The Law as a Lamp: Understanding God’s Justice and Mercy Through the Torah

In this episode of The Scripture Study Podcast, Susan Petersen and Cindy Madsen explore how the Torah, the Bible, and the Old Testament reveal what is good, true, and holy. Focusing on God’s covenant with Israel in Exodus, they discuss how obedience and covenant faithfulness transform God’s people into His treasured possession and a kingdom of priests. Drawing on insights from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Rashi, and other scholars, the hosts examine the law’s role in shaping holiness, justice, compassion, and everyday social ethics, showing how God’s presence is found not only in sacred spaces but also in the details of daily life.

Susan and Cindy also highlight the continuity between the Old and New Testaments through Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, exploring themes such as the Golden Rule, righteous judgment, mercy, and covenant love. They encourage listeners to view God’s commandments as a gift rather than a burden, to seek understanding through faithful questions, and to recognize that Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill and deepen its divine purpose.


00:00 Introduction
00:41 God's Covenant with Israel
05:30 The Law Teaches Holiness
10:02 Personal Experiences with God
15:32 The Law Belongs to Everyone
19:00 The Law as a Gift
27:58 Jesus's Teachings on Judgment
34:52 The Golden Rule as a Moral Guide
40:10 God's Righteous Judgment
42:39 Submitting to a Righteous King

Join Us

The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!


Resources

Instagram (Susan Petersen)
https://www.instagram.com/susan.m.petersen/

Books and Texts

The Babylonian Talmud
https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud

Proverbs 6:23
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+6%3A23&version=NIV

Psalm 119:19–20
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+119%3A19-20&version=NIV

Matthew 5:17
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A17&version=NIV

Doctrine and Covenants 94:10–11
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/94

Videos and Lectures

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
https://rabbisacks.org/videos/

Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rashi

Notable Quotes

"The law does not belong to the lawyers alone." — Rashi
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rashi

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be sho

Join Us

The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Scripture Study Podcast. I'm Susan Peterson and I'm Cindy Madsen. We're so glad you're here with us. The Scripture Study Podcast is designed to be your midweek Bible boost. Let's dig in.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Okay, so Cindy, yes. We've talked a lot about philosophy, moral relativism, transcendentals. Got it. How does the Torah, the Bible, the Old Testament reflect the good and the true?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

That is a great question. All right. And to answer it, we're going to start out in Exodus 19:5, which says, Now then, if you will obey me faithfully and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is mine, but you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So in order to be a kingdom of priests, in order to be a holy nation, we have to obey God. We have to keep his commandments, we have to keep his covenant, right? This isn't us setting the terms, this is God setting the terms. And this is the first mention of the covenant in the Exodus narrative. Okay, we had it in the Genesis narrative, but in the Exodus narrative, this is the first mention. And so we have a new dimension that's introduced into the relationship between God and Israel. And that new dimension are the commandments and the stipulations or the requirements or the provisions, in other words, the law that is about to be set forth. It is the how of the Ten Commandments. How do you live out the broad vision of the commandments in the nitty-gritty of the everyday life? So we learn from this verse that if Israel obeys God's covenant, they shall be his treasured possession. And the Hebrew word for this is Segullah. And it originally denoted valued property to which one had an exclusive right of possession. So for example, in 1 Chronicles 29, 3, it says, Now to show my commitment to the temple of my God, I donate my personal treasure, Segella, of gold and silver to the temple of my God, in addition to all that I have already supplied for this holy temple.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

But then that goes the law of the sacrifice that we make in our temple. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

We sacrifice our treasured possessions in order to become God's treasured possessions. Yes. And a lot of times our treasured possessions aren't tangible. No, there are ideas of what we should be able to do. Yeah. They are ideas of maybe what our culture tells us is right and wrong. And God says, no. Yeah. Our culture's idea of what is right is not my idea of what is right.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Well, it's also holding on to hurts and not giving us sacrifice our need for vengeance. Yes. We said, well, I'm going to give it to you, God.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah. I'm going to let you do it because I'll forgive. Yeah, and because it's his. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So it then came, this idea of Segullah, it then came to be used in a figurative way in theological and political contexts in the ancient Near East. So, for example, a royal seal, a ban of Alakha, designates its owner as the Siklitum, which is the Akkadian word for Segulah. So the Siklutum of the God, his servant and his beloved. A letter from a Hittite sovereign to the king of Ugarit characterizes his vassal as his servant or his Sedib or his treasured possession. So the biblical description of Israel as God's Segulah or as his Am, which Am means people, Am Segulah, his treasured people, as we just read about in Exodus, is also, he also says this in Deuteronomy. You're going to see it in Deuteronomy 7, 14, and 26. So his treasured possession, his treasured people, it expresses God's special covenantal relationship with Israel and his love for his people. And at the same time, these biblical texts all uniquely emphasize the inextricable association between being God's secular and the pursuit of holiness. So the other important thing that we learn from this verse is that God's ideal is that Israel was to be a kingdom of priests. So the priest was set apart in a very distinctive way of life. And he was consecrated to the service of God. It is all service. Right. So the striving for holiness in the life of the people is supposed to be the hallmark of Israel's existence. Time and again, Leviticus will repeat this exhortation. Holiness is to be achieved by the human imitation of God's attributes. So the priests are called to be holy, but this is a kingdom of priests. Ideally, everyone is to be holy. So Leviticus 19:1, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And in case you think, well, that's an old testament thing, Peter repeats it in the New Testament. He says in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 through 16, he says, This therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct. Since it is written, and here he's quoting Leviticus, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So the law exists to teach Israel how to be holy, how to image God, how to reflect his image out into the world. So what I hope to be able to do is to show you why the law part of Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy is so important and how it still applies to you. And also that it wasn't done away with in the New Testament. In fact, Jesus' ethics, which are found most directly in the Sermon on the Mount, but also throughout the Synoptic Gospels, are built on the foundation of the Old Testament, which makes sense, right? Because Jesus, Jehovah, is the one who gave it. Yeah. So we've just gone through the super exciting narrative when the people have come to Mount Sinai, right? We've got thunder and lightning. Don't reach the mountain or you will die. And Moses talks with God face to face in the golden calf debacle and smashing the Ten Commandments. And then Moses goes back up the mountain to get a new set of stone tablets of, whoo, we're breathless by the end of the narrative, right? Yeah. And then God provides these detailed civil laws for a new society that's just been freed from slavery and is trying to learn how to function as a nation. And these laws cover everything from property rights to personal injury to how to treat a slave. There are laws on theft and laws on loan. There are laws on keeping seasonal festivals. There's law against mixing meat and milk. You may have heard about that with Orthodox Judaism. There are laws on prayer. We have laws that focus on creating a fair court system and protecting the most vulnerable, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan. Israel's reminded that they too were once strangers in Egypt. So by placing these everyday rules about these everyday rules right after the Ten Commandments, this shows that God cares about the details of social justice just as much as the big ideas. So back to Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, I quoted earlier, he knows that as Judaism's great ideas come from God, so do the details. There are those who believe that what is holy in Judaism is its broad vision, justice, freedom, compassion, most powerfully expressed at Sinai. But Judaism insists that God is found not only in the ideals, but also in the practical laws. Freedom is not just an idea, it means concrete protections. In an ancient world where slavery was accepted, the Torah limited it, gave slaves a rest on Shabbat, and required their release. These laws did not abolish slavery instantly, but they transformed it. Slavery became a temporary condition, not a permanent identity. In Judaism, God is not only in heaven or in philosophy, but God is in everyday life. God is in the details. Without that vision, the law is blind. But without the details, the vision floats in heaven. With them, the divine presence is brought down to earth where we need it most. Close quote.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

I love that one.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Isn't that beautiful?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, and I mean, it's my favorite way that God shows up in my life, in my friends' lives, in everyone's life, is in the little things that only mean something to you. That's my favorite way. I love to say that I heard this from some of my Christian friends that he's an on-time God.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Oh, I meant that.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

And that's one of my favorite, like he always shows up right when you're about ready to let go of the rope, right when Peter falls through the water, like all these things, but he doesn't show you his power. He doesn't show you how much you can handle, he doesn't show you his love. And usually it's done through other people, which is also my favorite. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

I love that. In fact, I was telling Susan earlier, I was telling you that every time that I'm thinking, oh, this is taking so much time to prepare for the podcast. Is this the way God wants me to do this? Every single time I have thought of that, God has brought somebody to me. Shout out to my friend Margie, who just did it a few days ago for me, where she said, Cindy, I love the podcast. It's really strengthened my testimony. Okay, you know, we can keep doing this. My daughter Caroline was telling me that her husband said, You know, I think we should get a cat. And Caroline's like, Yeah, that would be great. And then that afternoon, her friend Carrie texted her and said, Hey, so-and-so has some cats. Would you like a couple? And she said, Isn't God gracious? We wanted to get these kittens, we've caught them. And she said, My whole life is happier now.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

A beautiful thing. On time. He's on time. Yeah, it's just absolutely wonderful. So the Torah's vision of justice is rooted not in abstract theory, but in Jewish memory. Do not oppress a stranger. You know what it is to be a stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt. Jewish law grows out of lived experience and the moral responsibility to build a different kind of society, one that is based on human dignity and the image of God. And we should feel this way also. We should remember that the early saints had persecution, mob violence, theft of property, endless frivolous lawsuits, and the government-sanctioned attempt to annihilate us with the infamous extermination order. We should remember that. And therefore, we should extend justice, kindness, and love to those with whom we may disagree. As President Oakst just told us in the April General Conference, each of us can strive to follow our Savior and His teachings about how to relate to one another. This does not mean surrendering our values. The covenants we have made inevitably position us as devoted participants in the eternal contest between truth and error. We balance our various responsibilities, but as followers of Christ, we should seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed. The prophet Joseph Smith taught that we should pour forth love to all people. Speaking of our Savior, the Apostle John wrote, We love him because he first loved us. We can follow the example of Jesus Christ, who is our role model, by choosing to love others, even if they show little or no love toward us. He declared, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Close quote. So President Oakes also said that in that same talk. He said, in a democratic government, we should seek fairness for all. And the Torah also insists on fairness in courts of law. No favoritism, no mob pressure, no bending justice for convenience. God is found not only in the soul, but God is found in the public square. God should be found, or he is found, and we should find him in the marketplaces, in the courts, in all systems of power. There must be no gap, as Jonathan Sachs said, between the meeting place of people and the meeting place of God. And I wonder for us, is there a gap between the ideals of our temple and the reality of life? Do we often have a Sunday-only idea or a temple-only ideal? Or does it extend into our everyday life? And when we lived in England, when you go to get onto the subway, they would always say, mind the gap, right? The space that's in between the platform and the floor of the subway as you step into.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And this has been used for everyone loves this. It's such a good object lesson. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

It is. We need to find that gap.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah. And I thought when you were saying that, I nodded and I said yes, because how many times you go to the temple and then you come out and you get in a fight with someone? Yep. You're driving home from church and your kids are fighting, and it's like, I just felt the spirit, but that's not what we're talking about. That is life. And that is almost there to remind you that the experience you had there, you can pull into life, but it is not being two different people in two different places. That's exactly being the same person no matter where you are.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Yes, you should be the same person in the board meeting that you are professing to be at the sacrament table. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

And we should offer a lot of grace on that to ourselves and others. Yes, because that is a practice that you need to learn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

And that's why we come out of Leviticus with 600 laws, because God knows it's a hard one. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So Rabbi Solomon bin Isaac or Shlomo Itzakhi. There we go. There you go. You got it. He is known as Rashi, and that's based on the acronym of his Hebrew initials. I'm sure a lot of you have heard that. Well, Rashi said this, so that's what he is. Okay. He's probably one of the most influential Jewish commentators in history. He was born in northern France in 1040. And he's so he's medieval. His best known works are his comprehensive commentaries on the Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. And all editions of the Talmud published since the 1520s have included Rashi's commentary in the margins. His commentaries on the Bible have become a foundational element of Jewish education to this day, and they're often taught side by side with the Torah. So he is super influential. But anyway, Rashi said that the law does not belong to the lawyers alone. In other words, not our idea of lawyers, but the Jewish teachers. It belongs to everyone. Rashi insists that laws must be taught so people understand them, not merely repeat them. And this idea later gave rise to what is called the Shulchan Aru, which is literally the laid table. And it's called the laid table to suggest that the laws are prepared and ready for the reader to consume, much like a feast is laid out on a table. From the earliest times, the Judaism expected every Jew to know the law. Legal knowledge was not the property of an elite. It was, they said, the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. And they looked at it as a feast. It was a feast of good things. So in preparing for today's podcast, I was listening to a lecture by a rabbi, and he said, just this afternoon, I was in a Beit Midrash. So Beit Midrash is the school, a school of like a Yeshiva, a school of morning, a Beit Midrash. And I saw little groupings of people, and I saw individuals studying on their own. And I said the beautiful sounds of Kol Torah, which means the voice of the Torah. Jews of all ages and all backgrounds at all stages of life, not just professional rabbis and teachers, lawyers and doctors and retirees were sitting and studying Torah. And where else do you see this? Can you point in America to a place where people say, bring your copy of the Constitution or bring your civil law, your tort law, your criminal law books, and let's read them. Let's analyze those. Let's study them. He said this may be a hobby for some, but it is not far-reaching. But for us, the Jews, it is meant to be normal, universal. Torah is everyone's birthright. It is accessible to all. It is a beautiful thing. Remember, the law reflects the character of the lawgiver. So if you want to know God, who he is, what he is about, then study the law. If you want to know God, study the law. As the rabbis say, you look at it, you turn it, and you turn it and you turn it. You look at all the facets of the law to come to know the lawgiver. Yeah, I love it. So a lot of times in the Old Testament, the law is spoken of as this wonderful gift from God. If you think of it that way, no, most of us don't, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Um, I have learned as I've gotten older to think of it that way. Yes. When I was younger, yes, it was harder for me because I am a tiny bit rebellious. We all are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

It is the natural state of every human. Yes, and so fallen.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah. And so I, you know, like I have to make sure the stove's hot, and then I have to make sure it's hot again. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

No, rebellion is our natural state. We naturally want to rebel against God. The trick is what we're here to do is to learn how to submit to God. That is really hard. I know I bring this up a lot of times, but it's the natural man is an enemy to God, right? He rebels against God and has been since the beginning, right? Since the fall and will be forever, unless, and here it is, he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. It's only through yielding, we completely re-yield to God, and the Holy Spirit helps us in this. Also we're able to submit.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

When I was younger, the culture of the church was that you couldn't really ask a lot of questions about the law. You kind of just needed to follow along in some places. I'm not saying every place, but in the place where where I grew up. And I think God is so not afraid of our questions. It's not that there are no, you can ask as many questions to him about the law. And since I've developed that relationship where I feel like I can ask questions to him and say, why is this this way? What does it mean? And I learned so much more about the law and I'm so much happier to keep it.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I think it's a really good point. I think that I may have said this earlier on another podcast, but the problem with layman and limul is that they murmured against God. If you look at the Psalms, the Psalms are murmuring or complaining to God. Yeah. So God's totally fine if you are sitting there complaining to him.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yeah, he's not threatened by it at all. He doesn't care. Don't complain to him. In fact, he'd love to talk about it. Yeah, just like if your kids have a complaint or your spouse or whatever. Yes, he wants that relationship with you.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

His problem is when you start complaining against him. And not only do you start complaining against him, you're doing it to everybody you see.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Yeah, because you're trying to get people to say, Yeah, no, that's terrible. I can't believe you have to do that. And like, yeah, that's not covenant relationship.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

It is not. You are not only undermining God, you are undermining your fellow believers. So that's where you've got a problem, right? Yeah. So no, God loves to hear our questions and he's happy to hear our complaints. And one of the best things in the world is just go read the Psalms because, man, it's got your complaints already verbalized. You just pray them right up to God. You know, that's why I do that all the time. Yes, I love that. Right. So in the Torah, like I said, the law is this wonderful gift. And in Proverbs 6 23, it says this. The mitzvah, the law, is a lamp. Oh, I love that. Yeah, the commandments are a lamp. The Torah is light and reproofs or criticisms from God that discipline are the way to life. That's Proverbs 623. Okay, here's Psalm 119, 19 through 20. Though I'm just a wanderer on earth, don't hide your mitzvot from me, your commandments. I am continually consumed with longing for your mishpata. So that comes Mishpat. It spans this whole range from judgment, justice, ordinances, legal rights. I'm continually consumed with longing for your rulings, your judgment. It's a word that is most often used when scripture speaks of the Lord's own just character and the standards by which human society is to be ordered. From the first books of Moses to the closing lines of Malachi, the word underscores that right order is rooted in the very being of God. So all his ways are justice. So Mishpat exists outside of me. It's not what I think of right as right, it's God's moral order. So thinking about some laws that are in the chapters that we don't read for Come Follow Me, I just want to look at specifically this idea of what's called lexalianis or the principle of an eye for an eye, eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. So we often think that this principle of lexalianus has been done away with, and it has sort of. Okay, so when Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount, he said in Matthew 5, starting with verse 38, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer. But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, give him your coat also. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you. That's the end of the verses. Where does this come from? Well, it comes from Exodus. It comes from Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24. I'm going to read it from Leviticus. I'm going to start with verse 17. If a man beats any person to death, he must be put to death. One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, life for life. If a man inflicts an injury on his fellow citizen, just as he is done, it must be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he inflicts an injury on another person, that same injury must be inflicted on him. One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it. Okay, here we see the envelope structure, right? Yes. Right. But one who beats a person to death must be put to death. There will be one regulation for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God. So we don't often read the verse in context, but what you can see is this this is describing justice. What is a fair recompense for losses? And it is an egalitarian justice. There's not one standard for foreigners or resident aliens, is another thing you might see them called, right? There's not one standard for them and one for the citizens of Israel, right? There's not one standard for the outsiders and one standard for the in standard for the insiders. Everyone is treated the same. If you think about the Sermon on the Mount, what it is, which is a system of ethics, is asking how do we live within the kingdom of God? And he sums up the sermon in chapter 7, verse 12, with what has come to be known as the golden rule. It says, Therefore, in everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophet. Is the golden rule unique to Jesus? And the answer is no. It has its roots in the Old Testament, specifically Leviticus 19, verse 18, which says, You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. Which of course should sound familiar to us because that's what Jesus says. But assumed in this statement is that one treats oneself with dignity and respect. Therefore, the application of this command is to love your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to love you. And I think the golden rule. So what's interesting is that this verse in Leviticus is embedded within a section about justice, love, and propriety. So starting in verse 15, you must not deal unjustly in judgment. You must neither show partiality to the poor man nor honor the rich, right? Egalitarian. The poor and the rich are treated equally. You don't give the poor a break because they're poor, but you also don't give the rich a break because they're rich or can pay you off. You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. Verse 16, you must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the Lord. You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So what's interesting is that the section of scripture that opens in Matthew chapter 7 is also about judgment and justice. It says this do not judge so that you will not be judged, or judge not so that you won't be judged. Okay. So the point of the statement, though, and this is often thrown out, oh, don't judge, don't judge. Okay, but people are missing the whole point of the statement. The point of the statement, do not judge that you will not be judged, is that the standards that we apply to others are the standards that God will apply to us. And we know that is what it means because verse two says, For by the standard you judge, you will be judged. By the measure you meet, that will be the measure by which you will receive. So what is that? That is Lex Talianus. God will judge you based on how you judge others. And then Jesus goes on to talk about how we might be mistaken in our judgment. He says, This, why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye while there is a beam in your own? You hypocrite, he says. Then he says this, first remove the beam from your own eye. Then, why are you doing that? Then you can see clearly, not to just dismiss the neighbor, but to remove the speck from your brother's eye. That he's gonna go on and he's gonna say to us, You've got to be able to judge here. Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before swine, before pigs. Otherwise, they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. So Jesus is not telling us not to judge, Jesus is telling us how to judge. And what we should be keeping in mind is that the measure that we use to judge someone will be the measure that will be used to judge us. And so we should be merciful. And again, Old Testament, Micah, it says, He hath showed you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you except to do justly, right? You're supposed to be just to love mercy, which actually the word is chesed, and to walk humbly with thy God. So we were talking earlier, like chesed saturates the Hebrew scriptures, it's the hallmark of God's covenantal character, it's the standard for covenantal response among his people. So frequently in the Bible, it's translated as love and devotion, and it combines steadfast loyalty, it combines mercy, kindness, and relational faithfulness. Of its approximate 247 occurrences, over half lie in the Psalms, the songs, the poems. However, it shapes every major section in the Old Testament from the Torah to the post-exilic books. In an article that I read by Eric John K. Marlowe, he writes, quote, the rule tutors us in all commandments respecting our neighbor, thereby relieving us the need of constant guidance from parents, teachers, or preachers, right? The law or the golden rule guides us. It gives us the guidance we need so that we don't always have to have someone telling us what to do. The teaching is ingenious because it provides each individual, regardless of status or education, a moral searchlight that reveals how to treat one another. Instead of emphasizing not doing, his iteration of the rule invites us to consider how we want to be treated and then act that way toward others. Beyond restraint, Jesus' positive assertion of the golden rule invites us to proactively consider and then do that which benefits another close quote.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

I was thinking as you're talking about the moat and the beam, I learned this when I was really young and it stayed with me forever. I think it's not a good story. It's a hey, take the beam out of your eye first, then you can see your neighbor. Well, what happens when you actually take the beam out of your eye? You look at your neighbor and you're like, seems like they have it together. So I actually don't even need to talk about whatever it is. You know, I see it like a practical application is like when I was young and I didn't have kids, and I'd see people in the store struggling with their toddler, and I'd think that's never gonna be me. And then you have a toddler and you think peace is so much more important than clothes, whatever it is, you know what I mean? And so it is through your gained experience you have compassion. And that is what he's actually teaching us there, that look to yourself first, and then you're gonna be able to see everyone else more clearly, and you'll realize, hey, we're all doing the best we can.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yeah, no, that's true. But it's also saying, like sometimes, because we just read that it does say in the Torah that if you do see someone who is doing something wrong, you should correct them so they don't continue doing something wrong.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

But before you take that on yourself to correct them, then because he said you must surely reprove your fellow citizens so that you do not incur sin on account of them, right? Yeah. So that you're not held accountable for not correcting them or making sure they understand exactly what they're doing. Yeah. But he's saying you need to look within yourself completely, make sure that you are in right relationship with God. Yeah. So that you can do this in a way that is just, right? And that is giving them the most benefit of the doubt, right? And yet sometimes there are situations where somebody may really be going off the path, and you want to gently pull them back, and it may be mistaken ideas that they have, yeah. But you're putting yourself in a place of humility to do that, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yes, and it should always be invited in with the spirit. Like I would never go on that mission alone. Never. No, never. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

So the golden rule then works with the interpersonal teachings of Jesus by providing us a guide. It's a sort of litmus test for determining proper application. Harry J. Ginsler said the golden rule does not replace regular moral norms, it only prescribes consistency. And here's he's going to speak right to what we were talking about: that our actions toward one another not be out of harmony with our desires. It tests our moral coherence, right? If we violate the golden rule, then we are violating the spirit of fairness and concern that should lie at the heart of morality. Close quote. The rule's usefulness, therefore, hinges on our sincerity. It asks that we look outside of ourselves, that we trade selfishness for sympathy, and that we place other people on equal ground. We are not better than them, right? Yeah. That's why we're taking that beam out of our eye. We are recognizing that we all have these things that are preventing us from seeing. Yeah. And ours might be a really big thing that we need to get rid of. President Ezra Tap Benson, he referred to the golden rule as the formula for successful relationships, right? So when looked at in this way, think about what we are doing. We are imaging God because the golden rule engages us in a higher perspective. It engages us in God's perspective, from which our kinship with all of mankind, all of humanity is evident. You are not my biological sister.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

No, but we are sisters.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Of course, we are. Yes. Within our premortal relationship and our covenant relationship, you are my sister. And because of that, when I look at you, that's how I need to treat you, like as a part of me.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah. Right? Yeah.

unknown 37:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

God, He didn't just give this law and say, Good luck. In the New Testament, He lives this law, He sacrifices Himself for us. He's perfect. He did not ever have a moat or a beam in his eye, but He knows how we feel. That's exactly it. Yeah. And that's what He's asking us to do. Just consider it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

And remember, this person is an image bearer.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Just like I'm an image bearer, you are an image bearer of God. And the mercy is shown to you. Yeah. Show to them. Yes. Yes. Try to see the divine in this person because it's there. Yes. I'm going to totally grant. There are people out there who are really not good people. Sure. And there may not be a very big spark of divinity in them. But there is a spark. Yeah. There is a spark. And we can find we can find that if you look hard enough. So then Gensler concludes: quote, to pursue this higher perspective is to risk encountering the divine and the realization that every step along the forward path is illumined by the Creator. And I just love that. So to be clear, in matters that have to do with the protection of life, property, and certain rights, the law of Moses was very firm. But those commandments in the law, such as an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, meant justice, not vengeance. It's not talking about vengeance. And that's really important because remember, the laws reflect the character of the lawgiver.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yeah, and it's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

It's beautiful. No, just that's it.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Okay. So the Bible verse where Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law. Yeah. It's found in Matthew 5, 17. And it reads, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And this statement highlights that Jesus brought the Old Testament prophecies to completion. And the word there is pleurao. And it means that it's God's action of filling up what is lacking, whether prophecy or time or righteousness or joy or the spirit or the church itself. It is this divinely ordained completeness. It can also mean kind of to level up. I'm going to level up the Old Testament laws. I'm going to level it up. But he doesn't do away with it. The letters to the churches in the book of Revelation. Okay. The fourth of the seven letters is the letter to Thyatira. And so in Revelation chapter 2, verse 25, this is what he says. I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching, this teaching is it's an apostasy, it's an apostate teaching that's being promoted by this woman. So to the rest of you who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned the so-called deep secrets of Satan, to you I say, I do not put any additional burden on you. However, hold on to what you have until I come, and to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations. I think that the key to this is found in Doctrine and Covenants 94, 10 through 11, where it says, I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive. God knows us all. He knows our hearts and our minds.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

And your situation and everything about you, right? Yeah, and who you talk to. Yeah, all the things. Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

So he can forgive who he will forgive, but because we don't know that, because we only have the outside of us, he says it is required to forgive all men. And you ought to say in your hearts, let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds. Right? That's Lexalianus, right there, which God has said is what he will do. So back to the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. The Old Testament vocabulary of mercy is often expressed using the word, the Hebrew word Hesed, right? Steadfast love, kindness, right? It's combining all these aspects of loyalty, mercy, kindness, yeah, relational faithfulness. It's all there. So also used to describe God is Rahamin, which means compassion and also mercy. And that's the foundation. The Lord reveals himself to Moses as gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion, or Hesed and faithfulness, and that's Exodus 34. That's God describing his character. This is what I am like, because that's what God is like. Only God can pronounce final judgment, right? He's the only one who can not only see the deed, but he searches the hearts and the minds. If he is angry with one's behavior, it is a righteous anger. If he is merciful, it is a righteous mercy. If he is impartial, it's because he righteously loves. He is a just judge because he exercises righteous judgment. He is our sovereign king. And we can safely and trustingly bow the knee to him. We can completely submit to him because he is a Melchizedek. He's Melchizedek. Melchi, my king, Zedek, is righteous or is righteousness. Our king is the embodiment of truth, of good. He is the embodiment of righteousness. So we can bow to him, we can submit to him as our head because we can trust that he is righteous.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Yeah. Oh, love it. Okay, guys. Well, thank you for listening, and we will see you here next time. Have a good day. Thank you for listening to the Scripture Study Podcast, your midweek Bible boost. Everything we mentioned on this podcast, if we said there would be a link to it, it is in the show notes wherever you find your podcast. Cindy Madsen currently does not believe in or participate in social media. However, if you would like to follow along with Susan Peterson, she can be found on Instagram at susan.m.peterson. Have a good week.