Deuteronomy 25:1

If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows. Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight. (Deuteronomy 25:1–3)

When the law feels heavy and strange, look closer — every odd statute is hiding a hint of Jesus and the joy of the new covenant.

Strange Laws, Then and Now

It has been a blessing to listen to our pastor teach through Deuteronomy, even the difficult and uncomfortable sections. Looking at God's law and how it was administered to His people makes me so thankful that we are not under the law, but also thankful that God had a plan for us. As we weave through the law, we see these little hints of Jesus and the plan of salvation.

We almost get in the habit of making excuses for these odd, crazy-sounding laws that are so foreign to us. But if we think the laws in Deuteronomy are crazy, consider a few from our own state of California. In El Monte, sandboxes may not be used as ashtrays. In Fresno, no one may annoy a lizard in a city park, and it is illegal to disturb a rock. In Los Angeles, it is illegal to cry on the witness stand, and it is a crime for dogs to mate within 500 yards of a church. In Barstow, you are not allowed to wear cowboy boots unless you own at least two head of cattle. I wonder what Moses would think of those if I sat across the table from him. From my research, it is harder to get a law off the books in California than to get one on.

The Reason Behind the Laws

These laws fall into a few categories. Some Bibles label them "miscellaneous laws." Just about every house has a miscellaneous drawer — full of items you are sure you will need someday but rarely use, yet won't throw out. Other laws seem to have "inspired the memo." Like an office memo prompted by someone dressing too casually on a Friday, there is probably a name or an incident connected to these laws.

The background is that Israel stands on the border of the great nation they are about to occupy, waiting to step into the blessing. To become a nation and function, they need these rules, this government, this organization. So as we look today, I want you to leave with this in your head and heart: weigh the heaviness and burden of the law — how hard it is to keep — against the joy of the new covenant we have in Christ Jesus, who fulfilled the law. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

The Administration of God's Law

Point number one: the administration of God's law justifies the righteous and condemns the wicked. Without a system of law in place — written down, not so open to interpretation, with people to administer it — Israel would be like the peoples around them. It would be the wild west.

This is the very essence of true, fair justice versus vigilantism. In the ancient world it was survival of the fittest. Those with the best alliances, the most power, wealth, and influence got the fairest deal, while a widow or an orphan got a far worse one. These laws even the playing field for all. So much of our country's justice system is rooted in these very rudimentary beginnings — and yet even today we still face the challenge that things seem a lot fairer for those of means.

Metered, Supervised, and Paid in Full

Israel was nomadic; there were no jails on this forty-year camping trip. So punishment was prescribed. They could give up to forty lashes, but they would really only give thirty-nine, in case someone miscounted and stepped over the line. It was methodical and metered. It was supervised — not a mob mentality, but done before a judge. It was quick, over in minutes, not a prison term. And it was recorded: all you needed to do to see if someone was a repeat offender was look at their shirt and see the scars. It was paid; the transgression was finished and even.

Notice the word "brother," and the concern that he not be humiliated. The punishment was not designed to humiliate. It was by the Hebrews, for the Hebrews — exclusive to God's people.

The Stripes That Heal Us

There is always a foreshadowing of Jesus coming to fulfill the law. Listen to Isaiah's prophetic message about the Messiah:

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4–5)

Some translations read "by His lashes." We have a prophecy of the Messiah matching the very situation people knew from Deuteronomy: the lashes were prescribed to our Savior, supervised, recorded — and final. He paid the price in full. Tetelestai, it is finished. Peter reinforces this:

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps... who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:21–24)

Jesus paid it all. We see this foreshadowing in Deuteronomy, in Isaiah, in 1 Peter, and throughout the Old Testament.

Not Every Command Is Addressed to You

You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. (Deuteronomy 25:4)

This is a no-brainer — you would not force an animal to look at the very food it produces and be unable to eat. Point number two: God's promises and commands in the law are not necessarily promises and commands to you. In 1 Corinthians 9:8–11, Paul quotes this very verse while teaching that pastors and missionaries should be supported, even as he himself worked so his message would be loud and clear. He takes an Old Testament command and extracts a timeless principle from it.

Sometimes we want to treat Old Testament promises and commands as though they speak directly to us, when they were made to a certain people, at a certain time, in a certain situation. One of my favorite t-shirts reads, "Yes, I can do all things — through a verse misquoted or taken out of context." We can apply principles when they are in context, but we cannot claim promises that were never made to us.

The Gold Coin on the Honeymoon

Imagine a man and woman married and on their honeymoon at a beautiful resort. While the bride takes a spa day, the groom rents a metal detector by the ocean and finds an ancient gold coin. As he holds it, he must realize something: that coin was minted to be used at a certain time by a certain people. Try to put it in a vending machine, or pay for something at the resort, and it won't work. It is not legal tender for his situation. Is it valuable? Absolutely — its worth comes from its history and material. But that worth must be derived by exchanging it, not by spending it directly.

The story goes that the groom returns to dig every day for four more days and never finds another coin — and misses his honeymoon. We can spend so much time digging for ancient tender that we miss the relationship right in front of us. The Old Testament law is of great value, fulfilled in Christ. But if we treat it as legal tender we must still follow — feasts, regulations, and all — we are in error. The best thing we can do is extract the timeless principles that surround these laws.

The Danger of Judaizing Our Faith

I mention this danger not because I haven't seen it, but because I have. One trap is putting too much emphasis on keeping feasts, blowing shofars, or wearing yarmulkes — trying to become more Jewish, thinking it will deepen our relationship with Christ. I have no argument with learning about the feasts, even attending one to see their symbolism and earnestness. But making that part of who you are as a believer can quickly become a dangerous distraction.

In the early church (Hebrews and elsewhere) believers had to be cautioned because men were showing up telling the church they all needed to be circumcised to have a relationship with the Lord. They were trying to turn the early church into Jews, which was never the command and never the point of the liberty we were given in Christ. Following the law and its promises as though they were meant specifically to you can actually lead you away from your covenant relationship with the Lord without your even knowing it.

A Promise to Solomon, Not to America

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13–14)

How many times have I seen this verse stretched across a banner with the Capitol building in the background, as though God were speaking directly to the United States of America? He is not. He is speaking to Solomon by night after the completion of the temple — a historic moment, a certain time, a certain promise made to God's people.

How then can we use it? As a principle. If the United States — distracted and in many ways far from God — did repent, humble itself, and pray, would God not respond in a positive manner? I believe He would. Is He bound to this promise because He made it to Israel? No. We look at the principle of the promise, not the promise directly as though it pertains to us.

We have been teaching a class here at Cross Connection on how to read and study your Bible, and what an eye-opener it has been to learn to see what the Bible actually says rather than what we want it to say. The truth is, the only promise and command for the Christian is Jesus. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34). And "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). There is our promise and our command, in Jesus Christ.

A High Value on Lineage and Inheritance

If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family. Her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her... that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. (Deuteronomy 25:5–10)

Point number three: God's law puts a high value on lineage and inheritance. This would be a strange situation in 2022 America. I lost a brother last December, and it was heartbreaking. I cannot imagine how the dynamic of my house would change if my sister-in-law — a professional pastry chef — moved in. I thank the Lord for the new covenant, and I'm sure she does too.

We must understand something about Judaism at this level: it is not evangelical. Have you ever had anyone come to your door to talk about becoming a Jew, or heard of a Jewish evangelist filling stadiums? It is ethnocentric. You are born a Jew; you do not become one. The increase of God's people came not through evangelism but through lineage — literally through having children. A widow at this time would have no place for land or inheritance without a male child, so it was important enough to put the brother in the uncomfortable position of responsibility.

Exclusive — Until Christ

At this time, the law did not appear to have a plan for you and me. When Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees commonly believed that Gentiles were simply logs for the flames of hell — no plan, no thought, no hope of redemption. Our standing was grim. And we cannot become Jews any more than someone can become Portuguese by eating enough fish and learning the language. That is not how it works.

I grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, and recently I was honored to attend the funeral of an old friend's father — likely the only Gentile there. He was buried in a simple pine box, as is tradition, and I was invited into the lineup to shovel dirt on the casket, a symbol of closeness and respect. As the two rabbis spoke, more than six times they emphasized that this man was a good Jew who kept the law — and especially that he married a Jewish woman and that his children married Jews, keeping that lineage and inheritance alive. The importance of marrying within the ethnic lineage was repeated again and again.

Christ, Our Inheritance and Kinsman Redeemer

The good news of the new covenant is this: Jesus does have a lineage, traced through David, but He Himself is our inheritance. We enter the kingdom by relation with Him — not by birth or reproduction, but by spiritual birth, by being born again. For the most beautiful foreshadowing of this, read the book of Ruth, where Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, redeems the wife of a dead relative. Many believe it outlines the relationship you and I have with Jesus and the plan of salvation.

The verses that follow about men fighting, weights and measures, and other matters are fairly self-explanatory; they had to have happened, because again, someone inspired the memo.

Remember — Because They Forgot

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God... you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. (Deuteronomy 25:17–19)

Point four: God reminds His people, do not forget — because they often did. There is a cause-and-effect relationship in Israel's history, part of the Deuteronomic covenant: if you do this, I will do this. God knows they will forget; He says "when," not "if," just as He told Solomon "when these things come upon you."

Amalek was Israel's archenemy, always popping up — like Lex Luthor to Superman. In 1 Samuel, Israel's first king, Saul, is instructed to wipe out the Amalekites completely, taking nothing. Israel wins the battle, but Saul forgets. When Samuel asks if he obeyed, Saul says yes — yet Samuel hears the bleating of sheep. Saul had kept the livestock and kept their king, Agag, alive.

High Places We Must Tear Down

Much later, in the book of Esther, a decree goes out to wipe out all those of Jewish descent — a holocaust — engineered by a man named Haman, who is described as an Agagite. Saul's forgetting allowed that lineage of hatred to surface, and a fourteen-year-old girl named Esther has to clean up the mess of Israel's first king. It is a fantastic story; I encourage you to read it.

The first time I read through the Bible, I was struck by how a king would rise to power in Israel and forget to tear down the high places — places of worship God wanted abolished. Again and again those high places caused God to withhold blessing or caused the kings to stumble. Those literal high places don't exist for us, but the principle of high places in our lives remains.

In 2022, so many of the foundational things our nation was built upon — principles drawn from this book, both Old and New Testament — have been forgotten. So as one of your pastors, when our temptation is to complain or get political, I ask you to remember that on November 8th there will be an election, and you have the ability to pray in all these days leading up to it. Pray every day for our nation, that we would stop forgetting, look at the many things we have forgotten, and repent.

Closing Prayer

While the promise in Chronicles is not to us, I do pray as a people that we would repent and humble ourselves. Dear Lord, we pray that You would look upon us, that You would rescue us, and that You would bless us again. And it is in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. God bless you all, and see you next week.