Introduction
‘If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner. If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it. If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.’ Deuteronomy 22:1-4
Moses begins by telling us what every good community needs, that is, respect and love for our neighbours.
If we love our neighbour, we must look out for our neighbour’s property. Even if we don’t get along with our neighbours, we still have a responsibility to protect our neighbour’s property.
Moses says if someone sees their fellow Israelite’s ox wandering around loose, Exodus 23:4-5, and don’t do anything about it, this demonstrated that they simply didn’t care about other people’s property.
Whatever a fellow Israelite loses is to be returned or held on to until they claim it. If a fellow Israelite needs help, they are to help them rather than acting like they don’t exist.
Israel was not only to universally oppose sin but they were also to keep watch and help each other.
‘A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this. If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life. When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.’ Deuteronomy 22:5-12
To confuse the identity of women and men was a corruption of God’s creation. A woman who puts on a man’s clothes or a man who puts a woman’s clothing on is to be marked as detestable to the Lord, 1 Corinthians 11:3-15.
The text doesn’t tell us what determined either a man or woman’s clothing, but if the clothing was identified by society to reflect the status of either a man or woman, then men and women should shun the parading themselves as the opposite sex, 1 Corinthians 11:2-15.
Moses goes on to give regulations regarding finding eggs or young birds being nursed by their mother. The people were not permitted to take both the mother and young together.
If Israel obey this commandment, they would find blessing and long life, both as individuals and as a nation.
Moses goes on to give more regulations regarding the care for others even when building a house. The parapet was the battlement or railing to prevent someone from falling off a roof. Failure to build in a safe way would bring guilt to the owner or builder of the home.
Moses doesn’t tell us why the Lord wouldn’t allow planting two different types of crops in one field other than the fact that if it is done, the whole field was to be given up.
Moses also doesn’t tell us why it was unlawful to plough with an ox and ass under the same yoke, Leviticus 19:19. He also doesn’t tell us why it was forbidden to mix different fibres, Numbers 15:37-41.
The mixing of fibres in garments, Leviticus 19:19, that is, wool and linen is probably a reference to Canaanite garments that were worn in respect of certain Baals.
Just as the Israelite, who mingled two things that didn’t lawfully belong together, the apostle Paul teaches the same principle when it comes be being spiritually yoked with an unbeliever, 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Marriage Violations
‘If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.’ Deuteronomy 22:13-21
When a man took a woman in marriage, she was to be a virgin. It may be that when the man lies sexually with the woman he believes she has been defiled by another man. If the man truly believes this, he is to state his cause to the woman’s mother and father.
The woman’s mother and father were to take her ‘proof of virginity’ before the elders. The reason for doing this was simply to prove the man’s fears were wrong.
The proof of virginity was the bloodstained linens on which the man and woman had sexual intercourse the night of the wedding when the wedding was consummated. The linen was kept by the father of the bride and so this was evidence that the woman was a virgin at the time of the wedding.
If the accusing man has been discovered as wrong, he was to pay his wife’s father and mother 100 shekels of silver, Exodus 22:16-17, because he has sought to shame his wife by giving her a bad name, that is, she was a fornicator before she was married, 1 Corinthians 6:18. The man had forfeited his future right to divorce this wife.
However, if the woman was found to be guilty of immorality previous to the marriage, that is, she had committed fornication with another man before she was married to the current man, then she was to be stoned at her father’s house for she had brought disgrace on her father’s house.
Notice again, Israel is commanded to ‘purge the evil from among you’, Deuteronomy 13:5 / Deuteronomy 17:7 / Deuteronomy 17:12 / Deuteronomy 19:19 / Deuteronomy 21:21.
‘If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.’ Deuteronomy 22:22-24
Moses speaks of a man who is found sleeping with another man’s wife, this is adultery. In the case of adultery, both the man and woman were to be stoned, Deuteronomy 17:6-7 / John 8:1-12.
He also speaks of a woman who is engaged to a husband. If a man had intimate relations with a virgin who was engaged to a husband, and it happened in the town, and no one hears the woman cry out in an attempt to stop the man, then both were to be stoned to death.
Notice again, Israel is commanded to ‘purge the evil from among you’, Deuteronomy 13:5 / Deuteronomy 17:7 / Deuteronomy 17:12 / Deuteronomy 19:19 / Deuteronomy 21:21.
‘But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbour, for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her. If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonour his father’s bed.’ Deuteronomy 22:25-30
Moses goes on to give instructions regarding the sin of rape. The evidence of the rape would have been the crying out of the woman in the town, however, if she didn’t cry out, then she wasn’t raped but willingly committed fornication.
If the fornication took place in a field, the cries of the woman couldn’t be heard, therefore, only the rapist was to be stoned and the innocent woman left alone.
Moses speaks of a case of fornication between two people who are not engaged to be married, if it is that they are found out, the two are to be married and never divorce.
Moses finishes by speaking about the sin of incest, a man isn’t to marry his father’s wife, 2 Samuel 3:7 / 2 Samuel 16:22 / 1 Kings 2:22 / Ezekiel 22:10 / 1 Corinthians 5:1-2.
