FBC Daily Devotional – April 30, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday to you. We're approaching the end of the week end of the work week today I trust for most of it most of us anyway

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And it's also the last day of the month. So we're wrapping up a work week wrapping up a month tomorrow beginning the month of May and Hope it'll be a merry month of May And then the following day is the

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Lord's Day. So looking forward to a good weekend. I hope you are Hope your week has gone.

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Well, and the Lord has used you in some way Through the course of the week and you've been faithful to do what he's called you to do

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Well in our reading today, we read this kind of an uncomfortable story in Leviticus chapter 24

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It's not uncomfortable to our ears. Anyway, our modern ears the account of this

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Young man don't know exactly how old he is but old enough to know better He's the son of an

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Israelite woman and an Egyptian man and This these two he was fighting with another man and it says the

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Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed and So he got caught in this

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Blasphemy and he's brought before Moses and the question is what do we do for him? What do we do about him?

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What what's his what's his punishment to be? So Moses goes to the Lord and says what should be the punishment for this offense and the

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Lord says to him take outside the camp him who is cursed and then all let all who heard him lay their hands on his head and Let all the congregation stone him put him to death and then the

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Lord explains You shall speak to the children of Israel saying whosoever curses his

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God shall bear His sin and whosoever blasphemes the name of the

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Lord shall surely be put to death Is that I make you a little uncomfortable so make you squirm a little bit to to hear of such a harsh punishment capital punishment for blasphemy,

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I mean In our day a capital punishment is such a rare thing and probably most people are

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Uncomfortable with it. They're they're probably opposed to it. Well except for maybe the mass murderer or somebody who is like a unabomber or you know

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Creates a terrorist attack, you know, then yeah, okay. Let's put that person to death, you know that they deserve to die

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But that's about it We've we've pretty much abandoned the notion of capital punishment in society for the vast majority of people and so this

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Punishment in our modern sensibilities if you will Seems to be rather harsh and cruel

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But I think that indicates more about our lack of respect and understanding of God than anything else

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Well, why is it that we don't consider Blasphemy to be such a horrific thing

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That's because we don't consider God to be such such a holy and transcendent being that's why we don't have the respect for God that that we ought to have and you know, we so It's frequently here the

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Lord's name taken in vain and It it doesn't even it doesn't even bother us and it doesn't even bother us it was just because it's so common you hear it all the time and You know, you have the little phrase you have the little letters

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OMG, you know and so forth and What does it stand for?

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It's a it's a shortened form of Taking the Lord's name in vain and it is such become such commonplace thing

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That to hear this kind of penalty. It seems so out of line

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Well, you know later on The Lord also gives the same punishment in verse 17 for anybody who murders

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He said who whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death capital punishment for the murder of an individual and again, our modern sensibilities don't like this and yet that also betrays

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I believe our lack of respect and Honor for the sanctity of human life.

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We don't value life human life like we should and Consequently, we've minimized the importance of The importance of capital punishment and just how egregious the crime of murder actually is

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You see I guess the principle that we need to get from this is that?

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the severity of the punishment Reflects the value of that which has been transgressed

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The severity of the punishment reflects the value of that which has been transgressed

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And we understand that principle on other, you know for other kinds of transgression, so for example

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Which which crime is going to carry the greater penalty? shoplifting a candy bar or shoplifting a diamond ring

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You see Why does the one create a greater? why does the one bring a greater penalty than the other because the candy bar is worth what maybe a buck a

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Diamond -ring may be worth several hundred dollars or more and there's built into our legal system even a

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Threshold of petty crime and so on and so forth and and and so we understand the principle

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But we don't apply it very well to some to some things like blasphemy or murder

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Am I suggesting that anybody who you know uses the little You know phrase

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OMG or whatever should be taken out in stone. I We're not we're not living in the

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Old Testament civil law of Israel But I do think we should consider it to be a serious thing

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And I think that we especially we as God's people should be very careful with our language

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And remember this this was a crime committed by one of God's people Somebody who should have known better and should have held

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God in high esteem and did not that's us. You see that's us we should we need to be the example setters here and be very careful that we respect

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God as As he should be respected just as we respect human life and the sanctity of life as it should be

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Respected as well. So Let's let's learn this principle that Again, the punishment the severity the punishment reflects the value of that which has been transgressed

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Let's avoid those kinds of transgressions our Father and our God I pray today that we would be a people who truly honor you and respect you and revere you as You are worthy of being revered and respected and I pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.

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Amen All right. Have a good rest of your Friday and a wonderful weekend. And if you can join us on the

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Lord's Day For in person, we'll have Sunday school 930 Bible study time as well as the morning service at at 1030