DIFFERENT TIMES CALL FOR DIFFERENT MEASURES
If you were following last week’s lesson your head might still be spinning from the first part of Deuteronomy Chapter 25 and the laws concerning Levirite marriage. I hope we were able to answer most of your questions, and that we gave you a clear understanding of why God set things up the way He did way back in those days of the early formation of the nation of Israel.
The next few verses of Deuteronomy Chapter 25 go into even more detail about all the rules involved when this type of situation arrives and a man dies without a heir to carry on his family name.
So much of this seems strange and foreign to us today; yet the rules given all make more sense if you stop, step back, and consider the times and the culture that were involved in living them out.
The next verses speak about the fact that sometimes a brother may not want this type of responsibility. He may not like his brother’s wife at all. If that is so; there are things he can do to avoid marrying the deceased brother’s wife; but it would still be shameful of him to shirk this important family responsibility; unless someone else bravely stepped up; it had to be another relative with the family name.
HONORING THE FAMILY NAME WAS IMPORANT
When this last resort did not happen; the man who didn’t want to marry COULD go before the elders of the city and make his thought public. They would then proceed to remove his sandal from his foot and then the widow of the deceased would spit in his face. He could leave without having to marry the widow of his brother; but he would forever after be known as the man who has only one sandal.
This public hearing was to bring him as much public shame as the widow and any future children of his deceased brother would later receive because of his lack of responsibility toward the family name. The community would become aware of how this woman would need their help and assistance to survive; and those precious citizens with faithful hearts would choose to respond and help her.
MODESTY IN WOMEN WAS CRITICAL
If you think this is strange…..just wait until you hear what happens next.
WHOAH!!!…here comes verses 11 -1 2.
What gives here anyway?
Deuteronomy 25: 11-12: 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.
Let me tell you right now; that verse made me proud to be born in the times that I’m living in today. I will never complain again.
Upon first reading of this; I had a few flashbacks of a historical Viking movie I had seen not too long ago. The Viking women were strong warriors and brave fighting women. They often fought just as hard and as often as the men. These, sometimes savage, women did more than touch a man’s private parts in the battle; they actually cut them off!
GODLY WOMEN WERE NOT TO IMMITATE PAGAN WOMEN
Of course; the Vikings were pure pagans. Perhaps there were pagans in the land with the same defenses back in those days too; and perhaps God did not want the women of Israel imitating the pagan women warriors of that time; even if it was for a noble cause.
So many women of today step up courageously and go about to pursue noble causes, and then they turn around and destroy their noble efforts when they act like pigs and pagans instead of remaining modest and noble after the battles are won.
Immodesty is always an offense to God; even in times of defense or in tragic situations.
WHY DO WE HAVE THIS VERSE HERE
Of course, I could not help but ponder some of our modern-day self-defense courses. In these classes we women are often told what to do if we get into a serious bind with a perpetrator and want to escape from an assailant’s grasp. I think the phrase they use is “Kick or hit him where it hurts the most.” There is no doubt as to the effectiveness of this technique; godly or not – it tends to work.
Why on earth would this crazy verse appear so casually right here in this passage of Deuteronomy among the laws of the new-born land?
Also; why does it sound so unfair to the poor woman who is only trying to defend the one she loves in the most efficient way possible?
This lesson took some focused prayer time to prepare; for sure.
GOD DOESN’T WASTE WORDS
I know God has a reason for every single scripture passage in our bibles. He does not waste words at all; and if it is there in black and white; it most likely means something very significant.
So; after more time in prayer; this is what I found to explain the facts:
You must remember the passages before and after scriptures that are not easy to understand. The before passages were pertaining to Levirite marriage rules. It is possible that the subject is an extension and further discussion of elements of that conversation.
MULTIPLE VIEWS AND OR REASONS
There is some hint by some interpreters that it is possible that the woman is coming to her husband’s defense mostly because she did not want him to die and leave her in a situation of a Levirite marriage. Maybe she really detested her husband’s brother and would do anything to keep from having to become his wife.
If that is so; perhaps she goes to great extremes to defend her husband; thus, saving both of them; but in the process; she does something that is considered very shameful and wrong for any woman of Israel; she touches a man’s private parts who is not her husband.
Loyalty in defense of the one you love is a great thing; but touching another in private places while dong so seems rather ironic and totally unnecessary. There are plenty of other ways to defend someone; without doing shameful things in the process.
There are no exceptions to this rule; under the old law of “an eye for an eye.” This woman would be subject to some type of punishment; even it the act was committed with totally righteous intentions. All of her actions here would not be considered as defense; some of them would be more like revenge or torture to her victim.
GODLY PUNISHMENTS ARE FAIR AND HUMANE
That also takes us back to the first parts of this passage in Deuteronomy Chapter 25. Different types of punishments are being discussed and in each and every case; God is emphasizing the quality of fair and humane punishments. No more than 39 lashes; 40 are too many. You should be responsible to honor your family name; but if you bring public disgrace upon your family; you will suffer the same public disgrace and the community will come to the defense of the victim. You can defend the one you love; but you cannot torture the person you are defending them from in that process.
There is yet another point that really helps all of the cloudy issues of our imagination begin to clear up. It has to do with the Old Testament law of an eye for an eye.
UNDERSTANDING AN EYE FOR AN EYE
Let’s consider what the law “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” actually meant to the citizens of Israel in those days. Those words are illustrious only and are not to be taken literally.
For example; if you were charged with committing a crime that hurt someone’s hand; your hand’s value would be required in that person’s hand’s place; “an eye for an eye.”
However; don’t take that literally.
It didn’t mean you had to chop off your own hand and give it over to the other person; it meant that you would owe that person the VALUE of a hand in monetary amounts.
DUE PROCESS AND TRIALS ARE NECESSARY
Of course; the courts would decide how much monetary value a person’s hand would be worth. The guilty party would then pay the courts who would in turn pay the victim; and afterwards your account with them would be settled and considered closed in the books.
Oh.
So; whatever the woman did to the enemy of her husband in defending him against that enemy; that value would then be required of her. She had done something shameful; she had touched another man’s private parts. It is plain she didn’t have to do that and she could have chosen a more modest way of defense.
Some suggest that the old law of “an eye-for-an-eye” would demand that something humiliating should be done to the woman’s private parts. She had humiliated and tortured the person; so she would be humiliated and tortured too. But that isn’t the case here. The values of a woman’s private parts seem to equal to the value of a woman’s hand here. That must be what the ancient judges believed. It really depended on what the ruling judge thought about that value; whether one part equaled another.
NO ACTUAL CASES WERE EVER RECORDED
Historically there are no records in the books that these laws were ever physically carried out; and that leads us to believe even more certainly that a fine was set and the woman had to pay that fine and then it was rewarded to the victim in exchange for the harm done.
At least she still had a husband and her body wasn’t maimed!
She didn’t have to go into an unwanted marriage with his brother; and her body would not ACTUALLY be maimed. Of course; if she did not have the money to pay the fine for the crime, she could suffer penalties for not paying a debt and have to endure an indentured servanthood until the day of the Sabbatical year in which all debts were considered cleared from the books.
THE BLESSINGS OF BEING ON THIS SIDE OF HISTORY
Aren’t you glad you and I were born on this side of the cross?
We have unbridled grace poured out on us every day that we live; and we don’t even realize what is happening half the time.
With the death and Resurrection of Jesus; the new laws of forgiveness came into effect.
The Old Testament teachings declare that no mercy is to be shown to this woman. The fact that she was defending her husband is beside the point. It isn’t about that; it is about the humiliation of the victim that she brought with her defense.
A NEW AND DIFFERENT STORY
On the flip side of this; the New Testament examples show us a woman caught in the act of adultery and the scriptures record Jesus rebuking her accusers and then he turns to her and says; “Go and sin no more.” He did not condone her sin; but he did not judge her without a fair trial.
He gave her grace and forgave her.
The love of Christ has set us free.
We are no longer bound to “an eye for an eye.”
There has been a new commandment given by Jesus now; one that says to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. These two laws give us the way to live in God’s grace and mercy with our fellowman.
This is all that we need to get along with one another.
GOD’S SOCIAL JUSTICE
When we are carrying that focus inside our hearts with all that we do; there can be no more finger pointing and accusing; things are automatically set up in a way that works toward the good for all concerned.
God is so fair in all that He proclaims.
Just as He gave Israel all that they needed in order to form a new and godly nation; He has also given us all that we need to live in peace on this earth.