Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60506/deuteronomy-25/.

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[0:00] Deuteronomy chapter 25, again Moses writing and proclaiming to the nation of Israel right before they go into the promised land. He is expounding the law and by his expounding the law he is seeking to make the law clear.

[0:16] And in doing that there are some aspects of the law which do not have direct application to us but they had application to the people of Israel. And as he clarifies it and he begins to show exactly the meaning it is in that clarification or in the intent if you will of the law that we begin to see the character of God and I think it is there that we take that truth and we find this application as it is laid out for us.

[0:43] We don't ever want it to not say what it clearly says but we also don't want to miss the application that it has for us in today's time because the word of God speaks at a time in history to a specific people in a particular place for a purpose but it transcends time in application.

[1:05] And no matter where we are at in scripture we find that to be true and even more so when we get to the books of the law so to say or the Pentateuch in the Old Testament and we see matters which were very particular to the nation of Israel and seem not at least on the surface level to have as much application to us.

[1:23] But as we begin to see the character of God and we see the relation that he has with his people and the life that he is calling his people to live hopefully we begin to see the application or as some would say so what right.

[1:35] When we read the text the great question we must ask ourselves is what now or so what. So what do I do with this right. And hopefully that's what we'll do this evening in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

[1:47] The word of God says if there is a dispute between men and they go to court and the judges decide their case and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence and the number of stripes according to his guilt.

[2:05] He may beat him 40 times but no more so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes. You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

[2:18] When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

[2:33] It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say my husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel.

[2:51] He is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says I do not desire to take her then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face.

[3:09] And she shall declare thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. In Israel his name shall be called the house of him whose sandal is removed. If two men a man and his countrymen are struggling together and a wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals then you shall cut off her hand and you shall not show pity.

[3:33] You shall not have in your bag differing weights a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures a large and a small. You shall have a full and just weight. You shall have a full and just measure that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

[3:50] For everyone who does these things everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God. Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt.

[4:03] How he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary and it did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess.

[4:22] You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You must not forget. Deuteronomy 25. So what? Anyone willing?

[4:34] Here's my question, right? We do Q&A and I'll swap the table with you and say here we are. Here's Deuteronomy chapter 25. What application are we going to find from this text? Very difficult text, right?

[4:45] And as we read them, sure they have application for the nation of Israel. So there's a number of things which we see in here which are repeated throughout Scripture. A number of issues that we see being brought up.

[4:57] We see as far as this goes just in order that we see them and how we see them at least applied in the New Testament because this isn't just an Old Testament application. They have New Testament applications for the nation of Israel too.

[5:09] Paul is beaten a number of times. We know at least four times with 39 stripes, right? Paul says he was beaten four times with 39 stripes. The reason it was 39 stripes is because of this passage.

[5:20] You can only go up to 40. And the Jewish leaders, being careful that they were, they decided to make it 39 in case they miscounted. They didn't want to shame anybody and go over or exceed the number 40 and therefore break the law.

[5:34] So they decided that they would stop at 39 in case they lost count somewhere along the way and that would make up for one. Paul was beaten four times, we know of, with 39 lashes. So here we see that application.

[5:46] Paul himself quotes twice not to muzzle the ox while he threshes. He quotes it in particular, not in particular, in specific in relation to pastors and those who labor among the church.

[5:58] We see that being repeated, even bringing it to a fuller application. We see the history of Amalek played out throughout the Old Testament. We see that Solomon, not Solomon, Saul, fell short of completely annihilating Amalek.

[6:14] He had a partial annihilation of it, decided to let some of them live. We see Amalek rise up time and time and time again and even join forces with a number of other people and causing a lot of chaos and a lot of really harm and even death among the people of Israel because they failed to do what God commanded them to do.

[6:33] But, here we're still confronted with Deuteronomy 25 and we say, well what does that mean in 2022? Right? Where's our application?

[6:44] And as we look at the text, there are certain truths which we cannot deny. Those things that are applicable to the nation of Israel. Those things which had specific dealings for them in their time.

[6:56] But hopefully we will begin to see how that truth in their time has this application to us. And I believe that the entire passage revolves around that one thing pointed at the end.

[7:09] Because it seems as this disoriented kind of conglomerate of laws and random things put together. Like we're talking about people with a dispute.

[7:21] We're talking about animals. We're talking about widows. And we're going back to people with a dispute. Then we're talking about doing business. And then we're also going to throw in here about Amalek. Now, just in case you wonder, when we get to Deuteronomy chapter 26, we're going to start talking about worship.

[7:35] Now, I don't think God is a God of confusion. Just a matter of fact, I know the scripture says he is not. He is a God of order. And as Moses is declaring these things, these are the very things that he would have declared.

[7:47] Not in kind of our we are, a week to week or a service to service time. He would have declared these truths and proclaimed them. And then immediately began talking about worship.

[7:58] And it seems kind of odd to me that God would seek to confuse them or to throw a bunch of jumbled up mess at them right before he began to call them to the attention of worship, bringing their offerings.

[8:13] I believe what we see in Deuteronomy chapter 25 is that the past account of Amalek is the motivation for everything that precedes it throughout the chapter.

[8:24] He is reminding them what Amalek did. Amalek came and attacked them right after they left Egypt. After they fled Egypt, right, they were redeemed.

[8:35] They were set free. And Amalek, the nation was, or the kingdom, was very strategic in their attacks. They didn't attack them front on. As a matter of fact, the scripture tells us that they went to the rear of the nation of Israel and they attacked the weak and the vulnerable and the old and the young, the stragglers.

[8:52] They started attacking the people who couldn't keep up because while they knew they didn't want to take on possibly two million people, they said at least we can attack that kind of straggling bunch behind them.

[9:06] And the account of what Amalek had done to them is really the motivation for every one of these laws, and that is the protection of the vulnerable. So what we see in Deuteronomy chapter 25 is a safeguard for the vulnerable among us.

[9:20] How we to our exhibits, as the people of God, a life that has safeguards in place for the vulnerable because there are always going to be the people who are at the rear, if you will.

[9:33] And Amalek attacked before God had called his people to really go out in martial array as we begin to see when he begins to speak of the encampments and how Dan is at the end of the tribal march.

[9:45] And we've seen how Dan is at the end in particular, not only because he's the least, also because he's one of the meanest, right? Dan is a battling people, and they're at the end because that's the weak point, and Judah's always at the front, and we see this.

[9:57] But before God had decided to do that, and they were just going out and rejoicing in celebration, there were these people who were kind of straggling behind. We would call them vulnerable. They were the older and the younger and the people who couldn't keep up, and they were the ones who were suffering because of the attack of the Amalek.

[10:12] But the reality is that the vulnerable always suffer because they're always prone to the greatest harm. And the vulnerable are always among us.

[10:27] So God puts safeguards in with his people here, a safeguard for the protection of the vulnerable to ensure that all of life is exalted and revered and honored, as we have seen in the other laws, and that all of life is deemed important, and that we don't get lost in this reality that we are more important than others, and that as long as we're taking care of ourselves and self-preservation, we don't have to be concerned about the people around us.

[10:58] really, he has called his people to live lives of self-sacrifice, to live lives of commitment, to safeguard the vulnerable, to ensure that even the least among them get to experience the blessings of Yahweh.

[11:18] And we see this throughout this passage. The first thing we see is that his people are called to the practice of restraint. His people are called to the practice of restraint.

[11:32] God's people are not free to act however they would like, whenever they would like, and to act as much as they would like. We understand that. There is restraint in the Decalogue, or in the Ten Commandments, and how we are to, we're not supposed to covet, and we're not supposed to steal, and we're not supposed to lie.

[11:48] But even here, he begins to get a little closer to home because he says, when two men have an argument, two men have a dispute among one another. Now, you're not free, he says, as God's people, just to settle that dispute however you want to.

[12:01] You can't say, well, let's go outside and handle this mano y mano, and let's let the best man win, right? You can't do that. He says, you have to practice some restraint because if you have a disagreement, or if you have this kind of discord among you, then that is something that has to go, certain protocols, or certain steps must take place.

[12:18] The first thing is, you have to go to trial. You have to take it, and it says, judges, plural, right? Before a multitude of judges, that there would be this panel of judges, again, not just one man who is making a decision, but the judges are to make a decision as to who's right and who's wrong.

[12:34] So the first restraint that the people of God are called to make is you don't get to decide what's right and wrong. You've surrendered that. You've surrendered that to the judge.

[12:44] Now, we go to a judge singular, singular, but the people had judges plural around them. And you're to take this dispute, and you're to bring it and lay the case before the judge. And it is the judge who gets to render to the decision, right?

[12:57] If you have been wronged, or if you have a disagreement, you don't get to decide how the person who opposes you pays his penalty. The judge renders the decision.

[13:09] So there is the restraint that you may think he deserves to pay more, or that he needs to do X, but the judge alone gets to make that decision. And the judge is challenged with this restraint that he can only call him to pay according to the crime, which means you cannot overly discipline him.

[13:30] If the righteous are found righteous and the wicked found wicked, then he must pay according to the crime. We don't have the freedom to say, well, if you're wicked, you're wicked, and we're going to discount you, and we're going to take you to the utmost.

[13:42] He says, if he deserves to be beaten, then he can only be beaten with the number of stripes that is required or permitted. And then he puts a maximum on it. So we see here, I mean, it seems kind of odd to us, but even he who has wrongs cannot be belittled in the sight of everyone.

[14:03] There's this restraint because even when you're offended, this is still your brother and the Lord, right? He can only be beaten the next amount of times, and he has to be beaten in the presence of the judge because the judge has to ensure these things take place.

[14:20] And the judge has to make sure that it's happening in the right manner. And there's this restraint. You say, oh, but he deserves this. And you say, well, that's not your place. It's the judge's place.

[14:31] And the judge is going to choose the discipline. The judge is going to oversee the discipline. And the judge is even going to discipline with that individual in mind, not just you.

[14:42] Now, that application ought to be very quick because the Bible tells us that we are to leave the judgment up to the Lord our God.

[14:54] And when we bring those who have offended us or even wronged us or even really hurt us and we bring that and we allow the case to be laid before the judge, here is the restraint that we must have.

[15:09] It is his right and his alone to determine what the penalty must be and he alone has the right to administer that so once I bring it to him, I am to move away from it.

[15:25] It is to live a life of restraint because even in judgments for those who have wronged us, the judge still has the life of that individual in consideration.

[15:39] That is beyond us. We do not understand. Now, we are not talking about a capital offense because a capital offense, if you take the life of another, your life would be taken, right? We are not talking about stoning. We are not talking about that. We are talking about disagreements and disputes.

[15:54] And before we move on from here and we think that this really has no application to us, we do not have to go very far in church history to find out how when God's people live without restraint, it has really destroyed their testimony.

[16:07] And then when God's people choose to live in unrestraint, I am going to take care of me, and we see this being repeated all throughout this theme, it is not about me, right?

[16:18] At that point, it is now the judge's decision. Paul himself says he stands before his own master. Right?

[16:29] I am not going to judge him if my brother reveres this day over that day and my brother has this freedom and not that freedom, and I do. He says to his own master he stands for false. I am going to leave him to his master.

[16:42] That is his ruling, not mine. Paul's judgment to his brothers would be in the faith was not just judgment for correction, but I mean a judgment for correction, not a judgment for rebuke, right?

[16:54] He would correct them and bring them back and call them out. We see them even doing this with Peter in Galatians chapter 2 where he calls Peter out. Now, we would say, well, that's judgmental, right?

[17:05] But he wasn't just beating him and humiliating him in front of the people, right? He was still letting him stand or fall according to his own master. These people are to be people of restraint.

[17:17] And even see this later testimony, again, there's a restraint as seen in two men arguing and fighting, and we see a second account of two men who are fighting, literally fighting.

[17:28] They didn't bring their dispute before the judges because they decided that they were going to handle it their own way and they get in such a brawl, the wife of one decides she's going to deliver her husband and as the original text says, she grabs him by his private parts and she's doing all she can to set her husband free.

[17:44] Now, the wording in that, by the way, just in case you misinterpret this, that she intentionally did that to cause great detrimental harm. That's the wording.

[17:55] She said, I'm going to get him. He's hurting my husband. Now, in scripture, that's taking away life because you're taking away that man's ability to bring about life.

[18:10] And she said in her heart, I'm going to stop this. So God sets a law and says if that happens, cut her hand off. So that's pretty harsh. We have no record of this ever taking place, by the way, and that's the point because God set a standard so brutal, so harsh, that people refrained from doing that.

[18:30] God was showing us the restraint that is needed. You can't deliver your husband however you want to. You can't hit the man where he is the most vulnerable.

[18:42] There has to be restraints. Over and over again, we see God is calling his people to be people of restraint, not just to be people of reaction.

[18:53] It's so hard. It's so hard. I'm just to be the first to do that. I mean, just admit that. While I was typing this outline, I shared this with my wife and that was the only one I shared it with.

[19:05] When I was typing my outline, you have to keep the backstory. The backstory is for the last several months, I've had a phone call, not from anybody in particular. Go ahead and put this out there, right? I've had a phone call, not from anybody here, just somebody in particular, from the people who are our website hosting company now and they keep wanting me to do something and I was like, okay, yes, I'll do it at some point and I was supposed to have this Skype meeting and I didn't do it and anyway, it's a business venture for them and they keep calling me and they keep calling me and I've recognized the number now that they call from so while I was typing this outline about restraints, my phone rings and I was like, that's that number, I'm not going to answer it and I keep typing and then it rings again.

[19:46] They call from one or two numbers and I know both of them. I know one's from Recon, Georgia, the other one is from somewhere in Tennessee. So the first one's from Tennessee, I said, nope, not answering that. This is the Georgia one.

[19:57] I said, I know who that is, I'm not answering it and I was typing this and I mean this and this is where I had to practice restraint is as soon as my phone quit ringing, the lady called it right back.

[20:09] Now, I'm in the middle of something. There's a reason I didn't answer the phone. I answered the phone the second time. I said, yes, this, I need to speak with Pastor Bill Joe. This is him.

[20:19] That's just in all the restraint I could and I told her just as nice as I could because I was typing this message and I'm thankful that I was because if I wasn't, I probably would have said it in a lot ruder way. Ma'am, I don't have time right now to deal with that.

[20:33] I will deal with it another time. See how easy it is to lose restraint. And it's not, I'm not alone in that.

[20:44] Maybe I'm just the only one that will admit that because what was happening is I was in the middle of something. Now, you call me anytime you want to. If I don't answer, leave me a message and I'll get right back to you.

[20:57] Right? I literally, 24-7, my phone is on. Call me anytime you want to. But if I don't answer, please, please, don't hang up and call me right back because I'm not just being rude.

[21:14] Most of the times I'm in the middle of something. I have one person that can do that and she only has the right to do it when I'm on the bus and that's my wife because I'm not supposed to answer the phone on the bus but if my phone rings and it hangs up and she calls me right back, I will pull the bus over and find out what's going on.

[21:31] I got really, really agitated one day because a telemarketer did that to me and I pulled over and it wasn't my wife and that just, so maybe I'm the only one that has this problem but God's people are to be people of restraints and it's hard.

[21:45] It's a battle because Satan knows how to poke us, knows how to prod us. God says, even if you're having a dispute and you know you're right, he calls the right party righteous.

[21:59] He calls the wrong party wicked. He says, even in the correction of the wicked, it's the judge's decision and you walk away. God has called his people to protect the vulnerable by being people of restraint because how many times, for lack of a better way of saying it, have we blasted the vulnerable because they happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and we hurt our testimony people of restraint.

[22:34] Second thing we see how God places a safeguard for the vulnerable is we are to accept, we have to take personal acceptance of responsibility.

[22:47] Personal acceptance of responsibility. Let's confront it head on. Here's a law that we have no idea why it's even there. Right? There's two brothers living together.

[23:00] One of them we know is married. The other one could possibly be married and the two brothers are living together. That's one of the first stipulations. Two brothers must be living together in the same house. Before we think that's odd, that was actually a very common practice because even we see this being played out in the time of Joseph and Mary.

[23:14] We see it being played out in the time of Christ. And the bridegroom, the groom, was to add on to his father's house and then to go get his bride and bring her back to his father's house, which is where his brother would be.

[23:28] Right? So if there are two brothers living together and one brother dies and has no male children, the other brother is to take his brother's wife and to raise up offspring.

[23:38] And the male child, the first male child to be born is to assume his brother's name. Again, we see this story being told in the New Testament because there are the religious leaders who go to Jesus and tell us the story of the seven brothers.

[23:49] And all seven had her and in the end she died and in the end of the resurrection whose wife will she be? Jesus didn't denounce the practice. Jesus just said you don't understand the resurrection. We're neither given nor taken in marriage. Right? But what we see is a law that seems to make no sense to us.

[24:03] It is a law that is very foreign to us and this is not something we have to be very careful that we don't just say well we're going to make this and this is our legal standard. I was in one of my classes or in my class this week and my professor kind of had written something talked about going to using scripture alone to be the final authority of something rather than the scripture only.

[24:22] And he started speaking of how the Anabaptists would completely separate yourself from experience or truth or history that they were scripture only. He says so the Anabaptists in the old days when they said that what Jesus told the disciples what the Father whispers to you in the ear you are to proclaim on the rooftop and then when they went to the Old Testament they read of the prophet standing around naked declaring the word of God so the Anabaptists would literally go on the rooftops naked and declare what God told them in the secret.

[24:50] Now that's a bad practice. That would get you in trouble. That would get you in jail. Right? But that was scripture only. There's a lot of things let's just go ahead and say there are a lot of things that if we were to look at scripture only not scripture final to be the final authority but if we were to just take scripture only there's a lot of things that we can twist and distort and move and we'd be doing all kinds of things that doesn't seem to make sense.

[25:13] We have to take it in its historical setting. We have to take it to its particular people. We have to take it back to the setting it was in. And in this historical setting this was a very very very common practice.

[25:26] Not just among the Hebrew people not just among the Jewish people but among many of the ancient Near Eastern or the A&E people. This was a very common practice. And the reason this was a common practice is because family units were very very important.

[25:38] And a family unit flowed through males. And so for a woman to be left a widow and have no male children she was very very vulnerable because now she was no longer her father's daughter because the dowry had been paid.

[25:55] Right? She had left and she was no longer there. So she was outside of the umbrella care of her father and she was under the care of her husband. But now her husband has died and she has no male children.

[26:06] We see this being played out in the book of Ruth. Right? We see Naomi and coming back with Ruth. We see a lot of this one being played out. We'll get to that in just a minute. And now she has she's very very vulnerable because male children sons were to be the providers for their families especially their mothers.

[26:23] So now she had no source of income she had no source of provision and there was nothing that was a security for her. The security was completely removed. And many think that this would have been a source of great comfort to husbands.

[26:39] Husbands would be comforted by the fact that if something happened to them someone would come and take care of their widowed wife and raise up offspring so that she would not be left isolated and desolate.

[26:54] You got to take yourself out of our cultural setting and put yourself in theirs. Right? And vulnerability was great among those who had nobody to provide for them.

[27:08] And there was no other means. Now so that's the practice. And that was something that was even common during the time of Christ because there were not these provisions for all people or provisions for everything.

[27:23] So again some have called Deuteronomy a great book with women's rights because it's constantly raising up the need to care for the widows and raising up the need to protect the women and raising up.

[27:36] Now some of you say this ain't protection right here. This is just wrong. And you know in today's time it is wrong. It does seem just kind of confusing to us but when we look at it in its historical setting this is one of the most gracious things that could have been done.

[27:49] As a matter of fact the one who is wrong is the brother-in-law because he had a responsibility. He had a responsibility. The Bible says it's his responsibility in this text in this context in this setting.

[28:06] Alright? We're going to look at the let's not look at the law literally and try to apply the literal law but let's look at the intent of the law and see if we can find the application there. His literal responsibility was to take his widowed sister-in-law and raise up offspring that would take on the name of his brother so that his brother's name would not be blotted out.

[28:27] Now that wording is important because that ensured his family's place in history. For his name to be blotted out meant that his genealogy would stop.

[28:42] And genealogical records are tantamount important to the nation of Israel because without proof of genealogy you have no benefit of community.

[28:53] Look at that when they come out of captivity those who could not prove their genealogy were considered the mixed multitudes. They couldn't worship they couldn't fellowship they couldn't partake in a lot of things so if his name was blotted out if his genealogy did not continue then she would be blotted out and his whole family name would.

[29:12] And to raise up a male child would be to raise up an heir to the estate. That means this male child would now have everything that belonged to his dad. Now let's just go ahead and see why the brother-in-law refused to do this.

[29:27] He could have refused to do it because it was an inconvenience but more than likely brother-in-laws would refuse to do this because if the brother had no male children then the brother would not have any heir to his estate and if there is no heir to the estate of the brother then the estate falls to the brother-in-law.

[29:47] He gets to gain what his brother had. If his brother has no male children it comes to him. If he takes her as his wife and she has a son it belongs to that son.

[30:03] And that son is in his brother's name not his name. See he he stood to gain personally from his sister-in-law's loss. But his responsibility was to ensure that she would be provided for and that his brother's name would be continued on.

[30:21] But his choice could be I would rather take it for myself. We see this being played out in the book of Ruth. Remember when Ruth finds Boaz and Boaz says I am a kinsman and redeemer.

[30:34] It's a real weird picture. She goes to the threshing floor she covers herself with this blanket that's at the threshing floor and he looks down and oh he said don't tell anybody you came here and it seems kind of strange but what she's doing she said take me under your umbrella.

[30:46] He says I am a kinsman and redeemer but there's a closer one. Remember that? And then they went and he went before the city gate and he says she has come and she needs to be redeemed and the closer kinsman and redeemer he said I'll take it because he said this thing he says whoever redeems will redeem everything that belongs to Naomi all of that her husband's property and that kinsman and redeemer says I'll take it and he says well whoever's going to claim it must also take Ruth to be his wife and he says I can't do that.

[31:15] He's already married and had children so he didn't Boaz did great picture and we see this law we need to be thankful was there because through this law we get to lineage David which ultimately leads us to the lineage of Christ so before we get too bent out of shape about it this leads to the lineage of Christ as well and then they do something strange there that man takes off his sandal and they throw it which is what this law says that if he refuses to do that then she is to bring him to the gate and say he refuses to do what his brother-in-law says so they take his sandal off and they throw it over the shoulder and she spits in his face or something probably spits in his direction and we say well what difference does that matter well to them a sandal would be a sign of possession because I bear on the bottom of my shoe that property I've walked across that land and I have now I possess that property by removing that sandal you're saying well I'm taking it away from you so ultimately he should be known as the family of the man with a removed shoe I'm sure it's a lot shorter in Hebrew than it is in English but he lost where he was trying to gain personally he lost it publicly he was humiliated publicly why?

[32:21] public humiliation because he failed to take personal responsibility where's the application? that's the law the application is this God has called his people to assume responsibility for the vulnerable do we do it as this law lays out?

[32:36] no but we also must be sure that we do not seek to gain seek to acquire personal gain at the expense of others but rather we ought to be so concerned that others will be provided for and taken care of in the long run even if it costs us something that we stood to gain in the short term better to self sacrifice for the sake of others than to be publicly shamed for the pursuit of self advancement the vulnerable are always going to be there and unfortunately what we find with the vulnerable is they're often preyed upon and they're often taken advantage of and others often do that for the sake of personal gain God has called his people to look for the sake of the others and to assume the responsibility to ensure that even the most vulnerable are provided for in the long run even if it's an inconvenience to us short term you say inconvenience this man was taking on another wife that's in that context talking about in our context if it inconveniences us for a short term we must be willing for the sake of others to assume that responsibility again just like restraint it takes our focus off of us and puts it on others the last one we see is that God has placed a safeguard for the vulnerable with the practice of the proper behavior of righteousness a proper behavior of righteousness all of this with the background remember what

[34:28] Amalek did to you how he came now there to wipe them out to annihilate them we're not trying to discount that passage that's God's command because he's going to judge Amalek he does judge Amalek for their sins but he's using this judgment of Amalek as a motivation to also put within your own ranks a safeguard for the vulnerable he says in this passage starting in verse 13 you should not have in your bag differing weights large and small you should not have in your house differing measures a large and a small he says we are to live with a proper behavior of righteousness now what he's talking about in particular here is the business world right we have the traveling businessman and the home front businessman so the one who has it in his bag and the one who has it in his home the one who conducts business on the road with foreigners and the one who's conducting business in his home with his countrymen so he says rather whenever you're conducting business be it with someone outside of Jerusalem or even someone inside of Jerusalem if you're doing it by carrying your bag somewhere or if you're doing it by having someone come into your home make sure you have an honest and fair measurement again why would someone have this because they stood to gain a small weight and a large weight if you're paying me

[35:50] I'll put my large weight on there so it takes more of your money for you to raise my scale if I'm paying you I'll put the small weight on there so it takes less of my money to pay you right it's the business world we understand this it's the trade and the business and it is doing business in a shady way he says you shouldn't have that you can't have a large and a small or a large and a small measure in your house he says whenever you do business do it righteously do it proper do what is fitting for all righteousness be fair in your business practices why because you may stand to gain temporarily from shady practice but you're going to be a detrimental to yourself eternally he says be sure if someone is placing their confidence and their trust in you and someone is entrusting you with their business then do it in a right way he said you shall not you shall not do this for everyone who does these things everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God so he says your business practice is a result of your relationship with the Lord your God how you conduct you say well I'm not conducting business with scales and weights and measurements no but you're conducting business with your time and your effort and your work habits and all these things you're conducting business each and every day the New Testament has an application to this as well whatever you do whatever you do do as unto the Lord and not unto man whatever you do now my my whatevers have taken me down some jobs I didn't like you know some of my whatevers were opening up plugged up septic tanks

[37:38] I didn't like those some of my whatevers were rebuilding paper machines that newspapers when I used to sell them in those newspaper machines in USA Today I didn't like that whatever I had to do brought me into factories but whatever you do do as unto the Lord which means whatever is in front of you at that moment that you're doing be honest and fair in your business practice not because you want to please man but because the way you conduct business is a result of your relationship with the Lord your God and to do what is fitting and proper for righteousness to do it for righteousness sake because this is a safeguard for the vulnerable it's a safeguard for those who may be hurt by not doing business righteously God has established safeguards among his people and he's called his people to live them out on a daily basis because we don't want to be like Amalek and those who are lagging behind getting hurt because we're pressing on we want to be those who have the right safeguards in place to ensure that even the vulnerable among us are moving forward with us

[39:01] Deuteronomy chapter 25 thank you brother so so so so so so Thank you.

[39:52] Thank you.

[40:22] Thank you.

[40:52] Thank you.

[41:22] Thank you.