[Deuteronomy 22] Old Testament Standard or New Testament Example? In this chapter, we find instructions regarding our obligations toward our neighbor, our brother, and even our close relationships, such as in marriage. Indifference is never sanctioned by scripture, although religious culture, even in Christianity, often justifies abuse and misuse of those who offend us. We must contrast the Old Testament Standards with the New Testament Example of Christ. In this chapter, various statutes are covered, addressing community responsibility and relationship issues. Many of these laws are not incumbent upon the believer today but at the same time speak to us more deeply about our relationship with God and spiritual principles of who Jesus is to us and our place in the Kingdom of God.
[Deu 22:1-30 KJV] 1 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. 2 And if thy brother [be] not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. 3 In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself. 4 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift [them] up again. 5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God. 6 If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, [whether they be] young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: 7 [But] thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and [that] thou mayest prolong [thy] days. 8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. 9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. 10 Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. 11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, [as] of woollen and linen together. 12 Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest [thyself]. 13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: 15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth [the tokens of] the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 16 And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech [against her], saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these [are the tokens of] my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; 19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred [shekels] of silver, and give [them] unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 20 But if this thing be true, [and the tokens of] virginity be not found for the damsel: 21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. 22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, [both] the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. 23 If a damsel [that is] a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, [being] in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. 25 But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: 26 But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; [there is] in the damsel no sin [worthy] of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so [is] this matter: 27 For he found her in the field, [and] the betrothed damsel cried, and [there was] none to save her. 28 If a man find a damsel [that is] a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; 29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. 30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.
You can hardly read the various laws in this passage without remember the words of Isaiah and Jesus as well:
[Isa 53:6 KJV] 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We are the sheep who have gone astray. Sheep are very vulnerable and dependent creatures. Without the care of a shepherd, many sheep will simply die. God looked upon us and took responsibility as He requires of us as well. In the culture of pastoral leadership, there is often tremendous competitiveness. When a family comes from another church, the pastor will many times court that family in hopes of them leaving one flock and joining to his. That is contrary to the character of the instructions regarding one’s neighbor’s livestock. While a believer has every right to be led by God to the church where they will fellowship, it is nonetheless “sheep stealing” for a shepherd to encourage and solicit such behavior – yet this is common among pastors. I remember one prominent pastor who was known for splitting congregations and decimating other churches’ memberships all in the name of “ministering to a few wounded sheep…” Another time when I was pastoring an Assemblies of God church, a fellow pastor seduced several of my key leaders to join his church and then later claimed that he only took people out of churches that were cult-like in their belief systems. I confronted him openly on this, and he was stubbornly unrepentant.
I always grieved for pastors and church families when I saw a disaffection take place such as this. Many times I have seen individuals, and on a few occasions, whole congregations leave their pastors and show up in the church I pastored. My policy was always to bring reconciliation and never to take advantage of some trouble taking place in that church just to add to the numbers of my own congregation. We can learn from this and apply it in many different areas of our lives.
In vs. 3-4, we see statues regarding a neighbor’s responsibility to his neighbor. Notice the mandate not to “hide thyself” from your brother. If you are going to set someone at a disadvantage, you must first distance yourself from that individual. Nobel prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel said, “the opposite of love is not hate – its indifference. Indifference is the epitome of evil..” In order to steal, cheat, lie, or otherwise disenfranchise your brother, you must first dehumanize him or her. In religious settings, clannish and cliquish attitudes are very prevalent. As traveling ministers, we have spent much time as short-term visitors in many church settings. The looks you get just walking in as a visitor in many churches, both large and small, are often withering in their character. Religious culture is inherently xenophobic – fearful and loathsome of strangers. People that are products of religious culture pick their tribe and insulate themselves from every outside influence or connection. Leaders promote this because it keeps their congregations intact and limits losing valuable members to other groups. Jesus had this to say:
[Luk 10:27-29 KJV] 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
The Pharisee’s question belies the most despicable aspect of human nature. He wanted to identify where he could draw the line and justify his indifference. Jesus goes on to give the parable of the Good Samaritan. You should always exercise yourself to show kindness to those you would normally overlook. Pay the grocery bill of someone ahead of you in the line. Buy someone’s dinner in a restaurant or drive-through. Tip regularly and liberally. Bless those in your daily life that you would normally look right through. Learn their names and something about their lives. You will enrich your own life and bring the favor of God over you in a special way.
In v. 5, Moses instructs women in regard to their apparel and the fashions they would adorn themselves with. A woman was not to wear men’s clothing (and vice versa). You could spend hours looking into the principles deeply revealed in this particular passage. What about women wearing men’s clothing? Some religious groups take this to an extreme. What is the verse actually saying? That a woman shall not adopt the persona of a man. We’ve all seen it. The fracture in such a life is immediately evident and very much on the surface. Looking more deeply, we know that redeemed humanity constitutes the bride of Christ. Therefore in the matter of the soul, both men and women are feminine “corporately” in the narrow context of relationship to Jesus as the bridegroom. In that light, the command given here would apply to not masquerading a SOULISH INFLUENCE as a SPIRITUAL LEADING or INFLUENCE. We must learn how to discern and distinguish between SOUL and SPIRIT. In Mark 13:14 and 2 Thess. 2:4 we see a description of the working of the spirit of Antichrist as that which sits in the temple masquerading as God. 1 John 4:3 says this is already working in the world and is a common cause for believers to be deceived and misled when they claim they are hearing from God and submitting to God and they are in fact just following their own darkened and soulish leadings.
One more example from this passage – don’t sow wool and linen fibers together. Wool is produced by sheep. Linen represents righteousness. Don’t mix these two together. In the ancient church and to some degree, even today, there was the belief that the local church held the keys to your eternal disposition before God. The manipulation was that you couldn’t be right with God and wrong with the church or with your pastor. It is wrong to hold people hostage in the area of their salvation in the area of their church affiliation. This is a common area of wrongdoing among leaders and church people who assume someone is in spiritual jeopardy simply because they choose to leave a local congregation. Don’t sow wool and linen fibers together. Don’t make being a good sheep equivalent to being a good Christian – it isn’t always so. I know many Christians who would never make a good church member but are nonetheless strong, reliable, and spiritual believers.
In vs. 13-19, there are instructions regarding marital difficulties. What can we learn in this passage? First, it would be good to note the divorce statistics in the Christian community. George Barna, a noted and respected Christian pollster found that divorce rates among conservative Christians were SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER than the rest of the population – in fact, higher than that portion of the population identifying itself as atheist or agnostic. This is astonishing! What can we conclude from this? Christian, Conservative, Evangelical groups no longer hold the moral high ground when it comes to the sanctity of marriage.
In the passage above, we find prohibitions against unfounded and self-righteous accusations of one spouse against another, all in the name of the scriptural high ground. God is clearly in this passage, denying believers the right to use the bible to excoriate and abuse one another, all in the name of some idea of false holiness or moral high ground. This is far more common than we might be comfortable knowing. As a pastor, I’ve seen this many times where a spouse who has no intention of living for God or loving their marriage partner as scripture requires yet insists that if a divorce takes place, the abused spouse will go to hell and therefore must for this lifetime submit to and cow down to an unrepentant, unloving, and abusive partner. This is deeply despicable and completely against the testimony of scripture.
In vs. 20-30, we see how the ancient Hebrews were to deal with marital infidelity. What if a marriage vow is broken and you are the offended party? Are you justified to take your vengeance as the righteous justice authorized by a Holy God? In this passage, the party found guilty of sexual sin suffered the penalty of death. In many cultures, even today, this is taken quite literally. In the Islamic faith, the golden rule is applied unless you are an infidel or an offender – then any abuse or mistreatment against (an offender) is actually applauded and rewarded by Allah. Unfortunately, Christian culture sadly responds the same way – if you are a good Christian, then the requirement is to treat you like a brother, but if you are an offender, many believers will justify the full scope of un-Christian-like behavior against (the offender) because they are in the wrong. Is this passage still in force today? Consider the words of Jesus:
[Jhn 8:7 KJV] 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
Jesus, in effect, completely reversed this Old Testament approach to religious shunning and punishment. Rom. 2:4 says that the goodness of God leads men to repent. If we are giving offenders something other than the goodness of God, then our goal is something other than repentance. 1 Cor. 13 tells us that love never fails. If love never fails, why would we step out of love to accomplish our goals? Challenging words, this is true, but we must hold ourselves accountable not to the Old Testament standard but the New Testament example of Christ.
