STAY TRUE TO GOD
Be Compassionate to those in Need
Deuteronomy 24
Jerry A Collins
SCC
v How does God view the issue of divorce?
v In what ways can we display compassion for the needy?
v How should we view lending to those who are poor?
Unfortunately, people do practice behavior that we may not be able to stop, but we can at least try to regulate and contain. The FCC exists to regulate commerce on wall street not because they approve of underhanded dealing but because they acknowledge it exists but must be regulated and contained for the confidence of investing. The commissioners office exists in baseball to regulate things like drug use and players not because they are giving permission for it’s use but because it must be regulated and contained for the integrity of baseball. This is the way the Old Testament regarded the issue of divorce for instance. The Law regulated certain kinds of behavior like this not because it approved of the behavior but because it recognized it’s reality and the need for it to be contained.
1. DIVORCE IS ACKNOWLEDGED BUT NOT APPROVED 1-5
A. If a man marries a wife and he finds some sexual indecency in her—cannot be adultery nor premarital sex since both meant death—and then divorces her officially with a certificate stating so—given for her own protection to substantiate if she was wanting to remarry for instance—that she is legitimately available and she leaves and becomes another man’s wife and he either divorces her (hates her) or dies, she cannot go back to her first husband since she had been defiled. Further, we learn that if she did so it would be an abomination—same word associated with homosexuality—before the Lord. The same word as detestable and it would be viewed as sin in the land—the very land God had set aside for His people as a holy place.
B. This is the passage the
Pharisees referred to in Matthew 19:7. Jesus said, ‘Because of your hardness of
heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wife. But from the beginning it has
not been this way.’ We also know, that in Malachi
C. Another marriage issue is in vs 5. When a man takes a new wife he is free from being in the army for one year. 20:7 also dealt with this. It would be considered heartless to have his life jeopardized. The reason is so that he can give happiness to his new wife he has taken. An application might be that your first priority after God, is to give happiness to your wife. God wants you to enjoy your wife and to please her. You took vows to your spouse you never took to your job.
2. BE CONCIENTIOUS TOWARD VICTIMS 6-9
Pledges 6 If you need to have some kind of collateral for payment, you cannot take a millstone as that pledge. If you do, you will be depriving him of his daily bread. Millstones were used daily in homes to grind the grain for bread every day. This would violate compassion that should have motivated the lender in the first place. An application might be ‘do not put pressure on poor people to pay back a loan’.
Punishment 7 If you kidnap, then you shall die. Kidnapping was
depriving a victim of his freedom—by taking hi as a slave or selling him to
someone else. The kidnapper was to be punished by death, as though he had taken
the victim’s life. By application, how has God viewed the kidnapping and
selling of slaves and Indians in
Practice 8-9 Leviticus 1e3 states it more clearly, but the idea is
that quarantine is to be observed when there are skin diseases like leprosy.
Motivation to follow the clear instructions given previously was furnished by
Miriam who because she opposed Moses was struck with leprosy (Numbers 12). So
the skin diseases might also include measles chicken pox. An application might
be practice good hygiene. It’s not good enough to just pray the sick. 3. DON’T OPPRESS PEOPLE WITH YOUR MONEY
10-15
Borrowing 10-13 If you loan some money do not go into the person’s house to take collateral. You cannot enter and just take anything you want. This is preserving the dignity of the poor borrower and preventing the lender from overstepping and being cruel or oppressive. And he cannot sleep with the collateral—keep it overnight because the person is poor and he needs his cloak as a blanket for the night as well. The point here is that lending and borrowing was a welfare system not a way to increase your business in the neighborhood or to get a bigger house. An application might be if you borrow, you should consider yourself responsible to repay back the loan. If you lend to the poor, consider it a gift. If you borrow, it should be because you are poor.
Paying 14-15 Pay the wages of the poor every day! Don’t hold it back until it is convenient for you because the poor are in survival mode to provide for his family each day. It could become your sin. We plan for the future but the poor just try to survive every day. That is why they are poor. An application might be to have enough money set aside when you hire a poor person to do some work for you that you can pay them immediately so you do not forget or neglect to do so.
4 BE SENSITIVE & HAVE COMPASSION FOR THE NEEDY
Fathers 16 Fathers should not be put to death for sins of sons.
Everyone should be put to death for their own sin violating the stipulations in
the Law. No one could act as a substitute for anyone else. An application might
be that you are personally responsible before God for your sin not your
parents, your upbringing, your environment or your experiences. Ezekiel
Compassion 17-22 Be sure to give justice to the alien, the orphan and
the widow vs 17. These could easily be oppressed in
business, in the courts, and by the wealthy. A deterrent would be to remember