THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing

Part V: Specific Treaty Stipulations Of The Great King, Deuteronomy 12-26

N. Testifying Of Our Security In God In Living In Conservation Of The Creator's Order

(Deuteronomy 22:1-12)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Today's world contains unproductively destructive ideologies and movements, a fact we can readily illustrate:

(1) David Horowitz in his 2013 book, The Black Book of the American Left, claims that "totalitarian Islam is really no different in its heart from totalitarian socialism or progressivism . . . Both seek to cleanse mankind of its irreparable imperfections. To remain free beings, we are continually forced to defend ourselves and our breathing space, against the efforts of" these alleged "redeemers to perfect us . . . That is how I see the political wars we face, and why they will never end." ("Notable & Quotable," The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2014, p. A15)

(2) Evidence of such unproductively destructive forces is readily apparent in our country's politics: Peggy Noonan's article, "How Christie Ended Up in This Jam," (Ibid., January 11-12, 2014, p. A11) told of the scheme by New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie's "political operatives" to cause "four-day-long traffic jams . . . on the Washington Bridge" in order "to take revenge on a New Jersey mayor who refused to back him in the 2013 election."

(3) Democrat politicians can also function with the same unproductive destructiveness. Jordan Chandler Hirsch's op-ed in the same paper, p. A9 ("Christie's Gift to Hillary") told how former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' new book reported Hillary Clinton once told President Obama "'that her opposition to the [2007] troop surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary.'" Hirsch summed: "Here was a firsthand account of a possible presidential contender saying she had, for strictly political reasons, opposed a change in military policy that ultimately saved the lives of countless U. S. troops and Iraqi citizens." (Ibid.)

Need: Accordingly, we ask, "In view of the unproductively destructive ideologies and movements that exist in today's world, how does God want me to live in a productively edifying way?!"

I. When Deuteronomy 22:1-12 was written, Israel faced exposure to the pagans of Canaan who were plagued by restless insecurity due to unproductively destructive beliefs in their worldview (as follows):

A. A key myth in Canaan held the god "Baal . . . defeated . . . the dragon chaos monster" to form the universe or "cosmos" (Z. P. E. B., v. One, p. 432), and to maintain this victory over a possible recovery of the monster, pagans "reenacted the creation . . . reciting the magical words" so "the forces of life overcame annually the forces of death" and "actualized the cosmogony, the passage from chaos to cosmos." (Ibid., Waltke, in citing Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return, trans. by Willard Trask, 1954, p. 56)

B. Hence, Canaan's pagans lived in fear of even the destruction of their entire universe, enslaved to try to keep checking the resurgence of a supposed chaos monster and its consequent annihilation of their very existence!

II. Opposite this theology of dreadful insecurity, Israel's God is presented in Scripture as the Creator of heaven and earth, totally sovereign over the entire universe with no possible threatening chaos monster!

III. Thus, Deuteronomy 22:1-12 led Israel to TESTIFY of her SOVEREIGN CREATOR by LIVING SETTLED LIVES THAT ALIGNED WITH HIS CREATIVE ORDER BEFORE ONLOOKING PAGANS:

A. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding a neighbor's property, Deuteronomy 22:1-4:

1. If someone in Israel found a stray livestock animal, instead of letting it run free in danger of predators, the finder in conservation of the Creator's order was to lead the stray back to its owner, Deuteronomy 22:1.

2. If the neighbor was not immediately known, the finder in conservation of the Creator's order was to board the stray until the owner came looking for it and restore it to its owner when he arrived, Deut. 22:2.

3. This principle was to be applied to any item a neighbor owned that was missing, Deuteronomy 22:3.

4. Also, if someone in Israel saw another man's animal fall down, endangering its welfare, in conservation of the Creator's order, he was not to ignore the animal, but to help it stand back up, Deuteronomy 22:4.

B. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding community morals, Deut. 22:5: in a society where the clothing styles of men and women were "similar," to avoid influencing the community toward the unsettling abnormality of homosexuality, in conservation of the Creator's order, men were to dress strictly as men and women were to dress strictly as women. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, footnote to Deut. 22:5)

C. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding animal life, Deuteronomy 22:6-7:

1. If a mother bird was taken away by hunters from her young who were still dependent on her, living in the nest, the young would be defenseless before predators opposite alignment with the Creator's natural order.

2. Thus, God directed that Israel's people could take the chicks from the mother since they would guard them from predators in alignment with the Creator's order until they were of age for their use, Deut. 22:6-7.

D. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding human life, Deut. 22:8: He directed that if the people of Israel built a typical flat-roofed house upon which men could walk, they were to add a parapet around its edge for the protection of human life in alignment of the Creator's order that valued human life.

E. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding even agricultural life, Deut. 22:9: God's creative order would be signaled to pagan onlookers even in Israel's growing only one kind of crop in a given field at a time, avoiding the appearance of agricultural disorder contrary to the orderly Sovereign Creator.

F. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding animal labor, Deuteronomy 22:10:

1. Oxen and donkeys were created by God to vary significantly in strength and stride, so putting an ox and a donkey in the same yoke would create significant hardship for both animals opposite the Creator's order.

2. Hence, the people of Israel were not to yoke an ox with a donkey for work, Deuteronomy 22:10.

G. God had Israel live aligned with His creative order regarding clothing materials, Deuteronomy 22:11:

1. Wearing more than one kind of fabric was thought to be practiced by pagan priests for magic (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Deut. 22:11), and it furthermore countered Israel's need to testify before her pagan neighbors of her Sovereign God Who had created an orderly universe completely under His control.

2. Hence, God directed that Israel wear only one kind of fabric at a time, Deuteronomy 22:11.

H. God had Israel focus on Scripture for guidance on all issues regarding His creative order, Deut. 22:12: God's call for the people of Israel to put tassels on the four corners of their garments (Deuteronomy 22:12) recalls His earlier Numbers 15:37-41 directive where this practice was given to remind Israel's people of God's Scripture commands to align with His creative order versus following even their own judgment on all issues.

Lesson: God called Israel to counter the unproductively destructive mindset and lifestyles of the insecure pagan world by living STABLE LIVES in ALIGNMENT WITH the CREATOR'S NATURAL ORDER in accord with SCRIPTURE GUIDANCE, TESTIFYING of the SOVEREIGN CREATOR to an INSECURE, DARK WORLD.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) May we live stable lives in alignment with the Creator God's order as revealed in Scripture to testify of God's sovereign greatness as Creator to a needy world.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush and president of Ari Fleischer Communications, wrote an op-ed, "How to Fight Income Inequality: Get Married" in The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2014, p. A15 that happens to illustrate the value of aligning with the Biblical Creator God's creative order.

Mr. Fleischer noted that "(a)ccording to Census Bureau information analyzed by the Beverly LaHaye Institute, among families headed by two married parents in 2012, just 7.5% lived in poverty. By contrast, when families are headed by a single mother the poverty level jumps to 33.9% . . . The statistics make clear what common sense tells us: Children who grow up in a home with married parents have an easier time becoming educated, wealthy and successful than children reared by one parent." (Ibid.)

A significant observation by Ari Fleischer was that "(o)ne of the differences between the haves and the have-nots is that the haves tend to marry and give birth, in that order. The have-nots tend to have babies and remain unmarried. Marriage makes a difference." (Ibid.) Accordingly, he added: "Given how deep the problem of poverty is, taking even more money from one citizen and handing it to another [via income redistribution through higher taxes and more government welfare programs] will only diminish one while doing very little to help the other. A better and more compassionate policy to fight income inequality would be helping the poor realize that the most important decision they can make is to stay in school, get married and have children -- in that order." (Ibid.; brackets ours)

Remarkably, that format PRECISELY fits the Creator God's Genesis 2:24 order for marriage: there, a man is to grow up under his father and mother in their home only to leave them as an adult male who is responsibly able to provide a livelihood for a family of his own ("man" in that verse is 'ish in the Hebrew text, i. e., a "great, mighty man," Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 4; Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, 1973, p. 48-50), and to cleave to his wife to become one flesh with her in marriage!

May we trust in Christ for salvation, John 3:16. Then, indwelt by the Holy Spirit as believers (Rom. 8:9b), may we trust in God (Gal. 5:16) for the power to heed Scripture to live aligned with our Creator's order.