September 17, 2017
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Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 25 (ESV)
“If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, 2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
4 “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ 9 then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’… Continue Reading
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19Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
Don’t forget the good God has done for you!
Interesting how detailed
15A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
Mining for gold in this chapter:
1) Those who work deserve fair wages. Paul refers back to this in 1 Corinthians 9:9-12 and 1 Timothy 5:17-18.
2) A family’s property rights need to be protected. (I am SO THANKFUL to be born in THIS generation!)
3) Honesty and integrity in business dealings is expected of God’s people. “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” (Proverbs 11:1), and “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:35-36)
4) Reference to the famous battle between Israel and the Amalekites in Exodus 17:8-15, when Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms.
The lashes spoken of in the first few verses here reminded me of the scourging Jesus received as an innocent man. I always remembered that 39 was the number given and this is the passage which reinforces that. Yet a little checking showed that none of the gospels give the number just the fact that Jesus was flogged. Still how great the suffering Jesus went through for what ultimately I deserved and the reading of Deuteronomy does reinforce the appreciation I have for being on this side of the cross.
I guess I wouldn’t want to be know as the Family of the In sandaled…..what a different time this was…
I too notice the honesty in business taught here. How important it is for this standard to be establish because we know it would be somebodies tendency to do the opposite…