Friday, April 1 ~ tammi

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Deuteronomy 23-25; Luke 6:27-49.

Today's Old and New passages again have some connections.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is continuing with his retelling of God's Laws right before the second generation Israelites cross the Jordan River to enter the Land of Canaan.  I found it interesting that Moses specifically now gives rules about how to handle relieving oneself in a military encampment, but this appears to be the very first instruction on dealing with human waste.  It seems maybe the general assembly didn't need to be told.  I couldn't help but speculate a little:  could it be that the women would naturally have seen to these kinds of measures, but their absence in a military camp made specific instructions necessary for the fighting men?!  Just a thought...  ;)

We also find some interesting regulations about lending money or other items.  Interest could only be charged if the recipient of the loan was NOT a fellow Israelite, otherwise the loan had to be interest-free.  A little further on, there are more instructions about how to conduct the process in order for everyone's dignity to remain intact.  Asking to borrow something when in desperate need is a lesson in humility and we see here that the lender is to be sensitive to that and respectful of the borrower.

Then we come to God's welfare system.  I LOVE God's welfare system!!  Crops and vineyards are supposed to be harvested by the owners only once.  Whatever is missed or matures after that initial harvest is to be left for orphans, widows, and foreigners who would go hungry otherwise.  I love that those less fortunate still have to WORK for their food, but their sustenance is ensured.  How much better for their own dignity and to maintain their usefulness in the community.

I imagine this may have been tough at times for land-owners because the tendency is to squeeze every last drop of profit out of your investment!!  I mean, if you happened to have some rather unambitious workers, you might end up helping far more people than you ever intended, and running the risk of not making a profit at all.  But even here, I think this system worked well ~ land-owners would have been very careful to hire only people who they knew would work hard, so if you wanted a job that insured you wouldn't have to glean from the leftovers with the orphans, widows, and poor foreigners, you made sure you were known as a conscientious worker!  And, of course, you'd have to be a fair employer for the hard-workers to agree to work for you.

There's more instruction about honest weights, and among all these community guidelines, we also find a little passage dealing with the matter of divorce.  At first glance, it looks like a man is permitted to divorce his wife for whatever reason he feels like it, but my Bible notes indicate this passage simply recognizes a practice that already existed in Israel and the entire 4-verse passage is intended to make people think twice before divorcing. Also interesting is that for the first year after marriage, a newlywed man did not have to go to war, but was charged with staying home and "bringing happiness" to his bride!  I think that's a good policy today too; to clear up the calendar of responsibilities for the first while after marriage so that the focus in that first year is building a strong marriage that will withstand all the other responsibilities that inevitably come.

Then we find the heart behind all these rules in the passage in Luke.  Jesus has just finished teaching what we call The Beatitudes, and He instructs His disciples on how to love people, even our enemies; to be merciful just like our Heavenly Father is merciful.  To treat others the way we want to be treated.  It seems logical enough for us since we've had the benefit of knowing "The Golden Rule" ever since the Gospels were written, but for Jews who were steeped in their traditions, finally knowing WHY all these rules had existed will have been a pretty huge revelation about the God who'd chosen them for Himself centuries earlier.  Once again, we see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.  You know, I never really understood that phrase until these last few years, actually taking time to study the Old Testament.  I think we see it particularly well with this current reading plan where, so far, we've seen the life of Jesus right beside the Pentateuch.

Lastly, we have Jesus' dire warning about making sure what's inside us bears GOOD fruit because what's inside us WILL bear fruit, one way or the other!  He challenges us to make sure that the overflow of our hearts is a testimony to God's goodness and Lordship of our lives, and ties it to the parable of the man who builds a house that looks good, but has no foundation and is swept away when the floods came vs. the man whose house is built on a firm foundation and that can withstand the storms of life.

I pray that we have solidly built our lives on the Jesus Christ so that not only will we receive God's blessing, but that we can be vessels of His mercy to others in need of a place on The Solid Rock.









Tomorrow's passages:  Deuteronomy 26-27; Luke 7:1-30.