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.
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.
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.
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.
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.