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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap today. As we continue Moses Final Speech. We encountered a wide variety of laws, and the first thing we encountered was a law about divorce. In fact, it's the only law about divorce in the Old Testament, and it's very specific. We have to look at the cultural practices of the day to see what this law is about. And even still, it's not entirely clear. Some believe that this practice protects the first husband from an adulterous wife, while others believe it protects the wife from a greedy husband. The first husband is the one who gets the bride's dowry. Then she would have inherited her second husband's property when he died. So this law prevents the first husband from exploiting her for his own financial gain. Either way, this law serves as a means of protection. In 24 7, we see again that God is protective of all human life and that he disapproves of slavery as we know it. Kidnapping is forbidden and is punished by the death penalty. It's considered theft, but it's punished by a greater consequence than theft of anything else. For obvious reasons, we also saw lots of measures to protect the poor. These were laws instructing people to give back the coat of a poor person if they'd offered it as collateral, because that's how they stayed warm at night. It also instructs them to not take a poor person's millstone as collateral, because millstones are used to grind food, so that would mean they wouldn't have any way to eat. God also commanded that they pay their poor servants when they needed it, which usually means the same day they do their work, because they don't have any savings stored up to live on. And he commands the Israelites to remember those who are landless and to remember that they were once landless people. In Egypt, those who don't own land are the most vulnerable and usually the poorest. We talked recently about how the rabbis would aim to protect against breaking a law by building a fence around it. There's a law in 253 that provides a great example of what fence building looks like and how it evolved over time. This verse limits punishment of a guilty man to 40 lashes. But later the Jews reduced it to 39 lashes, just in case someone miscounted. This helped make sure they didn't accidentally give a man 41 lashes and break the law. So the law given by God is 40 lashes. But the law, as amended by the rabbis, was 39 lashes by the way. In 2 Corinthians 11:24, Paul says he endured this beating of 39 lashes five times the law mentioned in 25th of 10th may have reminded you of a woman named Tamar. We read about her in Genesis 38. When Tamar's husband died, she married his brother. Then when he died, she was supposed to marry his other brother, but Judah, her father in law, held out on her. The law we read about today pertains to something called Levirate marriage. The word levirate looks like the word Levite, but it's actually from the Hebrew word levir, which means brother in law. Since it refers to marrying into the same family, this law has a lot of moving parts to consider keeping the allotment of land and inheritance, protection from marrying outsiders, and it aims to provide for women like Tamar while also protecting them from marrying an unwilling man who would likely mistreat them. By the way, this is also a lot like what happens in the Kinsman Redeemer situation between Boaz and Ruth in the Book of Ruth. And this is actually our second nod to Ruth and Boaz today. The first was in 2419 22, which includes the law where they're commanded to leave some of their harvest behind so the poor can go in and reap. That's what Ruth was doing in Boaz's field when they met. If you're not familiar with the story of Ruth and Boaz, don't worry, we'll be there soon, and reading all these details in advance will have you really well prepped when we do get there. While levirate marriage served to protect a woman and her potential offspring, the very specific law immediately after it in 251112 served to protect a man and his potential offspring. One part of today's reading that intrigues me is 25:19, where God tells the Israelites to never forget what happened between them and the Amalekites. This is not a forgive and forget situation, in part because Amalek was unrepentant. If Amalek had turned and been like, no, you're right, Yahweh is the one true God and we were wrong to go against his people, then things likely would have been different. But they didn't repent. They're bent on destroying Israel. And God gives Israel two interesting, seemingly contrasting commands in response to this. He says, never forget. And then he says, blot out the memory of them from under heaven. And from what we see eventually unfolding in scripture, both of these oddly juxtaposed things happen. First we haven't forgotten them, we're still talking about them today. But second, they no longer exist. So in that way, they've been blotted out. Finally, remember how it was standard to have a blessings and cursing section with a covenant agreement? Blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it. We hit a section like this on day 53 when we wrapped up the book of Leviticus. And we've got another one here today. Moses describes how when they entered into the promised land, the 12 tribes will divide in half. Six will climb Mount Gerizim and the other six will climb Mount Ebal, while the Levite priests declare the curses. We touched on this on day 74 a bit, and I told you we'd revisit it. They're still not in the land yet, so they still haven't done what God is commanding. But we're getting more instructions about what will happen when they do get there. One of the curses we read in 2725 reminds me of Judas Iscariot. It says, cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood. While this pertains to someone who's innocent of a particular crime, Christ was innocent of all sin, and Judas betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. By the way, there's something interesting about the position of these mountains. Bear with me on this. If you're visual, hopefully you'll be able to picture it. In Scripture, the direction east is considered the direction of holiness, and it holds a lot of spiritual significance. These two mountains face each other. Mount Gerizim is on the south side, and Mount Ebal is on the north side. Which means when you're in the Promised land, facing east, the direction of holiness, Mount Gerizim would be on your right, and Mount Ebal would be on your left. The right hand was considered the hand of blessing, and the left hand was considered the hand of cursing. So there's significance even in the positions of these mountains. Nothing is arbitrary. What was your God shot today? Mine was in 26, 1819. It says, you are a people. For his treasured possession, he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor, high above all the nations that he has made. He calls Israel his treasured possession. Above all the nations he's made, he treasures Israel and he possesses Israel. He's put his name on them. In personality tests, I rank high on independence, and it's one of the word my friends use most often to describe me. But nothing in me balks at this idea of being owned by God. I want him to be possessive of me. It sets my heart at rest to know that my adoption into his family is complete and final, that there is zero chance I'll be betrayed or disowned. Instead, I'm treasured, possessed, loved infinitely by an infinitely lovable God. And he's where the joy is. If you've been around long enough, you've heard me talk about Big Blue. Original version of the TBR book. On April 8, we'll release a brand new version we're calling Bigger Blue, a large print version of tbr. Lots of you have asked for this and we listened. And now your dreams are coming true. So pre order now to get Bigger Blue in April, just in time for Easter. Visit bakerbookhouse.com or click the link in the show Notes.