December 16, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Deuteronomy 29-31

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 Timothy 2:5

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 22:1-15 (The Message)
¹ “If someone steals an ox or a lamb and slaughters or sells it, the thief must pay five cattle in place of the ox and four sheep in place of the lamb. ² If the thief is caught while breaking in and is hit hard and dies, there is no bloodguilt. ³ But if it happens after daybreak, there is bloodguilt. “A thief must make full restitution for what is stolen. The thief who is unable to pay is to be sold for his thieving. ⁴ If caught red-handed with the stolen goods, and the ox or donkey or lamb is still alive, the thief pays double. ⁵ “If someone grazes livestock in a field or vineyard but lets them loose so they graze in someone else’s field, restitution must be made from the best of the owner’s field or vineyard. ⁶ “If fire breaks out and spreads to the brush so that the sheaves of grain or the standing grain or even the whole field is burned up, whoever started the fire must pay for the damages. ⁷ “If someone gives a neighbor money or things for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, the thief, if caught, must pay back double. ⁸ If the thief is not caught, the owner must be brought before God to determine whether the owner was the one who took the neighbor’s goods. ⁹ “In all cases of stolen goods, whether oxen, donkeys, sheep, clothing, anything in fact missing of which someone says, ‘That’s mine,’ both parties must come before the judges. The one the judges pronounce guilty must pay double to the other. ¹⁰ “If someone gives a donkey or ox or lamb or any kind of animal to another for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or lost and there is no witness, ¹¹ an oath before God must be made between them to decide whether one has laid hands on the property of the other. The owner must accept this and no damages are assessed. ¹² But if it turns out it was stolen, the owner must be compensated. ¹³ If it has been torn by wild beasts, the torn animal must be brought in as evidence; no damages have to be paid. ¹⁴ “If someone borrows an animal from a neighbor and it gets injured or dies while the owner is not present, he must pay for it. ¹⁵ But if the owner was with it, he doesn’t have to pay. If the animal was hired, the payment covers the loss. ^[1]

Dealing with thievery is what is next on the agenda.  Israel was a nation of shepherds and herdsmen, this was one of the most important parts of their civilization.  Along the same lines, all the temple sacrifices depended upon healthy herds of animals as well as the safety of the people.  The stiff penalties did two things, first it protected the people from thieves, and second it offered a strong deterrent for anyone who considered taking up the occupation of rustling.  The main emphasis is to make restitution for a loss.  There wasn't any excuses accepted for being unable correct the wrong.  If a person did not have the money or means to correct his error he was sold into slavery to pay the debt. 

The next thing that followed was that of property damage due to neglect.  Again, there wasn't any excuses for an inability to make restitution. 

There wasn't any banks in that day, so when a person wanted to keep valuables, they were often entrusted to a neighbor for safe keeping.  These rules applied to protect both the one who placed the loan, and the  person who accepted the loan.  The penalties were stiff for neglect and for theft, but there was a reasonable rule built in. 

The rules for borrowing are laid forth, again protecting both parties.  The point of all of this is simple, God set forth common sense rules that insured that people would live together, and work together in harmony.  As Christians we should model our lives after these verses.  We certainly don't want to start charging a person double or even threaten them with the penalties if they don't protect our property.  Rather the spirit of the verses is simple, we are to live as family.  In today's society we are so quick to hoard our possessions and treat them as if we will take them to the grave with us.  The problem is that in order to loan out tools, or to entrust others with our possessions means that we must develop relationships with them that reaches beyond our comfort zones.  The sheer nature of these verses demand that we must develop close friendships with our fellow Christians.  How hard can that be? 

Exodus 22:16-31 (The Message)
¹⁶ “If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the marriage price and marry her. ¹⁷ If her father absolutely refuses to give her away, the man must still pay the marriage price for virgins. ¹⁸ “Don’t let a sorceress live. ¹⁹ “Anyone who has sex with an animal gets the death penalty. ²⁰ “Anyone who sacrifices to a god other than God alone must be put to death. ²¹ “Don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt. ²² “Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. ²³ If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them most seriously; ²⁴ I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans. ²⁵ “If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest. ²⁶ “If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before nightfall; ²⁷ it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate. ²⁸ “Don’t curse God; and don’t damn your leaders. ²⁹ “Don’t be stingy as your wine vats fill up. “Dedicate your firstborn sons to me. ³⁰ The same with your cattle and sheep—they are to stay for seven days with their mother, then give them to me. ³¹ “Be holy for my sake. “Don’t eat mutilated flesh you find in the fields; throw it to the dogs. ^[2]

Notice the difference between a virgin who is not betrothed who has sexual relations with a man, and someone who is betrothed.  We discussed this earlier, the one who is not betrothed is not considered to be married, and the result of the relationship costs the father in two ways.  First, the daughter has lost her virginity which diminishes her value greatly.  Therefore the man is required to pay the dowry that normally would have been required for the woman.  If the man is not found to be desirable, he must still pay the dowry, his loss was financial and a damage to his reputation.  He lived to pay the penalty. 

Deuteronomy 22:23-24 (The Message)
²³ If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her, ²⁴ take both of them to the town gate and stone them until they die—the girl because she didn’t yell out for help in the town and the man because he raped her, violating the fiancée of his neighbor. You must purge the evil from among you.^[3]

If the girl is betrothed, then both parties involved are stoned to death.  The seriousness of this issue is because they were technically married and adultery has taken place.  It makes an interesting contrast.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (The Message)
⁹ When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there. ¹⁰ Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don’t practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery, ¹¹ casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead. ¹² People who do these things are an abomination to God. It’s because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.

Leviticus 20:16 (The Message)
¹⁶ “If a woman has sex with an animal, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. And they are responsible for their deaths.

Deuteronomy 27:21 (The Message)
²¹ God’s curse on anyone who has sex with an animal. All respond: Yes. Absolutely.

Leviticus 18:23-24 (The Message)
²³ “Don’t have sex with an animal and violate yourself by it. “A woman must not have sex with an animal. That is perverse. ²⁴ “Don’t pollute yourself in any of these ways. This is how the nations became polluted, the ones that I am going to drive out of the land before you.^[4]

This is followed with three people who are not allowed to live, a sorceress, one who is involved in sex with animals, and one who sacrifices to another god.  This went beyond protecting people from the insanity of the three actions.  It was rooted in the trends that the pagan peoples were involved in during that day.  All three actions were put into practice with Baal worship. God made a distinct point of distinguishing between the Hebrews and the pagans.  Anything that entertained the practices of the pagans were to be destroyed.

God expects His people to learn from their past.  He also expects that the aliens, widows and orphans will all be taken care of.  I wonder as I think of this, have we robbed ourselves of blessings by allowing the welfare system to take care of these people.  We lose in a couple of ways, first we lose the opportunity to minister to the unfortunate.  This takes away a golden opportunity to give from our abundance, honoring the Lord by giving beyond our normal tithes.  Second it robs us of the opportunity to give and serve other people as Christ expected us to serve them.  Imagine how powerful the message of the Gospel would be if we were to put into action this simple truth.  It doesn't take a lot, sometimes it is mowing a lawn, or offering a ride, or even buying a few groceries for someone in need.  What does it take for us to take our gospel and put it into shoe leather?  Loaning to the needy follows the same train of thought.  God takes it personal when His people do not recognize and help out those who are in need.

Verse 31 indicates God's attitude toward Israel.  They are His "holy people", therefore they are expected to act the part.  The "do nots" are simply in place to indicate that they were to live their lives at a higher level than their neighbors.  God made it clear that He expected them to live their lives to a higher moral standard than the rest of the world. 

Again, the application of this to our lives as Christians is a cinch.  If we are God's holy people, redeemed by His blood and standing forgiven in His sight, why do we look like the world?  Shouldn't our lives reflect a higher standard?  We are certainly not under the letter of the law in our lives.  But we are under the spirit of the law, meaning that if we were to live our lives using the law as an inspiration to us, imagine how much more of an impact we would make on the world around us.

Imagine the impact that it would make on the world if we were to reach out to others, helping them in a time of need.  The context of this passage meant that the Hebrews were to take care of their needy, imagine the faith building experience that would take place if this same thing were put in place in our churches for the needy in them.  How about living our lives as if God was truely God, not living lives of double standards, playing church and then living like the world.  Imagine the impact on our families if we were to devote our eldest to the Lord and live our lives as an example to them in order to encourage them to grow in the Lord.  Imagine what would happen if we had the attitude that we are God's holy people and we will not dirty ourselves with anything that is questionable. 

When we read through the law, it is often dry and dreary because we can't picture ourselves in those situations.  It may be more applicable to our lives than we care to admit.

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes to the application of Your word to our lives.  Show us ways to overcome and to share our lives with others.

In Him,

Joe Turner.