Deuteronomy 24:16-22 "Accountability, Justice, & Welfare"

Text Read

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

Text Explained

Individual Legal Accountability

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

This Law is one that deals with the legal accountability of the individual in bearing the judgement of their own sin. If the father murdered someone he is the one who is to be put to death for the murder not his son. If the son murdered someone, the son would be put to death for the murder not the father. Each was to bear their legal judgment of their own sin. Now someone may ask: What about Exodus 20:5–6 “You shall not bow down to them/other gods or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity/sin of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Or Deuteronomy 5:9–10 “You shall not bow down to them/other gods or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity/sin of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” ??? At first glance, both of these passages seem to take the parents guilt and place it upon the children & grandchildren. However, as one scholar notes: “those statements do not have the law-court as their setting. The Book of the Covenant knows that the sin of a father will have bad effects on the next generation of his family, but does not actually involve them in his/the parent’s punishment (Exod. 22:23).” (McConville, J. G. (2002). Deuteronomy (D. W. Baker & G. J. Wenham, Eds.; Vol. 5, p. 363). Apollos; InterVarsity Press.) Illustration: If a parent is a drug dealer, then the parent gets arrested and goes to prison, the sin of the parent will be affecting the child and the way that child raises their children. The sins of the parents will have deleterious affects in the long term however, only the one guilty of the sin is judged as guilty. So back to verse 16, the one who committed the sin worthy of death is the one who is to be put to death.

Non-Discrimination Laws

17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. Here we, once again, have another general law requiring the integrity in the administration of Justice. We find this in Exodus 23:3 “nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.” & Exodus 23:6 ““You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit.” Now other laws protected the foreigner from oppression in a general sense, but the way this law is phrased makes it clear that the foreigner had legal rights by connecting them to the fatherless and widow of their own nationality. The Law was required to “not oppress” and also, “not pervert” based upon a person’s race, gender, or economic background. Side note: that sounds an awful lot like many of our non-discrimination laws… I wonder where we got the idea from… Regardless, the motivation for this is a call to remember where they had come from. They had been slaves in another land with no land of their own and no freedom, yet God redeemed them and was giving them a Land of Promise. So the basis for non-discrimination was to remember where they had come from.

Welfare for the Poor

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. Here we find the OT version of a social welfare program. First we should note that this Law contains three parts which would give the socially disadvantaged a stake in the three typical crops of the land: the grain, the oil, and the wine. Second, notice that this is not the first time this Law has been given. Leviticus 19:9–10 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” Here in Leviticus it says basically the same thing as Deuteronomy and also in the context of the sabbatical year Exodus 23:11 “but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.” So what would happen is this: when it came time to gather crops, they would leave the edges of their fields for those who were poor so that the poor would be able to come in and do a follow-up harvest. In this way the poor would be able to partake of the blessings of the Land of Promise that God had given to all Israel and not only the wealthy. This would allow the poor to have something to eat. As one scholar notes: “The underlying idea in this law is the same as at 23:24–25, namely that all members of the covenant society have rights, in principle, to a share in the blessings of the land, which is ultimately Yahweh’s gift to the people as a whole. Here again, this principle overrides all other economic and property considerations.” (McConville, J. G. (2002). Deuteronomy (D. W. Baker & G. J. Wenham, Eds.; Vol. 5, p. 364). Apollos; InterVarsity Press.) This Law recalls Deuteronomy 15:10 “You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.” Then verse 22 again gives us the motivation for leaving crops for the socially disadvantaged. That reason is to remember they were once slaves in Egypt with nothing, and everything they have was given to them by God. Side note: If you wish to see this Law being lived out in the OT, go and read the book of Ruth. It was because of this Law that Ruth just so happened to meet Boaz.

Text Applied

Each must bear his own sin. We see the principle that each of us will bear the fault of our own sins. This is something that most people do not want to do. We always want to give reasons/excuses as to why “it’s not my fault.” Humans do this from a very early age. We try to excuse our bad behavior by stating that it was someone else’s fault. (Illustration: One child hits another child b/c they stuck their tongue out at them.) This is also what we do as adults. We always try to excuse our sin. Folks, at a certain point we need to take accountability for what we do. Yes someone else may have done something wrong, but that does not excuse you to do wrong in return. The Law of God tells us that we will bear the righteous judgment of our sins and that leaves us waiting for the day of judgment when we are stand before the Perfect Judge and we are legally condemned for our sins. Hebrews 9:27 “...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” This is the Law and this is what awaits every person. However, the beauty of Christianity is that Christ stood in our place 1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” This means that we do not have to bear our own sin. This is the offer of salvation that Christ offers. However, we must repent. That means owning our sin as sin. It isn’t a mistake, it isn’t a goof-up, it isn’t someone else’s fault. The sin I did is my fault. Own it and then turn to Christ in repentance. Ask for forgiveness. I have sinned and there is no excuse. I am guilty and I have earned the judgement of eternal separation from God. Only when we realize that we are sinners can we truly repent. As Jesus said in Luke 5:31–32 “And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” If you cannot admit that you are sinner, then you cannot be saved. This is why the constant refrain of Jesus & the Apostles was “Repent”. Each of us will bear the judgement of our own sin, unless we repent and accept the free gift of salvation. If you have more questions on this, we would love to tell you more.

Some sin has ongoing consequences. I feel as if I would be remiss if I mentioned Exodus 20:5–6 where it says “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” When we are saved it doesn’t mean that all the consequences of our sin disappear. Sin has ongoing consequences that reaches farther than you realize. Parents, the choices you make will affect your children and you grandchildren. For the good or for the ill. Husbands, the way you treat your wives will have consequences that you cannot fathom. Wives, the way you treat your husbands will have consequences you cannot fathom. Friends, Aunts, Uncles, the way you behave will have consequences that continue and those consequences will affect more people than you can fathom. Sin has ongoing consequences and most people do not realize how far the affects of their sins go. Dear ones, remember, all sin is forgivable, no sin is without consequence. I would end this point with a word of hope, God is amazing at taking even the consequences sin and working them out for good.

Non-Discrimination/No Partiality. Dear ones, the OT non-discrimination Laws should call us to be careful of the sinful tendency to label anyone different than us as bad. Racism, gender discrimination, & economic favoritism should have no place in the heart and life of a Christian. This does not mean that you have to hire an incompetent person. It means that when we interact with a fellow human-being, we see them as a fellow-image bearer of God and they have intrinsic value regardless of how much money they make, their gender, or their ethnicity. Now the illustration given in the text is taking a widows garment in pledge. This is fascinating because in the NT, Jesus calls out the Pharisees in Mark 12:38–44 “And in his teaching He said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” You see the teachers of the Law were supposed to be the ones who watched out for and made sure the Law was followed. The fact that this widow gave all she had speaks of her faith in God to provide, but also is a condemnation of the Leaders who Christ had just condemned as “devouring widows houses.” Dear one, lest we point our fingers at them, we must remember that James also writes against this. James 2:1 “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” Dear ones, it is easy to want to schmooze those who have great wealth. Regardless of the reason for discrimination/partiality, you and I as Christians are to have no part in it. Beware you do not discriminate/show partiality, lest the Lord find you harboring sin in your heart. Side Note: evaluating someone on ability and credentials is different than what is being referred to here. That is a different discussion.

God Commands Us to Help and to Work. One of the things we see is that in the OT welfare system, those receiving it were required to work. They did not simply sit at home and wait for the wealthy to deliver them bags of grain. They were required to go and work for it. The wealthy were required to leave some behind, but it was not simply handed to the recipient. In this way, the poor were able to have dignity by providing for their own needs. This is very much in line with what scripture commands in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” It is not wrong to help those in need. In fact those who have ought to help those in need. On the other side, those in need are required to do more than simply hold out their hand. A fascinating verse that I believe ties into this is Ephesians 4:28 “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” This seems to imply that one of the reasons we work is so that we will have something to give to another who is in need.

Conclusion: Unless a person repents/believes, they will bear their own sins, Sin has ongoing consequences, Beware of the sin of discrimination/partiality, & Be ready to Help and to Work.