Deuteronomy 22:23-30

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 23 through 30. We're going to continue on with these various laws on sexual ethics within the nation of Israel. Specifically, a very hard topic today dealing with rape. So, very very difficult topic. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. No? No? You sure? It'll put hair on your chest. Okay. Let's go ahead and pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we come to a difficult passage today and we need your spirit to help us. Help us to understand it, take it for what it is, know what it is, and Lord, we pray that you would please just take seriously the principles behind it and underneath it and that your Holy Spirit would apply it to our lives and our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So, Deuteronomy chapter 22 beginning at verse 23. Uh why don't I read? Actually, you know, these these are all situational type things. And so, we're going to read paragraph by paragraph and answer our A's about each one. Okay? So, I'll do the first paragraph, then you can do the second, I'll do the third. All right. If a young woman is a virgin betrothed to a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death with stones. The young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife. So, you shall put away the evil from among you. All right, what's that getting at? Um if somebody's engaged and a guy has sex with them, then they should be put to death. Yeah, so this is actually more than just engaged, right? So, uh uh engagement today is kind of like you can break off engagements and stuff like this. Betrothal back then is much more serious commitment to future marriage, right? But, why would they both be put to death? Because the woman still could have fought against Yeah, right? So, she could have screamed out against him, things like that, right? Uh and so this this is specifically in a city, right? There's no windows, things like that, right? Now, here's a difficulty with this passage, okay? Normally, it's used it used to be talked about that there was uh fight or flight, right? So, if if you didn't want something to happen to you, you could fight against it, you could run away from it, but you know what? We've realized now more there's a third reaction. What do you think the third reaction could be? Uh to go along with it. Well, yeah, but but I'm thinking if you don't want this thing to happen to you and you're in a threatening environment, Mhm. the third is freeze. Right? Some people get so afraid that they can't do anything, they freeze. So, it's not just running away from it or uh you know, going and fighting against it. And this seems to to indicate that if she didn't want it, she could run or she could fight, but she could also freeze. Right? But, what has to happen for all this? What do you mean? Oh, how would they find out about any of this anyways? Um I don't know. Yeah, right? I think somebody's going to start making an accusation. And this is this is one of those areas where I think what's happening is we can have a culture and they could have a culture where women actually had the ability to speak up and say he did something to me. And they had but what's going on here is they would be tempted to have a culture where a woman was assaulted like this, she's a victim. And here it's she's a victim, right? This is rape, this is a victim. It's not her fault. But she's hiding this. But they they we're we're caught we're in a a more murky situation. And they're in the day and age where did they have things like rape kits and DNA and oncology and stuff like that? Nope. No, so what's the what's the only evidence that they could have? That this was unwanted. Uh Oh. Yeah, like they hear her scream. And there there's or else it's his word against her word. Right? And so this is one of these ugly times where we're talking about 3,500 years ago. Where what's the best evidence they have of their time? Her screaming, her struggling, her fighting. Right? So there's there's there needs to be some type of evidence to show the contrary. Right? And so this is one of those difficult things where uh today there would there's more physiological things that uh detectives and doctors are able to look to and see was this consensual or was it forced? Right? And so uh one of the things where if a woman today is assaulted right? Go talk to the police right away. And this is I've had to counsel women like this, go go talk to the authorities. I know it's scary. We'll send one of the ladies from the church with you. Yeah, but you need to have evidence to show this. And if you don't do this now, your body's going to heal. And the evidence will go away. Right? So, this is the sad reality of the time that they lived in. Right? So, uh so, there's this isn't evil, right? Uh but if she was betrothed to another man, the guy lies with her, there's no evidence that this was rape, then what is it? What classification of sin would it be? I don't know. Adultery. Right? And so, that's why in verse 22, it's it's specifically talks about the capital punishment for if a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die. Right? So, it's saying, "Okay, if you can't prove that this is rape, if there's no evidence that way, then it's going to escalate up to this point of you guys have broken the sixth commandment." All right, is that Do not commit adultery. I think It's the seventh or the sixth. It's the seventh commandment. Okay, here we go. All right, so go ahead and read verses 25 through 27. Situation changes here. Um 25? Mhm. 25 through 27. But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay who then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman. There is in the young man And the young woman. deserving no sin deserving of death. For just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed betrothed young woman cried out, and there was no one to save her. All so what is this situation about? Uh a man rapes a woman but she cries out and nobody is able to All right, so she's in the country, right? It would It would be like something happening around us, right? We live in the country. If somebody screamed out here, would our neighbors hear it? No. No, they're half a mile away. So, what do you do in that type of scenario? He killed the man who raped her. Isn't that interesting? So, there's a lot of people who see that these passages in the Bible and they think, "Oh, these are so horrible and wrong against women." But notice in this scenario, who do you believe? The woman. You believe the woman. Right, in most societies, there women are Right, their testimony is not even accepted in court. They're considered small. Right, in a lot of societies, sadly, even in our society today, men objectify and treat women like objects, like they could do whatever they want with them. Not so in God's economy. Not so in God's country, right? And so, he says, "No, no. If this type of thing happens, you tr- you actually trust the woman." And the man's put to death. Cuz she had no one who could have possibly heard her. Right, so she wasn't a willing accomplice in breaking the commandment, do not commit adultery. So, it's one of those interesting things. Okay, I'm going to read verses 28 through 30. If a Or 28 and 29, sorry. If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father 50 shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her. He shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days. What's this one saying? If a man lies with a woman Now, are they married? No. All right, so neither of them are betrothed to be married. But, he's kind of like in his heart, he's his Right, this is lust. In his heart, it's like a fire in his bosom, and he's he's like and and he can't control himself, and he goes and he sleeps with a woman. Is this willfully or unwillingly on her part? Unwillingly. Well, no, here it's willfully. All right, so when it says sees her, I would I would actually take that sees, I would say Right, he takes her, and he lies with her, and they're found out. All right, so this is two people who aren't married having sex. Right? What should What should happen in that scenario in Israel? They have to marry. Yeah, right. So, that they he's humbled her, right? And there's there's this thing that he's taken from her. He's taken his her virginity from her. Part of that is her dignity, right? He should have treated her with respect, making a commitment to her, making vows to care for her all her life, and to care for any children that they may have, right? That's the point, right? There's When when a man is to lie with a woman, if he's going to do that, he better have all the responsibility to hold her in dignity and honor. And so, if he's done this, why does he have to marry her? Because in the first place, he shouldn't have been ready to marry her. Yeah. Yeah, right? But, is this easier said or easier done? Easier said. Easier said, right? Because often times, we're driven by hot emotions, right? And the Lord here says this is the Lord's way of trying to temper those emotions. Notice, does it say if you commit fornication, right? If you go and you have sex with a woman before you're married, does it say that the woman has to be killed? No. Does it say the man has to be killed? No, that's not what this is saying. Right, so there's there's there are some categorical differences between these things. And so, it's not saying, "Okay, well, it doesn't matter, so you can just go off and gallivant somewhere else." No, you you need to make right what you did. You got to live with the consequences of what you did, right? In our culture today, man, there's a lot of guys who will burn on fire and go sleep with a bunch of women, will go impregnate a bunch of women. And there's some sad consequences. Number one, women are used and abused. They're treated like objects. Number two, when they have children, often those guys are deadbeats. They haven't committed to actually raising their own children, training them in the Lord, providing for them in a nurturing home. Or, even more Well, I don't know, more sadly or less sadly, but even just as sinfully or worse, is they'll try to peer pressure those women to go have an abortion, to just kill the baby. Because it's better It's easier just to destroy it, but the point is, any of those options is he preserving the dignity? Is he upholding God's honor? No. All right, so this this is one of these passages that are like bedrock to how the world thinks this way, and wants to talk bad about the Bible that way. In reality, what it does is it preserves the family, upholds women's dignity. I'll let you read the very last one, verse 30. A man shall not take his father's wife, nor uncover his father's bed. All right. What's that getting at? And sons aren't supposed to have sex with them. Yeah, that's that's that's right. That's exactly what this is saying, right? Uh that's right uh off-limits. Why? Because it's just Well, it's wrong. Why is it wrong? Cuz it's adultery. Yeah. And second, it can actually cause genetic problems. Oh, yeah, cause of genetics problems, but it does not bring God glory, right? This is not how God intended the family. This is not how God intended society to work. And so this is this is one of these things that the Lord is showing to the Israelites that that you're not going to behave this way. Right, the pagans might act that way, but you're not going to behave this way. Okay? So, uh ooh, that was a lot, dude. Heavy verses, a long coffee and devotions. Lots of different scenarios there, but I'm going to ask you, which one would you underline? Mhm. Best verse, what what would you underline? I don't I don't know. Um I don't know. Yeah, I actually have a whole bunch of different stuff underlined, right? So, I have part of verse 24 underlined, I have part of verse 27 underlined, uh I have part of verse 30 underlined, and verse or 29 underlined, and verse 30, right? So, there there's uh different scenarios have different things underlined. Let's go ahead and do seek calling. We've talked about a lot of things. How does it apply to you? Uh you're not an ancient Israelite, you're not under these these same uh sundry laws. So, what principles do you think you would pull out and go, "That instructs me."? Um that you shouldn't have sex with a woman you're not married to. Good. Good. Pretty good rule, huh? Yeah. All right, uh let's go ahead and talk about uh this is a harder thing, right? Where does this show you anything about Jesus? How does this point you to Christ? I don't know. Yeah, you want to know one thing that I'm reminded of regularly when I read Colossians or Ephesians? Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loves the church. Christ crowns his people with dignity and honor. Did Jesus come so we would serve him? No. No, he did not come to be served, but to serve. to serve. And to give up his life as a ransom for many, right? Jesus even died for the church. That's what husbands should have that type of commitment to their wives. Not just burn with their own selfish lust and the desires, but should want to serve and care for her, and love their wives. Because Jesus loves us that way. He's the model husband. Good? Mhm. All right. You want to pray? No. You want me to pray? Yeah. Okay, let's pray. Lord, you've given us a lot to chew on today. Thank you that you give us directions for how to preserve people's dignity. How to walk as you've walked, God. We pray though that these are things that are easier said than done. Lord, please let us put to death the sinful lust of our own flesh and follow after you. Lord, and where we fail, and we know that even when we might look lustfully at a woman with her with our eyes, we've already committed adultery in our heart. Lord, we pray that you would change our heart. That you turn us to yourself. And that we would love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And may you love others as yourself. See you next time. Can you say goodbye? Bye. Bye.