Deuteronomy 25

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TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

Laws of the Mosaic Covenant

DEUTERONOMY 25

BACKGROUND NOTES



DOCTRINAL POINT(S)

  1. The Mosaic Law provided for the disadvantaged.

  2. The Mosaic Law protected the disadvantaged.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. Obey the Lord in the hard areas of life.

QUESTIONS

  1. What is the common theme of the laws reviewed in this section of Deuteronomy?

  2. Outline the four levels of physical punishment for breaking the law in Israel.

  3. What rules regulated the punishment by beating?

  4. Explain the law of levirate marriage.

  5. What was the purpose of the laws in verses 13-16?

ANSWERS

  1. Laws that protected and provided for the disadvantaged in Israel

  2. - The death penalty for murder, adultery, kidnapping, idolatry, and certain other capital offenses
    - Excommunication, that is being cut off or banished from the covenant community
    - The lex talionis, the law of retribution – an eye for an eye
    - A beating as described here in Deuteronomy 25

  3. 1. The court consisted of plural judges – not just one judge to decide the disputed case.
    2. The guilty party was not necessarily beaten – only if the judges decided that physical punishment was appropriate.
    3. The punishment had to be administered in the presence of the judge.
    4. The maximum number of lashes was 40.

  4. Levirate means “husband’s brother” in Latin. If a man died without an heir then an unmarried brother or closest eligible next-of-kin male was to marry the widow and raise up an heir for her. The first-born son of this marriage would assume the name and the property of the brother who had died.

  5. To protect the consumer from unfair business practices.

DISCUSS/CONSIDER

  1. Discuss how Deuteronomy 25:4 is applied to Christian service in the New Testament. What is the principle? How is your local church applying this principle? Refer to 1 Corinthians 9:9-10 and 1Timothy 5:17-18.

  2. There are lots of practical applications for the laws on consumer protection in Deuteronomy 25:13-16. When have you found it difficult to be honest in your business practice? What choice did you make?

CHALLENGE

  1. Israel failed the hard assignment of blotting out the Amalekites from the Land. God expects us to obey. Even in the hard areas of life. What hard thing is God asking you to do this week?

KEY VERSES

  • “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Deuteronomy 25:4

  • “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 25:13-15

Deuteronomy, Talks, Old TestamentRon ReidDEUTERONOMY 25