Deuteronomy 22: Community is a Team Sport

The word Deuteronomy is not only one of the hardest books of the Bible to spell, it is also has a meaning most people don’t know. It means “Second law.” That is the focus on this book. Deuteronomy is the last sermons Moses will preach to this young nation who is about to enter the Promised Land.

What are his final words of motivation? Trust and Obey. It’s the only way to keep the freedom God has given them.

What about you? What will you pass on to the next generation? Let’s read Deuteronomy as the final sermon of a man who saw the miracles of God. His final words are to trust God completely and obey God completely. It’s the way of continued freedom.

Outline

1. Prologue (1:1-5)
2. Moses’ First Speech: Historical Prologue (1:6-4:43)
3. Moses’ Second Speech: General Covenant Stipulations 4:44-11:32)
4. Moses’ Second Speech: Specific Covenant Stipulations (12:1-26:19)
5. Moses’ Third Speech: Blessings and Curses (27:1-28:68)
6. Moses’ Third Speech: Final Exhortation (29:1-30:20)
7. Succession of Leadership (31:1-34:12)

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death… choose life. You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NLT

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Big Idea: Community
• 1:05 Housekeeping, Reviews, And Listener Question
• 2:32 Setting Deuteronomy’s Context And Theme
• 4:31 Reading Laws On Neighbor Care And Identity
• 7:10 Practical Principles Behind Ancient Commands
• 12:11 Sexual Ethics, Proof, And Justice
• 16:10 Adultery, Assault, And Protection Of Dignity

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Deuteronomy chapter 22. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be Community is a Team Sport. That's one of the things I think that every generation needs to remember because there's always this pull toward selfishness, self-centeredness, all of that kind of stuff. And it's important to be self-aware, you know, to try to eliminate as many blind spots as possible, but not to the point that you forget that you don't live on an island, right? We we live around other people and God created us to be social creatures, right? So we're gonna jump into that as Moses continues to teach about community as a team sport. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure that if you're listening to this on the YouTubes, that you are like, sharing, and subscribing. Also, you can comment on these because I know some people don't do the Facebook thing. So if you want to go there and comment any questions you have about this, comments, angry outbursts, whatever you want to do, let me know how you are interacting with God's word. But of course, I'd love for you to go to our Facebook group at Bible Breakdown Discussion. And same thing, let me know how you are relating to all of this. And I have a question for you today, and that is, oh, by the way, also make sure you go to the podcast and you give us a five-star review. It really does help us and give us a comment because a lot of times when people are looking for a new podcast, they will look at the comments to say, what am I going to find when I go to this podcast? They're gonna look at my description and go, well, that's what this Joker wants me to find. What am I actually finding? So make sure you're leaving some good, good, good comments. Okay. But here's my question for the day when it comes to the Bible breakdown discussion, and that is this What is your number one challenge when it comes to doing life with others? Is it you're just a natural introvert? Is it maybe some pain from the past? Is it that you just think that most people are idiots? I really, excuse me. I got choked up on that one. I really want to know what is it about community doing life with others that you find to be the most challenging? I'll be honest with you and tell you, I think it's because we all come from different backgrounds, and it can be hard to sometimes find common ground with people. And that's one of the things that Moses is doing here. He is setting up common ground. I love this idea of Moses talking to this young generation, people that he has watched grow up, and he's saying to them, I can't go into the promised land, but I can send you ahead and I can cheer you on for success. I almost have this idea. This is probably not what he was doing, but this is just this is Pastor Brandon's imagination here. I can almost see him looking out over across the Jordan River, and he sees this land. And as he's talking to this young generation, and as the scribes over here writing down these sermons, and remember that's what Deuteronomy is. Deuteronomy is a Greek word that means second law, and he is laying down the law, the covenant of God again. It's almost like I can see him looking over the promised land, and he's like, Man, I can't go, but I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure you succeed when you do. And that's what he's doing, and that's what he's gonna continue to do today. Because remember, several chapters ago, he laid down the covenant of God's law again, the Ten Commandments. And upon those ten commandments, the first five are how to honor God, the second five are how to honor your neighbor, and then he builds from there. And today in Deuteronomy chapter 22, he's gonna talk about, you know, what do you do with your neighbor's property? What do you do when you see these different things? And then what do you do in regulations when it comes to sexual purity to realize that in a society of God chasers, of people who love the Lord and are seeking after God, you still have a group of people, and people are not perfect. We're not there yet, right? So what do you do when it gets hard, when it gets difficult, when you don't see eye to eye? Well, you realize that community is a team sport. I don't live for me, I live for we. And so in that community, that should be our goal is I don't just do what I want to do and forget everybody else, but rather I do that in context. In our culture, we see that all the time. And so let's talk through this together and let's read God's word and see how, even though this was written likely 4,000 years ago, it still can speak to us in principles today. So are you ready? Let's do this. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 in the New Living Translation, starting with verse 1. God's Word says this if you see your neighbor's ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don't ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner. If its owner does not live nearby or you don't know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it. Do the same if you find your neighbor's donkey, clothing, or anything else, your neighbor loses. Don't ignore your responsibility. If you see that your neighbor's donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet. A woman must not put on men's clothing, and a man must not wear woman's clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the Lord your God. If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground and there are young ones or eggs in it, with its mother sitting on the nest, do not take the mother with its young. You may take the young, but let the mother go, so that it may prosper and enjoy a long life, so that you may prosper and have a and have a long life. When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof. You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your vineyards. If you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop. You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together, and you must put four tassels on the hem of your cloak with which you cover yourself on the front, the back, and sides. Now, he just said a whole lot of things there that if we're honest, we don't do today. So let's talk about that. The first thing he says in the very beginning is he's saying, Realize your responsibility is not just about you, but it's to help your neighbor as well. What's that old statement? The only thing for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. That's the idea that Moses is teaching the principle of, and that is this do unto others what you would like for them to do unto you. That's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven. It's the idea that I don't live with my eyes shut, but I keep my eyes open to the needs of others and I help them, Lord willing that they will help me. It's the same thing he said that if you see uh uh something, you know, if you see uh an animal that is over here and you don't know who it is, then you don't say finders keepers, but rather you keep that animal and you keep it healthy so that the owner can find it. And here's just if nothing else, the reason why, is because one day that's gonna be you. One day that's gonna be your animal. And you hope that they do the same for you. And I can I be honest with you and tell you one of the pushbacks on this is because people say, Well, that must be nice, but I don't see anybody doing that for me. Well, remember, we don't serve people based on what they can do for us. We serve people because it's what God told us to do. And God is the one that ultimately rewards us. And so it doesn't matter if other people don't do it for you, when the time is right, God will make sure that someone is in your path who will do it for you. The next thing he said is is a woman must not put on men's clothing and men must not wear women's clothing. The idea is about keeping your identity established and secure, making sure that there's never any bleeding of the lines. Men are to be men, women are to be women. And the reason why is because we need men and we need women. And it's important that we keep those things separate so that everything can be done decently and in order. And I know that's not super popular in our current culture, but just because it's not popular doesn't mean it's untrue. The next thing he talked about is the idea of when you build a house and make sure you have a railing so that no one will fall off and die. And that's the idea of whatever you do, keep others in mind. Make sure that you're never thinking just about yourself, but you're thinking about others as well. And then the idea when he says there at the end of that section, he said he talked about wearing particular clothing in a particular way. A lot of scholars believe the reason why the idea of wool and linen together was because in the area there were different pagan nations who would do certain things that was intended to be part of their allegiance to certain paganistic worship and certain things like that. And God is saying when you go into the promised land, you need to look different. Like you should be very specifically different from everybody else that's around you. And that's important for us to realize today. Now, do we still need to do this specifically? No. This was a thing that God told him to do in the time, and the principle was for a particular reason. It's like in 2 Timothy chapter 4, you know, he uh Paul tells Timothy to go to a certain place and bring my coat with you when you come. That's not God telling us for all time that we need to go to the Middle East, find a coat, and take it to someone in prison. That's not what he's saying. The principle was, hey, I need you to serve me as I have served you. Let's let's help one another. That's the same thing that's going on here. God's not saying that if you wear wool and linen, you're sinning. It is there should be a difference in the way you act and look than for the pagan nations that's all around you. And then the four tassels on the hem of the cloak, they're the four tassels that were made, they were made and they were woven in such a way, and there were certain knots in such a way. You can see this with Orthodox uh Jewish people even today. There were four hundred and something knots that represented the four hundred and something laws in the covenant. And so what God is saying that always on you should be a reminder of the covenant. Remember that we're in this thing together. That's the principles that God is looking at. All right, verse 13 says this Suppose a man marries a woman, but after sleeping with her, he turns against her and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, When I marry this woman, I discovered that she was not a virgin. Then the woman's father and mother must bring the proof of her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. Her father must say to them, I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has turned against her. He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin, but here is the proof of my daughter's virginity. Then they must spread her bedsheet before the elders. The elders must then take the man and punish him. They must also fine him a hundred pieces of silver, which he must pay to the woman's father, because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct, and the woman will then remain this man's wife, and he may never divorce her. Now pause. Now, this is bizarre, but let me tell you what they used to do back in the desay. Okay. So what happened is now, first of all, a wedding feast could last up to seven days. So what happened is on the first day, they would have the wedding ceremony and all the different things, and then there would be this time when all the other folks would go and start celebrating, and the new husband and bride would go into the bridal chamber. And what they would do is they would spread a linen sheet under them as they would consummate the marriage. Okay. And because of the situation where it was, uh, there would be blood involved, and I'm getting feeling really awkward when I'm talking about this right now, be blood involved, and the blood would get on the sheet, and then they would hold that, they would keep that. I know it's disgusting, right? But they would keep that so that if ever it came into question as to whether or not this young lady was pure or whether or not they ever consummated the marriage, they had proof that everything was on the up and up, everything was the way it needed to be. And then after that, they would go in and to the rest of everybody else and celebrate the marriage. Can you imagine how awkward that would be? You know, if you're not in the wedding, you're just part of it and you're going to eat and everybody's like, hey, hey, hey, wonder what they're doing right now. Lord help us, Jesus. But that's what that's what they would do. And so therefore, if there was ever a time when this man decided to be a jerk and say, uh, this wasn't the way it was supposed to be, they would have disgusting butt proof to say, Oh, no, no, my friend, this was all on the up and up. So not only do you owe us an apology, you owe us some money, and now you can't ever divorce her because you're a jerk. And that's basically what they would do. But, verse 20, suppose a man accused accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin, the woman must take, be taken to the door of her father's home, and there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents' home. In this way you will purge this evil from among you. If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way you will purge Israel of such evil. So, once again, you realize this is not, you know, a situation where the women are being beat down and it don't matter what the men do. He says, No, no, no, no. If you catch two people committing adultery, they both die. It's pretty big, pretty serious. And that's important too because you realize that when you have sex with someone, you join together with them, not just physically, but there is a spiritual soul tie that is created. And therefore, God knowing that says you need to treat this as holy and as sacred and special because you cannot unwon something that has been won. Once you are together, there's always going to be a soul tie there unless you break it spiritually. And even then, that is very hard to do. So you have to be very, very careful with this. All right, verse 25. But if a man meets the engaged woman out in the country and he rapes her, then only the man must die. Amen. Do nothing to the young woman. She has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim. Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed and there was no one to rescue her. Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered, he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver, and then he must marry the young woman because he has violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives. A man must not marry his father's former wife, for that would violate his father. Uh, amen to that. Okay, so as we finish up this chapter, there was a lot there, but the main idea of all this that Moses is saying is that community, living together, it's a community, and it's a team sport. That means it requires that I don't live for me, I live for we. I live realizing that I live in community. So there are some things that I could do, but I don't do because it's not just about me, it's about the community that I live in. But then the second half of it, I love this because opponents of Christianity will say that the Old Testament is all about men and it's all about the patriarchy, and it's all about whatever. When you read this, there's so many things that were not in most cultures of the time. As we study and we learn, a lot of cultures at the time were very male-centric and women had no rights, and it didn't really matter. But you notice what we read today that God gave dignity and honor to women and said, Hey, if you do this, if you do this, if you do this, you're gonna die. You you can't be you can't be hurting these ladies like this. You know, you can't do these different things. And so far from taking away dignity from women, the Old Testament gives dignity to women that almost no other culture at the time had. And so it's actually quite beautiful when you think about it. Well, let's pray together, and then I look forward to getting into the Bible discussion, Bible breakdown discussion, and talking about this together. So let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much. You're for us and not against us, you're with us in all things. I pray, God, that you will help us to constantly follow you and to realize, Lord, that I don't just live for myself, but I live realizing that I live in community, and you'll help me to open my eyes and to see the people all around me, and I will live knowing that Lord, you are for all of us to do this thing called life together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget, God's word says in Deuteronomy 30, today I have given you the choice between life and death. Choose life. You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. My hope for you is that you will choose life and share life today. I'll see you tomorrow for Deuteronomy chapter 23.