May 19, 2019: Day 22 – Deuteronomy 22

Now we begin to get to those sections that address certain issues that I somehow wish we could skip since they are addressed in pre-BC terms.  But I am not going to skip them, there is some redeeming value to them.  We find the laws of marriage and pre-marriage, and divorce.  But we also find a very important verse which tells us (vs.3): “You may not withhold your help.”  If someone is in need then it is a sin to withhold your help. If someone is being persecuted then it is a sin to withhold your help.  If someone is being treated unfairly and you say nothing, your silence is withholding your help.  What a powerful verse that we do not preach often enough.

Then we get into marriage and engagement.  If a woman is proven to not be a virgin before marriage then she is to be put to death.  If a man is proven to not be a virgin before marriage then…, well, we don’t hear, I guess nothing then.  How often do I hear that what a women wears dictates certain freedoms that a man is able to assume about that woman.  If she wears something too revealing then it means that she must be loose so a man is free to take what he wants.  Saying that a woman somehow deserves certain treatment as a result of what she wears is a sin.  Assuming the worst of a woman because of what she wears is a sin.  This is not Deuteronomy, this is Christian ethics.  We are never to blame the woman in a case where violence is used, even if she doesn’t cry out in the city.  

As a father of three daughters I want my daughters to have the same freedoms that I have.  I have the freedom to wear what I want to wear and what is comfortable.  I have the freedom to use words and phrases that I want to use and not have to think twice about what I say because men in my presence might interpret it as sexual or as leading them on.  Oh, we set rules on mission trips that limit the freedom of girls on our trips simply because we are responsible for them and we need to make sure they are protected from men who do not have Christian ethics.  

Can you imagine a world where we are all judged according to the same standard and the same ethic and that gives us all the same freedom to live out our lives in a way that increases the presence of the kingdom of  God?  That day will come.  It is not here yet and it was not there yet in Deuteronomy.