Admonition Podcast

In this lesson, we explore the biblical principles of God's ownership over everything, including land, possessions, and even our lives, as outlined in Exodus and other scriptures. We discuss how recognizing God's sovereignty influences our worship, sacrifice, and attitude towards material blessings.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and overview of biblical principles
02:25 God's laws for land and the Sabbath year
04:19 The significance of not mentioning other gods
12:36 Feasts of unleavened bread, harvest, and first fruits
19:00 The meaning of the feast of first fruits
28:41 God's ownership of children and livestock
36:02 The firstborn and redemption in Israel
39:04 God's gifts and our response in James
41:22 Our dependence on God's sovereignty
43:44 The danger of greed and the rich fool

Creators and Guests

Host
Aaron Cozort

What is Admonition Podcast?

The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Good evening.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Exodus.

Exodus chapter twenty-three.

Let's begin with a word of prayer.

Gracious Father in Heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day that you've
blessed us with, for the opportunities that we have this day, for the ability that we

have, the energy we have to be able to serve you.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who are ill, those who are struggling with poor
health, those who have chronic diseases.

And Lord, we pray that you give them strength.

We pray that you be with those who are going through hardships of other sorts, that you
give them the courage and the strength to walk before you in faithfulness and always serve

you in a way that's right in your sight.

Lord, we pray for those who have upcoming procedures.

We pray especially for Eric that his procedure tomorrow will go well.

Pray for those who are sorrowing over lost loved ones, and we pray that you give them
comfort and strength, and may they seek that comfort and strength through your word.

Lord, we strive always to walk in the light as you are in the light.

But we know sometimes we sin and fall short of your glory.

We pray that when we do so and when we are willing to repent of those things, that you
will forgive us of those things.

Pray that the worship that we offer to you week after week is right in your sight, is in
spirit and in truth.

We pray for the nation that is around us.

We pray for the elections that are going on in our state and throughout this country, and
we pray that you will help them to be peaceful elections, that people will be able to uh

Make the the will of the people known, but we also pray that the citizens of this country
will moderate their will based upon the word of God.

All these things we pray and ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Exodus twenty-three, we are introduced to the some of the annual feasts that are in
Israel.

And as God is going to introduce these topics, we're going to learn some things about not
only what Israel was expected to do, but hopefully some things concerning.

Our worship as well.

We're going to open in Exodus 23 and verse 10.

He says, Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year
you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they

leave the beasts of the field may eat.

In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest that your ox and
your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be

refreshed.

And in all that I have said to you be circumspect.

And make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.

As God is telling the Israelites concerning the law, concerning the things and the
ordinances that they are to have, in this particular area, He's going to mention to them

concerning the Sabbath year law.

He is going to give them an ordinance that says, seventh year.

What are they not supposed to do?

Not supposed to plant.

They're also not supposed to do what?

Harvest anything that grows on its own.

If they didn't plant it, but it comes up anyway, they don't go out to the field and go,
hey, it I didn't plant it, but it came up, so it's mine.

Who are they to allow to take the things that were planted or the things that grew during
that year?

The poor and the animals.

You know, one of the things that Jesus mentions in Matthew chapter six is that God even
provides for the what type of animal?

The sparrows.

God provides for the sparrows and Jesus' point is if he provides for the sparrows, don't
you think he's going to provide for you?

How many times do we

Look at our laws and have the mindset.

Well, no one has a right to tell me what to do with my stuff.

Nobody has a right to tell me what to do with my property.

Nobody has a right to tell me what to do with my land.

Now, is everyone else God?

No.

But it's worth pointing out that God is very much telling them what they can do with their
stuff, with their land.

But bear in mind who gave them their land.

Did.

If you were to go through the laws and the ordinances in Exodus, in Leviticus, you might
be able to rightfully pick it up and look at it and read through it and go, here are the

terms of the contract.

I'll give you the land.

I'll give you the benefits.

I'll give you the descendants.

I'll make you into a mighty nation.

I'll make you dwell in safety.

I'll make it where you have prosperity.

I'll make it where you lend to others instead of borrowing from others.

I'll do all these things for you.

But there are stipulations on the contract.

God always has conditions on relationships.

And for an individual to enter a relationship and say, listen, you can't expect anything
from me.

I get to lay all the conditions on you, and you don't get to claim anything.

Have you ever seen two people in a marriage where one person dictates everything and the
other person doesn't get a say about

Anything?

Those rarely turn out well.

God is going to give first.

Notice this, God doesn't say, after I see that you're going to obey every command that I
give you, then I'll let you enter the land.

After I see that you're going to be the people that I expect you to be, then I will bless
Abraham's descendants and make a name for him.

God is in a continual give and take, but God always gives first.

Yet God holds us accountable for what we do with what He gives.

So the key thing that I want us to draw from this section is this.

God talks about what they're going to be doing with their land, but then he says, And in
all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name.

Of other gods.

God says, you want to know how you can dwell in the land and come year seven, you don't
need to plan anything?

Imagine if there were a business that every seven days they just closed, didn't open.

You know, there used to be a lot of businesses that way.

Used to be a lot of businesses that two out of seven days they weren't open.

There's still a few.

But imagine if you had a business that every seventh year

Every every staff member still got paid.

All the bills still got paid.

All the stuff was still there that needed to be done.

They just didn't open.

Would you consider that business to be well run?

Well, I guess it depends on if you want to eat at Chick fil A or not.

You know, every seven years there's no you no Chick fil A, no chicken.

But as they were doing this, what were they supposed to learn from this?

They were supposed to learn that didn't matter how hard they worked, God was in control of
how they prospered.

That they could never look at all that they had and go, I'm pretty sure the God Molech did
this for me.

No.

God says, every time you wake up, you walk outside, you look at the land around you, you
look at the harvest coming up, don't you dare.

Say that that came from Baal.

Don't you dare say that that came from a golden calf.

Don't you make mention of Ra, the sun god of Egypt?

Because you have what you have because of what I've done.

But with that

Call for them to be circumspect.

There's a warning.

If you want to ruin the covenant relationship you have with the Lord, introduce someone
else into the relationship.

Introduce another God.

Go ahead, say their name, let it come out of your mouth, and you'll see this covenant
relationship fall apart.

God gives them bountifully what they need, but God sets some stipulations.

Then you notice verse 14.

He says, Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year.

You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread.

You shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I command you, at the time appointed in the
month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt, none shall appear before me.

Empty.

God says, You're going to hold a feast to me, the feast of unleavened bread, and for seven
days you're going to eat unleavened bread.

Why unleavened bread?

Alright.

First, now this is this is pre-MANna, but that's what that's what manna was.

It was unleavened bread.

What else?

There's a actually a couple of things that that are involved in this.

He commanded it.

Alright, he commanded it.

All right.

On the occasion of the tenth plague at the Passover, the unleavened bread was commanded.

They were told to sweep their house.

They were told to clean out their house.

They were told not to have any leaven found anywhere in their house.

What does leaven do to bread?

Makes it rise.

So if we were to think about it this way, unleavened bread is natural bread.

Leavened bread is unnatural bread, in the sense that the leaven has changed the very
nature of the bread.

If you take a loaf of bread,

And you put it out on the counter with no leaven in it, and you come back three hours
later, how big is the loaf?

Exactly the same size.

I if you come back a day later, how big is the loaf?

Same size.

Leaven changes things.

You go over to First Corinthians chapter five, Paul's going to point out that leaven
actually changes everything.

He says, you put leaven in the lump, and everything in the lump is affected.

So you have first the commandment.

You have second the fact that God had commanded this when they were uh in the Passover and
in Egypt.

You have third the fact that leaven is viewed often in a ceremonial way as a corrupting
agent.

But think about this.

Who puts the leaven in?

Whoever's making the bread.

There's a there's a point here, at least the way I understand it, God's saying, you be
satisfied with what I gave you.

You understand what I gave you.

Yep.

Now, in most people's opinion, which one's better?

Light, fluffy, airy, leavened bread or dense, thick, hard tack.

Most people go, Can I have the light, fluffy, airy stuff?

But notice God is going to tell them you take what came from the ground and you make the
bread and you show up and you eat what I produced for you for seven days.

Because when they eat the bread, who are they honoring in eating the bread?

The one who made it.

The Lord.

God is telling them, you show up.

And you eat the bread that I've given to you.

And you don't show up empty-handed.

But there's another aspect to this, for he says, none shall appear before me empty.

Does he mean make sure everybody makes their own bread?

Or does he mean it is everyone's responsibility to make sure that everyone has bread?

I think it is the second one that you are to not appear before him empty handed if you
have the ability, but also that if there is someone without the ability.

That you are to make sure that they have what they need as well.

Then notice, he says, verse 16, and the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors
which you have sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year,

when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

So the three feasts that they were commanded to observe every year.

was the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of harvest, or the feast of first fruits,
and the feast of ingathering, or the f the feast that came at the end of the harvest.

Okay.

I want us to spend a little bit of time in considering this verse sixteen and this first
or sorry second feast that's mentioned.

The feast of first fruits.

What do you think the feast of first fruits involved?

Okay.

When did the feast of first fruits happen?

Alright.

this would normally have occurred.

So in in Israel, in that land, they had a early rain and a latter rain.

All right.

The latter rain is the one that generally preceded the larger harvest.

You would get the majority of your crops at that latter rain portion.

The earlier rain would begin to bring some of the

Fruits of the ground, the produce out of the ground.

So you have an earlier period of harvest and you have a later period of harvest.

And what you typically have is you have the beginning.

But the feast of first fruits or the feast of the harvest is really about them taking the
very first things that come off the field and offering that to God.

They were to understand that the very first thing belonged to the Lord.

Now, when you go over into those who were keepers of sheep and those who were keepers of
oxen and uh animals, they had a command that the first thing of the flock be offered.

They had a command that the best of the flock be offered.

So

God is establishing a principle that the first thing belongs to him.

And the best thing belongs to him.

And when the harvest is all over, you're again supposed to remember that it belongs to
him.

Okay?

Now there's a few gardeners in the room.

Tell me.

For those who live in a house that has a garden, do you get excited when that those first
things start coming off the vine?

The the first okra shows up in the row, the first beads come off, the the the first
tomatoes for those who who like tomatoes.

I can't figure that one out.

But anyway.

You talk to people and and and they're they're excited.

They they've been watching They're just standing back waiting, all right, I'll wait until
it's ready to pick.

Some people get a little anxious and they ooh, that wasn't quite right.

But people are excited when they plant something and the fruit starts to come off.

The produce starts to come off.

They can find they've been they they they they waited, they tilled, they prepared the
ground, they planted, they waited, they watered, they weeded, all to where eventually the

plant would come up.

And then they watched the plant and then they made sure there weren't too weren't too many
bugs and they made sure the weeds didn't overtake it, so that eventually the first

blossoms would come out.

And they're still waiting.

And then finally the produce starts to arrive and God says, That's not yours.

That belongs to me.

When we pause and consider.

That God is

He's not just saying, Hey, you know what?

I I like what you've done for me.

Thank you.

I'm gonna take the first, I'm gonna take the best, I'm gonna take this much, I'm gonna
take a tenth.

I I God's all about himself.

No no no, that's not it.

God is tichingas.

Just exactly what he's doing.

There was a movie

If I remember correctly, it was Shenandoah.

uh Jimmy Stewart is head of a older man, head of a large family.

And there's a moment in that movie where Jimmy Stewart and and the family have all sat
down to eat, and Jimmy Stewart begins to quote unquote say grace.

And he begins to tell the Lord about all the things they've done.

and if you could take that and put it right next to the Pharisee praying in the temple and
telling the Lord just exactly how wonderful he is, you you can see, and it's it's the

point.

We did the tilling, we did the planting, we did the harvesting, we did the weeding, we did
this, we did this, we did this.

Thank you for letting us have it.

As if Lord would you do?

And sometimes I think

We may not say it, but sometimes we kind of live it.

Think I got the job.

I did the interview.

I went, showed up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

I was there late every day.

I was there early every day.

I was the one who made sure that the kids still got taken care of when I got home.

I was the one who did this.

I paid the bills.

I did this.

I did that.

I don't know what you did, Lord.

But for the Jimmy Stewart character in Shenandoah, and for the Israelite in the land of
Israel.

They needed to remember now whose land did you till?

Whose dirt did you put the seed in?

Whose seed was it?

Whose nutrients caused the seed to perish and produce a plant?

Whose sunlight caused it to grow?

Who watered the ground?

Whose water did you use when you watered the ground?

Whose oxygen did you use as you labored?

Whose carbon dioxide did the plant consume to put out the oxygen?

We act as though we did all the work.

Except all the tools we use belong to the Lord.

God is making the point to the Israelites.

You might put the seed in the ground, but it's my ground you're putting it in.

Talked with a few people who their family or people in their family grew up sharecroppers.

And you know, the premise behind the sharecropper was there was the family that did all
the work, and 80% of everything that came out of the ground belonged to somebody else.

And it wasn't the last eighty percent.

It was the first eighty percent.

Because they didn't own the ground.

They got a portion of what the ground produced for the labor that they put into it, but it
wasn't their property, it wasn't their crop, it wasn't their seed, it wasn't their

produce.

God is telling Israel.

When you get really excited about what that harvest is about to produce, when you're
watching those blossoms on the vine, when when you begin to see that first produce coming

off the branch.

You remember who put it there.

And as you consider this, turn over to Exodus chapter thirty four.

In Exodus thirty four

We begin in verse 17, and God says, You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.

The feast of unleavened bread you shall keep, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread,
as I commanded you, in the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib

you came out from Egypt.

All that open the womb are mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox
or sheep.

But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and it will not uh and if you
will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck.

All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty
handed.

God is going to lay a second principle here.

Not just the first fruits of the ground, but the first fruits of what?

The livestock and the children.

God is going to tell Israel, it's not just the ground that I own.

It's not just the ground that I'm giving to you.

But your possessions are mine too.

And your children, your offspring are mine too.

You say, wait a minute.

The wife and I we produce that child.

Well, ask yourself this question: In Israel, was there going to be a wife and I to produce
a child if God hadn't first given an Isaac?

Whose lineage are you a descendant from?

Because that lineage wouldn't exist without the Lord doing what the Lord did.

God's making the point.

everything you have.

Your land, your possessions, your family, your life,

Belongs to me.

And God's not doing this to browbeat somebody and say, Give me my portion.

'S trying to get the people.

to understand what he's doing.

But did you notice that verse 17, again, this is in a context of other gods.

You think that another deity out here gave you this?

You think that by worshiping the sun god you're gonna get more sun tomorrow?

You think by worshiping the storm god you're gonna get rain?

You think that you can bring it over to this continent, dance around a fire long enough
and have the right sayings and somehow it's gonna rain tomorrow?

Don't think so.

But notice what else God's doing.

God's not just telling them, you need to realize what I've given you.

He's also helping them understand the value, the importance of sacrifice.

Not the importance of a burnt offering, but the importance of taking what we cherish, what
we desire, and saying, that doesn't belong to me.

God is going to tell them when it comes to the firstborn of the livestock.

That the firstborn of every male belongs to him.

But he gives them a way to redeem that oxen.

What does he say they can do?

All right, they can exchange a lamb.

What's gonna happen to the lamp?

It's gonna be offered as a sacrifice.

going to be a part of the feast.

Pay attention to the fact that God's saying you're going to permanently lose access.

To this.

you are going to have to sacrifice the lamb.

Now if they chose not to redeem the donkey with the lamb, now what do they have to do with
the donkey?

They gotta sacrifice the donkey.

Which one produces more over its lifespan, the donkey or the lamb?

More frustration, the donkey.

But in some scenarios, there may be some member of the Israelite nation that the the lamb
is more important to them than the donkey is.

God gives them an option.

But can they get out of the situation without something dying?

No.

Can they get out of the situation without something being sacrificed that they would
really just prefer to keep?

And the answer's no.

God is teaching them.

about the cost of something.

Now if you go back in Exodus to Exodus chapter 13, God is going to connect the firstborn
to their redemption out of Egypt.

God is going to tell them, the firstborn of every male is mine.

Of all the oxen and all the sheep and all of oh the males of the house, they all belong to
me.

Why did all of the firstborn of the house and the sheep and the oxen belong to the Lord?

Because in the tenth plague, they didn't die.

Those that had the door over or the blood over the doorpost and on the lintels of the
house.

God spared all the firstborn.

And God said, as a result of them being spared, they're mine.

And he gives them a way to redeem them.

As a matter of fact, when you read through the text, you're gonna find that the Le the
Levites as a tribe will become the redemption for the firstborn of all Israel.

God says the firstborn of all your people belong to me, but I'm gonna take all of the
Levites as a tribe instead.

And they had to number the Levites to find out what the difference was that they had to
pay.

Because they had to pay the difference.

If there weren't enough Levite males to be equal the number of firstborn in all the
nation, the nation had to pay the difference.

But God is telling them.

You're gonna sacrifice something.

You're going to have to give up something.

You're going to have to give up that which you desire.

Now what did the Lord tell Abraham he had to sacrifice?

His first son.

His firstborn?

And what is God going to redeem Isaac with?

Lamb a ram.

Then we come forward.

To James chapter one.

James chapter one, we read every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes
down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of

First fruits of his creatures.

James is going to tell the Christians.

That God didn't have to do what he's done.

God didn't have to save those who were lost.

God didn't have to send his gospel.

He didn't have to send his word.

He didn't have to provide a sacrifice for us.

He was not required to do any of it.

But he did.

And he did it for the same reason that he did what he did for Israel.

He did it so that there would be a produce.

He did it so that there would be something of value.

He did it to redeem something from humanity.

So James tells us, you know.

When you consider every good gift, when you consider every perfect gift,

You remember where it came from.

You

Give some contemplation.

To the fact that just like Israel.

Owed everything that they were, their very existence, and everything they had to the Lord.

So do we.

And because of that, we are to realize that part of our worship

involves giving to God first.

One of the principles of giving when we give on the first day of the week is that the
first belongs to the Lord.

That we set aside what belongs to him before we consider what belongs to us.

And sometimes

People are a little challenged to go, but if I just kept a little bit more.

You know, we could afford that new add on to the house.

Yeah, w if we just cut our giving back a little bit, we we could we could we could we
could

And the challenge of understanding the scriptures is to ask yourself, Well, really?

Can you?

Because the Israelites could have said, Well, if we just cut back a little bit of what we
sacrifice to the sacrifice to the Lord, we'll be able to have more in our barns.

But was that true?

No, because God says ah I can give you abundance or I can give you the opportunity to
learn what it means to be destitute.

And then there's one more example before we close.

When Jesus speaks concerning the rich fool.

The harvest comes in.

And it's more than it's ever been.

It's beyond your wildest dreams.

So the rich fool decides, I'm good.

I've got plenty.

I'm going to tear down my barns, I'm going to build bigger barns, and I'm going to say to
myself, self.

God says you fool.

Tonight your life will be required of you.

Every time we measure what we give by just what we prospered instead of by what God has
supplied in our very existence, we've mismeasured.

He's only asked us to measure based upon what we've prospered as far as how we measure
what we give.

But when we only consider what we've prospered and not the fact

that everything already results because of him.

We've misunderstood the lesson.

All right.

Thank you.