Deuteronomy 23:15-25 English Standard Version Miscellaneous Laws 15 “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. 16 He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him. 17 “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. 18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God. 19 “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 21 “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth. 24 “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain. Here's another list of sundry laws (various laws that don't seem to have a common theme to them). Some of them are moral, but many are for the Israelite people living in their land, while others are laws about what it means to be Jewish whether you ethnically one of the children of Israel living in the Promised Land or not.
The first law that we see here is a fugitive slave law. If only the United States had taken note of this and modeled our behavior after it. Any slave which escaped his master was to be kept safe by those whom he found refuge with and given a place to live among those people (meaning he would have to be adopted into one of their families and have one of those families gift him a parcel of their land...there is no other way to live among the people since all the land was to be apportioned to each tribe, clan and family. There would not be any land in the Promised Land to make space for such a fugitive slave without adopting him into ones family. None of the Israelite children were to become cult prostitutes (there were many of these in the worship of the pagan gods and goddesses, and we see this is even an issue in the New Testament). They were not to bring any money made by prostitution into the house of the LORD to pay for a vow or as any other offering because these practices are detestable to the LORD. I think we can learn something from this in that we gain money by detestable means sometimes and we think it will be okay because we will give at least 10% of to the Church, but the LORD says He doesn't want money that was gained by detestable means--I'll let the Bible tell you and me what is detestable to God Next, the LORD's people were never to charge interest to each other on anything--they were always to lend without interest to their fellow Jews. They could lend with interest to the foreigners, but never charge interest to those who were of the people of God. In this way the nations would see that they treated each other differently--like family--and the LORD would bless them for their obedience. Next is that the LORD's people were to be careful to fulfill all their vows they make to Him. Notice this says nothing about vows they make to each other because they were not supposed to be swearing oaths or vows to each other (see Matthew 5:33-37). Any promise made the the LORD they should be sure to keep. There would be none of this "God, if you get me out of this bad situation, I'll give my life in service to you" kind of promise that you go back on on as soon as the LORD gets you out of the bad situation. God says that it is better to make no vows than to make a vow that you will not keep. These are wise words for us to follow today. God will hold us accountable for every idle word that passes through our mouths as an oath or vow to Him. "I didn't really mean it" will not be justification for breaking our vows to Him later. Last, but not least, there were laws about gleaning from fields and vineyards that others had planted and worked. Any Jewish person was free to into the vineyard and eat of the grain or the grapes that they could pick and eat right then, but they were not to harvest any grain to take with them. God makes provision for the poor and destitute throughout the Law and the people were to trust that He would give them enough harvest to take care of themselves and their neighbors. These are two different harvest seasons (one in the spring and one in the fall), but there would still need to be provision made for the times that were out of season. We have seen some of this already with how the people were to bring their tithes and offerings of their harvest to the Levites not only to feed the Levites, but also to feed the poor and destitute people and that there would be more than enough food provided by the LORD to take care of all of His people, but each person that could work was to work and provide for himself and his family as he was able. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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