Deuteronomy 24 is all
about protecting the easily targeted in society.
Women Sent Away Because Their Husbands Hate Them
We start with a
passage on divorce, although it really isn’t so much about divorce as it is
remarriage. What this passage has to say
is that if a man divorces his wife and she is taken by another man, then she is
forever off limits for the first man.
Culturally, this law
makes quite a bit of sense. Emotionally,
people need to be able to move forward.
We know from Jesus’ words that divorce was allowed because of the
hardness of people’s hearts. Also, we
know from this passage in Deuteronomy that the words used to describe the
emotion behind the divorce are “hates,” “dislikes,” or even “turns against.” Clearly this passage is a law written to make
it clear that if a man’s heart is hard and he turns against his wife out of
hatred, he cannot have her back once she finds someone else. If his heart turns before she finds someone
else, that’s okay. But afterwards, it’s
too late. She deserves the right to move
on.
I think this is
really good advice. If love turns to
hate, it should be left behind. I’ve
seen far too many people experience hate and then get burned because the person
who “hates” claims to “love” again only to have it turn quickly back into
“hate.” That is a disruptive cycle that
benefits nobody.
Of course, please
don’t take that paragraph as an endorsement of divorce. Jesus speaks on divorce pretty clearly. There is a right time and a right place for
it. In all other circumstances, it
should be acknowledged as happening because of the hardness of our human hearts
and the people should just move on.
Poor and Oppressed
Many of the other
laws in this chapter have to deal with the poor and the oppressed. You can’t take a person’s millstone because
that may be how they relied on being able to make food. You can’t take a person’s cloak overnight
because that might be how they relied on staying warm throughout the
night. You should pay the worker daily
because they had daily needs for food and support of their family. Keep in mind that this was a society in which
banks didn’t really exist, people lived literally day-to-day. You should leave a bit in the field or upon
the grapevine to allow for the orphan, widow, and sojourner to be able to find
food. This chapter spends a good bit of
time looking out for those whose life is easily snuffed out.
I wonder today
whether we do a good job of caring for the poor. Sure, we have Medicare, Medicaid, food
stamps, and the like. There are people
in this country that are genuinely helped through those programs and I am glad
for that. They should be helped; and
within the context of this passage that kind of help is right in the spirit of
these laws. However, I also know that
many people’s poverty is enabled because the system is too easily taken
advantage. Rather than helping the
orphan, widow, and sojourner to their feet; systems often teach that it is
easier to simply stay down. This often
results in generational poverty; generational poverty is a help to nobody –
even the people in Jesus’ day.
I think this is where
I am going to wrestle today. God’s Word
clearly indicates that we should watch out for those who are easily forgotten
or whose plight is easily ignored. We
should not look for ways to oppress the easily oppressed. But that goes both ways. Systems that encourage generally poverty are
just as oppressive as not caring for the poor in the first place. It is a tough line to follow without falling
off to either extreme.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment