Deuteronomy 22

Well, good afternoon, everybody! It's been a while since I've been here. Three weeks ago, I was in Windsor. The last couple of weeks, I had a cough. You know, me and coughs, they tend to want to retire in my chest. We've got something that's taking place over in the Ann Arbor congregation. It's sweeping the whole congregation, healing by oil. And so, you know, nothing ever works on a cough that I have. I've gone to doctors, I've taken probably a pill under the sun, and figured, what does it hurt for me to oil myself up? And so I was putting oil on my chest, I was putting oil on the bottom of my feet, I had vaporizers going. I had oil oregano, I had eucalyptus oil, I had lemon oil. It came to a point where I didn't know if I was a person or a piece of furniture.

But, in all sincerity, this is something that Mrs. McGuire has found out. She found this out through her sister. And these various oils, people have been taking these, either just straight under your tongue or maybe adding some water to them. And a number of people over at Ann Arbor congregation no longer have to take medications for things like hay fever and a number of other issues.

And so there must be something to this. It's probably something God designed in those various plants. And I'd have to say that normally when I've got a cough, it lasts a month. This one was stopped at two weeks. So, even though most of the people that get these oil treatments, they're healed within 24 hours, I'm resistant. I'm kind of a tough nut. But still, I'll take two weeks versus four weeks any day of the week. So, just want to let you know that that's happening over there. And if you want to get in touch with Mrs. McGuire about the various potions that are available, I'm sure she'd love to talk with you. Last week, I think it was just Wednesday or Thursday, I got a very nice gift here from the Detroit congregation. There was a real nice card that you all signed. There was a pastor's mug with all sorts of interesting writing on that.

And I thought that was very nice. And a gift certificate for Starbucks. So, really very nice. When you're under the weather and you're feeling well and you're feeling like nothing's going right, it's nice to have something like that come along. So, we want to thank all of you for your generosity, and most especially for your prayers. Okay, let's take a look at Deuteronomy 22.

I have used the preacher's outline in the sermon Bible commentary for the sermon today.

There are a number of different laws that we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 22. Perhaps over the years you've wondered why these laws are here, what, if any, relevance they have for us today. And we're going to take a look at that.

Now, of course, as you remember, the book of Deuteronomy is a book where God inspired Moses to give three sermons. He was giving these sermons to prepare the people of Israel before they go into the Promised Land. Moses realized he can't go there with them, so he wants to prepare them. We've already gone through the first sermon, which is the first five chapters. The theme of that sermon is what God has done for Israel. Right now we're coming toward the end of the second sermon. The second sermon goes from chapter 6 through chapter 26. And the theme of this portion of Deuteronomy is what God expects of Israel. And so here in chapter 22 we're going to see more of what God expects from Israel. Chapter 22 can be broken down into two portions. The first 12 verses talk about being a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor. You know, we need all to ask ourselves, what kind of neighbor are we? Are we a good neighbor? Are we a bad neighbor? Are we a concerned neighbor? Are we indifferent as a neighbor? Are we involved? Are we distant? Do we know our neighbor's names? Or not know our neighbor's names? When there is a need in a neighborhood, do we look away and see that's somebody else's responsibility? Or do we take an active role in helping being a part of a solution? This is something that God wanted to get across, because if they're going to be a nation, a strong nation, they've got to be strong in the neighborhoods. They've got to be strong as neighbors, one with another. So that's the first 12 verses. Starting in verse 13, going through the balance of the chapter, verse 30, there's a discussion about sexual purity. Sexual purity. Moral living. Again, the foundation of any society is the family. And there are a number of laws here that deal with family-type issues. So we'll get into that in just a little bit. Let's start with chapter 22 here, verses 1-4. Let's take a look at this. Verse 1, You shall not see your brother's ox or sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them. You shall certainly bring them back to your brother. And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, in other words, you find an animal and you don't know who the owner is, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it.

Then you should restore it to him. You shall do the same with his donkey. You should do the same with his garment. With any lost thing of your neighbors, which he has lost, and you have found, you shall do likewise, you must not hide yourself. Now, in our society today, especially if you find something of value, hey, minders keepers!

You know, this is mine! You lost a too-bad buddy! But that's not what God has in mind here. God wants us to be our brother's keeper. God wants us to take reasonable efforts to return valuable things back to their rightful position. You know, in an agrarian society like Israel was, an ox or a sheep or a donkey, clothing, those are all very dear, very hard to come by. And so, here's an indication that God says, for all of us, to make sure that we are the kind of neighbors that we need to be.

Verse 4, you shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fall down along the road and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him, lift him up again. So, again, here you've got a situation, and this is interesting now, here you've got a roadside situation. What are we going to do? Now, here in an agrarian society, we think, well, simply be the good Samaritan. But in our society, we've got to be careful, don't we?

We've got to be very careful. As a matter of fact, let's put a marker here. Let's turn over to Matthew 10. Brethren, in the Scriptures, we need to make sure that we take a look at all the principles that apply to a certain situation and see what God has for us there as his whole counsel.

Deuteronomy 22 talks about being a good neighbor, being there, you know, your neighbor's ox or donkey or something, they fall into a ditch, they need help rescuing the animal. Fine, we understand that. There's really no issue. But then when we think about translating that into our day-to-day, what if we're driving down the road and we see, quote-unquote, our neighbor, a fellow human being, and their car is broken down? What responsibilities do we have? Well, here in Matthew 10, verse 16, we see Christ giving instructions to his disciples as they are to go out and work with the world.

Matthew 10, 16. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. And that's what we are, brethren. We are sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. So, you know, God gave us common sense. God gave us a mind. He wants us to use that mind.

You know, God wants us to be... He just wants us to be hard-hearted, but He doesn't want us to be soft-headed. I think I've given you an example in years gone by. When I was an ambassador to college, we had a group of men. There were six of them. They went on a trip. Six pretty good-strapping young men.

And as they were driving... I think they were heading down to Mexico. As they were driving down south, they found a car that was distressed along the side of the road. Being good Christians, they wanted to stop and give aid. And so they pulled up right behind the car. And the six guys, you know, being jolly ambassador college types, they all six jumped out of their car, you know, clean cut, probably pretty healthy young men. They walked up to the car, and what did they see? Well, they saw a woman behind the wheel, but they also saw somebody crouch down in the back seat. What it was, it was an ambush.

Hadn't been one man by himself. Who knows what would have happened? But since there are six big strapping guys, they just drove away. A woman just put her foot on the pedal, and off they went. So we've got to be careful. Be as harmless as doves or wise as serpents. So keep that in mind as we're taking a look at the whole of the situation here. Chapter 22 of Deuteronomy. Let's go back now to see another section here. Another section, this is verse 5. Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 5. There's a number of laws here, and each of them have significance for us today.

These aren't just something that we're thousands of years ago, and we just simply skip over them. How do we apply them? Well, that's what we're going to discuss today. Verse 5. A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. Now, those of you ladies who've been in a church a long time realize that years ago, this was relatively controversial. Can women wear slacks? Now, today we kind of look at that and we think, wow, that's a question.

Well, back in the 50s and 60s, yes, that was a question. It is verse 5 saying a woman should not wear slacks. Are slacks a male type of a thing? Is that the clothing that pertains only to men? And, of course, we made a ruling way back. But no, you can have slacks for women that are very feminine, clothing for men that are very masculine. What verse 5 is talking about is gender confusion. Now, in our society today, we've got plenty of that.

We've got plenty of gender confusion. But one of the principles behind the scenes here in Deuteronomy 22 is the idea that God wants His people to be pure. He wants people to know right from wrong and so forth. And here we've got something that's very clear. A woman shouldn't have such gender issues that no one knows whether she's a woman or not. Same thing with a man. You look at this person, you look at this being, is that a man or is that a woman?

God does not want that. God wants distinction. He created man. He created woman. He said it was good. It was very good. And God wants to make sure it stays that way. Now, back in the days when this was written, back in the days when this was written, in the Middle East, there were various groups that would cross dress in an effort to have the gods, the false gods, curse somebody. And so you would have, for example, priestesses dressing as men so that maybe an invading army would be cursed.

And so God says, I don't want you to do anything that has anything to do with something like this. So there's a little bit of a historical backdrop as well here. Let's turn to Revelation 19.

Verse 7 and 8, So what God is saying here is dress is important. Proper dress is important. Men should be masculine. Women should be feminine. And, brethren, let me be really clear here. We don't have an issue in Ann Arbor or Detroit with this. We don't have an issue in any of the churches that have ever pastored with this. But the world does have an issue with this. I have seen many people over the years, especially over the last number of years, where I look at an individual and wonder, what is their gender? And unless I see them walking into a men's room or a ladies' room, I really can't tell. And then you almost wonder when you see them walking into the men or the ladies' room, what you've got there. God doesn't want that sort of confusion. God doesn't want that sort of confusion. Okay, let's keep on going on here to a different law, verses 6 and 7. The Deuteronomy 22, verses 6 and 7, If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or underground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall surely let the mother go and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you, and you may prolong your days. So the idea here is conservation. God is a conservationist. I think I mentioned last time I was here. Is God white? Is God black? No, God's green. God is a conservationist, and He wants us to make sure that we take care of that which is around us. Now, sometimes this can try our souls. A nest of robins decided they were going to nest up above my front door. And, of course, Mary's got all of her nice little flowers on the porch. Within three and a half feet of those flowers, there's this nest of robins. Now, robins aren't vultures. They're not hawks. They're not owls. Have you ever seen an owl with its talons? You think, oh, cute little owl. Man, you don't want to get hit by one of those guys. But we didn't take our life into our hands until we went onto that porch. But I'll tell you what, you took your cleanliness on your hands because those guys would dive-bomb you and all sorts of things. Mom, Mother, and Father Robin worked together as a team. You go out there to water your plants. They're both hollering at you. They're both diving at you. You've got to look to make sure you've got frosting all over yourself. And I was sore tempted, sore tempted, to when they were both out looking for food to take care of that nest. But God says, we shouldn't do that. I didn't do that. Brethren, the reason why God says this is because God wants us to live long in the land. He wants us to take care of what is around us. He wants to take care of the trees, the green things, the animals. So it's better for us. That's why God puts these laws. You might think, why is this all of a sudden sitting here in the middle of the book of Deuteronomy? Because it goes well with the people when they take care of God's creation. You might in your notes jot down Genesis 1, verse 31. Genesis 1, verse 31 says, Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. God wants us, just as he wanted Adam and Eve to dress and keep the garden, He wants us to take full attention to what's around us in the ecology. Matthew 6, verse 26, I'll read it here for you.

Christ says, Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. So God is concerned about the most little creature, and if God is, we should be too.

Okay, going back to chapter 22, verse 8, I've already coughed twice today in a sermon. I didn't cough once over an Ann Arbor, so you can tell my voice is getting weaker.

And after this, I've got to go over to a baptism. And that's going to be interesting, because it's an outside baptism. Christ's Sylvester is getting baptized. It's outside in their pool, and the next-door neighbor is having a rock party. They've got six rock bands. I mean, it's like from here to the window. They've got six rock bands that are coming in. So that's going to be wild. But I talked with the Sylvester family, and they've talked with the next-door neighbors.

And I said, well, I'm hoping to be there by 6 or 6.30. Maybe your guys can take a break, give us about 20 minutes to a half hour so we can get the baptism, and say, oh, sure, I'd be happy to do that. So you'd be praying about that. So here we have Deuteronomy 22, verse 8. When you build a new house, then you should make a parapet or a railing, guard railing, for your roof.

But you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed upon your household if anyone falls from it. So here we see a section of Scripture dealing with building codes, dealing with public safety, dealing with builders and contractors and local city officials who've got to make the right kind of call. And what is this all about? It's all about loving your neighbor as yourself, taking reasonable steps to protect your neighbor.

Over in Ann Arbor, I said, well, how does this relate to us today? And I was remarking that in my subdivision, it's a fairly large subdivision. It probably could be a zip code all to itself. We've got 750 homes, large sub. And almost nobody shovels their walk. And it's a young subdivision. We've got a lot of great school kids walking to get the bus and so forth. And I would dare say most of the neighbors do not shovel their walks.

Well, that's something that's simple that should be done to make sure people don't slip and fall and hurt themselves. That's a direct discussion about what God wants here, to be reasonably diligent in establishing safety. And, of course, you're going to be thinking about your home and things pertaining to you. Is there something that's around your home or whatever, or maybe even a car that really isn't safe? As I drive along the roadway here in Michigan, in some states you've got, what do they call them? They're laws where you've got to get your car inspected and all that sort of thing.

In Pennsylvania, they make a real game of it. In Pennsylvania, you can't drive with a hole in your car bigger than a quarter. If you've got a hole that size, something's hanging off your car, the police will stop you, and when they write you a ticket, take it from one who got a ticket in Pennsylvania for going five miles over the speed limit. This was back in the 70s, and back then it was $105 for five miles over. They make a game of it. You get caught with your car in that kind of condition. Muffler's kind of dragging it a little bit. You're going to pay a big fine.

Here in Michigan, you see all kinds of wrecks driving down the road. If somebody just happens to turn a corner, maybe makes it turn a little too quickly, and your car's got something hanging off, you can rip into somebody. It can be like the situation with Ben Herr, where you take somebody's leg out. So again, we need to be reasonable in terms of making sure we're doing what we can for the safety of others. Here you might want to jot down James 4, verse 17. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.

To him it is a sin. This next section, verses 9-11, I never really did a lot of research on this, but when I did, I thought it was really interesting and something humorous. Let's take a look at this. Let me read the three verses here, verses 9, 10, and 11. Then we'll get into it. Verse 9, You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown in the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. In verse 11, You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, woolen, linen, mixed together. Now, there is an... As God wants us to be distinct from society, we've already seen that in previous verses. Here we're seeing another concept, and that is that God wants us to always show ourself as being, you know, separate from the world. Don't do what the world does. Don't have an unnatural or inappropriate or an impure mixture with the world. Because when you do, the negative consequences result.

So this was a law that was given to God's people to remind them on a daily basis, they need to live lives of spiritual separation. Now, verse 9, think individually. Verse 9, Forbids the sowing of a vineyard with different kinds of seed. Why? Couple of thoughts here. One, this actually was, first of all, directed against idolatrous practices. The Sabeans, or fire worshipers, used to do this quite a bit. So different kinds of seeds. But they would also accompany this with acts of magical rites and this and that and the other.

So it was an abomination to God from a spiritual perspective. But secondly, this law was given to prevent the intentional or unintentional cross-pollinization of different kinds of plants that would produce a substandard hybrid. Whatever we produce, God wants us to produce the very best. And here it is thought, with these improper agricultural techniques, they would produce a substandard product. And God didn't want them to do that. First, then, that's where I thought that was kind of a little humorous.

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. Anybody know the reason for that? I didn't until I really got into it and started studying it. I'm not a farmer or a cattleman or whatever, herd or donkeys. But it was interesting. One explanation is that the ox is a clean animal, the donkey is an unclean animal. But there's another explanation.

God is very practical. The donkey, in what it eats, as the material in the donkey's stomach starts to ferment and what have you, the donkey has a world-class case of bad breath. So bad! So bad! I mean, so bad that if the ox could speak, it was like Dr. Doolittle, and said, let me give you some altoids. But quite literally, the breath is so bad, the stench of the donkey is so bad to the ox. But the ox will turn himself to the side. And when the ox turns himself to the side, he's only pulling with the one shoulder.

Because one shoulder is not really being fully engaged. And so that's going to hurt the ox, pulling with one shoulder. But it also will hurt the donkey because the ox has a longer stride. The donkey has a much shorter stride. And the donkey trying to keep up with the ox, that's going to hurt, you know, when you're improperly pulling as a team. As human beings, we would pull muscles and this and that and the other thing. Well, the same thing would be true for the poor donkey. And so, here you've got a situation where God says, I know these two animals.

Individually, they're great animals. They're good. I created them there. They're wonderful. But they don't work together well as a team. They don't work well together as a team. Now, put a marker here. We go to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6. There's an underlying spiritual principle here. Verse 14, where it says, So you see there, that is an underlying principle. God wants to make sure that we take care of things properly. Okay, we go back now to chapter 22 and look at verse 11.

It talks about the mixing of different sorts of material for a garment. Verse 11, you shall not wear a garment of different sorts. In my Bible, such as as in italics, that's proper. Just throw that out. You shall not wear a garment of different sorts. Wool and linen mix together.

It's really a good way of reading that. Now, why does God say that? Well, wool is an animal product. Linen is a plant product. When combined, they would make a garment of inferior quality. Again, God does want...He enjoys quality. He wants His people to enjoy quality. He wants His people to have the best. He doesn't want to have people dressed in clothing. It's going to be easily torn or ripped, not get the proper kind of wear.

So God says, as a practical matter, don't put those two together. Jameson, Fossett, and Brown in their commentary also says, research has shown that wool blended with linen may sometimes increase static electricity to the point of causing heat rashes in hotter climates. So that kind of a garment...who likes a heat rash? There's a lot of things in life...you say, well, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Got this pesky heat rash.

All of that things are going okay. God does not want that. Okay, last verse in this section. Verse 12. Now, this is an interesting one. Verse 12, chapter 22, Deuteronomy, verse 12. You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing which you cover yourself with. Make the tassels. Now, let's turn over to a companion scripture here in Numbers, chapter 15. Numbers, chapter 15, verses 37 through 41. Numbers 15, verse 37.

Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, tell them, and make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations. Throughout their generations. Now, our buddies in the WCG would always point at scriptures like this and say, Why do you guys just throw this out? Why aren't you all wearing clothing with tassels on them?

You say you've got to keep the Sabbath. You say you've got to keep the Holy Days. You've got to tithe. Why aren't you doing this? It says, Throughout your generations. Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations. Put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, and you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them. You may now follow the harlotry to which your heart and your eyes are inclined.

That you may remember to do all my commandments and be holy for your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. So, brethren, how do you respond to that? Why don't we wear these sorts of things? What is this all about anyway? Well, the bottom line is to really understand that you have to understand not just about the tassel, but the hem of a garment. In biblical times, the hem was something that was very special.

The hem of a garment was not just to keep the threads from getting loose and being frayed. The hem of a garment showed you basically your status in life. The higher up in society you were, the more elaborate the hem of your clothing. And of course, then they want to add the blue, which is something that was very, very costly to make. Very costly. And basically, only the upper crustal society was able to have blue in those tassels.

So again, let's look for our need today. If it says we're supposed to do this in all of our generations, why isn't good old Mr. D standing up here with tassels and all sorts of things? Well, let's take a look at Numbers again. Numbers, chapter 15. What was the purpose of the tassel? Numbers, chapter 15, verse 39.

You shall have the tassel, you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord your God, and to do them. So the purpose of the tassel was to help you remember, help people back then to remember God and the laws of God. Now, why don't we do that today? Well, in one sense, we do do this today. We don't wear our garment that has tassels. But just as in the Old Testament, Old Covenant, people tithe. They tithe in a new. But in the Old Covenant, you tithe to the priest. In the New Testament, we tithe to the minister. In the Old Testament, we had animal sacrifices. In the New Testament, we've got the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they've got tassels to remind them of God's laws. In the New Testament, let's turn to John 14. John 14. John 14, verse 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things I've said to you.

So in the Old Testament, yes, they would have a physical reminder of God's law. In the New Testament, we've got God's spirit that reminds us of God's law. Same thing, different way that God goes about doing it. And brethren, when people come to you in the future, should they come to you and say, well, you know, you guys pick and choose, you can use that same reasoning with basically everything that we do.

Yeah, we don't do certain washings anymore, like they did in the Old Testament. Why? We're washed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And so many things, it's just the same way. We now have a New Covenant, New Testament application through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So it's not that we're picking and choosing. It's just like with tithing. We're still tithing. It's just through a different priesthood. We still remember God's law, but now it's in our hearts and minds. It's not unencourment.

It's not something that's physical, something that's spiritual inside of us. Okay, I'll go back to chapter 22 of Deuteronomy. Okay, we've covered the first section, the first 12 verses. Now, starting here in verse 13, there's a whole new section that deals with sexual purity in Israel. Young men, young women, were to keep themselves sexually pure. Parents were to teach their children to be sexually pure. The importance of this premarital purity can't be overstressed.

And yet in our society today, if a young man or a young woman is a virgin and are still in junior high or high school, they are virtually laughed to scorn. Remember, several years ago, giving a sermon, and in a sermon I mentioned to our young people, I dare use the V word, virgin.

Well, in our society today, that's to be called a virgin, is to be ridiculed. And yet, the basis for any strong society is the family. And so God, we're going to see how strongly God views this as we go through the balance of this chapter. So let's get into it, verse 13. If any man takes a wife and goes into her and detests her and charges her with shameful conduct and brings a bad name on her and says, I took this woman and when I came into her, I found she was not a virgin.

So here we see the thing being set up. What takes place at that point? There's been an accusation, not only against the woman, but against her family. Verse 15. Then the father and the mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

So mom and dad say, well, there's a very easy way to prove this. And you know, as adults, we understand what's taking place here. Verse 16. The young woman's father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter for this man, his wife, and he detests her. So the father says, I acted in good faith. I know, my wife knows, my daughter is a virgin.

This man is slandering her and slandering us. Verse 17. Now he's charged her with shameful conduct, saying, I found your daughter was not a virgin. Yet these are the evidences of my daughter's virginity. They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. Now notice what takes place. And the elders of the city shall take that man and punish him when proof is brought forward that the man was slandering the woman. It says they punish him.

The most commentators I was reading, there's not a lot of specifics here, but it is thought that in that day that meant that he was flogged. He was flogged for bringing a bad name on the woman and on the woman's family. Verse 19. And they shall find him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to who?

Give them to the father of the young woman. You besmirched her name. You're going to pay for this. Because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife and he cannot divorce her all his days. So, what this does, this is a deterrent. You better watch what you say about somebody and their character. And if you make false accusation, there are penalties to be paid. And notice, for the woman's protection, she doesn't, you know, she won't be cast out into society.

This man has got to make sure that he takes care of her. And he better take care of her well. Now, that's one instance. Now, what if the accusation is true? Verses 20 and 21. But if the thing is true and the evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of the father's house.

And the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing to Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So shall you put away the evil from among you. So here we see the death penalty, the death penalty for immorality, sexual immorality. Now, we might think, wow, that was taking place in our society today. We would have a much smaller society today, wouldn't we? But, you know, brethren, and we see something important here, and that is that the entire community got together to stone the woman.

Why? There's no such thing as a casual affair. When you have these kinds of situations, and we see it all the time in our society, take a look at the statistics regarding abortion. Take a look at the stats regarding sexually transmitted diseases. Take a look at who's on government assistance programs for unwed mothers. Take a look at, what is it now, more than half of the births in this country are to unwed mothers? Who pays for a lot of that?

Or who pays for almost most of it? You and I do through our tax dollars. So the community really does need to get involved in something like this. And I think, well, that seems really harsh. Well, God was dealing with Israel in a physical way back in the day. Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 6.

Because God still gives a death penalty for this kind of behavior. 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. Do you not know that the righteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, vilers, extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. So on a spiritual plane, once God has called us, if we are fornicators or adulterers, we too, we won't be stoned, will be thrown into the lake of fire. So death penalty to the physical people in the Old Testament time, death penalty forever to the people who have been called, converted, and sinned without repenting in the new.

Let's go back now to Deuteronomy 22. Let's continue on.

Now, let me step back, though. You see where the woman here is stoned. She's stoned because she had illicit sexual relations. It's so easy for us, and I think properly so, to think, well, wait a minute. She sinned, but she wasn't alone when she sinned. What about the guy? Well, the point here is what can be proven? It was proven that she had done things worthy of death. Now, if a man does things that can be proven worthy of death, he doesn't get off scot-free. He's got to pay with his life as well.

We're going to see that here, starting in verse 22. Verse 22, if a man is found lying with a woman, he is going to be married to a husband. She is somebody else's wife, and both of them shall die.

The woman and the woman, so you shall put away the evil from Israel. They both shall die, man and woman alike. Why the death penalty? Well, brethren, what does adultery do to the fabric of society? Adultery destroys husbands, it destroys wives, it destroys children, it destroys society.

As a minister, I can tell you, there are people, when a mate cheats on them, there are people, the way they are wired, they can't get over that. Some people can. Some people can't. When those sorts of things happen, and a person is wired in such a way that they... It's not that they're not trying to be forgiving, but they're just wired in such a way, I just... my wife or my husband, he cheated on me.

It wasn't some mistake, they were, you know, in bed with somebody else. I can't handle that! And there's a number of people who feel that way. What does that do to the children? What does that do to a lot of the other relationships? That's why God takes this so seriously, where the death penalty is incurred. Go back now to Deuteronomy 22, verses 23 and 24, it talks about seduction. That's why we live in a world full of seduction, don't we? If a young woman, who is a virgin, is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in a city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city, and you shall stone them to death with stones.

The young woman, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall put away the evil from among you. Again, you see where this kind of thing God says, you're destroying each other. You're destroying some very important things.

You're destroying the fabric of the family here. Now, starting in verse 25, and going through verse 29, you've got the subject of rape. How is that to be dealt with? Verse 25. But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. So here we've got a situation, unlike what we read about earlier, where the woman was only killed. It was found out this guy did this. This guy raped this woman. And he receives the death penalty. Why the death penalty? Because he took something from her that she probably will never be able to fully recover from.

You know, when a woman has gone through this sort of thing, in many ways, their life has been taken away. And God says, when you do this, I will make sure your life is taken away. Again, act as a deterrent. Act as a deterrent. You better not act that way, because if you're caught, buddy, then you no longer have a life. Verse 26, but you shall do nothing to the young woman, for in the young woman there is no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so it is in this matter.

For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. Save her. Now, verse 28 and 29, there's a little different situation here. If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, now she's not engaged to anybody, she's a virgin. So let's continue this. If a young man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, then he sees her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he had humbled her.

He shall not be permitted to divorce her all of his days. So here you've got a situation where you've got a person, a woman, who is not betrothed to somebody. She is violated. But in this society, God's thinking here, apparently, is that in this society, there would be a good chance that there might be a child that comes from this rape. And a woman in this society, by herself, it's very hard for her. She's going to be a pariah because of this.

Because of that, it would be very hard for her to make a living, and if she's got a young life to also support a young child, it would be almost impossible. So, number one, as a deterrent, we've got this. Number two, as a help to the woman. If she wants to, she can say, Okay, now you can't divorce me. You did this to me, and you're now going to provide for me. But there's an interesting caveat here. Verse 28, remember we said that she is a woman who is a virgin. She's not betrothed to anybody. So, what this means is, she still is under her father's household.

Now, I'm sure all of you women are probably thinking, why on earth would I want to be forced to marry somebody who raped me? And that would be the thinking here. The father talks to his daughter and says, Do you want this guy? And she probably would say, No. And so, in that case, she doesn't have to stay with him. Now, she'd probably have to live under her father's house just to be able to support herself and perhaps a child that might come along.

But she has the right of refusal here. Her dad has the right of refusal here because she is not a betrothed young woman. So, it's not that God is just trying to put people into a situation that is very, very difficult.

You know, God obviously is a loving God who, you know, when the human being sinned, there's only so much God can do once we've allowed certain things to get into play, into action. And so, God makes the best of this, he can.

Verse 30 deals with incest.

Imagine not taking his father's wife nor uncovering his father's bed. All this deals with incest. There are other places in the Scriptures that talk about what is acceptable in terms of family relationships and not acceptable in terms of family relationships for marriage. Most countries today understand that. Most laws in most countries would follow very closely to the biblical examples. Not all countries, obviously.

But, you know, you don't marry your mother, your father, your sister, or your first cousin or second cousin. You know, there's laws that tell you exactly what you can and can't do in the Scriptures and even in the man's law.

Obviously, it's not good for society where it's inbred. All you need to do is take a look at the pharaohs and the line of the pharaohs and see what's happened when you've got family lines that are so inbred and all the genetic issues that come to play.

So, anyhow, brother, I'm going to give my voice a bit of a break here, but anyhow, we went through this, and this chapter is really interesting. You know, there are so many times we've got chapters like this in the Scriptures. We need to spend more time with it and say, okay, now why did God do what He did here? As we looked at chapter 22, the underlying thing that we see is that God wants His people to be pure. God wants us to love our neighbor.

He shows that number of different laws here, and He wants us, as I said, to be pure sexually, which has to do with our spiritual natures. So hopefully this has been helpful. If you've got any questions, please see me afterwards.