Deuteronomy 22:1-12
1 “You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. 2 And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him. 3 You shall do the same with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with any lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise; you must not hide yourself.
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 them up again.
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.
6 “If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
8 “When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.
9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
10 “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11 “You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
12 “You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.
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 them up again.
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.
6 “If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
8 “When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.
9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
10 “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11 “You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
12 “You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.
This passage of seemingly random laws actually are related. There is a common theme of not mixing things together which should not be, and restoring things matched back again which belong together. Lost property, whether animals or clothing (or any lost thing), are to be restored and matched with their owner. Care for your neighbor includes giving a helping hand when needed as with the fallen animal along the roadside. Furthermore, clothing is to match the gender of the person wearing it; this is bypassed in our present cultural thinking by redefining male and female to excuse cross dressing, but this only emphasizes the unmatched dressing that is mixed in a way displeasing to the Creator who designed us with identity and roles according to His design and not our twisting the ways for our own passing pleasures of sin. Hebrews 11:25 instructs is to follow God’s ways in His word, and not for our own. Other examples in this passage of mixing and matching with care include caring for birds by only taking the eggs or young, not the mother, and building a railing around your rooftop so that nobody falls off the edge while walking there (most roofs were flat and people were on them often in that time and area). Different seeds were not to be mixed together when planted, nor mismatched animals for plowing, nor different clothing materials worn together, and tassels were to balance out the corners of garments (Numbers 15:38-39) as a reminder of God’s words and commands threaded through all they do in life. All of these things together teach us to do all things decently and in God’s order (1 Corinthians 14:40). We must learn from this to mix and match righteously and with love that cares for God and man (Mark 12:29-31).
No comments:
Post a Comment