March 25, 2026 - Exodus 22 & Psalm 68:1-18

We read Exodus 22 and Psalm 68:1-18, then slow down to ask why these detailed laws matter for Christians who live under grace. We connect the commands to Jesus’ two great commandments and see how God’s holiness and compassion show up in both justice and worship. Our time in Psalm 68 nods to the Law given at Sinai and God's care for the fatherless and widow, with reminders of powerful deliverance.  

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bywording Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus 22. If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him. But if the sun has risen on him, there shall be blood guilt for him, he shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double. If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard. If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution. If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe, and it is stolen from the man's house, then if the thief is found, he shall pay double. If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, This is it, the case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor. If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep safe, and it dies, or is injured, or is driven away, without anyone seeing it, an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. The owner shall accept the oath, and he shall not make restitution. But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner. If it is torn by beasts, let him bring it as evidence. He shall not make restitution for what has been torn. If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution. If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution. If it was hired, it came for its hiring fee. If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins. You shall not permit a sorceress to live. Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any God, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction. You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows, and your children fatherless. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lenderer to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body, and what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people. You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest, and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother. On the eighth day you shall give it to me. You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Psalm sixty-eight, verses one through eighteen. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so sh you shall drive them away, as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God, but the righteous shall be glad, they shall exult before God, they shall be jubilant with joy. Sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord. Exult before him. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solidary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a parched land. O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earthquaked, the heavens poured down rain before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad, you restored your inheritance as it languished, your flock found a dwelling in it. In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy. The Lord gives the word. The women who announced the news are a great host. The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee. The women at home divide the spoil. Though you men lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold, when the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalman. O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan, O many peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan, why do you look with hatred, O many peaked mountain, at the mount of God desired for his abode? Yes, where the Lord will dwell forever. The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, the Lord is among them. Sinai is now in the sanctuary, you ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.

Why These Laws Still Teach

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Exodus twenty-two reminds me of those signs at playgrounds that say rules of play that everyone ignores completely. I'm on a my way. I mean, certainly the kids who are on the playground don't read them and they don't care anything for them. Uh, but the whole purpose of those rules are not to hinder play, actually, they are to maximize play and to ensure that kids can continue to play because uh they are avoiding harming themselves and uh playing in ways on the structures that would not be good.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So that's why the the yard assistants that at recess would tell me not to jump off the swings.

Two Great Commands Exercise

SPEAKER_00 7:27

That is exactly why, and I bet you you continued to jump, didn't you? No comment. Confess. That's right. Very political answer. But Exodus 22, the reason I say it, it reminds me of those signs is because it feels like one of those things that we just don't read. We don't pay attention to. Now, of course, I'm not advocating that we are to look at all of these laws and just try to implement them into our daily lives. Uh, we are not under the law, Paul says in Romans 6, we are under grace. But nevertheless, you can trace in Exodus 22 how all of these specific laws that again were given to a specific nation during a specific time, trace back to the two great commands that Jesus says all of the law and prophets hang. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And in fact, I want to do an exercise. I want to do something a little bit different today. I want you to read through Exodus 22 and take all of the commands that you read and put them under one of these categories or one of those two laws. Either put it under the first great command, which is to love the Lord our God with a love of heart, soul, mind, and strength, or put it under the second great command to love your neighbor as yourself. So I want you to pause the podcast right now and do that really quickly. Okay. Welcome back. Hopefully, you found that exercise helpful. Now I know some of you are in your car listening to this or on a jog or something like that, but hopefully you can get a Bible at some point and do that because you'll see very clearly that all of these commands do fall back to those two great commands. If we even start in verse one, Tyler, it says, If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. So if you're going to categorize that, first great command or the one like it. Doesn't love your neighborhood. This one's looking at neighbors and their and their property. Neighbors, okay. Let's let's choose uh another one. If a fi this is verse six, if fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution. Which one is that?

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I mean, unless God rained down fire from heaven, this looks like another uh neighborly relationship.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yes, absolutely. Uh there are different there are so many different um commands that connect back to the two great commands. Let's look at verse 28. You shall not revile God. I mean, this one's obviously pretty obvious. Which one uh which one is that? This one has to do with with God. Loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So the reason I wanted you to do that and for you to see that in Exodus 22, and really all the laws uh throughout the Old Testament is it it is a reflection of the character of God. His holiness is displayed through his law. In fact, even Paul in Romans refers to the law as perfect, he refers to the law as something that is good and something that is delightful. Now, of course, the law is condemning to us as humans because it exposes our sin and exposes, it kind of stirs up the water of our hearts. And it's kind of like when you tell your kids uh not to do something, and all of a sudden it seems like they want to do uh that very thing more than they did before. That's kind of the illustration and the analogy of what the law does for us. It condemns us, it stirs up our sinful hearts and it and it uh really exposes our need for a savior. Uh, but nevertheless, we see all of these laws serving a kind of a didactic purpose, meaning they they're teaching something about God, uh, but they also serve a practical sort of uh holy purpose for the nation of Israel to set them apart from other nations. Can you imagine some of the other nations like Babylon or Canaan, as an example, going to these lengths to care for one another and to care for the ox and the sheep and to care for all of the nitty-gritty of sort of the everyday life of an Israelite? Uh no, I mean, these are things that set the nation of Israel apart. While some other nations were marked uh by brutality and war and uh, you know, worship to Molech, where they would take uh newborn infants and place them into the hands of a bronze statue with fire burning underneath. I mean, just horrible things. The nation of Israel, because of these laws and the and the ways in which they built the society around them, it set them apart and showcased uh their earthly holiness as a means to reflect God's heavenly holiness. So I want you to read through the law kind of with that lens. And of course, uh, we're we're not dealing with these things in the same way. Uh, we have our own laws that would talk about property rights and if we harm someone else's cattle or something like that, we we'd have our own laws uh in this land that would govern how we are to do that, and we would not be bound by Exodus 22 in the same way. But nevertheless, it's helpful to see that the law as a whole serves that didactic purpose. It shows us who God is, it shows us his holiness, and it also sets apart the nation of Israel so that the surrounding nations could see an earthly example of holiness that was intended to be a mirror that reflected the heavenly holiness of the Lord. So while the law may be difficult to navigate through, and uh, we're just kind of getting started, Tyler, uh, with the law. It's only gonna get kind of weirder from here. Uh, I want you to maintain that purpose. And it's a good, it's a good thing to categorize the law. You remember how we talked about how the two great commands are at the top, and then we have the ten words or the ten commandments uh underneath, and then from there uh the 600 plus laws that come after. And uh the ten commandments serve as the as the constitution, it's the binding document for the nation of Israel, and all these nitty-gritty laws are kind of like the laws of the land here in America that are supposed to uphold and flow from the Constitution. So you can kind of see that working itself out already in in Exodus 22.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Well, speaking of the law, we're we're gonna get hints of the law and and the the origin of the law at Mount Sinai as we look at our psalm today, Psalm 68, in the first 18 verses, we see nods back to God leading his people through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, the the mountain of God, the God of the people of Israel. And this psalm is looking at God's enemies and and who can stand, who can unify, who can be uh so bold and so strong to stand before uh the great I am and have any any sniff of victory. No, they are all scattered. There is none that can stand before God, and um, we see uh allusions uh to chariots, and I'm just thinking of the chariots that were um eliminated, squashed out and drowned in the Red Sea, and uh just the the emphasis on God's might, God's power, and his um his protection that he provides, and the the the refuge that is not found for the people that uh oppose him and um his place is on high. We look to verse 18, the what the concluding verse of our passage today, though the psalm does go on, uh we see that God it ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train. We have some Exodus language, and um, as we look at the the those who are opposed to God, those who are rebellious and stand against God, uh, they stand no chance.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, and if you even notice in verse five, there is some overlap with what we just read in Exodus 22. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. And one of the laws that we read talked about uh the widow and the fatherless, and how if you mistreat them, uh God is going to respond with anger. We saw that in Exodus 22. We see that here in Psalm 68, verse uh five. And so we see just a consistent theme that God is, his character is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cares about those who are considered weak, who uh who are in need of protection and care. He is a holy God. It even says there again in verse five, is God in his holy habitation? And the law on earth is a earthly, kind of tangible expression of God's infinite heavenly holiness. And that, of course, was done imperfectly, but that is one of the reasons why God says, I will make you a kingdom of priests. They were intended. What does a priest do? Right? They represent the people on behalf of God or to God, I should say. They represent the people to God, they stand in the place of the people, they offer sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. And so they are a kingdom of priests. They were intended to be that for the world, representing the people. And ultimately, there was kind of a two-way uh street there where they would represent God to the world and they would represent the world to the people. Uh, they did that imperfectly. They often broke the covenant, they did all kinds of uh disobedience, and and even in Exodus, we're going to read soon uh about the golden calf that they erect and start violating uh the you know the Ten Commandments and things like that. But nevertheless, uh the the law shows and reflects the character of God and it sets the nation of Israel apart uh to showcase that they truly are God's people.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Well, isn't that um Moses' appeal to Pharaoh? We need to get out of here. God has called us so that we we may go worship him. Um that is that is God's instruction, and that is God's design for them is to be set apart, to be set separated from the nations, to be different, so that the world might know this God of the people of Israel.

Final Takeaways And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Absolutely. And so the law, again, while it may be challenging to work through, I want you just to keep in mind that kind of structure that we talked about, the two great commands at the top, the ten words or the ten commandments, and then all the rest of the nitty-gritty laws that we're kind of getting into right now being uh kind of things that unify with and are bound together by the ten commandments. That's the constitution of the nation of Israel. Hopefully that was helpful today. Hopefully you can uh even do that exercise of dividing those different laws into the two great commands and find some greater clarity there as you work through that. But thank you so much for joining us on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.