January 25, 2014 - Saturday

Start Time: 6:22 A.M.

End Time: 7:06 A.M.

Title: Respect for Others

Scriptures: Deuteronomy 24:1 - 

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,  and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

NOTES:

Ø God is not double-minded!  He makes sound judgments and decisions.  He does not retract what He has already said or promised or done!  What a great God we have for He doesn’t make any mistakes.  Unlike the husband that He illustrated in the above passage who divorces his wife, that’s why God is saying he cannot marry her again because she has been defiled by another man so he is no longer to take her back because it is despicable (hatful, revolting, repugnant, loathsome) to God.  The same character God has towards sin.  He has spewed and totally thrown sin out and He has no plan of welcoming sin in His creations.  Isn’t this wonderful?  God despises sins and He threw them out of us and He will not allow sin to return back to us!  Amazing!  Thank you Lord!

→ If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married. Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security. If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.  In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who knows the right priorities for our lives!  God knows our highest responsibilities and He wants us fulfilling it rather than making priority of other things that are less important.  In the above scriptures, God is saying that for a husband, his main priority is his wife and so he should be given a year off from war to stay at home and bring happiness to his wife (which is not the case today).  For the lenders, they are not to take the millstones of the borrowers as security (the millstones are means of livelihood for men; so in short, lenders are not to take their borrowers only means of earning as security for their loan).  Again this speaks of priorities, understanding what is important and valuable.  As a lender, if you take away the man’s means of livelihood, how else can he pays you back when he has nothing to earn for his living anymore?  Kidnapping of Israelites or selling them as a slave, God’s ultimate judgment is death for the kidnappers.  Death as punishment is priority for the kidnappers because they are literally stealing what belongs to God!  The Israelites are God’s own people and kidnapping or selling them is literally robbing and taking away what belongs to God, which is a great crime because it is a sin against God.  In case of leprosy or any skin diseases, obedience to the right instructions is priority that the disease is locked in and to avoid having it spread to others.  The safety of the whole community is the first priority so obedience to the instructions of the Levitical priests (whose instructions are taken from God) is with high importance.  Isn’t it marvelous that we have a God who knows the right priorities in life?  We can live assuredly that everything will work out well when we have God taking the lead in our lives for HE knows what to priorities!  Thank You Lord!

→When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.  Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.  Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin. Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.  When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who has a huge heart for the oppressed, the abandoned, the orphan, widow, foreigners, etc!  God regards your good acts towards these people as righteous acts in His sight! God is telling us not to take advantage of these people because in one way or another, we are just like them.  God considers our simple act of kindness to these people as acts of righteousness and He rewards those acts. 

Ø God rewards our acts of kindness towards the fatherless, oppressed, widow, foreigners, abandoned!  God’s hearts towards these people are true and we at one time in our lives felt abandoned, oppressed, or like an orphan, foreigner and a widow so we are to treat them with care for we are just like them until God found us and took us under His wings.  So we are to do the same to them.

Application / Realization:

Ø God’s words are true and irreversible!  It is non-retractable!  It is constant!  That’s how sure God’s words are and we can be assured that once He said it, it will be done.  As His children, let us also aim to make our yes be yes and no be no and not become double-minded or always wavering!  We are to be firm and allow God to take control and make the right decisions for us for He knows the right priorities for our lives.  When God holds the stirring wheel of our lives, we can be assured that we have the right priorities in life. 

Ø God has a big heart for the oppressed, abandoned, orphans, widows, foreigners, etc. For we were all once like them before God found us.  And so our simple act of kindness towards them will be regarded as act of righteousness and will be rewarded by our heavenly Father!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank You because You are a God of Your words!  You do not back down or think twice!  Your decisions are final and they are irreversible but the great thing about Your words being constant or irreversible is…You always speak for the good of Your people because You have a huge heart for the oppressed (we are oppressed by the enemy every day), abandoned (at one point in our lives, we were abandoned by the people we love and trust), orphans (fatherless, motherless, or even when the parents are physically present but are absent in other aspect – which are more important aspect of our lives), widow (experiencing the lost of someone valuable), foreigners (strangers in this land, doesn’t own any property or doesn’t belong in a group), etc.  All these type of people are descriptions of us in one point of our lives.  It may be today or in the past or maybe in the future, but I’m so grateful Father because Your heart goes out to these types of people.  This gives me the assurance that Your love is strong and big for me.  Thank You Lord.  Thank You because as I share the love You give to me to them, You see it as a righteous act and rewards me for it.  Thank You Jesus!  Help me to always remember to share this big love of Your Lord to others even to those that I don’t feel like; Holy Spirit I will need your help to do so.  Only through Your Grace, Your Love, and Your Favor can I make this possible.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!