Topic discussed in the recorded discussionStart time on therecordingQ: Don’t we do a lot of these laws in modern society already?1:20Q: Do the laws on lying cover “white lies”?3:52Q: What is the curse of parents in Ex. 21:17?14:53How cursing is similar to allowing sorcerers to live amongst the people of God23:06How sorcery is akin to murder25:13Q: Was a killing of someone later found out to be a sorcerer classified as murder?27:11How the Torah’s instructions on slavery led to its abolition29:45What’s the penalty for murder?50:32Prohibitions against mistreating slaves and recapturing them53:01American slaves who believed in the God of Israel became brothers to their masters56:51How dogs trained to kill can make the owner a murderer58:56Punishments for theft1:00:06Prohibition on loan interest doesn’t include commerce1:01:39God will get angry if He hears about oppression1:03:28Who is the Angel of the LORD?1:08:22When are offerings of Israel an abomination to the LORD?1:17:01

How important is the Law today?

Despite what some Christian churches teach, there are more laws in the Torah than just the Ten Commandments. A significant majority of the book of Deuteronomy elaborates on how to put the Ten Commandments into practice in our natural interactions with our neighbors.

What about ‘white lies’?

Look at the commandment “thou shalt not lie.” This doesn’t just mean that we should not tell lies. It includes not listening to or repeating the lies of others.We also must be consistent in our treatment of others. We should treat our enemies with the same sense of justice that we treat our friends. If we are not consistent in our treatment of our fellows, we defame God’s name.

What it means to curse your parents

We are also called to not curse our leaders, just as we are prohibited by the Torah from cursing our parents. We cannot use God’s words as a hatchet to cause harm to others. In the book of Jude, we are told that the Archangel Michael did not dare to curse HaSatan when they were arguing over the body of Moses. Michael simply said that God would rebuke HaSatan in the way that He saw fit. Human beings, who are not as righteous as Michael, but who are also not as evil as HaSatan, should be even more careful about cursing our fellow human beings. We should follow the Archangel Michael’s holy example and leave it up to God to rebuke any leader who is leading others into sin.

Does the Bible condone slavery?

How many of you have slaves? No one! The topic of slavery pops us several times in the Torah. Many think that because slavery has been illegal in America since 1865 that the laws of the Torah addressing slavery are irrelevant to us. This is not true. In many areas of the world, slavery is still legal, or at least tacitly tolerated.If you live in a nation where slavery is legal or tacitly legal, these rules are still important to consider. How the Torah teaches people to treat slaves is often a much higher and more just standard than the laws of most nations.

There are three groups of slaves in Torah: male Israelite slaves, female Israelite slaves and Gentile slaves. This section mostly address how to treat male Israelite slaves. There are two common ways in which a male Israelite might become a slave. The first way is if he convicted of theft in a court of law. The convicted thief was sentenced to slavery to repay his theft. Whether he stole a modest amount of money or an exorbitant amount of money, the thief is only required to serve for seven years.

The second type of male slavery is of a poor person who voluntarily gave himself over someone to work to save himself from destitution.