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Deuteronomy 22-25
Practical Purity, Love,
and Parenting
Psalm 30:7-12 Dust Doesn't Praise God
7.You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.”8.I cried to you, Yahweh. To Yahweh I made supplication:9."What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit ? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth/faithfulness?10.Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper."11.You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,12.To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!"Observation
30:8-12.David is experiencing the consequences of his sin, as God, who formerly helped him, now hides his face from him. David calls out to God, asking what profit or benefit is there to him being destroyed. He notes that the dust/dead don't praise, but that he will joyfully declare God's faithfulness (better translation of “truth”). God answers our prayers so our praise might reveal Him to others.
Application
God answers our calls for help so we may praise Him; so make sure you do.
Prayer
God, I praise You for being faithful to all Your revealed promises; may I be faithful to thank you for Your help, and praise You, so others can be drawn to You. Amen.
Proverbs 8:14-16 Wisdom for Leaders
14.Counsel and sound knowledge are mine. I have understanding and power.15.By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.16.By me princes rule; nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth.“Observation
8:14-16. Wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord (Pr 1:4; 9:10), is necessary for good leadership. The first rule of leadership should be: the leader/boss/authority is accountable to God. That perspective opens the door to four things necessary to reign and rule righteously (and thus receive God's blessing):- counsel,
- “sound knowledge”
- understanding/discernment,
- and power/strength.
Application
Fearing God opens the toolbox of good leadership.
Prayer
God, You are the source of all wisdom and justice, and the provider of all that's needed for righteous rulership; may I discharge all my duties knowing I'll have to give an account to You. Amen.
Deuteronomy 22-25 Practical Purity, Love, and Parenting
These chapters elaborate aspects of the final four commandments: sexual purity, theft, lying, and coveting. For the most part they can be summed up in “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Deuteronomy 22 Practical Purity
1.You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother.2.If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him.
5.A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.9.You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited10.You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.11.You shall not wear a mixed cloth, wool and linen together.12.
You shall make yourselves fringes on the four borders of your cloak, with which you cover yourself.
13.If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and hates her,14.and accuses her of shameful things, and brings up an evil name on her, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity";15.then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate;16.and the young lady’s father shall tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her;17.and behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity’; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.18.The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;19.and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.20.But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady;21.then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.22.If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die...23.If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;24.then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.25.But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die:26.but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;27.for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried out, and there was none to save her.28.If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;29.then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.30.A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
Observations
22:5.Cross-dressing and “mixed” farming appear to go against the original creation.
22:12.
Fringes:
Numbers 15:38 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments 39 that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute; 40 that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
22:13-30.
Sexual purity requires abstinence or monogamy, distinctly different from many pagan neighbors. False accusations were discouraged by fining the husband double the usual bride price (v29). The regulations protect the innocent from law of the jungle, where might makes right. Deviations from the norms were punishable by death. Mesopotamian legal codes (ie Hammurabi 129) specified binding the adulterous couple together and drowning them.
Application
Seeking security, significance, or pleasure apart from one's relationship with God is ultimately fatal.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Who knows what's best, I acknowledge that all Your commands are for my benefit. Help me live according to Your wisdom. Amen.
Deuteronomy 23 Religious Purity and Freeloading
1.He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh.2.No one born of an illegitimate marriage shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh.3.An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation4.because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam to curse you.5.Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.6.You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.7.You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother: you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.8.The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh.
9.When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing.14.for Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.
15.You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you:16.he shall dwell with you, in the midst of you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best: you shall not oppress him.17.There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.18.You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog/male prostitute, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.19.You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest:20.to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.21.When you shall vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it: for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.22.But if you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you.23.That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth.24.When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your vessel.25.When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
Observations
23:1-3.The religious assembly or convocation in which people offered themselves to God, required ritual purity, just like the sacrifices offered to God. This did not prevent the "blemished" from believing in God and experiencing His blessings, but did serve as a reminder of the holiness God required. Pagans were often castrated as a sign of devotion to their gods. Illegitimate marriage probably refers to incestuous or pagan intermarriage. Moab and Ammon descended from Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters. In the Messiah, these prohibitions are lifted (Isaiah 56).
23:14.
God sees everything.
23:15-16.
refers to foreign slaves who were often enslaved unjustly and were not considered the just property of the master (cx 22:1-5). Providing safe harbor went against the usual treaties of the day.
23:24-25.
Generosity and sharing were encouraged, but not freeloading nor stealing your neighbor’s labor.
Deuteronomy 24 Divorce and Social Responsibility
1.When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.2.When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.3.If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;4.her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.5.When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer/rejoice with his wife whom he has taken.6.No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes a life in pledge.7.If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.8.Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.9.Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt.
10.When you do lend your neighbour any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.11.You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you.12.If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;13.you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.14.You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates:15.in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.16.The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.17.You shall not deprive the foreigner, or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;18.but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing.19.When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.20.When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.21.When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.22.You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.
Observations
24:1-4.Jesus said that “Moses” permitted divorce because of the hardness of heart, and that it was not the ideal. See Resources under Digging Deeper. Most discussions of divorce fail to consider what constitutes marriage in God's sight (God joining two people together; see Ezra 10).
Mt 19:3 Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?" 4 He answered, "Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’ 6 So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart." 7 They asked him, "Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?" 8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. 9 I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery." 10 His disciples said to him, "If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry."
24:10-22.
These stipulations guard against the deadly sin of greed (unrestrained “capitalism”) by placing other-centeredness above material accumulation. God gives so we can be generous, not gluttons.
Deuteronomy 25 Just Dealings
1.If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;2.and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.3.Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed...
4.You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.5.If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.6.It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.7.If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife...11.When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets;12.then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
15.You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.16.For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God.17.Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt;18.how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God.19.Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.
Observations
25:2.Corporal punishment was preferred over imprisonment. Biblical chastisement is preferable to “time-out” (cf. Pr 23:13-14).
25:5-10.
Levirate marriage mandated, and public shaming was the consequence for failure to obey.
25:15-16.
A just weight was using the same one for buying and selling. On a balance scale, using a heavier weight when buying and a lighter weight when paying or selling was unjust. Unrighteous business dealings are an abomination, just as is temple prostitution and idol worship.
Application
Since God's blessing is better than the best of our efforts, it makes sense to direct our efforts to being blameless in His sight, especially dealing justly with others
Prayer
Omniscient and Omnipotent God, search my life and show me where I am not pleasing in Your sight, and guide me on to the path of blessing, for which I'll praise You. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: Since God designed the world and us, He has a pretty good idea of how we should live in it. He gives us both principles and specifics of how to obey. Failure to follow His instructions results in both short-term and long-term unpleasant discipline. He blesses abundantly so we can share His blessings with others, and keeps us from setting our hearts on accumulation of things that don't last.Us in a nutshell: Loving/treating others as we would want them to treat us is a great guide to keep us from social and societal injustice. We must embrace God's prohibitions as ultimately for our benefit. When we can only see the short-term deprivation of our desires, we need to learn to look for the greater wisdom that leads to God's greater enduring blessing. Otherwise we'll opt for the short-cut to sorrow.
Where to go for more
Truthbase.net
Marriage Divorce and Remarriage