Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / July 22 - Deuteronomy 22

Transcript

July 22 - Deuteronomy 22 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean here. It's Tuesday, the 22nd of July.
• 0:17
  My first day back at work after a glorious time away.
• 0:21
  But all good things have to come to an end.
• 0:23
  But that's OK. Work is good, work is good.
• 0:26
  Isn't it a blessing to be able to enjoy the thing that we do
• 0:28
  with our days? And Speaking of things that we
• 0:32
  enjoy, this chapter that we're going to read today cracks open
• 0:36
  the next commandment which Moses will explore what this looks
• 0:39
  like in the land that they will be entering as they live under
• 0:42
  this new covenant. And that is you shall not commit
• 0:45
  adultery. This is protecting the sanctity
• 0:49
  of marriage. And when Moses speaks about
• 0:51
  this, it goes well beyond marriage because the way that
• 0:54
  God expands this is looking at what things go together and what
• 0:59
  things don't go together, what things don't fit in an otherwise
• 1:03
  healthy and happy place. So this is what life will look
• 1:07
  like according to God's laws for his people, keeping things in
• 1:11
  order and protecting the dignity and sanctity of that which
• 1:15
  should be protected. So let us unpack this together
• 1:18
  as we read together Deuteronomy chapter 22.
• 1:32
  If you see your neighbour's ox or sheep or goat wandering away,
• 1:36
  don't ignore your responsibility.
• 1:39
  Take it back to its owner. If its owner does not live
• 1:42
  nearby or you don't know who the owner is, take it to your place
• 1:46
  and keep it until the owner comes looking for it.
• 1:49
  Then you must return it. Do the same if you find your
• 1:53
  neighbour's donkey, clothing or anything else your neighbour
• 1:55
  loses. Don't ignore your
• 1:57
  responsibility. If you see that your neighbour's
• 2:01
  donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other
• 2:04
  way. Go and help your neighbour to
• 2:06
  get it back on its feet. A woman must not put on men's
• 2:11
  clothing and a man must not wear women's clothing.
• 2:14
  Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the
• 2:17
  Lord your God. If you happen to find a bird's
• 2:20
  nest in a tree or on the ground and there are young ones or eggs
• 2:24
  in it, but the mother sitting in the nest, do not take the mother
• 2:28
  with the young. You may take the young, but let
• 2:31
  the mother go so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life.
• 2:36
  When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the
• 2:39
  edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be
• 2:42
  considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.
• 2:46
  You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your
• 2:49
  vineyard. If you do, you are forbidden to
• 2:53
  use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop.
• 2:57
  You must not plough with an ox and a donkey harness together.
• 3:01
  You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven
• 3:05
  together. You must put 4 tassels on the
• 3:08
  hem of the cloak with which you cover yourself on the front,
• 3:12
  back and sides. Suppose a man marries a woman,
• 3:17
  but after sleeping with her, he turns against her and publicly
• 3:20
  accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, When I married this
• 3:24
  woman I discovered she was not a virgin.
• 3:28
  Then the woman's father and mother must bring the proof of
• 3:30
  her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town
• 3:34
  gate. Her father must say to them, I
• 3:37
  gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has
• 3:41
  turned against her. He has accused her of shameful
• 3:44
  conduct, saying I discovered that your daughter was not a
• 3:47
  virgin, but here is the proof of my daughter's virginity.
• 3:52
  Then they must spread her bed sheets before the elders.
• 3:55
  The elders must take the man and punish him.
• 3:59
  They must also find him 100 pieces of silver, which he must
• 4:04
  pay to the woman's father because he publicly accused a
• 4:07
  virgin of Israel of shameful conduct.
• 4:10
  The woman will then remain the man's wife, and he may never
• 4:14
  divorce her. But suppose the man's
• 4:17
  accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin.
• 4:21
  The woman must be taken to the door of her father's home, and
• 4:25
  there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has
• 4:29
  committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous
• 4:33
  while living in her parents home.
• 4:36
  In this way you will purge this evil from among you.
• 4:41
  If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and
• 4:44
  the woman must die. In this way you will purge
• 4:48
  Israel of such evil. Suppose a man meets a young
• 4:52
  woman, a virgin, who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual
• 4:56
  intercourse with her. If this happens within a town,
• 5:00
  you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone
• 5:03
  them to death. The woman is guilty because she
• 5:06
  did not scream for help. The man must die because he
• 5:09
  violated another man's wife. In this way you will purge this
• 5:14
  evil from among you. But if the man meets the engaged
• 5:18
  woman out in the country and he rapes her, then only the man
• 5:22
  must die. Do nothing to the young woman.
• 5:25
  She has committed no crime worthy of death.
• 5:28
  She is as innocent as a murder victim.
• 5:31
  Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed
• 5:34
  that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.
• 5:39
  Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a
• 5:41
  virgin, but is not engaged to be married.
• 5:45
  If they are discovered, he must pay her father 50 pieces of
• 5:48
  silver. Then he must marry the young
• 5:51
  woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as
• 5:55
  long as he lives. A man must not marry his
• 5:59
  father's former wife, for this would violate his father.
• 6:14
  Our Lord, as we read these, they can certainly sound archaic and
• 6:18
  strange to our modern ears. But Lord, if we look behind the
• 6:22
  content and we've seen the theme, we see your heart, we see
• 6:26
  what it is that you want for your people, We see that you
• 6:30
  know what is best for us, and you want to create that
• 6:34
  structure and that condition under which we will flourish.
• 6:40
  And Lord, we thank you that you have given us a new covenant, a
• 6:45
  covenant in which Jesus and his sacrificial death and his
• 6:49
  resurrection change everything for us, and that we now live
• 6:55
  with the possibility of this grace and forgiveness given
• 7:00
  freely by you to us. And under this covenant, all you
• 7:05
  ask us to do is to love and to follow you.
• 7:10
  We do that. We turn from whatever
• 7:13
  distractions may be tugging at our heart back to you, back to
• 7:16
  your way of love, of fidelity, of faithfulness.
• 7:23
  We love you and we praise you, and we pray all of this in the
• 7:26
  name of Jesus, Amen.