March 18 - Deuteronomy 21-23: Moses Reminds the People of Various Laws

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 21-23

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

Some of the laws God gave the Israelites are higher moral laws than we have today.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

The nearest city should bury abandoned corpses.
A female war-bride could be married after she mourned. If divorced, she was freed.
Birth order must stay the same. Execute a rebellious child. Bury the executed the same day.
Be good neighbors—return lost property and do not harvest another's field.
No mixing.
Wife-slanderers must be severely punished. Execute adulterers—unless the woman had no one to protect her. A virgin raped became the man's wife forever.
God restricted entry to the Tabernacle.
Defecate outside the camp.
Israel could not bring a prostitute's wages into the temple or charge interest to Israelites.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God protected women more than any other culture of the day.

Remember, women were thought of as property and child-bearers only by most people. If a man could not trust his wife then he could never really know if his children were his. So God's laws may not have given her equal rights to men as we would hope but God was not working with the same group of people. Let me explain through the examples given in the text.
A man could marry a slave captured in war but only after she had the opportunity to grieve for her loss. Later, if the man decided he no longer wanted her she went free. A man could not marry a slave girl, take advantage of her, and then sell her back into slavery when he grew tired of her.
A man who had two wives (often one married because of his parents' choice and one because of love) could not give the loved wife's children more than the other children. How does this protect the women? By protecting their children.
A man could not have remorse and get rid of his new wife by slandering her. The parents could protect her by showing the marriage bed's stains and prove she was a virgin.
An engaged woman who was raped would not be executed if she had no one to protect her. Protection is the reason a woman raped in a city did not have that excuse. She had the opportunity and ability to cry out and (because their walls were not very soundproof) have a protector come and save her. If she did not cry out then she must have been implicit in the act and would be executed with the man.
A virgin who was not engaged would become the man's wife. Remember, virginity is prized to these people. If a girl was not a virgin she would no longer be marriage material. A man could not use a girl and throw her out when he grew tired of her. Her virginity was lost but she forever had the protection of a man.
God protects women and will not allow men to treat them as possessions.

Parents are responsible for teaching their children. Children are responsible for obeying their parents.

God does not put the responsibility on one and not the other. Both sides must work together to make things right on the earth. God requires both parents and children to set things right in a family.

God wants His Chosen People to be good neighbors.

These seem like simple laws. However, think about this situation today. How often does lost property get returned to its proper owner? Not as often as it should. God's chosen people should be good neighbors.

God punishes the Ammonites and the Moabites for not allowing Israel to cross into their borders.

This event comes from Numbers. The people of Moab would not allow Israel to cross into their borders because they were scared and were inhospitable. God is punishing them for not allowing refugees into their land. God will punish those who are not hospitable to people in need.

God's law about taking from a field show that God is not the black-and-white god some present

God forbids stealing in the Ten Commandments, the first laws of Moses' law. Reaping a field that is not your own is stealing. However, God allows people to eat from someone else's field. How is this righteous? The person is hungry. The person is not allowed to take a bunch home or sell it to others. This is important because it shows that God is not a black-and-white god who has no exceptions to any laws. He does not want anyone to steal, but he will allow them to take some when they are hungry. God's laws are not so stiff that no exceptions can be made, but these exceptions must have a non-self-serving reason behind them.

God protects the poor from interest.

God has already told the people that if they obey Him they will not have poor in their country. So now God protects the poor who will be in the land from having to pay more than they borrow. God's Chosen People do not lend to other Chosen People and charge interest.

March 10 - Numbers 35-36: God Provides for the Levites and Accused Murderers

Today’s Reading: Numbers 35-36

The Message

English Standard Version

Congratulations! You've made it through five books of the Old Testament! Only one more to go in the Pentateuch.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God is providing for the Levites, the ones who go between the people and God, and someone who accidently kills another.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God gave land outside every city for the Levites to graze their livestock. Six towns were given for asylum-seekers. The Levites were also given 42 cities inside Israel.
The asylum towns served as courts for accused murderers. If they knowingly used a tool or waited for the person to kill him/her, the person was executed. If a pure accident occurred, he/she lived in the asylum city until the high priest died. One person's testimony could not condemn an accused murderer.
God commanded any woman who received her father's inheritance to marry within her own tribe to prevent cross-tribal land transfer.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God gave land to His Priests.

The Levites would not receive a land inheritance as the other tribes. The grasslands and 42 cities were to serve as their replacement for the large province the other tribes would receive. God provides for His Priests.

God protected the accidental-killer but not the murderer.

God would not allow the innocent person (or someone who killed another in an accident) to be executed by a relative bent on revenge. However, God knew that once a person's close relative was killed (that is how a person became the blood redeemer), the person would never be able to let it go. So God gave a statute that any person who was found innocent of murder could not leave the city. If they did, their asylum was revoked. God protects the innocent and punishes the murderer with death.

God does not allow one person to condemn another alone.

God realizes that one person alone is not a reliable witness. Too many variables could prevent righteous justice: personal distaste, grudges, bad view, mistaken identity, wanting easy justice instead of righteous justice. So God stipulated that one person could not condemn a person. God protects the innocent from someone with a vendetta against them.

God's statute that a woman with no brothers who wishes to marry must marry within her tribe helped each tribe maintain clear borders to keep the peace.

Land transfer was an important issue. God stated that land must be returned to its original tribe during the Jubilee. However, land was transferred through male lineage and not female lineage. So when a woman married outside her tribe, she in essence left her claim on her tribe's land. So if a woman had no brothers and received her father's land as an inheritance, she could no longer marry outside her tribe so the tribe could maintain control over the land. This helped the tribes stay peaceful with each other and prevented larger tribes from gaining land within the smaller tribes' area (or vice versa). It's a complicated law, but one that was important for that time period.

March 7 - Numbers 28-30: Sacrifices and Vows

Today’s Reading: Numbers 28-30

The Message

English Standard Version

This is my 100th post! I can't believe I've made it that far. Over two-thirds are Bible readings, but I made it! 

Today's reading has several sacrifice-oriented laws. Scan chapters 28 and 29 if you are low on time.

Thought to Guide Your Reading

The offerings were to remind the people of God's presence and to remind God of the people's presence.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

God gave commandments to the priests regarding daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and festival sacrifices. Each included an animal and flour mixed with oil. The people of Israel were to do no work on the days of the festival.
God also gave rules regarding vows. A man's vow was always intact. A woman's vow could be vetoed by her husband or father if he did it when he first heard the vow. If not, the vow would stand. If a woman was married during her vow, the husband could nullify it without the woman being guilty of breaking her vow.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

The Israelites' sacrifices were to remind them of God's presence and to remind God of their presence.

God is not bloodthirsty and needs blood to bless the people. God is a God that wanted His Chosen People to be fully and wholly His. The sacrifices were to help the people remember that God is always with them. The pleasing aromas were to remind God that His Chosen People still served Him. If they stopped sacrificing to God then they might forget and God might kindle his anger against them.

God places spiritual leadership with the father/husband.

As written yesterday, God's decision looks sexist to us in the 21st century. However, the culture and times of ancient Israel are very different than today. At that time, women were cared for but not considered equal to a man. They were not educated as males. They were not taught the Torah as well as their brothers. Because of this, God gave spiritual leadership to the males. Would God give this law differently today? Maybe not. However, we think of male spiritual leadership as a power grab. That's not the intention. God doesn't give fathers and husbands the ability to blithely reject any and every vow their daughters and wives make. If a woman is so intent on something that she makes a vow to do it (or not do it) a man would be embarrassed in the community and/or risk family strife if he went against her wishes. A godly man would not want such embarrassment/tension in the home.

Vows are serious. God expects you to obey your vow.

Vows are something that we do not have as often today. In fact, when we think of vows we think of a wedding. At that time there were vows that meant you offered certain things over to the Lord. This will be exemplified in 1 Samuel. Over time, this law would erode away at the hands of the Israelites and Jesus would correct their misunderstanding in the New Testament.