Deuteronomy 22:1-12 Bible Study | Episode 927

April 29, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 22:1-12  Bible Study | Episode #927

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 22. I know you're asking, why are you doing this Bible study on Friday? I might have to do a few on Friday for the next couple of months. It just so happens that the way we do our. Our podcast, which is Hope Alive. Hope Alive with me, it is, like I said, hope Alive. If you. If you want to find it on where podcasts are, are located, you can find the. All the Bible studies that we've done, the close to 1,000 Bible studies that we've been doing since COVID broke out, well, four or five years ago. And so we need to, because of the way the numbers have run, we need to get a Bible study in a few more Bible studies in and finish Deuteronomy so that we can go back and put in Second Corinthians and some of the Bible studies that I've done as a part of the church and add them to our collection. And so this Bible study is designed to kind of move us ahead with that. And so what we have here In Deuteronomy, chapter 22, literally is a list of not totally, but pretty much unrelated rules, unrelated law that God gives us. And some of it has some, well, profound. Some profound things to say to the society we live in. And then some of the things are very spiritual in nature. And I would say have some things to say to the church. And so when we go to verse one, it says, shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and hide yourself from them. You shall certainly bring them back to your brother. What this is saying is, and it's one of those things that's just real clear in Scripture. Scripture is that we have responsibility for each other. And that starts out in Genesis. I mean, that starts out with Cain and Abel where Cain says, am I, my brother's keeper. And the answer is, that's a question that he asked God. And the answer is, God doesn't even address that question because it is foolishness to God. The answer is, yes, you are your brother's keeper, meaning you do have responsibility for those around you. You have responsibility to help those if it's possible to you, if it's possible for you. You have a responsibility to help those around you. You have a responsibility to those that are in your life. And you also have a responsibility not to be harmful toward them. And so you have responsibility to, if you see an opportunity to help someone, help them. And then conversely, you have the same. And listen, they're exactly the same in the value, in the value structure you have. You have responsibility to be self aware of how your conduct hurts other people. And so he says, if you see your, your, your neighbor, your brother here is your brother because, because they're all the children of Israel. But I would say your neighbor in, in regard to the New Testament and the Old Testament, if you see that they have something that they've lost, especially here in life, lifestyle can literally not be, just be lost. They can wander away. He says, you have a responsibility to take it back to the brother. And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it, then you shall restore it to him. What he's saying is, unless the property is, and this is really cool for our law, there's property law, and if you find something that you. Somebody lost, I mean, it's obvious that they lost it. Like if you go in a bathroom and somebody's fallen or wallets laying there, they lost that. They didn't abandon that. They, they left it and you have a duty to restore it to them. You go, well, if, if I find somebody's wallet in, in the, in the bathroom and I take it, what has happened? Well, that's theft. That's actually theft in Alabama. And so you, you, you have taken your brother's property and you know that he didn't abandon it, meaning leave it there and he didn't want it anymore. You, you took something that you knew was his, and that's theft. I'm going to say it again. That's theft. Okay? And so he says, he says, if you see your brother's property, not only are you not to take it from him, but you're to hold it and keep it until he comes back looking for It. Well, these are. These are really, really good societal teaching points. It teaches, first of all, that that property has value, that. That God understands that human beings have a right to property. Second of all, says that. That you can't just take your brother's property and act like it's yours. And. And third of all, that you have a duty to your brother to take care of his property until he returns, which is even beyond not taking it. It's just you have a duty to take care of it. And he says, you shall do the same with his donkey, and you shall do it with his garment. Notice he's saying all his property. Now, garments don't get up and walk away. But if he leaves his garment, let's say, in the bathroom at the gas station, you're to take it and hold it for him. With any lost thing of your brother's which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise. You must not hide yourself. Meaning you can't hide from this responsibility. You. You need to act upon it. You need to be proactive. When you see this going on, so many people just say, well, it's not my business. Well, biblically speaking, it is your business. You are your brother's keeper. It is your business. Verse 4. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fall down, fall along the road and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him lift the donkey out of the gutter. I mean, if the donkey falls in the ditch beside the road and you see your brother struggling to get the donkey out, you've got a duty to help your brother. Now, you don't see this as much anymore, but when I was growing up, cars were not as reliable, and you would oftentimes see people trying to push their car into a place where they. Where the car was safe off of the road. And you'd always see people getting out of the car. Myself, I was just. Big young man, get out of the car and help them get their car somewhere where they can. Where they can have it out of danger and cause it not to be a problem for other motorists. That was a help that you would provide for your brother. Well, by the way, that's scriptural. We find it right here. He says that, you know, if you see your donkey, your brother's donkey fall in the ditch, or their car break down alongside the road, you do have somewhat of a duty to help. You have a duty to help someone, especially in our community. Now, if you're riding down the interstate, that may be a little bit of a different story, or if you're somewhere where you, where you don't know the people, but you know, in our community, we have a duty to help each other. And he says, don't hide yourself from them. Meaning don't act like you didn't see it. If you see it, help. He says, all right, here's one that's really, really speaks to our culture. If a woman, a woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garments, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God. Well, I think that pretty much speaks herself, doesn't it? I think that passage is straightforward and to the point. And you could say, well, that's Old Testament law. That's true, it is Old Testament law. But when we come to the New Testament, Romans clearly indicates that these types of activities are wrong, that it's not just an Old Testament idea, it's a New Testament understanding. In fact, it's in the first chapter of the main theological book for Gentiles in the New Testament, which is the Book of Romans. And it deals with it straight up and directly. And I remember as a pastor of my first church, there were some of the leaders, some of the leader men, they were cut ups and they liked to have fun and they wanted to have a beauty contest with men wearing women's garments. And, you know, they thought that would be just so much fun. And I said, I don't think so. Deuteronomy 22:5 is, is somewhat opposed to that. And I think it speaks for itself. I don't have to really say a whole lot about that. It's just straightforward. It says it's an abomination. That didn't change because we got into the New Testament. The, the picture may be, we may not be under the law, but I can promise you the Holy Spirit is not leading this. So the Holy Spirit is not causing you to. It's not. The Holy Spirit has not changed his mind, as the Father has not changed his mind. He says a bird nest happens to be before you along the way. And any tree or on the ground with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs. You shall not take the mother with the young. You shall surely let the mother go and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. Now this is, this is a, this is a conservationist ideal, by the way, very, very important for the days we live in. What he's saying is don't kill all the animals. Don't take the, the, the, the. The parents and the young. If you're going to take one, take the young, allow the parents to continue to reproduce so you continue to have animals living around you. One of the things that happened in the area that we live in, that's a good, good example, something we can learn from is that during the Great Depression, all the deer in Alabama were killed because people were starving. And once you kill all the deer, you have no more deer. And we had to repopulate the deer in Alabama after. Well, actually, it was done in the late 30s, early 40s, and on into the 50s in Alabama to build a population of deer back up because the deer population had been destroyed during the Great Depression due to the starvation of the people. This is a conservationist ideal, and it's a good one. I know many out there are against some of the nature things that go on because it's associated with other ideals. Just because one ideal is wrong and it's associated with another doesn't mean that this one's wrong. There is, there are some things that in duties we have toward our, toward the nature and toward the environment we live in. He says when you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof that you may not bring guilt or bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it. Now what he's saying is if you got a roof and people are, are going to be up on the roof, you need to make a, you. You need to make something that keeps people from falling off. By the way, this is all in the code of our code system. You're not supposed to build a deck that's 12ft off the ground and not, have. Not have some, some form of protection so that people don't fall off of it. I mean, this is just directly in, in. In our societal thinking, our building codes are full of this type of stuff that, I mean, it's just obvious. What is it, what is he saying? What he's saying is you have responsibility to your neighbor. You have a responsibility to your neighbor. He says, you shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seeds. List the field of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. What he's saying is this is just. Now, gardeners can help you with this, but this is just, just some, some straightforward gardening tips. Don't, don't do things that cause both crops to be ruined because you're not doing the right thing in taking care of and producing crops. Now you go, pastor, what does this have to do with anything? I don't know. I'm not a gardener. But there are some very good and sound ideals about gardening and about growing crops together that you just don't do. And God's given them one. He says, you shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. Why? Well, ox and donkeys are two different breeds of animal. And, and they, and they, and they don't pull the same. And they're not as strong the same. So if you're going to yoke two animals together, they need to be the same animals. If you're going to plow with donkeys, you need to use donkeys. If you're on plow with oxygen, you need, you need to plow with oxes. You don't need to put the two together. It won't work. It'll hurt both of them. And it won't be, it won't be something that, that, that glorifies God. By the way, in the spiritual idea, a lot of what's going on in these four or five verses is mixing. And God is very anti. Mixing because there's a pic. Because of the picture of mixing godliness with sin. And so when you, when you come across these things in scripture where he's saying, don't mix these things, and you pretty much figure out as you're reading through scripture, God's not into us mixing, mixing yeast and dough and, and all that, although all those things that are mixtures of something ultimately is a picture of mixing godliness and sin. Now we've taken that to, to, to. To deal with not mixing the races. And that is clearly not biblical because we've already done the story of Moses and Miriam and Aaron and, and how they, how they murmured against him because he took a kushite wife. It doesn't have to do with human beings. Human beings, Human beings of, of all races can be together. All right? So he says, he says, you shall not wear a garment of different sorts such as wool and linen mixed together. Now, this also had some ideals about mold and things like that. But know the mixture, you see it right here. And you shall make tassels on four corners of your clothing which you cover yourself. And the tassels always represented by the voice for the Jewish people, the tassels always represented God. So when they made, let me say this, it always represented the names of God. And so when God told them, when they made their clothing to always have tassels on their clothing. And so even today you'll find many dress shoes that have tassels on them. You go, why do dress shoes have tassels on them for men? Well, because of this. That comes from a Jewish teaching. And you will see when you're around Jewish men that they have tassels on them, on their clothing or somehow connected to their garments. And why? Because it represents the names of God. And so that's one of those things where God says, I want to be ever before you. And when we're dealing with all these rules and laws, you see that there's a constant drumbeat of love God, God always before you. Love your neighbor and understand that how you act and who you are affects them. And then love each other with self sacrificial love. Make sure you help your brother get his donkey out of the ditch and you know that's the right way to do things. And it's God as you go.

Today I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.