Fair Practices for God's People

Today's Reading:

• Exodus 21:22 - 23:13
• Proverbs 7:6 - 23

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Exodus 21:22 - 23:13
Today's reading consisted of a list of laws and fair practices for God's people to follow.  I'd say that these laws and practices are pretty much what we would think of as fair practices.  I like verses 21:23-25:

The punishment must match the injury: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

I don't know what I liked so much about that verse except how it narrows the retribution down even to bruises.  There are many passages about how to handle disputes about property, both borrowed and stolen. 

One thing that really stuck out to me was verse 22:19, where it says that anyone who takes part in bestiality must be put to death.  I know it's a really sick thing to do but I guess it really is an abomination to the Lord.  I don't know why that stuck out, I guess just because it obviously needed to be accounted for in the laws. 

Everyone always says how bad the world is getting -- it's not the same place it used to be and the people are worse than they used to be -- but with all my reading so far I'm not sure that's really the truth of the matter. 

The world has suffered the same problems and the same types of crimes since the fall of Adam and Eve.  The Lord has already destroyed the world once and has destroyed towns and populations on numerous occasions.  I think there's just more people to go around than there used to be and that we have more of a global awareness then we ever have before.  The world is a harsh place, but the Lord is just and fair.  Thank God I have God on my side!

Proverbs 7:6 - 23
Here there are more strong warnings about immorality.  This one tells the story of a man who was seduced by a woman and it led to his death.  We can steal and live (as long as we pay retribution), we can hurt another and live (as long as we don't purposely kill them) but there are really strong warnings on the sexual sins. 

From what I have read so far, nothing else will destroy and shame your entire life the way an affair would.  And that's the truth, right?  Some of the biggest scandals are sexual in nature, from public affairs to molestation cases to prostitution.  Don't fall victim to pleasure that is only temporary.