Justice and mercy in the Old Testament is seen in how God delivers His laws and what the laws say.

<p>Justice and mercy in the Old Testament is seen in how God delivers His laws and what the laws say.</p>

Hope Channel

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2019: "The Least of These" : Ministering to Those in Need

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Jonathan Walter

01-God Created

Callie Williams

02-Blueprint for a Better World

Sebastien Braxton

03-Sabbath: A Day of Freedom

04-Mercy and Justice in Psalms and Proverbs

05-The Cry of the Prophets

06-Worship the Creator

07-Jesus and Those in Need

08-The Least of These

09-Ministry in the New Testament Church

10-Living the Gospel

11-Living the Advent Hope

12-To Love Mercy

13-A Community of Servants

The Hebrew Scriptures have these Old Testament laws that some are very, very old, some are very, very weird.

Should we keep them and what special insights do we have for today?

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

We're so glad you decided to set some time apart to spend time with us.

And we are so privileged for your presence to be with our conversation here today.

We're looking at the concepts of justice and mercy throughout the Bible.

And last week we looked at the book of, well not really the book of, 1 portion of the book of Genesis.

And we're now gonna look at Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And we're gonna have a word of prayer to the Lord to give us efficiency.

And so prayer will be given by Israel Ramos for the Old Testament and we'll get into the...

Thank you Father for this time that we have together and for this privilege that we have to study your Word be with us please we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Our starting verse is in Exodus chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 and Siku can you read that for us?

Exodus chapter 3 verse 17 which is after verse 15 and before verse 18.

We're just waiting for Israel to get to there because he doesn't know his Exodus 12.

Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me saying, I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt.

And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We're going to read a lot of other verses in the Old Testament, but Kelly, this particular verse really brings out something, a theme throughout the Old Testament.

Yeah, so well, first is God speaking to Moses and he's calling Moses to go deliver his people out of Egypt and Moses isn't really keen on that.

But anyways, so he's telling Moses how to introduce God back to his people.

And I think the theme that sticks out to me is the end of verse 16.

So he says, I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt.

Because God, it seems like God has been silent for hundreds of years with their sufferings.

Does he have any idea what we're going through?

But his first introduction, before he even says like, I'm gonna deliver you, I'll take you to a better place his first thing is I know what you're going through I've seen you and I visited you this goes this goes right this builds right on last last weeks or last episode in in creation and the creation narrative we have from the very very beginning of time you know God said and God saw so you have this this this picture of God from the very beginning, this introduction of God.

If you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you have an introduction of God as a God who speaks, a God who sees, a God who intervenes.

I mean, just look at all the different actions that God is doing in Genesis chapter 1.

And I think that the reason why that's critical for us is Because from the very beginning of time, God sets the foundation of, I am a God who sees.

All these things, it's like before you even get to Exodus, before you get to slavery, before you get to problems, this is the kind of God who I am in my nature.

And so God answers the problem even before the problem exists.

And that's the foundation that Genesis chapter 1 provides us for Exodus chapter 3.

And I think that I'm putting myself in the shoes of the Israelites hearing this message.

I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt.

There's something about feeling that somebody understands what you're going through, but not just understands, but somebody has a comprehension of the breadth of the situation, of the depth of the situation.

There's something in our humanity that longs to be understood, that longs to be recognized for a situation to be seen.

And the fact that God comes to Israel in this way and says, I have seen, he's speaking to their hearts.

He's saying that I understand what you're going through.

And even though it may seem, you know, in the darkness of your situation, sometimes you may feel alone, you may feel like nobody understands, but I understand and I have seen what you're going through.

Again, philosophy, they have this concept of solipsism, where the idea is that nobody, solipsism, where every human being is an island to themselves, and no 1 can ever really understand what you're going through.

And when you stop and you think too deeply about it, it can be kind of depressing.

Like whatever you're experiencing, no 1 can actually experience the experience that you're experiencing in the way that you're experiencing it because nobody is you and yet God comes to us and in an intimate way he says I am 1 who can understand I'm 1 who has comprehension of the situation that you're in in a way that nobody else can and that's what God says to Israel and not just not just that but also the words that that God uses here he says I have seen and I have said in other words this what I have seen and what I've said this is a journey that we've been on It's not I am now visiting you and I am now speaking to you, but I have been with you through this process.

And this is important to understand in our experience with God.

And then in verse 16, latter part, It says, I have surely visited you.

In other words, there is no doubt that God has been with His people is what He's trying to say.

And this is important because the presence of God or God's experience with us, the fact that my experience can intersect with God's experience, or I should say the opposite way, the fact that God's experience can intersect with my experience, it's crucial when you're going through difficult and challenging times, and it's crucial when you're going through some of the darkest moments of your life.

God has been through us with those moments, and not only that, but it says, I have said.

I have already provided a solution for your problem and your challenge.

There's different reasons why God would speak and would say, I have already said.

Sometimes this could be interpreted to mean that God is not listening and He already says, you know, it's like before you have a problem I already have the solution.

But this is not the experience that God is speaking of here.

What He is speaking of here is the fact that he has already had a solution for our problem which the intended result with that is that there's no need to fear.

God already has a solution, he already knows our problem and because of these 2 things then there's no need to fear for what is in the future.

This picture that's emerging from this text is that God is such a relational entity that because the Israelites are in trouble, God can say, hey, I've got this thing covered, or I'll solve this for you.

He doesn't come from that angle right away.

I'd like to bring your attention to verse 7, where it's kind of a preamble to this passage we just read.

But verse 7 of Exodus 3, the Bible says, the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

There's this dual element of seeing and hearing.

For if every time in the Bible, God says, I see you, and that's kind of a cultural meme today, you know, I see you, God says, I see you and that's kind of a cultural meme today you know I see you God says I see you and I hear you and that foundation is is laid first.

You see all the times in the Old Testament, I'm thinking of Hagar or even Leah, the older sister in their times of injustice.

And then like, I know now that you have heard me.

Or where Leah, when she had her firstborn son, she says, Reuben, which means see, a son.

And her secondborn, Shimeon, like, you have heard me.

There's this kind of like seeing and hearing thing.

And such a relational God, that God doesn't say, maybe it's kind of a male thing for me and in my marriage I'm more of the female and my wife is more the male, but I want to be heard and I want to be seen, I want to, do you understand when I'm saying I want that to be laid first and when my wife is like let's just solve the problem and move on.

And I think a lot of guys out there would identify with that and a lot of ladies would identify with what I'm saying.

But like God is God, both, we see both things.

And then because he sees and because he hears, he knows.

Because of that, then he starts actioning, I have said, and he starts moving things around.

Series

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2019: "The Least of These" : Ministering to Those in Need

02-Blueprint for a Better World

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

InVerse 1st Quarter 2024: Jesus & Liberty

11 The Final Tyranny

28m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2021: The Promise, God's Everlasting Covenant

07 Old Vs. New

27m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2021: Deuteronomy

08 Holy to the Lord

27m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

12-Power of Remembrance

28m

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

07 The Endurance of Suffering

29m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2023: Adventist Heritage

09 The Gospel in Adventism

29m

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2024: Stories that Transform

07 The Wedding Garment

29m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

06-Through External Opposition: Watchfulness

28m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

10-Successors and Ancestors

28m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2022: The Sabbath

01 Beginnings and Endings

27m

InVerse 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

02 The Genesis of Satan

29m

InVerse 1st Quarter 2024: Jesus & Liberty

09 The Persecuted Church

28m

Sound Doctrine