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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung
on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury
him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse.
You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an
inheritance.”
“If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. Do the same if you find your brother's donkey or his cloak or anything he loses. Do not ignore it.”
“If you see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet.”
“A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”
“If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.”
“When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.”
“Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.”
“Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.”
“Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.”
“Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.”
Deuteronomy 21:22-23, 22:1-12
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
From the last two verses in Deuteronomy, Chapter 21, through the first twelve verses of Chapter 22, we read of a collection of laws the Israelites were to follow. Although not grouped this way, they can be broken down into a few distinct categories:
1. Desecration.
“If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.”
In biblical times as well as times thereafter, a hanging was one of the most humiliating forms of death because it amounted to public execution. We read in this portion of our passage that a person “guilty of a capital offense” fell under God’s judgment or under His “curse”.
After death had occurred, we see where the requirement was clear. The body of the deceased wasn’t to remain there but was to be buried the same day. To allow the person to continue to hang would desecrate the land by allowing the memory of the crime the man committed to linger. Justice had been done and no lingering reminder was needed.
Of interest, this same law part of the Law was applied when Jesus was crucified alongside the two criminals at Calvary. Once death happened, the bodies were to be removed from the crosses and we know that Jesus’ body was removed by Joseph and Nicodemus before being prepared and placed in the tomb (John 19:38-42).
2. Distinction.
“A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”
“Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.”
“Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.”
“Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.”
God created everything to be unique and special in its own right, and He expected His people to respect this uniqueness. Thus, there was no need for a woman or man to wear the other’s clothing. God wanted them to be who he created them to be and wear the clothing appropriate for their gender.
Agriculturally, plants were to be sowed and harvested separate from one another.
Animals were not to be mixed on the plow and if you think about it, an ox and donkey aren’t exactly a good match anyways because of the difference in their pulling power.
Finally, different types of thread were not to be woven together in a garment. This would prevent the structural integrity of the garment from being compromised.
3. Preservation.
“If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.”
God wanted the Israelites to respect and preserve creation’s ability to reproduce. If the mother was taken, no other young would be able to be produced and so she was to be left alone. Note that this command had an added warning for one was to comply with it “so that it may go well with (them) you and (they) may have long life”.
4. Safety.
“When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.”
In an earlier passage from this book, we already have seen God’s word address the shedding of innocent blood. Accidental death was to be avoided as much as possible and safety measures were to be taken such as making ‘a parapet (railing) around (the) roof” so to catch someone who might fall, therefore avoiding the “guilt of bloodshed on (their) house”.
5. Remembrance.
“Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.”
We have seen prior guidance on this in the Book of Numbers:
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”’” Numbers 15:37-41
Here we’re reminded that the tassels on the cloak served to remind the wearer that they were to “remember all the commands of the Lord” and “obey them” so not to “prostitute (themselves) by going after the lusts of (their) own hearts and eyes”. We should further note that this was to be passed onto future generations and indeed although we still see tassels on clothing today, they have largely lost the intended meaning we see in these verses.
6. Helping others.
“If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. Do the same if you find your brother's donkey or his cloak or anything he loses. Do not ignore it.”
“If you see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet.”
God’s word makes it pretty clear here that He wants His people to get involved, assisting someone who may be at risk.
If one saw their brother’s ox or sheep straying, they weren’t supposed to just ignore it and pretend that they didn’t see anything. Rather, they were required to take it back to its rightful owner. And if they didn’t know who that owner was, then they were supposed to take the animal into custody and keep it until the rightful owner came looking for it. Of interest, we see that the same applied to anything else that was lost. Items of value that belonged to someone else were to be looked after by the finder.
We then see a second example given regarding a fallen animal. Often times, these animals were heavy and too much for one person to lift so if a person saw someone trying to get their animal on its feet again, they were to help them. Not just treat it as if it wasn’t their problem.
I think this section of the scriptures makes clear that people were to care and look after one another, including their items of value.
Given this, we should be asking ourselves some self-reflective questions:
As a society, how well do we look after one another today?
How well do we see our responsibility to protect another’s valuables, especially when they lose something?
If we see something that someone has lost, do we just go on about our business as if it’s not our problem? Or if the item is something of value, do we hold it to see if we can get it to the rightful owner or do we adopt the worldly “finders/keepers” approach?
Finally, if we see another person in need of assistance, do we stop to help them or just carry on uninterrupted in what we were doing?
Maybe if we’re honest in answering these questions, we can see that we have a serious issue in our world today, the world that God created and watches over. That issue is a pervasive inclination to be self-centered with everyone just interested in their own needs and wants without lending time to assist someone in need.
My friends, this certainly isn’t what God expects from us and it surely wasn’t the way that Jesus lived. Our Lord expects us to help others because He is always helping us or in other words, we only know how to help others because we were first helped by our Heavenly Father, the Father who “is our refuge and strength” and “ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
Today, my hope is that we will recommit ourselves to help others like God helps us so that we too may be an ever present help for others in their times of trouble. I think you would agree that our world would be a better place if we do.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
