(Exodus) Exodus 22:1-2

I begin reading at verse 1 of Exodus 22. If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Now, don't ask me why five oxen should be restored for an ox or four sheep for a sheep, because I don't know, other than I would say that the sheep would be more valuable, actually, than the oxen would be.

And this we see working itself out. You remember, Zacchaeus said that if he'd taken anything from any man by false accusation, he'd restore him fourfold. Why did he say that? He was referring back, you see, to the Mosaic Law.

Now, our law today would say that a man would be given damages if someone destroys your property, and it could be an automobile or something else. Well, they don't have to give you five automobiles or four automobiles if they'd steal yours or destroy yours. But we just ask that they restore the same one or restore that of equal value.

But you see, this was a great protection that was put down, and I'm of the opinion it would be better had we made it like the Word of God is. The very interesting thing is that the Word of God seems to hit the nail on the head when we are dealing with human nature, whether it's back 4,000 B.C. or 2,000 A.D. Human nature's always the same, and God's always the same, and He deals with man on this kind of a basis. Now, verse 2, "...if a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him." That's self-protection.

I heard of the ridiculous thing that took place some time ago in this land, and I can't put my finger on it, and I didn't read about it. I hear about it on the news. But I was told that a thief was breaking into a man's place, and the man who lived there shot the thief, and the thief sued him for several thousand dollars damages.

And the thief won the judgment because the man shouldn't have shot him according to some asinine judge that we have today on the bench. And as a result, why, this poor man had to sell his property. Now, that meant that you cannot protect your property.

That is, you'd not be safe in your own home. Well, God protected the man's property, protected his home. That if a man is breaking in and it's necessary to kill the man, I wouldn't want to shoot a man breaking in unless it was absolutely necessary.

But I think a man is justified to protect his property, his home, and his loved ones. And as a result, why, there should be no judgment against that man at all. You see, these are basic principles, and it gives you law and order.

Had the social legislation been followed, that's given way back here in the book of Exodus, we wouldn't have the social problems that we're having on the streets and in the cities of the United States today, friends. You see, we have judges today who have been to Harvard Law School and affected by liberalism. And very candidly, we argue about whether a man has the ability to serve on the Supreme Court.

Yet, if a man's dishonest, we don't seem to raise any question about whether he can serve or not. But all the way through, the entire legal system is shot through with men today who are dealing with a legal system that was actually based on the Word of God, and they don't know how to handle it because they're so far from it themselves. And their entire background is such that they're not able to interpret it.

And may I just add this word. The Constitution of the United States was written by men. They were not Christian, all of them, very few of them were.

They were deists for the most time. But they had a certain respect for the Word of God. And I've heard a man recently say that Thomas Jefferson ridiculed the Bible.

No, he didn't. The quotations of Thomas Jefferson were that he had great respect for the Word of God. But the important thing is he didn't believe it.

He didn't follow it. The moral teachings that Thomas Jefferson wrote actually take the story of Jesus, but they leave out the miraculous altogether. But the important thing is this legal system just happened to be basic to our system in this country.

And now we have men who do not have that background. And we're in trouble today, and I mean deep trouble. And our entire system is being changed on that kind of a basis.

That's the reason this is so important through here.