Deuteronomy 25:1-19


The Lord wants His people to do the right thing.  He wants His people to relate to one another in a way that reflects His character.  When we refuse to do this, there ought to be consequences and God spells some of them out for the children of Israel in this chapter.  Though our culture is very different today; the principles that are taught in this passage continue to be a very important part of honoring God and reflecting His character today.

JUSTICE: God is just and He wants His people to be just in their judgments of one another.  In the case of disputes between two people there ought to be a fare trial where the spiritual leaders of Israel were responsible to judge between the two and decide who was guilty and who was innocent.  The guilty person was to be appropriately punished within the limit of the law.  We have a tendency to manipulate the laws of our land in a way that we do not always do what is just.  Our courts try to detect the truth, but there are laws that prevent the truth from being discovered.  We must always remember that God is a perfect judge in that He always knows every truth and that He, one day, will judge according to His knowledge.  We must make every effort to judge according to truth and then appropriately punish the guilty.

MERCY: Within a family, if a brother married and died without having children, the law and culture of Israel required the man’s family to be merciful to the wife of their brother.  The younger brother or closest family member was to take her as his wife and provide a child to carry on the name of the older brother.  I believe that this was a specific law for the children of Israel as a means of protecting the distribution of land according to families.  However, the principle of providing for members of our family who come to be a part of our family by marriage is still very valid and reflects the mercy of God.  We ought to treat our in-laws with honor and respect.

PURITY: It is only natural for a wife to seek to defend her husband in the case of a physical confrontation.  However, she was not permitted to touch a man’s private parts in her attempts to defend her husband.  If she did this, her hand was to be cut off.  God is concerned with the purity of His people, and a man’s or a woman’s private parts are completely off limits outside of marriage.  We should honor and protect one another in a way that protects one another’s purity and privacy.

HONESTY: God made it very clear that His children were to have only one weight in their bags for measuring the goods that they sell.  Having two weights was a means of cheating in that one would purchase with one weight and then sell with another weight in order to pad his profits.  This practice was an abomination to the Lord.  God wants all of us to be honest in our dealings with one another.  We must charge prices that are fare and use honesty in our businesses.  God will honor this honesty as it reflects His character.  We must never compromise the truth in our efforts to pad our profits.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaiah 54:1-17

Hope is a wonderful blessing from God, without which we would be vulnerable to all kinds of destructive tendencies in our lives.  Today’s society is marked by depression, anger, fear, anxiety and self-righteousness, in large part, because of the sense of hopelessness that prevails in our culture.  Isaiah writes to a people who are about to be taken into captivity because of their sin.  God knows that they will feel rejected, threatened and hopeless so He reveals His future plans for the nation in order to give them hope in the midst of the coming trial.  Hope is the expectation of good based upon the promises of God.  Many times when our lives are marked by the sins mentioned above it is because we have forgotten or failed to focus upon the promises of God’s Word. THE PROMISE OF GOD: From the very first day that God revealed His plan for the nation of Israel, He promised numerous descendants.  God chose Abraham, not because he was more righteous than any of the other people of his
Read more

1 Timothy 1:3-7

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not   to teach any different doctrine,   nor   to devote themselves to myths and endless   genealogies, which promote   speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.    The aim of our charge is love   that issues from a pure heart and   a good conscience and   a sincere faith.    Certain persons, by   swerving from these, have wandered away into   vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law,   without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.   There will always be false teachers that come into the church attempting to distract people from the truth and destroy people’s faith.  When this happens, it is the job of spiritually mature leaders to confront these false teachers and correct their teachings.  However, it is important that this correction be accomplished with the right motives and methods. 
Read more

1 Timothy 2:11-15

Let a woman learn quietly   with all submissiveness.    I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.    For Adam was formed first,   then Eve;   and Adam was not deceived, but   the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.    Yet she will be saved through   childbearing—if they continue in   faith and love and holiness, with self-control. There is certainly controversy and confusion about this passage in many churches today.  The idea of a distinction between men and women and their roles in the family and church certainly goes against the flow of many cultures around the world.  Some would argue that the literal and plain teaching of this passage is no longer applicable to today’s culture.  However, it is always dangerous to discard biblical teaching or try to interpret Scripture based on the cultures in which we live.  Certainly, the Spirit who inspired this text was aware of the many changes that would occur in future cul
Read more