Exodus 21:22  If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23  And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24  Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25  Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26  And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
27  And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.
28  If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29  But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
30  If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31  Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
32  If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

God has a different view of babies in the womb than our society does. You notice here that the woman is “with child”. It is not a fetus or some other inhumane name. It is a person that is in the developmental stage and protected in the womb of the mother. However, it can be hurt and it can even be killed.
In our text if the woman is hurt and the child, which is also called “her fruit”, depart from her, then there must be punishment. The husband of the woman that was hurt was to determine the punishment. The judges would agree with the determination of the husband. It would seem that the fruit departed but did not die. In verse 23 we see that if mischief follow then it was to be life for life. Human life has value. It cannot be taken without cause. There was no such thing in God’s economy as ‘catch and release’. There are consequences for violence.
God further commanded that there was value to the parts of the body. The consequences here are severe but they are just. We are not held to this law today, but we see that God’s law was designed to cause people to think carefully before they acted. Those who acted irrationally were still held accountable for their actions.
In verse 26 we see further commands regarding the care of a servant. A servant was sentenced to serve for his debt. However, he was still to be treated as a human being. The master could not get away with abusing the servant. If the servant’s eye was damaged then the master needed to set the servant free. It did not matter if there was more time owed. The master forfeited that time by causing harm to the servant.
In verse 27 we see that the same thing applied to the tooth of the servant. God put safe guards in place to protect the more vulnerable. As we have noted already, there needs to be respect for life and for the safety of the person.
In verse 28 we see that the owner was responsible for his animal. An ox that would gore another person so that they die, that ox needed to be killed. It was to be killed by stoning. The meat of that animal was not to be eaten. It would be a loss for the owner. The owner would not need to pay anything else. That would be quite a loss already.
If the owner knew that the ox was wild and that it had already shown its violence before and if others can prove the animal was not to be trusted but the owner did not keep it penned up, then the ox was to be stoned and the owner was also to be put to death.
The owner could redeem himself if the family of the dead person chose that route. There was no bickering over the charge. Whatever the family decided would be the price to be paid.
In verse 31 we see that it did not matter if it was a son or a daughter that was gored. Life has value. Whatever the judgment was that was placed upon the owner, he needed to pay it.
In verse 32 we see that the servant was also protected from such abuse. Since the servant was not a free person at that time, the master would be paid. The amount in this case was set by the LORD. Thirty shekels of silver was no small amount. The ox was also to be stoned in such a situation.
God is a God of order. He cares about human life. As we have noted before, human life is relatively cheap in Canada. It is not just criminals who do not value human life. Our governments also rank the value of a human life depending on who it is. The common citizen is not worth much. The elites are protected but the common person is just fodder to be used and compensation for a life taken can be quite minor.
God shows us how He values life and those who want to discredit the value of life will face God’s justice in the end. It is far better to honour the LORD and live by His standard now than to face His justice in the end and face an eternity in torment due to the rejection of God and the subsequent violence that occurs.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is marked as Sunday on our calendars. It is the day that was respected as a day to change focus, when I was a child. Semi trucks that did not carry perishable goods were not allowed to travel on major highways on Sunday when I was a child. Grocery stores were closed on Sundays. What changed? Sunday shopping became popular, not because it was a necessity that people be able to shop on Sunday. Sunday shopping became popular because stores put on sales on Sundays to lure people into their shops. People are greedy. Some might suggest people are frugal, but it has more to do with greed.
Canada in particular was never a “Christian” country. Yes there are some Bible verses on Parliament hill. I have not seen one politician who cares about that. Some years back one politician named Jake Epp defended keeping the name “God” in the preamble to the Charter Of Rights and Freedoms. This is the same Jake Epp who later helped promote the bringing of the Catholic church into his home town of Steinbach, Manitoba. That does not sound like the actions of a man who loves the Lord.
Today is the day when true born again Christians choose to reject the secularism of our day. Rather, they choose to get up and prepare to attend a true, Bible-believing local church. They do so because the love of God is in them. They are motivated by their love for God. They are not trying to impress others. They love the Lord and they love the fellowship of the saints.
Let us, those who are saved, take the opportunity the Lord has given us to meet together, seriously. Let us testify unto the Lord Jesus Christ by honouring this day as the first day of the week and the day that took on a special meaning when Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. God wants to bless us in spite of the paganism of our country and indeed the world.
Pastor Bartel