Amen. Proverbs 30. Beginning, I like to read beginning this morning at verse 10. Proverbs 30, 10. Do not malign a servant to his master lest he curse you and you be found guilty. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose fangs are like knives to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among men. May God revive us according to his loving kindness so that we may keep the testimony of his mouth. Heavenly Father. We ask that this word that we have heard might be mixed with faith and that you would work this morning in us, that which is well-pleasing in your sight, that you would lift us up to behold the beauty and the wonder and the truth. of your word, and I ask that you would sanctify this vessel of clay and these sinful lips to proclaim your holy truth. And may the glory, Lord, this morning be yours in Jesus name. Amen. This text speaks of slaves, servants, and curses. Things that may not be familiar to us, but are becoming more common and familiar in our culture today. Until Christ returns. the effects of sin will continue to affect us. The effects of sin will continue to affect us and to affect this world. And one of those effects is slavery. Just like divorce is an undesirable necessity for the unrepentant adulterer or adulteress. Just like chastening is an undesirable necessity for those who need sanctified. Or spankings, an undesirable necessity for disobedient little ones. Slavery, servitude is an undesirable necessity for those who lack self-discipline, who lack the self-discipline to govern themselves or those who commit crimes against the property of others. You see, those who commit crimes against the life of others, either unjustly taking a life that's called murder, or unjust procreation, adultery and fornication, or unjust restraint and relocation of people where they don't want to go, we call that man stealing or kidnapping, and perjury in a capital case, perjury where somebody is being tried for one of these other crimes that would result in the loss of their life. All of these warrant the death penalty and the just response of the civil magistrate is to bring God's wrath on these people in the death penalty. But for lesser crimes that are not against the life, restitution can be made, crimes that are made against property, whether that's somebody's good name, or whether that's their house, or their possessions, their vehicles. In those cases, restitution can be made. And if the person can't make restitution, then they were to be sold into forced labor. and their labor used to pay for, to make restitution for the crimes that they had committed. And they were kept in that situation until their debt was paid off. But sometimes people can be forced into slavery or servitude through no fault of their own. Sometimes people are kidnapped and sold into slavery like Joseph was. Sometimes people even choose servitude voluntarily in exchange for the security that it brings. When you're a servant, you don't have to be responsible for a lot of things, like your food and so on. That is provided for by whoever you are serving. But in biblical slavery, in slavery which is biblical, which follows the teachings of the scriptures, slaves have rights as well. And a just and godly society will uphold and honor and respect the rights even of the lowliest in their society, even of slaves. In Deuteronomy 15, God instructed that at the end of seven years, they were to grant a release of debts for all those who were brothers, their brothers. Every creditor who has lent anything was to release that debt. Of a foreigner, they could require a debt, but not of their brothers. And if there was anyone that had been poor, maybe through their own fault or maybe not, maybe through famine or other things that God brought into their life, they became poor, and they were not to harden their heart against that person. They were not to shut up their hand and not be generous, give generously to them. And they were instructed that, you know, because if these people became so poor as to have to sell themselves into servitude, they were to be released in the seventh year. In the year of, in the seventh year. And so they weren't to say, well, it's the sixth year. They're going to be released next year. I can't loan them anything because I'm going to have to forgive the debt. They were specifically warned against thinking like that. And rather, they were told they should open their heart and open their hand and provide for those who were in need. because in this thing God would bless them in all the work that they put their hand. For he said, the poor will never cease from your land. Therefore, I command you open your hand wide to your brother, to the poor and needy in your land. And if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you, why would they be sold to them? because they had a debt that they couldn't pay of whatever sort. It may not have been their fault. It may have been through lack of self-discipline, or it may have been through a crime of some kind against property. For whatever reason, it doesn't matter. if a Hebrew man or woman was sold and serves you six years, then in the seventh year, they were to let him go free. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not send him away empty handed. You shall supply him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine press. In other words, giving him meat and giving him grain and giving him wine to drink. from what the Lord has blessed you, you shall give to him. And they were to remember that they were slaves at one time in the land of Egypt and that their God, Jehovah, had redeemed them. And so God says, therefore, I command you today to remember that. Now, I gave that lengthy introduction just to remind us that what the Bible speaks of as slavery is very, very, very different from what the word commonly is understood to mean today. And the two, when we think of slavery today or slavery as it was practiced in America and in other parts of the world, it's very different from what the Bible speaks of as slavery or servitude. But this passage goes on to say that what happens if it's time for him to go free, it's the seventh year, and he says, well, I won't go away from you because I love you and your house, and since he prospers with you. Well, then they were to take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he would be their servant then forever. And that was true for either a male or a female servant. And God concludes this passage saying, it shall not be hard. It shouldn't seem hard to you when you send your servant away, for he's been worth double a hired servant to you in serving you these six years. And then the Lord your God will bless you in what you do. So these are the rites and this was what it meant to, or how, Christians, godly people, people that feared the Lord, were to take care of and protect and look out for their servants. Because a servant is more easily taken advantage of than a free person. A servant is legally disadvantaged. They don't have the same ability and access to the courts. Their time is not their own. They have to go where they're told to go and do what they're told to do. And, you know, going to court and prosecuting a case takes a lot of time. And they may not have had that time. Typically, they wouldn't. Somebody that doesn't own land wouldn't be able to vote. That's the way it was in our nation for many, many years. That's the way it ought to be. There ought to be a stake in the place where you're voting. And one of the very first things that was done to destroy our republic was to give the vote to people that didn't own land. And then it was to give the vote to women as well, but that came even later. A servant is also financially disadvantaged. Financially. And bringing lawsuits and seeking justice takes a lot of time and money that a servant may not have. And so a servant is much more easily taken advantage of. that the Lord has a special interest in protecting servants. As we've read extensively just how, look how sternly the Lord warned the Israelites that they treat their servants appropriately, that they treat them with respect and kindness and not harshness. Another example is that a slave that escaped an oppressive master was not to be returned to that oppressive master. Deuteronomy 23, you shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. You want to send him back into that oppression if he's been able to escape it. Out of kindness for them, out of respect for his rights as a person. That was one aspect of slavery that was directly contradicted with the Fugitive Slave Act that allowed people to go bring these people back and track them down like animals. Five times in the book of Deuteronomy, God reminds the Israelites that they were once slaves themselves in Egypt and that therefore they should be kind to the slaves, the servants in their midst that were among them. And so this passage here, this verse here in Proverbs 30 in verse 10 is another command in scripture about showing respect to servants. Don't malign, or that word is slander. Don't slander a servant to his master. Don't slander a slave to his master. We shouldn't slander anyone. To slander is to speak something that is not true about someone. that is derogatory toward them, speaking ill of them when it's not true, that's slander. That's to malign them. It could be gossip if it's true and there's no reason for us to speak it. But this is worse, this is slander, this is maligning. And Aguirre says, do not malign a servant or slave to his master. You see, we're not to slander anyone, but especially we're not to slander someone who is legally and financially disadvantaged. You see, that's attractive to people that are unscrupulous and wicked and cowardly. They're attracted to those who are weak and disadvantaged because they have a harder time resisting. They have a harder time bringing the perpetrators to justice. And that's why criminals prey on those who are weak. They prey on those who are naive or malleable or they think they can terrify them and persuade them not to tell anybody or not to call anybody, not to get for help or too weak to resist. And God specifically says, don't malign a servant. There's a reason given here though, and that's probably a reason that is equally as unfamiliar to us as the whole concept of a biblical notion of slavery is. And the reason that's given for not maligning a servant to his master is lest he curse you and you be found guilty. And we might think of curses as harmless, like the playground taunts of children to one another. But they really are anything but harmless. You know, God says that his people, that we are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And we can be destroyed by lack of knowledge, unbroken curses that are in our lives. Curses that have come through disobedience to the law of God, or curses that have come through and remain through ignorance. Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30, see I have set before you today life and death, life and good, death and evil. In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announced you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live. Now Webster defines a curse as a call, to curse somebody is to call upon a divine or supernatural power to send injury upon someone, to implicate evil upon someone. That's what the imprecatory prayers are. It's to bring evil on someone, to bring a cause of serious harm or unhappiness, or to furnish that which will be a cause of deep trouble. to call divine power to send injury upon someone. That's no light thing. It's a very serious thing. There is real power behind curses. That power is supernatural spiritual power. Curses can come from God directly. or that power can come from Satan and his demons, either with or without the legal right to bring that curse. When demons have no legal right to bring a curse, that curse is easily broken in Jesus' name because there is no legal basis for it. A curse without a cause does not alight and is broken when we, in Jesus' name, break that. But curses that come from God do have a legal right and some curses from Satan that originate from satanic power also can have a legal right. Deuteronomy 27 lists curses that come from God and gives the legal basis for those curses. Deuteronomy 27, verse 15. Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of a craftsman and sets it up in secret. That brings a curse. from God, and all the people shall answer and say amen. Verse 16, cursed is the one who treats his father or mother with contempt. That brings a curse from God, and all the people shall say amen. Cursed is the one who moves his late neighbor's landmark, and all the people shall say amen. Verse 18, cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road. Oppression of somebody who is disadvantaged in what some people would say is harmless fun, to take drunks or blind people and lead them astray. But God said it brings a legal ground for a curse from God himself. Cursed is the one, verse 19, who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall say amen. Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's bed. Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal. Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law. Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person. Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law. Those people who deny the words of this law, a law that Jesus said, will endure, will not pass away until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. The heaven and earth will pass away, but God's law doesn't pass away. Those who do not affirm this law bring God's curse upon them. Those who do not affirm all the words of this law You can say, oh, it's OK to execute murderers that kill big people, but we don't want to do that for people that kill little people. Or it's OK to execute murderers, but we don't want to do that for adulterers. That would be horrible. They're not affirming all the words of God's law. And God says that brings a curse. Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law. Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly. And all the people shall say amen. You see, to slander a servant to his master behind his back is to attack one's neighbor secretly. Actually, just a few days ago, the Houston Chronicle had an article announcing the discovery of a small curse tablet that was found on Mount Ebal. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are the two mountains that Israel was to occupy, six tribes on one, six on the other, and in an antiphonal manner, they were to recite these blessings and these curses. Mount Ebal was the mountain from which the curses were recited that we've just read. And this tablet was found, this small little lead tablet was found on Mount Ebal dating from 1500 BC. Those of you that have heard my history of the world, you know, what's 1500 BC? What happened at 1500 BC? Remember the history of the world, right? Creation in 4000 BC, the flood about 2500 BC, 2348 roughly, but close enough. 2000 is the life of Abraham. 1500 BC is the exodus from the land of Egypt. 1000 BC is David. 500 BC is the Babylonian captivity. Actually, 606 to 537, but 500 is close enough, right? Zero, well, there's no year zero, but zero is the birth of Christ. We all know that, right? 500 AD, fall of the Roman Empire, 1000 BC is the East-West Schism and the invasion of Normandy, which is significant for our history. 1500 is the Reformation and 2000 is us. It's helpful to know that. And when you read in the Bible, then you can figure out at least what half millennium you're talking about. This was found in 1500 B.C., right at the time of the exodus. I should say this was dated to 1500 B.C., right at the time of the exodus. Dr. Scott Stripling, the director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at the Bible Seminary in Katy, led the team that discovered this small lead tablet on Mount Ebal. And it reads, cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed by the God Yehovah. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by Yehovah. Cursed, cursed, cursed. But that's what we just read from Mount Ebal. Who are those curses? From God. Of course, this totally flummoxes and destroys the chronology of all those people, many of whom are professing Christians that think the Old Testament was written in the late Persian age and that Moses didn't know how to write like the Hebrews did then. This completely destroys that because this writing was right there in the form of Hebrew that they didn't think existed for over 1,000 years. It's, I think, quite a remarkable little find. But these curses, these are real. God gives them, and where there's legal ground, Satan can bring them. You know, sometimes a curse from God can be like these Deuteronomy 27 ones that result in direct injury and destruction through such things as weather or disease or lack of fertility or economic collapse and so forth. But you see, where there's a legal right Satan can send demons into people's lives to oppress and to destroy and to conquer. Invading armies can come in where there's been a legal right. And how do we give a legal right? How do we give a legal right for a curse to come into our life? For Satan to come and trouble us? Well, Satan can get a legal right from our sins like we saw in Deuteronomy 27. Those sins, those kinds of sins give Satan a legal right, give his demons and his followers the legal right to oppress, to come into our lives and our homes and bring destruction. Remember, that's what a curse is, divine power to destroy, to injure. curses can be inherited from the sins of our forefathers, from ancestors who accepted a curse on their lives. Remember when the Jews told Pilate, Pilate said, he's innocent. I want to release him. And they said, no, crucify him. And they said, let his blood be on us and on our children. They invited a curse upon them that God said would be carried out in that generation. The blood of Abel, all the righteous people from Abel to Zechariah who was slain between the altars would come upon that people in that generation because they accepted that curse and they committed the sin that gave the legal right for it. And see that can be passed on, that can be inherited by children until it is broken in Christ. It's as if it isn't just becoming a Christian that can break that curse. These curses must be specifically broken in Jesus' name. But it can come through territorial rights and living on unclean or cursed land or living in unclean or cursed housing. It can come through performance of demonic rituals, through occult drawings, or gifts, or artifacts, or involvement in demonic games like Ouija boards and things. These things give legal foothold for demonic oppression. Even gifts that people give, their artifacts or their idols that have demonic significance attached to them or demons attached to them can bring the demonic into someone's house. Partaking of food that has been sacrificed to idols, remember, can invite demonic involvement. or just bringing cursed objects into the home or into the office, things that have unclean spirits attached to them can invite a curse upon us. Hatred, jealousy, or as this text shows, slandering a servant to his master can give a legal foothold for the demonic in our life. That's what it means when it says, do not malign a servant to his master lest he curse you and you be found guilty. Being found guilty saying, lest when this curse is given, there is found a legal foothold, a legal right to bring that curse. When there's a legal right to bring a curse, the curse will rest and stay until that legal right is removed. Remember in Joshua 7, there's an example of this. Jericho was cursed and Achan sinned. bringing what God had cursed into his tent. And his action brought a curse upon all of Israel. In Joshua 7, 1, we read that the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. And when they went against Ai, they were defeated and 36 men of Israel were killed. Those are mothers or wives or both that lost their loved ones. People lost a brother. 36 men were killed. And Joshua tore his clothes. because 36 men had died, because they were defeated at Ai. And he fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, and he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. They recognized that God was against them, that there was a curse upon them. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought the people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off your name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? Those were valid arguments in prayer. Those were the arguments that Moses brought in prayer. He learned to pray from Moses. And he was bringing very biblical arguments to the Lord in a very, in a good prayer. But God didn't hear it. The Lord said to Joshua, get up. Why are you lying on your face? There was legal foothold for this curse that came upon Israel. Israel has sinned, God said in verse 11. And they have transgressed my covenant which I have commanded, for they have taken some of the accursed things. and have both stolen and deceived, and they have put it among their own stuff. That's why God said in verse 12, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies because they had become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore. There was a legal foothold for this curse. They had taken demonic, cursed things into their possessions. And it didn't just affect Achan and his family, it affected the entire nation. Get up, God said. Sanctify the people. And sanctify yourselves for tomorrow because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel, and you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. That legal foothold for this curse has to be removed. That sin has to be confessed. Any sin that brings a legal foothold has to be confessed and forsaken and forgiveness sought from the Lord. And, you know, the rest of the story. how they drew all lots and they settled on Achan, and he was called before the court, and Joshua said, give God the glory, confess, and Achan confessed his sin. And as a result of that confession, they sent people into his tent to look where he sat, and they looked, and they found the accursed thing, and it was brought out, and Achan and his family were executed. And that curse, their sin was confessed, acknowledged, and dealt with. It's not repentance if we don't make restitution for the sins that we have committed. They raised over him a great heap of stones to this day, and so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Acre to this day. And then God said to Joshua, do not be afraid. That curse had been removed. You see, in order to break this curse, there has to be an acknowledgement of our sin, or if it's the sins of our forefathers that we have inherited and received through inheritance, they have to be confessed and renounced and forsaken. And we have to ask God to forgive these sins and to cleanse us. We have to separate ourselves from that sin. that displeases God. We have to change what we are living. And we have to then ask God to remove the curse that He has placed on our life. Or in His name, command that curse to be broken. If it's a satanic one. But you see, none of that works. None of that is effective if we haven't first removed the legal foothold, the legal ground by which that curse was brought to us. Now this passage goes on to describe other classes of people. It says there is other classes of people who give legal ground for curses in their lives. It says there is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation, that's saying there is a class of people, there is a collection of people who bring curses upon those that they should be blessing, their parents. And this section goes on to name other classes of people, the self-righteous, the proud, and the oppressors of the poor. But those who curse their father and do not bless their mother, Remember, that was one of the curses in Deuteronomy 27, the very first one, verse 16, or the second one. Cursed is the one who treats his father or mother with contempt. That is legal foothold to bring a curse upon you. Those who treat their parents with contempt. It's a serious thing. Your parents are the people who have given you life and they have provided for you and brought you up. The Bible says even wicked people can do that much for their children. Cursed is the one who treats his father or mother with contempt. Well, bringing a curse upon your parents is the utmost contempt and scorn and failing to bless one's mother. It brings great destruction. In fact, just a little later in this chapter describes just what that curse looks like as it works out on people who treat their parents with contempt. The eye that mocks, father and scorns obedience to mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it. That's a curse. A curse on those who treat their parents with contempt. There's a legal foothold for that. the next class is those that is a self-righteous generation. These, Jesus said, are the farthest from the kingdom of heaven because they're corrupt, but they don't even begin to realize, they don't even realize that they're corrupt. They actually think they're quite fine and upstanding. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were exemplary of this self-righteousness. There's a proud generation, goes hand in hand with being self-righteous. And there's a generation that oppresses the poor. This is significant, because there were three things in there about oppression in Deuteronomy 27, on things that gave legal foothold for curses. Verse 17, cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark. Now what does that mean? That's really a deceptive way of stealing property. And maybe some of you have read the, oh, that book, can't think of the guy's name, but he wrote about his life and he describes in, around 100 years ago, 120 years ago, he describes in the early 20th century living with his, a grandfather in Maine for a summer, and there there was a piece of land that somebody stole 100 years earlier. And they stole it by, the property boundary was defined by a river. In fact, many state property boundaries were defined by rivers. And of course, when the river moves, you know, the state boundary would move. And now that we have GPSs, we don't have to, we don't, we can define absolute points. And so now you'll see state boundaries that used to follow rivers, and now the river doesn't go there anymore. And so it makes for a very odd state boundary. But in that day, state land boundaries were sometimes described by rivers. Well, this neighbor had coveted a field. of his next door neighbor and a field that was legally defined by a creek. Well, he diverted the creek so that the field that he wanted was now in his property. And it was right around, he did this, it was right around the time of the War for Independence. And there just weren't witnesses available at the time to be able to testify to what had happened. And so he sort of got away with it. Well, the reason it came into, Ralph Moody was the guy's name, the reason it came into his story is because the guy that lost the property thought he would get back at him and he asked, well, can I have, for good old times sake, can I have plant one more crop on this land, on this field that used to be mine that is now yours? And the guy says, well, yeah, okay, you can have one more crop on it. So they went to the courthouse, and they filled out a very formal lease that specified this new owner would have to own the land, and he'd have to pay the taxes and keep up the road, because that was what you did if you owned property, you had to keep the road up in front of it, and keep the fences up, and that the person that was losing the land, he would have the right to plant one more crop and grow it until it was ready to harvest. Well, he apparently planted white oak trees, which took 100 years to mature. So this guy is paying the taxes and keeping up the fence. But that's what this means. Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark. Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road. This is oppression of those who are poor. Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. That's what this is talking about in verse 14. There is a generation. They devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among men. Those actions, according to Deuteronomy 27, give a legal foothold for curses to come upon one's life and to destroy them. Jesus Christ is the is the man who has come to break the curse and the power of reigning sin. And he is the one who has come to proclaim liberty to the captives, to bring sight to the blind, to bring relief to the poor. Psalm 72 describes our Savior, Jesus Christ. He will judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. Nations will serve him for he will deliver the needy when he cries. The poor also and him who has no helper. God has come to deliver these people, these very people who are so easily disadvantaged and easily taken advantage of and so easily oppressed. The poor and him who has no helper, he will deliver the needy when he cries. He will spare the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence and precious, precious shall be their blood in his sight. This is our Savior. Jesus Christ has come to break these curses, to deliver us. Because you see, so often we are the ones who are blind and needy, who are under these curses, as Israel was in the days of Jericho and Ai. Christ is our savior who comes to break them and to set us free and to deliver us. And more than that, he's given to us power over Satan and his demons and unclean spirits and all that would oppress in his name But we have to remove we first have to have that legal foothold removed Let's pray Heavenly Father We thank you for For your word that gives to us understanding so that we are not destroyed for lack of knowledge we ask that that by faith we might this morning receive your word, that we might grow and profit from it, that we might be sanctified by it, that we may lay it up in our hearts that we might not sin against you, but also, Lord, that we may remember your great and precious promises and the deliverance that you have promised in your word from darkness, from oppression, from our nakedness, from our neediness and our poverty. Lord, you have made us rich, rich and have given to us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens. O Lord, may we possess and appropriate that which you have given to us, given to us the right to use. May we be those who bless and do not curse. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.