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“Community & God's People” • 1.24.13
• Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Night Bible Study
Intro.
- Moses continues to communicate
God's heart for His nation, that is coming into the land of Canaan. In this
section before us, Moses shows us the value that God wants to place on human
life.
- How are we to think about other's
problems and situations? How are we to think about our community? This section
helps to answer that for us.
Text
• Deuteronomy 21:1-5 : "If anyone is found slain, lying in
the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who
killed him, then
your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the
slain man to the surrounding cities. And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain
man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with
a yoke. The
elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water,
which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there
in the valley. Then
the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to
minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; by their word every controversy
and every assault shall be settled." :
Responsibility for every life. We have seen that theme grow through these last
chapters, whether it involves financial assistance or solving a murder.
- This unidentified person has been murdered,
yet God has taken notice and wanted them to take notice and be concerned as
well.
- When the first murder of the bible occurred, Abel's
blood cried out to the Lord for justice. (Genesis
4:10) Every life matters to the Lord and in every city, restitution was to
be made.
- The nearest of the cities to the dead man
would go through this process of investigating the affair, offering a
substituionary sacrifice.
- The animal and the land are unused. Their
potential has not yet been tapped, which seems to indicate a tribute to the
life that has been lost.
- The judges, the elders and the priests were
to be involved and every controversy or dispute and every assault or blow,
would be settled. There was no insignificant case.
- The blood that had been shed was a pollutant
to God's land.
• Deuteronomy
21:6-9 : "And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall
wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. Then they shall answer and say,
‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You
have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people
Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. So you shall put away the guilt of
innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord." : The elders of the nearest city were to make sure that they
investigated the crime, seeking out whoever had committed it.
- If they were innocent of the crime, they were
still responsible to identify themselves with the sacrifice, asking the Lord to
provide atonement, a covering for sin.
- One has to ask themselves: How much innocent,
untimely blood has been spilt on the face of this Earth? It's only by God's
mercy that we stand here tonight.
• Deuteronomy
21:10-14 : "When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your
hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her
and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave
her head and trim her nails. She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your
house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go
in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be, if you have no
delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell
her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her." : When Israel won their battles against distant enemies, they
could take lady captives as wives. It began with seeing them as beautiful women
and having a desire to take a wife.
- If that were the case, they were to follow
this procedure. They would take them home and shave their heads and trim their
nails, symbolic of a new beginning.
- They were to change their clothes, which
often associated them with their past life and clothe them in clothes
appropriate to their new cultural surroundings.
- They were to allow them to mourn their loss
for a month and then take them as wives. This would provide a month to really
see if a marriage was tenable.
- During that time, it might have been
discovered that this woman was not as willing to live under the laws of God's
covenant.
- God wanted these men to understand that
marriage takes much more than attraction.
- If there was to be no marriage, the woman in
question was to be set free. She was not to continue to live in an uncertain
environment with the man.
• Deuteronomy
21:15-17 : "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and
they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the
firstborn son is of her who is unloved, then it shall be, on the day he
bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status
on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.
But he shall acknowledge the son of
the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he
has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is
his." : The rights to the inheritance of a
man went to the firstborn son, regardless of the favor of the wife.
- God's law covers what men and women were
prone to do. God is not like many Christians who pretend by their shock that
certain things do not exist.
- In the nations surrounding Israel, as in the
Bedouin cultures that exist today, polygamy was a way of adding strength to
your family.
- God knows that some would choose to live in a
polygamous way. He does not endorse it, but He does regulate it through His
law.
- The firstborn was always to be given a double
portion of the inheritance and then the rest were to be given a regular portion
after the Father's death.
- The people of God were to avoid the problems
that came with favoritism. Their own history showed a great problem with that
in Isaac and Jacob's case.
- Part of the reason for this also relates to
the type. Jesus is the firstborn who has been given the pre-eminence among all.
• Deuteronomy
21:18-21 : "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the
voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have
chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring
him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of
his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our
voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall
stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you,
and all Israel shall hear and fear." : Notice
that the parents of this young man, presumably a person in their 20's, were to
actively chasten him.
- They were to value the life of the young man,
as well as the community that he lived in. Such a person being allowed to
continue unabated would pose great danger to those around them.
- Discipline is important for the sanity of the
family and for the good of the community!
- Discipline doesn't end until the child is his
or her own person. While they remain in the home, they remain under the benevolent
supervisory care of their parents.
- When their discipline did not work, the young
man was to be brought before the elders of the city and in this day, presuming
a lack of repentance, the son was then to be executed.
- Notice that the testimony of the parents,
honestly speaking about their son's condition, was a key part of this
procedure.
- Too often, parents refuse to speak of the
sinful struggles their kids are having until it's too late. Sometimes, parents
shy away for the sake of the consequences. These were not to do so.
- That would put the evil away from them and
the news would spread all over Israel.
- Remember a few chapters ago when God called
them to turn over one who lead another to false religion? The same was
applicable here. Parents were to be more loyal to God than their kids.
- Now, we do not hear of this rule being invoked in Israel's
history. Perhaps the presence of the rule alone maintained all the order that
was necessary.
• Deuteronomy
21:22,23 : "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put
to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall
surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an
inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God." : Worse than being executed was the exposure of their dead body
to the shame of the elements and the viewing public.
- Bodies were to be buried the same day. Tokens
of death hanging in the sight of all, in the land of the living God was not
appropriate. It would be a defilement.
- The surrounding cultures were known for
defiling the bodies of their enemies and law breakers. Israel was to be
different, respecting the body that God had made.
- God was severe in His judgment, but not to
the point of being sadistic and cruel.
- In the same way that Jesus would not stay in
the grave one second longer than necessary, the body was not to be up on the
tree one second longer than necessary.
- In the New Testament, Paul quotes this verse
in Galatians 3:13,14, to express the
fact that Jesus took the full curse for our shame when He was exposed to all
and considered accursed of God.
- He stood there in shame so that you would
never have to! He was forsaken so that we would be accepted!
• Deuteronomy
22:1-4 : "You shall not see your
brother’s ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall
certainly bring them back to your brother. And
if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall
bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother
seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. You
shall do the same with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with
any lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found, you
shall do likewise; you must not hide yourself. 'You shall not see your brother’s
donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you
shall surely help him lift them up again." : An
animal represented a livelihood to some degree. Animals were valuable
commodities in that agricultural centered world and could be claimed only after
it was researched.
- The impetus is on you to figure out how to
deal fairly with your brother and according to Exodus 23:4,5, your enemy as well!
• Deuteronomy
22:5 : "A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor
shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to
the Lord your God." : Transvesticism or androgyny was an abomination to the Lord. The
issue here is one of deception.
- Any action that rebels against God's
sovereign choice in the selection of sex, insults the wisdom of God. Those in
covenant with God were to agree that this was not to be practiced.
- God desires that you recognize His sovereign
choice of your gender and that you thank Him for it by serving Him in the
unique way that your gender can bring glory to the Lord.
• Deuteronomy
22:6,7 : "If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any
tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the
young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall surely let the mother go,
and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may
prolong your days." : God cares for the birds!
There was a law on the books reminding the people not to remove the mother with
the young.
- They could remove the eggs or the chicks, but
the mother was to be let go. Consider it this way: Our character is formed when
we act kindly in the smallest ways.
- How could one expect to have a kind character
against enemies, when they could not display it against the least of these?
• Deuteronomy
22:8 : "When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for
your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if
anyone falls from it." : Israel's housing,
especially in this period of time, built homes that had flat roof structures
which served as an outdoor patio for the evening.
- The indoors would be pretty stuffy from the
temperatures of the day. The roof made for a nice escape from the heat.
- When they built that, God instructed them to
build a railing to avoid accidents. This is so simple, yet, so quickly
dismissed.
- We are to be people that anticipate actions
that will be thoughtful toward the people that we love. We're to value our
friends by looking to protect them in every way within our power.
- It's always an ounce of prevention that keeps
our friends from falling off the edge! Our homes need to be a refuge for one
another and a place of safety. That's God's heart.
•
Deuteronomy 22:9-12 : "You shall
not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed
which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. You shall not plow with an ox and a
donkey together. You shall not wear a garment
of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together. You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing
with which you cover yourself." : These principles, at the very least,
revealed a life that was different than the world around them. The law was
given to give the greatest strength to their crops.
-
God wanted their produce, the work of their animals and even the clothes that they
wore, to speak of Him. The world would say, "These people are
different!"
-
On their clothes, they were to make tassels which reminded them of this
difference. Sadly, later in history, their religion was tied to their tassels,
but not their hearts.
-
We can do the same thing by exploiting our external activities. We might be
able to fool our friends and family, but God sees past the tassel to our
hearts!
Conclusion
- Let's pray!
- Let's pray!
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