dec. 1996 Hastings Center Report that "'communitarianism' should guide decisions on who gets care. He said it should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those 'who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.'"

Americans exposed to this conflict were viscerally caught between their forefathers' idea that every individual, even the "less-fit", has the right from his Creator to live versus the Darwinian, humanist, Marxist idea that society's interests take precedence over the survival of "less-fit" individuals in seeking to trim the nation's medical costs!

We then ask, "So that we can know how to view such issues that we face, how do we arrive at the basis of human dignity,?!"

Need: "So I can best view abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, etc., how do I know what is the BASIS of human dignity?"

Application: May we (1) believe in Christ as Savior to be born into the spiritual family of God, John 1:11-13. (2) Then, may we recall the Genesis 1-2 truth that ALL humans EXIST in the IMAGE of GOD, and so (3) RESPECT their DIGNITY as BEARING GOD'S IMAGE in how we relate to them. (4) This RESPECT includes honoring the WEAK and VULNERABLE along with the STRONG and ABLE, for ALL people ALWAYS bear GOD'S IMAGE!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 We apply this message to issues involving human dignity in today's world to know how to think and act as Biblical Christians:

(1) Psalm 51:5, with Luke 1:41, 44 and Psalm 139:13-16, reveal the human fetus at the instant of conception is a human being.

That being so, to abort a fetus at any time in the pregnancy is to take a human life that exists in the image of God, to make abortion on demand murder to be opposed by the Christian.

(2) In concord with this, the use of a human fetus for embryonic stem cell research is an evil in that it disregards the crime of the murder of humans made in the image of God, and it fuels an "abortion industry" that counters man's dignity as existing in God's image.

(3) Similarly, euthanasia, the premeditated, forced taking of human life of the aged or infirmed, is the slaying of man who exists in the image of his Creator God. The weak and vulnerable among us need to be just as physically and emotionally protected as were the vulnerable Hebrew young women in Exodus 21:7-11 who were sold into slavery in an Ancient Near Eastern, male-dominated world!

Thus, we Christians must favor caring for all of the vulnerable in our midst in view of the divine image they still always bear!

(4) All forms of the unbiblical taking of human life, being thus the taking of life in the image of God, is to be opposed by believers.

(5) In the case of a capital offense, if the criminal is rightly tried and convicted by the state, capital punishment must be performed by the state, Genesis 9:6; Romans 13:4.

(6) Since human government " beareth not the sword in vain" (Romans 13:4 KJV), it has the right to wage just, lethal war to salvage people from evil entities that seek to destroy them opposite the honor they are due as those who exist in the image of God! (Romans 13:3)

(7) Since Darwinian, secular humanist and Marxist ideologies assert man evolved along with the animals in contrast to the Bible's claim that God specially created man in His image to rule the world, and since this view causes one to deny the Creator's unalienable right to life for all individual humans who exist in His image, particularly the "less-fit" weak among us, we believers must reject these ideologies.



May we trust in Christ to be saved, and rely on the Holy Spirit to discern and apply His Word's truth on human dignity.