Chapter 24 is a continuation of the previous chapter. Moses continues talking to the people of Israel about miscellaneous regulations. He begins, “Suppose a man marries a woman but later discovers something about her that is shameful. So he writes her a letter of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away. If she then leaves and marries another man and the second husband also divorces her or dies, the former husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled.” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) Wow...male chauvinism was strong!
The rest of the chapter highlights several other miscellaneous regulations concerning newly married men, millstones, kidnapping, skin diseases, lending items to neighbors, poor laborers, sins committed and whose responsible, and justice for foreigners, orphans, and widows.
Side note: The Old Testament is full of God’s laws, commands, and regulations. However, what I’ve learned is that most of those laws and regulations do not apply to us because they are civil or ceremonial laws and regulations. Meaning, they are specific to a particular people and time period, and those laws were instituted to govern the people just like we have civil laws to govern us. Regulations that made sense to them back then, don't make sense to us. For example, the camp had to be holy because God moved throughout the camp; therefore, each person needed to carry a spade so when a person needed to defecate, they could do so outside of the campsite and bury their waste. Now that makes sense, but it doesn’t apply to us because we can simply go and use the toilet. In reference to the ceremonial laws, those laws simply showed how God wanted to be worshiped, and because God was holy, his people had to be holy, and as a result, they needed to perform sacrifices and do specific things in order to be in the presence of the Lord. When Jesus popped on the scene, the New Testament, all of those ceremonial laws went away because Jesus became that blood sacrifice for all of our sins, and we no longer have to do a sacrifice for this and a sacrifice for that. God willing, we can continue talking about these laws, regulations, and commands another day.
Lord, thank you for your Word today! You continually bless and take such good care of us! Thank you for planning our success, broadening our knowledge, for standing in the gap, without our knowledge -- intervening on our behalf and opening doors and windows! We love you!
“May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
….AND MAY WE ALL PRACTICE THIS WITH ONE ANOTHER.
Comments