I now return to a chronological Bible study after a long break of studying the four Gospels. My last chronologically ordered post was on October 25, 2020. Moses had been reviewing God's laws as he had been doing in most all of the book of Deuteronomy.
(Deuteronomy 25:1) "If there be a controversy between men and they come into judgment that they may be judged, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked."
Moses continued speaking. If there was a controversy between men and they came into a court to have their case judged, then judges were required to judge righteously, justifying the righteous, acquitting the one whose cause was good, and condemning to punishment the one who was guilty of a crime. The Lord required righteous judgment from His judges, as Proverbs 17:15 says, "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord."
(2) "And it shall be if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten in his presence, according to his fault by a certain number."
Crimes that were not so severe as to require death were punished with beating or scourging. If a wicked man was found guilty, then he was to lie down in the presence of the judge and was to be beaten by the number of strikes correlating to the heinousness of his crime. The judge or judges, as there was usually a panel of at least three, were to be present to ensure that the sentence was properly executed, neither exceeded nor diminished.
(3) "Forty strikes he may give him, and not exceed, lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many strikes, then your brother would be degraded to you."
Forty strikes were the most a judge could order. If he exceeded that, the man would seem more like a beast than a man, much less a brother. Perhaps the meaning of being degraded might be degrading the body to the point of permanent deformity or even death.
(4) "You shall not muzzle an ox when he treads out the grain."
From what I have read, oxen were often muzzled in other types of labor. However, God's law considered it inhumane to muzzle an ox when treading out the grain, that is, being driven back and forth over the grain in order to separate it from the chaff. It was to be allowed to eat of the grain if it wanted.
(5) "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry outside 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."
If brothers lived together which may mean in the same house, as a younger brother might live with his older brother, especially if their father was dead; but it might also mean that they lived together in the same town, because if they lived far away from each other, this law could not easily be upheld. If brothers lived together and a married one died but had no child, then the husband's unmarried brother was to take his brother's widow as his wife. She was not allowed to marry outside the family. From what I have read, if her husband's brother did not live close by, then she was free to marry the next kinsman who lived nearby, but she was not to marry a stranger.
(6) "And it shall be the firstborn which she bears shall succeed in the name of his dead brother that his name not be blotted out of Israel."
The firstborn child born to the union of the widow and her dead husband's brother was to succeed in the name of the dead husband, given his part of the inheritance that would have gone to the dead man, so that his name and family line wouldn't be lost in Israel. The rest of the children would be considered the living brother's heirs.
(7) "And if the man does not like to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Isarel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.'"
If the dead man's brother did not want to take his widow for a wife, then the wife was to go to the gate of the city where the judges sat and tell the elders that her dead husband's brother refused to perform the duties of a husband's brother as outlined in the law.
(8) "Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he stands and says, 'I do not like to take her,' (9) Then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders and loosen his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, 'So shall it be done to that man who will not build up his brother's house.'"
Then the elders would call her brother-in-law to them and speak to him. If he stood firm and still said he did not want to take his brother's wife, then the widow was to come to him in the presence of the elders. She was to loosen his shoe and remove it. Planting the foot on a thing was a symbol of lordship and taking possession, so by her removing his shoe, she showed that he had given up his right to her. It was a sign of shame, as well, to signify that he did not belong among free men, but deserved to be counted among servants and slaves who went about barefooted. The widow also was to spit in her brother-in-law's face, a sign of her contempt and his shame and disgrace. She then would declare this was done because he refused to carry on his brother's name by building up his brother's house.
(10) "And his name shall be called in Isarel, 'The house of him who had his shoe removed.'"
The brother-in-law's name and his house and his posterity would forever be called in Israel, "the house of him who had his shoe removed," a lasting blot on his name.
(11) "When men strive together one with the other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand and takes him by his secret parts, (12) Then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her."
If men are fighting and the wife of one of them sought to help her husband by taking the other man by his testicles, she was guilty of a most indecent act and was to have her hand cut off. She was not to be pitied just because she had done it because of the love for her husband. This law seemed severe but was designed to prevent women from doing such immodest and also injurious acts that might permanently scar a man for future generation.
(13) "You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small."
As things were often bought and sold by weight, one was not to carry diverse weights, one heavy and one light, so as to benefit him and disadvantage another unjustly.
(14) "You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small."
The same thing was required of measurements. One could not use for a common measurement one slightly larger measure and one slightly smaller measure to benefit him and cheat another. One couldn't carry diverse weights and measures and they could not use them in their homes.
(15) "You shall have a perfect and just weight; a perfect and just measure you shall have, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God gives you."
The people were to always be righteous in their weights and measures (Leviticus 19:35). By being just in their dealings, they may be blessed with long life in their fruitful land of Canaan that the Lord was giving them.
(16) "For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord your God."
God found those who used such things to cheat others an abomination. Proverbs 11:1 and Proverbs 20:23 tell us the same thing: "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight;" "Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord, and a false balance is not good."
(17) "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you were coming out of Egypt, (18) How he met you on the way and struck the hindmost of you, all the feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God."
Moses reminded the people what the Amalekites had done to them, how they had attacked them unprovoked, when they were coming out of Egypt, where they had been in hard bondage, their spirits and some of their bodies broken. The Amalekites had taken advantage of them, especially their weakest who brought up their rear and straggled behind the others. The Israelites had not at all harmed the Amalekites, but they did not fear God and attacked His people unprovoked.
(19) "Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget."
God would judge Amalek and the Amalekites. Once the Israelites had finally been given rest from all their enemies all around them in Canaan, the land the Lord was giving them, they would then utterly destroy the Amalekites so that there were none left, to blot out even the memory of them. The Israelites were commanded not to forget what the Amalekites had done to them nor God's order to destroy them. This did not take place right away. They had to subdue the Canaanites to get possession of their land and then had to get free and clear from all the surrounding nations, the Moabites, the Midianites, the Edomites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines, but they were never to forget what the Amalekites had done and to destroy them also. It was about 400 years later before God's judgment against the Amalekites was executed. It is noteworthy to realize how much time the Amalekites had to repent and come to God, but God had known they would not, and ordered that they be blotted out under heaven when the Israelites were finally given rest from their enemies and enjoyed full possession of the land their Lord had given them.
I marvel at the wisdom of God's laws, many of which are scoffed at by this present generation. But had they been continually adhered to, I can only imagine the blessings and richness that would abound. There was an instance in my extended family and in a fairly recent time in the scheme of time and things, when family was immigrating (legally) to America, and had a delay in another foreign country along the way. There a man died leaving a young widow with two small children alone in a foreign country. The man's aunt who was already in America sent her eldest son to take care of the young widow and her children as it was the right thing to do. The son married his cousin's widow and raised up her children as his own, and they have lived a long and happy life together. A selfish man could have said he did not want to go back to a foreign country and take an unknown unseen woman as his wife, not to mention two children who were not his own, but God richly blessed this family. If we only realized that all God's laws are made for our benefit and blessing, and that to reject them only brings sorrow and curses to us.
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