Welcome to our Deuteronomy study number 22 in chapter 22. We're going to cover all 30 verses. Lord willing, and the church don't rise as we send out our hillbilly holler this week to a fellow Buckeye. Brother Nate Beck, here's your hillbilly holler. I think he's in the Dayton, Ohio area. Last I heard. And he's one of our MeWe friends and listens from time to time at least. I don't keep tabs on people. What you listen to is your business. But we make these things available so that you can follow along and hit every verse through every chapter of the books that we study. And so let's get right into Deuteronomy 22. with our With a word of prayer father. We thank you Lord for this opportunity to for me to share what I've learned and then for others to as they hear the Word of God and hear what I'm teaching they can then Add to what they've already learned and then from there learn more. That's what it's all about your people learning your book so that your Holy Spirit the author of the book and can then teach us day in and day out as we walk with you and talk with you in prayer, hear from you in your word. In Jesus' name, amen. So we'll break this chapter into basically three sections, beginning with the first four verses. I call this Lost and Found Regulations. I read a few others that had different titles for what they'd call this first section. I'm trying to think, J. Vernon McGee said something about how to treat your brother. That's in here as well, but there's actually more than just your brother. It could be things that you find owned by people you don't even know. Now, everyone in Israel is some way related if they're a Jew. They all go back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So in that sense, they're all brethren. So let's just jump right in, verse one. 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. So we begin with really a big bad word, responsibility. You have a responsibility to help others. And in Israel, they were all blood relatives, as I mentioned. So God expected Israel to be even more considerate of each other than he would even elsewhere. Of course, now God expects all of his born again children to treat everyone better than the lost world treats people. Sadly, that's not always the case, but we move on verse 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, so If the lost thing belongs to someone who lives out of town or is out of town, or if you just don't know who it belongs to, then you bring it home and you keep it and you take care of it until the owner shows up. And if he's a decent guy, he'll give you a couple shekels for your trouble or something like that. It's not actually required here. Tipping is just something you ought to do as a Christian. Don't just give people a gospel tract when they're doing some hard work or waiting on your table or something. Give them a tip. And of course, if he doesn't show up, that's when the old finder's keeper's rule kicks in. Again, it's implied here. Verses three and four says, in like manner, thou shalt do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and with all lost thing of thy brothers, which he hath lost, and thou hast found. Thou shalt do likewise, thou mayest not hide thyself. As a kid, I think most people I've talked to have had some point in their life, as a child especially, where you found something and you just wanted to put it away and don't even let anybody know you found it so that you could keep it. And that's not the way you were supposed to be. I found a wad of money one day and I took it in. Another time I found a wallet and both times I took it in When the people came and and you know retrieved it they act shocked because nothing was missing But and I didn't want anything but it was weird that neither one of them even offered any kind of reward and But I would have turned it down, but I just thought it was weird. I think I would have said, hey, can I give you something? Oh, no, no, no. Well, that's just the decent thing to do. But anyway, that's what you're supposed to do. And I guess if you turn something in and it's not claimed within a certain amount of time, then they'll give it to you as far as money and jewelry and that sort of thing. Anyway, verse four goes on and says, Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass, where his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. So you're just supposed to have that generous, helpful spirit toward those around you. I'm not going to say much more about that. Nothing more needs to be said. If you're right with God, you have the Spirit of God, you're going to have that Samaritan attitude of helping those in need, especially your brother and especially your neighbors, but anyone in need when you can. Now, we'll come to the second section of this chapter. I take it from verse five through 12. I title them human decency laws, because we're going to hit several things here. Beginning of verse five, a real big thing these days in human history. It's not been that big of a deal, but in these last days of Sodom and Gomorrah, verse five is very pertinent. 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." You know, I grew up with Clinger on MASH dressing up as a woman to try to get a Section 8 and get out of the military service and go back home to Toledo. That was a joke. It was taken to be funny, but now I don't even have to tell anybody who's not in a coma. how bad this has gotten. They used to call them transvestites, transgenderism. Any deviation from the two genders in their proper place, male and female, and in their proper roles, is an abomination. It makes God nauseous. Nothing else really needs to be said, as I said, but I will say you can add chemical castration, bodily mutilation. At that point, then it becomes a capital offense and those people should be executed for their terrible abuse of children. By the way, Jesus prescribed a millstone necktie and tossed those people into the sea. But let's go on. Now we go right into a change of focus, but it's really still just, as we said, human decency here in verse 6. If a bird's nest chants 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, dam being the woman or female of the bird, the mother, Or upon the eggs thou shalt not take the dam with the young so this is about animal rights, but God's no wacko But he demands that we respect his creation and treat it humanely Proverbs 12 10 says a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel The righteous are to be different than the wicked even in our treatment of animals. Verses 7 and 8 continues, but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, let the mama bird go, and take the young to thee, that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Verse 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." Now that seems unrelated, but again, being just as humane to the human being and the bird, you're just supposed to treat both with respect. You could have your fried omelet, or over easy fried egg, the way I like them, scrambled. But we're not supposed to kill the mother and destroy the whole bird family. That is actually in our best interest. It continues to help the bird population remain level and our source for those eggs. God expects his people to be compassionate and not to just be destructive devils. What the people did when they came over here and almost completely wiped out the bison was just ridiculously stupid and evil. And it's always so to do that to God's creation. We're allowed to kill and eat. We're allowed to kill and use skins for clothing. We're allowed to eat eggs, but we're supposed to do it in a way that is considerate. And then, in light of that, we should consider that if God is concerned with our treatment of birds, how much more is his concern for us as people? Just that's something to meditate on. God's concern includes the people who, now, we don't usually have people walking on our roof, but back in previous times and in certain places even today, the roof is just part of the living space. And so you're supposed to have a gate around And it should be not just a short thing, it should be high enough that people don't trip and fall over it. That's all he's saying there in verse 8. Common sense rules, really. Look at verse 9. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Now, elsewhere we read where God will command a rest every seventh year, a Sabbath rest for the land. So God's concern is for you, for other people, for the animals, for the birds, and for the land. He's an environmentalist in the true sense of the word. He's not a wacko, but he does care about... God is a naturalist, but sadly that term was co-opted by a bunch of atheistic agnostic humanist. But really, in the true sense of the word, God wants us to treat nature with respect, and it's in our best interest to do so, as we said a moment ago. And here he's concerned that gardening Farming be done in decency and order for the good of the crops and of course again benefits the people Go study the Dust Bowl in the early 20th century if you want to see what happens when you ignore God's rules on these things and Then come the animals again verse 9 I'm sorry, verse 10, thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. There's just 11 words in that simple little text, but this is the importance of not being unequally yoked. So it's not just about animals, it's also to teach us a lesson. And I've seen this done, by the way, an ox and an ass together, and they don't work well together. And they end up kicking each other, and they kick each other to death if you didn't unhook the yoke. But the same thing happens in relationships, especially in marriage. If there's an equal yoke, that's great. If there's an unequal yoke, it'll be the death of that relationship or marriage. We're told that that's the point of 2 Corinthians 6. In a spiritual sense, Christians are to meet with Christians. We're not to have churches filled with a bunch of unsaved people. We're not to have prayer gatherings with unsaved people or other false religions and all that ecumenical nonsense. 2 Corinthians 6.14, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? This, as we saw in our previous study, is not dealing with the issue of interracial marriage. Go back and listen to that. I'm not going to rehash that. If you missed it, you can go back and listen to it. But this section then ends with additional dress code regulations. Verses 11 and 12, thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, as of woolen and linen together. And verse 12, thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself. And we've talked about that elsewhere, but it was not, this isn't something for us today, but the nation of Israel was to be set apart from the heathen. And it was still not the age of the spirit. So a lot of things are still very visible, physical manifestations of God. having a people called Israel. The world around would see the fringes and see that they didn't mix their... I got shirt on, it's polyester and cotton. Why? Because I'm a Gentile. Now, I'm a saved Gentile, but I'm taking the lessons from this, and in the age of the Spirit, we see things in a spiritual sense, and that's how they're to be lived out. But during this time, it's before the age of the Spirit, that people weren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Even the believers who were faithful to God, they didn't have the seal of the Holy Spirit on their lives. It's a totally different situation, as much as some preachers try to make it the same. And so all of that is supposed to be teaching the world. Israel was to stand out and be different from the heathen. And that then goes into morality and marriage, as we see the largest section, this basically cuts the whole chapter in half, takes half the chapter, but it's verses 13 through 30. And we see in verses 13 and 14, it's about sex and marriage law, is what I title this. If any man take a wife and go in unto her and hate her, He's consummated the marriage. They're having sex as husband and wife, but he's got a problem with her what? Verse 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. In other words, he's claiming she wasn't a virgin. She lied to him. She misrepresented herself. She was, she had guilty of sin that required a death penalty and lied about it. But at this point, it's just an accusation. And so God's going to insert protections for these ladies as we continue reading. Verse 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 and the gate. We'll see what that means as we continue reading. Verse 16 and 17, And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her. Verse 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. That's the sheets from the wedding night, where if she's a virgin and she has sex for the first time consummating that marriage, she would bleed. And then the bride would take that sheet, fold it up, and take it to her parents, and they would keep it. And this is one of the reasons they'd keep it. It's evidence of the fact she was a virgin and an honorable maid whenever she married. And it's really rich when you read this in front of 21st century Americans who spend hours and hours watching bloody murder movies and mysteries and TV shows about everything from popping zits to uncensored bloody surgeries and just the The advertisements that are on TV today are disgusting. But then you enter a church building and you read something like this and suddenly everybody becomes puritanical prudes and, oh, inappropriate. I've told the story when, as a new believer, asked me what it meant when the Bible says, he that pisseth against the wall. I just explained it. I read the text to everybody and explained it, and afterwards got jumped by some little old lady with blue hair, you know, telling me, you shouldn't be using that language in God's house. Oh well. So when evidence then would be presented, As we read, then the man himself is indicted for false accusation. Read 18 and 19. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him. And they shall immerse him in a 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, and he may not put her away all his days. So in the face of such evidence, the false accuser would be punished. He'd be publicly denounced and shamed. He would be immersed with an A, not immersed with an I. That just means fined. He would be fined. And the next verse makes it clear there saying, it'd be a hundred shekels of silver to the father of the bride. Now the bride didn't get the money because she's going to remain married to the guy. So it'd be like the guy giving the money back to himself in effect. So the money goes to the family whose name and reputation was tarnished by the scandal. Um, but, What if the accused can't defend herself and is proven guilty? Verses 20 and 21, but if this thing be true and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, 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 away evil from among you. So again, this would seem to act as a strong deterrent for a young lady to lie about her virginity and defraud a husband that way. And there are no recorded instances of having to actually carry out this sentence, this death penalty. It probably happened at some point, but it's undoubtedly rare. And don't lose sight of the number of protections for women, even though we see some things that may seem harsh to the 21st century mind. We see equal treatment under the law right in the next verse, verse 22. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then shall both of them die. Both the man that lie with the woman and the woman, so shalt thou put away evil from Israel." You go to John chapter 8, the woman caught in sin, and some believe that Jesus may have written some of this down or wrote the names of the men who had slept with the woman caught in sin, because the woman was not only supposed to be stoned, But so were the men who slept with her. The men who slept with her. I hate that term. I catch myself using it all the time because the culture. Had sex with her. No one's sleepy. It's just a stupid term that we've been brainwashed into using. So because, you know, Modern man doesn't take sin seriously comes up terms like that and then he accuses the Bible being too harsh But this is an example of equal treatment under the law male and female both the death penalty equally applied and it's applied to extramarital and premarital sex look at 23 and 24 and If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her, verse 24, then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of the 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 neighbor's wife. So thou shalt put away evil from among you. So whether you feel like capital punishment for sexual sin is too harsh That doesn't matter only God's opinion matters and I confess that under Mosaic law I'd have been dead before I was out of high school and I and you know, I I'm not that's why I'm not judgmental about it. I'm just telling you as it is I do believe that a lot of us were taking sin like that as teenagers because there isn't such a deterrent and Sexual sins basically promoted in the schools. We were told just to make sure you love the person Which every kid thinks he's in love with his girlfriend at that age. So it's insane, and then our culture's just overly sexualized, and that's not an excuse, but it is a legitimate explanation of why we see so much of it these days. As we see some protections now in verses 25 through 27 for victims of rape. Verse 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. So there's protections for the innocent girl. Verse 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 neighbor and slayeth him, even so is this matter. And then verse 27 explains, for he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. It's a simple matter of fairness and justice. Sadly, there'd be men who would call off the wedding, you know, even though the woman was innocent. And that's why the death penalty is prescribed, because this would be a life-altering, terrible thing to happen. We read about it with Dinah in the book of Genesis, Tamar, King David's daughter. There's no record of them ever being married. Basically, it scars them and tarnishes the desire men might have for them to marry them. And that's just the reality. That's the real world. So in cases when a girl wasn't betrothed, the Lord added this in verses 28 and 29. and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found. Verse 29 says, 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. So if you didn't want to marry that unbetrothed girl, then don't touch her. You touch a betrothed girl and get caught, you get killed. But if you don't want to marry one, don't touch them if they're unbetrothed because you go all the way, so to say. You just married her. And there's a lot more we'll say on the matter of sex and marriage, but we're coming to the end of our allotted time for this chapter. And we just want to point out that how Moses closes this chapter with this verse 30 a man Shall not take his father's wife nor discover his father's skirt And so we are reminded of a couple of things here with that closing verse. First of all, how nasty and wicked some men can be. Whether that's his own mother being spoken of or a stepmother. To take your own mother is a horrible thing and then to take You know, your father's woman. Just nasty and disgusting. But then we just step back and that verse itself just seems to be very random. But that's because the chapters and verses, no matter what some guys like to thump their chest and prove themselves to be more King James only than I am or whatever. They're not given by inspiration of God. The chapter and verse markings are just like in the center column references and notes at the bottom, headings, all that. So we are reminded here that this is the end of this chapter for the sake of giving us some structure in our English Bibles. But it's not really the end of this thought. And so chapter 23 is going to pick up right here where we leave off and with a continuation of these basically applications of the Ten Commandments.