Understanding God's Promises and Integrity

In the chapter 25, I'd like to find that in your Bibles. This is a very unusual passage, because it's not something we would ever see as a... If we were writing the Bible, in our culture, in our setting, it's something we would never think of. Because the circumstances probably wouldn't arise to start with, but it's a little different than we would see. Remember, what we're looking for is the nature and character of God, and what he sees is important to him. Both what he tells us we shouldn't do, and tells us what we should do, teach us something about the nature of God, and what his values are, and what his concerns are. Now, the context for this is the passage above, where it talks about a woman whose husband dies, and has left her with no child. And the issue is that the brother-in-law is to take this woman as a wife, and that the child that's born to the marriage then will carry on the name of his father. And the issue is that the two of them, the two brothers, are operating the father's farm, or land, and it's to keep the land from being divided. The key principle in that story is that God is trying to make sure that the promise he's made to his people, I will provide for you, is kept. And his provision for the children of Israel was to give them land. Now, land in the Bible was not an investment process. It was a security for the person. They planted their seed, and raised their crops to feed themselves, and they could sell some too. So, this was really a financial provision. And the promise that God made in his covenant to Abraham was, I will give you a land. And that promise of the land was being fulfilled in this story. And if a man's wife is not born a child to take that part of the land which belonged to him, then all of his family after that, the woman and the children that they would have, would lose this piece of land that God had given them, or this piece of security that God had given them. So, God is concerned to make sure that his promise of provision is kept by securing the inheritance. Now, following that, in verse 11, is a different story. If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. Now, what God is doing again, is taking into consideration someone who would deprive another person of the proper inheritance that they might have. Now, in this situation, he uses the issue of fighting. Someone who is fighting. Two men that are fighting. And the wife, in order to protect her husband and the inheritance that they might have, reaches out then and grabs this man's private parts in such a way so that he would not be able to have children. That's the key ingredient in this story. So, what she's done, is she has taken this other man, and she's destroyed the opportunity for God to fulfill the covenant with him. Now, when we talk about this principle, she's denying this man the full promise of God to him. Now, when we talk about the kingdom of God, and how God uses this in the New Testament, what is His promise to us? Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all that you need will be provided for you. God's covenant promise in the New Testament is based not on land, but on the promise of the kingdom's power or rule over your life. You submit yourself to my authority. You allow me to control your life. And my promise is to you that everything you need will be provided for you. Now, the promise in the Old Testament seems rather severe to us. The woman's hand is to be cut off. The severity of that is the only place in any of the law that mutilation is provided for in the Old Testament law. Many other ancient religions had mutilation as a normal or common part of what they did. Now, the requirement of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that kind of principle for law means if someone hurts you, the punishment must be equal and not exceed what was done to you. That's the principle of that lex talionis law, or the law of retribution. Here in this instance, it's not possible for this law of retribution to be carried out, because it's a man whose genitals have been injured, and it's the woman who's done that to him. So, what is taken away from her is one of the most important parts of her body, a hand, so that the Bible is giving a sort of a way by which the retribution of equality is given. Now, in the New Testament, the idea of the land being the provision that's given to us is superseded by Jesus' promise, the promise of the kingdom. Now, it's not the land of Judah, but it's the kingdom of God that is the primary focus of Jesus' preaching in the New Testament. In this kingdom, where God rules and provides for His people, He has made provisions. Now, when you look at the New Testament and you see the promises that God made to His people, in chapter 6 of Matthew, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything you need will be provided for you or given to you. Now, when Jesus is teaching about the priorities He has, if you look in Mark, chapter 9, Jesus addresses the issue of what happens to people who keep others from entering the kingdom of heaven or growing to be able to receive the promises that God had made to them. In chapter 9 of the book of Mark, verses 42 through 48, if anyone causes one of these little one who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. Now, what he's talking about here is someone who's entered the kingdom of heaven. They're now receiving the promise of God. And if you do something that keeps that person from being able to receive or experience the kingdom of God in their life, then the penalty is not only death, but a death of very tragic force. Be thrown in the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. A millstone was what they ground the grain with. It was huge, enormous. Even the small ones they used in their home were large. So that the idea was there would be no escape from the punishment, capital punishment, for someone who would destroy the faith of someone trying to follow Christ. Someone of weak faith or of new faith or of simple faith. Now, he also goes on to say if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands and go into hell where the fire never goes out. It's another picture of how dangerous it is for anyone to destroy the faith of another person. And also for anything in your life that would lead you to disobedience to God. It would be better if you cut your hand off than to allow any part of your body to lead you to disobedience and rebellion against God. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better to enter life. You notice he keeps saying life because life in the kingdom is where the Bible defines real life. It better be better to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. This series of events is a rather graphic description of how seriously God takes submission and obedience to us. Because if you do not live a life of submission and obedience to God, then you lose everything that you have, all the life that God has promised. The constant result of this rebellion against God is the fire of hell. The worst description you could have of a life that is painful and destructive. What God is showing us in the New Testament is exactly what he's talking about in the Old Testament. To deprive someone of the promise of God is a deadly adventure. The woman would have a desperate result from her destruction of that man's promised future. And in the New Testament, if any part of our body or anyone would cause us to abandon our faith in God, the result would be eternal punishment of that person. It would be better for them to die. You would be better if you had some part of your body that was controlling you and you had no control over it to get rid of it. Now, he doesn't mean literally for you to do that. Never is anywhere in the Bible does it use the example of people who do this as a way of resisting temptation. In fact, you know that if your hand steals things and you cut your hand off, you still have a desire to steal. It doesn't solve that problem. What he's talking about is a way by which we understand the seriousness of anything that would keep us from living a life of submission and obedience to God. This is the most important thing you'll ever do. It's more important than your hand. It's more important than your eye. It's more important than anything you have. Living in submission and faithfulness to God is a key ingredient in finding and to do something that keeps you from having it is the most serious thing that God can think of in our lives. So when you see part of your life where you're snared by temptation and you know it catches you and leads you into doing things that you shouldn't do, you must notice that this is a very critical thing to God. You confess it, you ask for his strength, and you begin to find a way to live in faithfulness to him. God wants to fulfill his promise and anything that keeps him from fulfilling the promise of a faithful person is a critical error and is God's worst enemy and ours too because God wants to make sure that every promise he makes to us is fulfilled. The next section changes the direction of his instruction. Again, we're reminded that what he's talking about is God's nature and character. Do not have two different weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. Now, the beginning of this whole thing is that God is honest and he always does what's right. That's a very important ingredient for us to think about in God. For sometimes when we see things that happen that don't seem exactly right to us, we're inclined to think of God as being unfair, unkind. But the Bible over and over again assures us that of one thing you can count on from God, he always does what is right. If something happens in your life that appears to you as if God is not doing something right, you should remember this. God is meticulous in saying, I always want things that are honest and right. Now, his call to his people is to be holy as I am holy. And one of the acts of holiness is the business deals that you do. Here he's talking about a land and a world that's different than ours. If you ever, my dad had a grocery store, and we had a meat department, which he had to meet up, and we had a scales. And every so often someone from the state would come around and they would have in their sack a piece of weight that weighed a pound. And they would put it on the scales. And if it didn't weigh exactly a pound, they would shut you down. Because you had to have your scales weigh exactly what they should weigh. So if somebody came in and said, I want to buy a pound of beef, and you cut it up and put it on there and it weighed a pound, but it really was a half pound, you've cheated them. Now, in their country, there wasn't a government standard that came around to say this is what a pound is. So the dependence was entirely on you. You go in to buy, for instance, you bring your barley into the mill. And what they would do is they'd have a bar, and they'd put on one side a weight that weighed a pound, or ten pounds, or a hundred pounds, whatever it was. And then they would lay your sack on the other side, and adding and take weight off until they balanced, so they would know exactly how much it was. But he said the practice for many people is to have two sets of weights. If you're going to buy something, your pound weight would be less than a pound. So when somebody brought it in, and say you have a pound, you'd say, well, no, that's just 15 ounces, sir, 13 ounces. And I can't pay you full amount, because that's all it is. Then when they come back to buy from you, you would have a different kind of weight. So that whichever way you were trading, you were buying at a less weight, and selling at a different weight. Your weights must always be the same. You don't have two different standards for some people who you're buying from, and some people you're selling to. Integrity is what God is talking about. Make sure that what you do is always accurate and correct. Because as people of God, we reflect the nature and character of God. And when you say that you're a follower of Christ, people should be able to say you will be treated accurately. Whether you're selling to people, or buying from someone, you make sure that they can count on your word. Now, for us, we don't, most of us do business like that. And the government takes care of most of the things where you would go to a store, and try to pry it, try to buy something. And if you're selling, they weigh the scales where they're selling grain, or all those other things too. But there's that level for us, in which we're dealing with people, in which we're being honest. And the temptation sometimes is not to be honest about the things that we do. If you put something on the next tech list, and someone comes to buy your item, the temptation is to not tell them exactly what quality it's in. Therefore, you can get the price that you want. God's instruction for us is, never ever be dishonest, either by not telling what you say is the truth, or by withholding it, or by saying more than is true. Be sure that you always do what is honest. Because every deal that you have, reflects your character, and the nature of God, if you belong to Him. Let your weights be clear and plain, because the Lord detests anyone who deals dishonestly with people. God cannot bless us, if our lies are not honest. Now, it has to do with a lot of other things. Like if you, not only if you buy or sell something, but it has to do with your working too. Do you work a full day, and say you worked a full day when you didn't? Do you do a job and claim that you've done the job well and right when you really haven't? It means not only in our work life do we do what we should, but it means as our dealings with other people around us, we do what we say we are going to do. Making sure that we always have honesty and integrity. Because it reflects the character of God. If you say, God is in charge of my life, and your life does not reflect that, then you make God look out, look as if he is dishonest and unfaithful too. The last section of this chapter, and it sort of ends a section together, he says, remember the Amlekites. Remember what the Amlekites did you, verse 17, did you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind. They had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he's giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget. Now in this story, he's referencing their trip into the land of promise. When they were going into the land of promise, the Amlekites took advantage of the Israelites. They were in a long string of people who were coming, and the stragglers were behind. Stragglers were usually the young, they were the old, they were the sick, they were the weak. As the whole tribe would move out forward, these were the ones who couldn't keep up because of their physical condition. The Amlekites didn't have the courage to attack the Israelites head on. Instead, they waited for those who were weak and unable to defend themselves to attack them. And they succeeded in it. They killed many of the Israelites who were weak and trailing the larger body. At that time, God did not do anything about this. It had to infuriate the Israelites because they were being taken advantage of. They didn't attack the soldiers, they attacked those who couldn't help themselves. All the way through the story in Deuteronomy, we find something about God. His interest is always in behalf of those who cannot help themselves. It looked as if God was overlooking this. But God said to them, now I'm going to bring you into the land of promise and get you settled. But I want you to know there is unfinished business that I have for you. When you're settled and everything's taken care of, I want you to go back to the Amlekites and I want you to attack them. Over the period of Israel's history, there was constant conflict between the Amlekites and the Israelites. But finally, in story of the Old Testament, the Amlekites disappeared. They were gone, completely destroyed. God said, do not forget what they have done. And here is my assignment to you. Now, it might look to us as if it becomes our responsibility to attack people we think have done things that are bad or wrong. You have to be careful with this. What God did with the people of Israel was to say, I have issues that I want you to settle and I'm asking you to do this. The command from God was to attack the Amlekites. It wasn't from the people there to choose to do it themselves. God sometimes used the nation of Israel as a tool to discipline other nations. But they were never to engage in this war at their own decision or for their own profit or for their own purposes. It was always as an act of obedience to God. In the New Testament, the requirement for us is not to attack people, but instead to change their lives. The responsibility we have to people who have done things that are wrong are to bring the message of Christ to them. And the message in the New Testament is not so much destruction, because he doesn't talk about whole peoples or nations, but individuals. And the task in the New Testament is to bring people to Christ so that their life will be transformed. They will be changed from people who have been thieves, as Zacchaeus was, to someone who's a generous, righteous man, as Zacchaeus became. God's responsibility is still to bring judgment, and that's his. And our task in this is only to do what he tells us. So that the responsibility God gives us is to say, You do my will. And this was the will he had for Israel. It is not the will that he gives to the church. It's not the will that he gives to those in the New Testament. Our task is not confrontation or destruction, but it is transformation, proclamation of the gospel, and living a life that shows God's character, and calling people to change, turn away from the life of rebellion against God, and embrace him. So that God's message to us is still a message of defeating evil, but it's not our responsibility to bring destruction. It is our responsibility to proclaim the truth, and hold out the power of God to change the lives of people. And so, in the New Testament, we find an entirely different way of dealing with this enemy of God. So if someone strikes you on the cheek, you turn the other cheek. If someone mistreats you, you pray for them, that good things would come to them. If someone is nasty to you, you simply receive whatever punishment they want to give you, and instead return love in its place. God's power in the New Testament is not the power of the military, but the power of the Spirit. Not to defeat or destroy the body of a person, but to overcome their nature, and their character, and their heart, and their mind. So that God's purpose is still to do away with people whose hearts are controlled by evil purposes or goals, but his purpose is to change them to be like himself. In the New Testament, our task is still to confront evil, but it's not to confront it in the way in the Old Testament it was done. In the New Testament, it's the heart of a person we're trying to change, instead of the body of the person we're trying to kill. God has sent us on a mission to go into all the world, and to proclaim the truth of God's Word, that people might know and find the peace of God in their own life, mind, and heart. He still remembers the sins of people, but now, in our world, he's at the place where he wants to change the hearts and minds of people. And as a last resort, in his hands, the power and authority of destruction is not given to us, but only for him. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? Now, I want you to think of someone in your own life. Maybe this made life miserable or difficult for you. Maybe taken advantage of you. Maybe been unfair to you. You may think that God forgets that, but he lets us know that he doesn't. Nothing may have happened at the time it took place for you, but God is remembering. When the Lord your God gives you rest, you shall not blot out of the memory what has happened to you. Do not forget. It doesn't mean that we are to forever hold on to bitterness and anger, but that the things that happen to us are opportunities for us to live out the nature and character of God. So, if you have anger, bitterness, or resentment in your life, you're to begin, first of all, to ask God to help you forget. Forget the pain, not forget the event. You're to ask God to give you the ability to forgive people. That means that you no longer want to get even with them. Doesn't mean you forget it happened. You forget punishment. And then you're to say to God, teach me how to pray for them, that good things would come to them, even though they've done bad things to me. And then you're to pray for an opportunity to do something sacrificial and loving for them. This is God's method of destroying our enemies. And so, Father, help us to understand, not what our human flesh tells us we should do, or our feelings lead us to do, but that you remember every hurt that's come to us, and you have plans to make it different by changing the minds and hearts of the people around us. Give us confidence that what you tell us to do is best. In the name of Christ, we ask for this. Amen.