Covet or leave it: True path to contentment (Deuteronomy 24:17–25:19)

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Nine-fold path or mishmash?

One way to view Deuteronomy is that much of it (Deut. 6:1–26:15) is a systematic explanation of each of the Ten Commandments.¹Outlines of Bible Books, Accordance electronic edition By that approach, Deut. 24:17–26:15 seems to cover the Tenth Commandment, rather than being a collection of disjointed sayings.

Ki Tetze covers eight topics, and the next Torah passage Ki Tavo picks up the ninth (first fruits). In this study we’ll cover seven of topics, skipping the straight-forward instruction, “You shall have fair and just weight” (Deut. 25:13–16):

Do not distort justice (Deut. 24:17–18)

“You shall not pervert justice”

One of the things that we’ve already seen is that Heaven’s reputation for impartiality in judgment is there. So when the people of God distort justice, they distort the Holy One’s character in the eyes of the world?

This particular instruction focuses on the Torah’s common triumvirate of the oppressed: fatherless children, widows and foreigners (Ex. 22:22; 23:9; Lev. 19:33; 16:19; 27:19).

The Hebrew word natah (H5186) is translated as pervert, as in perverting justice.²Theological Wordbook of the Old Teatament God warns us, don’t נָטָה natah justice for foreigners and fatherless.

To drill down the meaning a little further, it means to stretch, pull out of shape or bend.³Theological Wordbook of the Old Teatament It’s not OK to stretch the law and bend to do something it wasn’t meant to do or say something it didn’t say either as a way to defraud the poor and vulnerable or to defraud the wealthy by using the vulnerable as an excuse.

Are you going to take advantage of “fish out of water”?

If you ever traveled to a foreign country where you don’t understand the language, the legal system, the customs, you are almost helpless. You have to put yourself in the hands of someone who can knows the language and knows what is right and wrong in that country.

I remember the first time my wife and I traveled to South Korea, we were at the airport, trying to get through customs. The customs agent was physically directing us to go towards a certain place. Our Korean handler, the one who were there to help us, was having an argument with the customs official. Without him there, we would have been totally lost trying to figure out what was going on and where we were really supposed to go.

So in this case, you’re dealing with people are not familiar with your particular system. Think of the fatherless, who don’t have a father to help guide them through life, and to fend off anyone trying to take the child in the wrong direction. It falls to the extended family, neighbors, the community to bring forth justice, to teach them right from wrong, to make sure rules don’t get bent, twisted or distorted.

There’s also this rule that says “don’t hold a widow’s garment as collateral.” What does that mean? Collateral is an item of value that is used to secure a loan. So, if the person doesn’t repay the loan, you seize the collateral to recoup at least some of the costs of the loan. If the only thing of value a widow has is her coat and you take that coat from her, how is she going to stay warm at night. Taking that from her would be a death sentence. Are you going to confiscate her source of warmth/protection?

What’s the alternative in this situation? Debt forgiveness? “Kinsman redeemer”? Both are valid, either forgive the debt altogether or a more wealthy relative can pay off the debt to protect the widow from harm.

A proper balance of charity and work (Deut. 24:19–22)

When we look at the next rule regarding the “forgotten sheaves or clusters” at the harvest. This rule is a reminder that God’s people are told not to be greedy for profit. We must consider those who can be helped by the remnants of Heaven’s blessing, the source of that profit. Everything we have to give to God was given to us by God in the first place.

We see an example of this command lived out in the lifes of Ruth and Boaz, where he took care of his close relatives by insisting that Ruth glean from his property and drink his water (Ruth 2). He also protected her from harassment.

We see an interesting allusion to this Torah command in Yeshua’s healing of the Phoenician woman (Matthew 15:21–28). The term “dog” was a first-century Jewish slur against unbelieving nations. By this woman’s trust in the Holy One of Israel, she took a giant step into the Kingdom.

Peter’s vision, which is recorded in Acts 10, makes this point too. The nations are lifted up in the sheet, represented in the form of unclean animals. The things that were considered to be common are now brought up and made holy. It’s specifically in reference to people, because Cornelius’ servants showed up at Peter’s house right after God gave Peter the vision. So then Peter understood immediately that the purpose of the vision was a lesson for him about people, not about good.

But the interesting thing that we see in Scripture is this reversal. Native Israelites called those of other nations “dogs,” but you see in Scripture that those who do not stay loyal to God end up becoming called “dogs” on the Day of the LORD (Psa. 59:6; Phil. 3:2; Rev. 22:15, per John Lightfoot).

So those in particular who think they are a part of the family of God just because of lineage and genetic connections, this is not entirely the case. They may put themselves outside the kingdom if they do not trust in the words of God and walk in them.

Err on the side of mercy in meting out justice (Deut. 25:1–3)

The judicial tradition of ancient Israel to mete out only 39 lashes (“40 lashes minus one”), in case of a miscount, is recorded in Paul’s description of his persecution for the Way (2Cor. 11:21–27). In later times, these lashings were meted out if one couldn’t pay restitution.⁴m.Makkot 1.3, per Jewish Annotated New Testatement Commentary

The point: Don’t seek more of an accused life than the punishment handed down. Ultimately, “Vengeance is Mine and retribution” (Deut. 32:35; Psa. 94:1; Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30).

But for justice “stretched” against the accused, there is this warning: “The LORD will דין din/κρίνω krino (“judge” or “distinguish”) His people” (Deut. 32:36), i.e., distinguish from good or bad in their calamity.

Of oxen and men (Deut. 25:4)

“You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.”

Deut. 25:4 NASB

While post-first-century Jewish commentators such as Rashi didn’t want to extend this instruction as a legal precedent to be applied to people, by first century A.D., Josephus tells us in his book The Antiquities of the Jews that this rule was used to make the point that people need to be justly compensated from the work that they do.⁵David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary

The Apostle Paul used this Torah instruction twice in a metaphorical sense to talk about how a servant of the Way may be compensated from the task of shepherding the community (1Cor. 9:8; 1Tim. 5:18).

But the context of Paul’s instructions in those passages includes warnings against bloodsuckers in the ministry and the laity. He strongly warned “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” There’s a balance that on the one hand, the community are there to lend a helping hand. But if someone is just a leech on the generosity of the people, it’s better for them and for the community to give them a nudge to move on and support themselves and repay the generosity given to them.

Paul makes the point that he had the right to ask the community to support him, but he declined because he didn’t want anyone to think he was peddling the gospel for profit.

Protect Godly legacy (Deut. 25:5–10)

Levirite marriage, where a close family member fathers children with the widow to continue the “name” of the deceased, was an ancient customs, practiced not only in Israel, but also the surrounding nations to ensure that your lineage, your legacy would continue for future generations. Nowadays, couples who are infertile or childless prefer to use adoption as a way to add children to the family and to pass on the family’s culture and values as a legacy to future generations.

The most important way that someone can carry your name is to carry your reputation, your character, your legacy, and making sure that goes on from one generation to the next, which is more important than passing on one’s DNA.

Why this wife’s underhanded move to save her husband was so bad (Deut. 25:11–12)

If you are in a situation where a disagreement may turn, or is turning violent, there’s a duty to attempt de-escalation, which is fundamental to self-defense. The point of de-escalation is to bring a confrontation back from the brink of disaster. However, in this example, a woman who tries to de-escalate a confrontation between her husband and another man by causing serious injury to the other man’s genitals. The lineage or legacy of her target was put in jeopardy without trial. If it truly wasn’t self-defense, there are consequences for taking the life of future generations.

Refuse to honor nations who attack the weak (Deut. 25:17–19)

“Blot out the memory of Amalek”

Deut. 25:17–19 NASB

The Torah tells us that we are to “blot out the name of Amalek.” They continued to reach out and grasp after Israel’s legacy from one time after another after another. They didn’t have the courage to fight face to face on equal footing with Israel’s strongest army against Amalek’s strongest army. Instead, the Amalekites attacked Israel’s most vulnerable, their women, children and elders, from the rear and at the nation’s weakest times (Ex. 17:8–16). The people of Amalek were jealous of Israel’s legacy, but so were the other nations, such as the Moabites, who hired Bilaam to curse them. Bilaam encouraged the King to Moab to make an alliance with the Midianites to attack the Israelites, paritcularly the men, at their weakest point.

This was a trait of Amalek then that carried on to later generations with Agag and Haman. They also attacked Israel’s legacy.

We’ve seen examples throughout history where there are societies and cultures that are steeped in unspeakable sorts of things. There are individuals in those societies that can be delivered out of the prevailing evil and wickedness, but the societies themselves have to end, because all they do is propagate evil from generation to generation.

They target the weakest members of their society, the children, going after them as early in their development as they can, to indoctrinate them to believe that good is evil and evil is good to the point that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

They will totally twist their view of the world around, where even if you come in later and contradict their indoctrination with facts and logic, they won’t believe you.

How do we tie this different points together? We are all on this path toward the Kingdom together. When we talk about being together in the body of Messiah, we’re going on this road toward the Kingdom of Heaven together,. We should look out for each other. When there’s other people in the local community, we should actively look out for the needs, and take care of the needs that are there.

We also need to be mindful of protecting those who are vulnerable and in danger of losing their way and defend against those who seek to block the way our way and the way of others in our sphere of influence to the Kingdom of God.

Summary: Tammy