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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“When men have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will
decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the
guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have
him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves, but
he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that,
your brother will be degraded in your eyes.”
“Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”
“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.’ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, ‘I do not want to marry her,’ his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, ‘This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line.’ That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.”
“If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.”
“Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house - one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.”
“Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”
Deuteronomy 25
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Like chapters 23 and 24 of the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25 is a collection of various laws and commands that the Israelites were to follow as they entered Canaan. As we read these laws, it’s important to remember that they were being given to an entirely new generation. Their ancestors had been given most of these instructions before but you’ll remember that God ensured they all would die in the wilderness after sinfully showing no faith in Him when attempting to enter the Promised Land the first time. Now, Moses was educating their children before they would cross the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua.
As we have in the last two messages, let’s look at each of these commands:
1. “When men have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves, but he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes.”
In Old Testament times, disputes weren’t to be handled between individuals but in the courts where judges were appointed to hear cases and render the appropriate verdicts, always ensuring that justice was served. We need to note that when the penalty of lashing was imposed, there was a limit. No one was to receive more than forty lashes and anything beyond that would be considered inhumane in God’s sight.
2. “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”
Here, we see that human beings weren’t the only ones allotted humane treatment.
Oxen were used to tread on stalks of grain thrown on the threshing floor. As they walked on the stalks, the grain kernels would be separated for collection. If the ox was muzzled, then it would be unable to eat some of the grain when hungry and this would be cruel, depriving them of their need for food. This is the reason for this command from God.
3. “If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.’ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, ‘I do not want to marry her,’ his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, ‘This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line.’ That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.”
As we have seen prior in the Old Testament, it was very important for a son to be born into any family. This is because society was very patriarchal and so any son would be able to carry on the family name, inheriting any position their father might hold.
But what if a man dies before he has a chance to have a son?
In those cases, the brother of the deceased was to marry the widowed sister-in-law so she could bear a son who would “carry on the name of the dead brother” so that “his name (would) not be blotted out from Israel”.
Now, this was what God commanded but there was no guarantee that the dead man’s brother would agree to marry the widow. If this happened, we read where the refusal would be met with great scorn and disapproval. For in this scenario, the widow was to take the matter “to the elders at the town gate and say:
“My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”
In response to this, the elders would “summon (the brother) and talk to him. If he persisted in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” then he faced the following consequences:
“His brother's widow (would) go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face, and say, ‘This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line.’ That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.”
In other words, the brother would be released from his duty to provide a son for his dead brother’s widow but that liberation would come through a ceremony of shame, a ceremony that would tarnish his reputation that point on in the community where it would be well known how he intentionally disrespected his dead brother and widowed sister-in-law.
Of special interest here is the matter of being unsandaled. Remember that Jesus, providing instructions on how they were to go out and evangelize, said that if a town refused to receive them and the Gospel message they shared, then they were to leave the town and shake the dust from their sandals (Matthew 10:11-15). The unsandaling action in the New Testament was meant to heap shame on the rejecting town and its people. It was an extension of what we see here in Deuteronomy, chapter 25.
4. “If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.”
We have seen other places in the scriptures that speak about decency in dealing with sexual situations as well as parts of the body used for sex and reproduction. Here, we find the Law is given so to serve as a deterrent for anyone who might seek to severely injure a person (in this case a man) by grabbing him by his private parts.
How serious was the offense?
So much so that the woman’s hand was to be cut off.We shouldn’t read this as being that a woman was prevented to come to the aid of her husband. Rather, it placed a limit as to how she acted if she did.
5. “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”
You’ll recall that when God delivered His people from their captivity in Egypt, they embarked on an exodus across the Sinai Peninsula toward Mount Sinai where the Lord would give Moses instruction to pass onto the Israelites. This included what we know as the Ten Commandments.
Well, the journey to Mount Sinai was far from easy and the people of God found themselves “weary and worn out”. In this state of lowered readiness, we saw where the Amalekites, the descendants of Esau, attacked Israel. In that battle, God delivered the Israelites into victory, something He didn’t want them to forget because He definitely hadn’t.
For as we see in this command, God ordered the Israelites to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven”. In other words, God was going to hand Amelek over to Israel for utter annihilation.
6. “Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house - one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.”
In biblical times, commerce was often done by using weights and measures. One of the ways to determine the cost of a purchase was to weigh it against a known standard weight to determine the weight of what was being bought and subsequently the cost of that purchase.
Unfortunately, like today, people figured out how to do unscrupulous, sinful things in order to profit financially. In the context of this command, differing weights and measures were often used to dishonestly weigh and measure items in the broker’s favor. Completely lacking in integrity, it was a common practice that ripped off a lot of people.
Then, as it is now, God expects people to conduct their business matters honestly and above board.
Okay, that covers the commands in Deuteronomy 25 and for the purpose of this message, I would like to focus on an aspect of the sixth and final one. For as we deal with others on a day-by-day basis, isn’t integrity one of the most important things we covet from those serving us? I think I can say with absolute certainty that no one likes to be deceived, especially when that deceit comes from someone you are placing your trust in.
Well, it doesn’t take too much time reading around the Bible to know that God hates dishonesty. And just as we have seen harsh penalties for other sins in today’s passage, none of them are as severe as what we find in the Book of Revelation in regard to those who swindle or mislead others. Look at these verses from the 21st chapter:
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.” Revelation 21:22-27
Note here how deceitfulness is a disqualifier because it makes a person impure and the scriptures clearly state that “nothing impure will enter” through the gates of the New Jerusalem. Only the “glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it” and this includes those whose “names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”.
Now, I don’t know about you but I want my name to be found in Jesus’ book and this comes by believing and accepting Jesus as Savior. For it’s only in and through Him, committing ourselves to live as He lived, that we can ensure that we will live a life free from shameful, deceitful behavior. Doing so will earn us a place with Him for all eternity and save us from the alternative, the everlasting suffering and torment of Hell.
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.
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