BE HONEST AND FAIR

 

2/12/2012

1.     PROVISIONS FOR A JUST SOCIETY (DEUTERONOMY 16:18-19:20)

CHAPTER 16:

·         Israel was given three feasts which all the males were required to attend: Passover, Pentecost (or Weeks), the Tabernacles.

·         The Feast of Passover

o       To get the background of the celebration of Passover, turn back to Exodus 12.

o       God wanted His people to remember this tremendous deliverance and so instituted the yearly Feast of Passover.

·         The Feast of Pentecost

o       Notice that they were to number seven weeks after Passover, which would be 49; then the next day would be the Sabbath, the 50th day.  Because the Greek word for "50" is Pentecost, this Feast of Weeks is known as "Pentecost."

o       It is also called the Feast of Harvest or the Day of First Fruits. 

o       It celebrated the first or earliest fruits of the harvest.

·         The Feast of Tabernacles

o       This was another feast of rejoicing. 

o       It lasted 7 days and it, too, was to be kept in the place which the Lord should choose, which was in Jerusalem.

1A. EXPECT JUSTICE FOR ALL FROM ALL (DEUTERONOMY 16:18-19)

18 "You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

NASB

·         The courthouse in that day was not a building in the center of town. 

·         It was in the "gate" to the city.

In the sanhedrim, greater or lesser, they place only men wise and understanding, expert in the wisdom of the law, and masters of great knowledge, and that know some of the other sciences, as medicine, arithmetic, astronomy, and astrology, the ways of soothsayers, diviners, and wizards, and the vanities of idolatry, that they may know how to judge them; and they set in the sanhedrim only priests, Levites, and Israelites, who are genealogized; nor do they set an old man there, nor an eunuch, nor a king, but an high priest, if he is qualified with wisdom; and they must be free from blemishes, and of a good stature and appearance, and understand many languages, and not hear by an interpreter; and though all this was not precisely required of the sanhedrim of three judges, yet these same things ought to be in everyone of them, wisdom, and meekness, and fear, and hatred of money, and love of truth, and love of men, and to be of a good report (t) and these were to be placed. –From John Gill’s commentary on Deuteronomy 16:18

CHAPTER 17:

·         In Chapters 17 and 18 we come to a section which deals with the regulations that would control a king, a priest, and a prophet. 

·         These were the three main offices in the nation of Israel, in the theocracy which God had set up for these people. 

·         God laid down rules for each.

CHAPTER 18:

·         The Care of the Priests verses 1-8

·         The Promise of the Coming Messiah verses 15-17

·         Test for Determining True and False Prophets verses 20-ff

CHAPTER19:

·         Cities of Refuge verses 1-13

·         Protection of Property verse 14

·         False witnesses verses 15-21

1B. RESPECT YOUR NEIGHBOR’S STUFF (DEUTERONOMY 19:14)

14 "You shall not move your neighbor's boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.

NASB

·         Here is the fact that landmarks were sacred. 

·         This was a protection of human property and establishes the rights to property.

By which one man's land is distinguished from another; for so to do is to injure a man's property, and alienate his lands to the use of another, which must be a very great evil, and render those that do it obnoxious to a curse.--From John Gill’s Commentary on Deuteronomy 19:14

1C. TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT (DEUTERONOMY 19:15-20)

15 "A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

·         This passage reveals to us the awesomeness of the Law. 

·         The demands of the Law were terrible, and under no circumstances was one witness sufficient.

16 "If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 And the rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

NASB

·         There is no mercy in the Law.

·         Thank God that he saved me by grace.

2.     RULES OF HOLY WAR (DEUTERONOMY 20:1-21)

CHAPTER 20:

• Laws Regulating Warfare
• Excuses from serving in war:
• If a man has built a new home and has not had the opportunity to live in it
• If a man had just planted a vineyard.
• If a man is betrothed to a woman and has not yet married her
• If a man is fearful and fainthearted

3.     REGULATIONS FOR INTERPERSONAL RALATIONSHIPS (DEUTERONOMY  21:1-25:19)

CHAPTER 21:

• This chapter concludes the section concerning religious and nation regulations which began in Chapter 8. 
• When a crime takes place in a city, the inhabitants of that city have a certain responsibility. 
• God holds a community responsible.
• Even if the murder was not committed in the city, the city still is responsible, but is only the nearest city to the crime. 
• The elders of that city were to come and ask for forgiveness for the city, and forgiveness would be granted them.

CHAPTER 22:

• We now come to the regulations for domestic and personal relations in Chapters 22-26.
• Brother Relationships verses 1-4
• Dress code
• Mixtures verses 9-12 (The child of God cannot mix with the world.)
• Marriage

CHAPTER 23:

• The world, the flesh, and the devil are three enemies a believer contends with on an ongoing basis.
• During the Middle Ages, men saw the corruption in Europe and in Asia and in North Africa. 
• They turned from the things of the world to become ascetics. 
• They retired to monasteries to get away from the world. 
• But this is an extreme and God warns against it.
• False Religions verses 3-8
• Cleanliness verses 9-14 (God wants us clean in body, clean in environment, clean in thought, clean in action.  We are to be a holy people in this world today.)

CHAPTER 24:

·         This chapter begins with the Mosaic Law of divorce. 

·         The remainder of the chapter is devoted to people-to-people relationships in which mercy is to be shown. 

·         God is merciful, and He expects his people to exhibit mercy toward each other.

CHAPTER 25:

• God's expresses concern for protecting the innocent by punishing the guilty and by perpetuating a brother's name in Israel.
• There were certain crimes that arose through difficulties between individuals. 
• What we would call misdemeanors. 
• These would not be serious crimes which would merit the death penalty. 
• However, they would require punishment.

3A. DO BUSINESS WITH INTEGRITY (DEUTERONOMY 25:13-16)

13 "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. 14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. 15 You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 16 For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the LORD your God.

NASB

It is observable also, that these too common but dishonest actions are branded as "an abomination to the Lord," equally with idolatry, and other scandalous crimes.—Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge on Deuteronomy 25:16

4.     ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OF DIVINWE BLESSINGS (DEUTGERONOMY 26:1-19)

CHAPTER 26:

·         The chapter before us presents the beautiful ceremony in connection with the offering of firstfruits.  Acknowledging that all the produce of the land came from God, and as an expression of thankfulness for His goodness, the Israelites brought as an offering to Him a portion of the fruit that ripened first.

·         As he presented his offerings of firstfruits to the Lord, he was to review God's gracious dealings with His people in delivering them from oppression in Egypt and in bringing them to the bountiful Promised Land.

·         To the Israelite it was to be a time of true thanksgiving.

·         The second part of this chapter deals with the Israelites declaration of obedience to God.