Sunday School Lesson for January 30, 2022 - Justice and the Marginalized: Printed Text: Deuteronomy 24:10-21 NKJV; Background Scripture: Deuteronomy 24:10-21 NKJV; Devotional Reading: Deuteronomy 24:10-21

 

Key Verse:

Deuteronomy 24:18 NKJV

 

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 thing.

 

I appreciate that the narrative here is first-person personal, as though Moses is instructing us each, individually and personally. That leaves each of us personally accountable for our actions…before God. One more thing, this is not about ‘don’t.’, it’s about ‘do’. 

 

 

What you need to know

 

 

 

Deuteronomy 27:19 NKJV

19 ‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’

 

God really is serious about how we treat those among us who are marginalized.

 

. 

 

 

The Lesson

Deuteronomy 24:10-11 NKJV

10 “When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. 

It’s not just about what we do for the poor. They are not just a notch on our belt of truth. They’re not to be collected, as though they are just tokens of our graciousness. No, we must remember that, but for the grace of God, we could find ourselves in similar circumstances. Moses’ instruction reminds us that the dignity of any person we find in need must be treasured. I have had the pleasure of ministering to the elderly over the last several years. I’m not very good at names, and I only had one hour twice a month to spend with them. I took pictures and labeled them with the individual names, then I spent time committing those names to memory so that I could address them by name when we were together. They were not boxes to be checked on my list of self-righteous works. They are…my friends and I so thoroughly enjoy them; listening to their stories, meeting their children and grandchildren and in some cases, great-grandchildren. Every person you meet is a child of God. Treat them that way.

Deuteronomy 24:12-13 NKJV

12 And if the man is poor, you shall not [a]keep his pledge overnight. 13 You shall, in any case, return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.

But it’s more than just dignity that must be maintained. Respect for those to whom you are ministering, in any way, is mandatory. So too is caring. Is what you are doing enough? Is what you are giving enough? Does it preserve or enhance their quality of life? In the scenario described above, when one reached out to a neighbor, there had to be genuine concern shown for their well-being. So much so, that the beneficiary of your benevolence would thank God for your kindness. Out of your sight. Out of range of your hearing. In their prayer closet, might they express gratefulness. Simple gratitude. Let your reward await you… in Heaven. God is faithful. He’ll keep it safe until you get there.

Deuteronomy 24:14 NKJV

14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

The old folks used to say, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” The sentiment is easily translated and understood. You win more favor with kindness. The better you treat others, the better they will treat you. Regardless of their station in life, we are required to treat others with kindness, especially those in our employ. So often, people hate their means of employment. Wages are too low, they are mistreated, the hours are long and non-conducive to proper work-life balance. The responsibility for employee well-being falls squarely on the shoulders of the employer…before God.

Deuteronomy 24:15 NKJV

15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.

God hears the cries of the oppressed. In fact, God’s model of justice is defined around the treatment of the poor, the marginalized. When we mistreat the poor among us, we incur God’s wrath. The verse above clearly communicates that when the poor are taken advantage of, God counts it as sin and holds the oppressors accountable. Let that sink in. 

Deuteronomy 24:16 NKJV

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.

This verse may appear to be out of context with the surrounding verses, but when considered from the historical context, it was common for an entire family to suffer for the sins of the father, or a child. In essence, if a great debt was incurred, it was incurred by the whole household, plunging them all into the ravages of poverty. The sin of Achan in the Book of Joshua and of Haman in the Book of Esther demonstrates that judgment could condemn an entire family to death. Haman’s penalty demonstrates that in the region of Persia, a sin against authority could condemn an entire family. Achan’s sin was so grievous in nature, that God determined that the severity of the punishment would act as a deterrent to further sin of that nature.

However, with relation to most civil matters, around which these laws were given, if the judgment was severe, it was to be limited to the guilty party only. In most cases, severe judgment was not to penalize an entire family. Forced servitude in lieu of the penalty of death for family members was forbidden. This was to protect the poor.

Deuteronomy 24:17 NKJV

17 “You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 

Back to the lesson. It seems that Moses is repeating himself. It seems that he cannot overstate the depth of God’s care for the poorest of any community. It’s as though God wanted to inspire the entire Hebrew community to stamp out poverty in their midst and to actively pursue justice for the poorest, least influential people among them: the immigrants, the orphans, or children of single-parent homes where no father was present, and widows. For a moment, imagine an economic system geared toward ending poverty. Imagine.

Deuteronomy 24:18 NKJV

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 thing.

Then, so as to drive home the point, Moses reminds his audience that they were once, a desperate, disparate people. People who had spent four hundred years in dire poverty as chattel slaves, literally the property of the Pharoah and elite class of Egypt. That memory was to ever be before them so as to provide a continuum of motivation for each individual to commit to ending poverty and injustice wherever they encountered it. They were all to be social justice warriors. All of them. It was to be their lifestyle.

Deuteronomy 24:19-21 NKJV

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 stranger, 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 the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

Whether in the field, the orchard, or the vineyard, there was to be a portion left for the poor. Feeding the hungry is just as well. Notice that the leaving of gleanings in the fields had a two-fold purpose: work for those who could not find work otherwise and food for the poorest in the community. The story of Ruth illustrates how a poor widow, Naomi, and her widowed daughter-in-law, a Moabitess (a foreigner, a woman of color) could come to Israel and find life and blessing. In God’s economy, the poor could not remain poor. God provided avenues for blessing and prosperity for the least among His people. 

Beloved, this is what applied Christianity looks like. It’s a mindset that should drive your life choices in such a way that you are always positioned to advocate for the disadvantaged. As Christians, we tend to focus on the ‘sins’ of the ‘others’ among us. For instance, the Bible makes about one hundred references to sexual immorality. Conversely, the Bible makes around two thousand references to the treatment of the poor and disadvantaged. That’s a ratio of 20 to 1. In essence, God places an outsized emphasis on how we should treat our neighbor… and everybody else. Real justice imbues dignity and worth to the least among us. Like the Hebrews of Moses’ day, we are called to stand for the just treatment of the least among us. We are called to the battle for social justice. That’s what love looks like in God’s society. That’s what it should be like in His Church.

Matthew 22:36-40 NKJV

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 

Selah (Pause, Meditate, Think on that!)

wb

Sunday School Lesson for January 23, 2022 - Justice, Judges, and Priests: Printed Text: Deuteronomy 16:18-20; 17:8-13 NKJV; Background Scripture: Deuteronomy 16:18-20; 17:8-13; 19:15-21 NKJV; Devotional Reading: Deuteronomy 16:18-21; 17:8-13 NKJV

 

Key Verse:

Deuteronomy 16:18 NKJV

 

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your [a]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

 

They weren’t at Mount Sinai this time. That generation perished in the wilderness. It was required of the present generation to appoint just public servants. We can look to the past for how our forefathers chose leadership, but the responsibility for the choice of responsible leadership today falls to us. We must choose wisely.

 

 

What you need to know

 

 

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-14 NKJV

12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your [f]good? 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.

 

The Book of Deuteronomy was a reiteration of God’s law to the generation born in the wilderness. Except for Joshua and Caleb, they had not suffered the bonds of slavery, but rather, the ravages of the desert: a dog-eat-dog place full of savagery and violence. And yet, God kept them and honed them into a people after His own heart. Now they stood at the gate of the land promised to their progenitor, Abraham. God desired that they put Him first in all of their endeavors so that they would prosper in the land He had given them.

God’s instruction to them is relevant to each new generation of believers, as it advances the responsibility of successful governance to each successive generation. While the framework, the Word of God remains the standard upon which all law is built, it is up to those in each generation to renew the commitment to follow that standard individually and to maintain a system of government based on God’s intent for all people. 

 

 

The Lesson

Deuteronomy 16:18 NKJV

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your [a]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 

The Israelites were to appoint judges and officers in every community. They were to always judge fairly within their realm of influence. That would require that they be Godly men and women who reverently feared the Lord. The same is required of us in today’s society. Each generation is given the charge to appoint leaders locally, state-wide, and nationally who will govern conscientiously and humbly as servants, not masters of God’s people.

Deuteronomy 16:19 NKJV

19 You shall not pervert justice; you shall not [b]show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and [c]twists the words of the righteous. 

Those public servants should never be selected with the thought that they will be anything but impartial servants. Those who would serve their own interest in any way might pervert justice in ways that make it wholly unrecognizable to people of good conscience. True justice originates in Heaven, at the throne of Grace. It must not be perverted, lest it present God in a manner that is beneath His righteousness and majesty.

Deuteronomy 16:20 NKJV

20 You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

In fact, every effort should be made toward justice in every facet of society, so that the people of the land will prosper under God’s abundant grace. We must take to heart that we each have a responsibility in the effort for a just and fair society.

Deuteronomy 17:8 NKJV

8 “If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 

Beloved, God does not dwell in temples made with our hands, rather He dwells in our hearts. Every decision, great or small, must be considered from hearts attuned to the will of the Lord. 

Deuteronomy 17:9 NKJV

9 And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

God directed His people to rely on the spiritual and secular leadership of their day to provide the wise judgment and counsel required to maneuver the legal and spiritual challenges that they would face. The same is required of us today. We should be able to look to our appointed spiritual and secular leaders for sound guidance and judgment. That requires that we select these leaders based on their character and integrity, taking care to remember that God sees all that we do and will act on our behalf when we stand for … justice.

Deuteronomy 17:10-11 NKJV

10 You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. 11 According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.

And so it becomes painfully evident as to why just leadership is so vitally important to the well-being of a community. The consequences of unjust leadership can have a disruptive effect on society. Laws must be followed or chaos will ensue. God is not the author of confusion. Satan is. It is imperative that just, conscientious leaders be elected for the sake of a peaceable, ordered existence. 

Deuteronomy 17:12-13 NKJV

12 Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Allow me to close with a few thoughts that may seem contrary to the verses above. The verses above, at first glance, appear to press the believer into a state of ‘blind’ obedience to those who lead our communities for fear of the penalty of death, thus giving way to corrupt authoritarian influences that seek power and money to the detriment of the communities they ‘serve’. This can especially be true in the Church, where the presbytery often leans into authoritarianism in order to keep a congregation in line. Please notice in verse 12 that those ministers to whom we are to offer obeisance must be those who are wholly committed as servants of the Lord, God Almighty. Jesus insisted that those who would lead be servants. When that is not the case, we all suffer. God’s corrective mechanism in the case of unjust leadership was the ministry of the prophet. The prophet was called to point out and drive out corrupt leadership. Those men had a unique aura about them that was immediately recognizable. We call it, ‘the anointing’. It was the Spirit of God working in them and through them to call out the social, economic, ecological, and spiritual injustice that arose from corrupt leadership, both within and without the spiritual community.

Such was is the case today. God has called prophets, such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to address the societal ills that besiege society to corrupt leadership. In his letter to white, moderate religious leaders in the south during the civil rights era, he asked the question, “Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?” In this query, he challenged his brothers in Christ to simply care about people who did not look like them. In our day, those same challenges have again resurfaced to a painful and contentious point, especially on the political stage and within the evangelical community. And the reasons are remarkably similar. Many just want moderation. They just want the status quo to be maintained. 

While it is true that we must pray for those in authority, we must also pray that God will raise up from His own, people who will speak truth to power, no matter the consequence. Through prayer and adherence to the principles of justice, we can affect leadership to the end that we continue toward the goal of a just society. Dr. King offered the following as justification for his fight against injustice: “I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." Thus, as believers, we have a moral responsibility to bend the arc of history toward justice.

Selah,

wb

Psalm 24:1 NLT

1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

    The world and all its people belong to him.

Thus we have a responsibility to live humbly and do justly before the Lord, our God.

Sunday School Lesson for January 16, 2022 - Justice and Fairness: Printed Text: Exodus 23:1-12 NKJV; Background Scripture: Exodus 23 NKJV; Devotional Reading: Exodus 23:1-12 NKJV

 

Key Verse:

Exodus 23:2-3 NKJV

 

2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. 3 You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute. 

 

God wields the sword of Justice with an even hand. He is not swayed by popular opinion, nor is He a respecter of persons. We should follow His lead.

 

 

What you need to know

 

 

 

Exodus 7:1-2 NKJV

1 So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.

 

Beloved, God has called us to speak truth to power. When God delivered His people from a powerful, but corrupt Egypt, He did so by the power of His spoken word. After He delivered His people, He gave them that same powerful Word to live by. To live justly and to speak on behalf of Justice is the responsibility of the believer. 

 

Amos 5:15 NKJV

 

15 Hate evil, love good;

Establish justice in the gate.

It may be that the Lord God of hosts

Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

 

 

Prelude

 

Exodus 19:3-6 NKJV

 

3 And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I [a]bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

 

And so, after delivering His people from the grip of Pharoah, God drew them unto Himself in order to make them a people unto Himself. A people who would be an eternal witness to the power of His great love toward all of mankind. He drew them to Mount Sinai to educate them on worship and…civility. The civility portion will be the focus of this week’s lesson. Let us begin.

 

 

The Lesson

Exodus 23:1 NKJV

1 “You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 

A Christian, nor anyone else should ever make a false report. To agree with the wicked is to agree with the Accuser of the brethren, Satan. Should any of us ever be shown to have agreed with the sons of Belial and call ourselves the children of God? Heaven forbid.

Exodus 23:2 NKJV

2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. 

Nor should you allow the crowd to cloud your judgment. Mob justice is never ‘justice’. The mob only serves the passions inflamed by the multitude of voices lifted in rage against those who are, typically, unable to defend themselves against … the mob. The lynch mobs of yesteryear in this country, the United States of America offer a painful witness to the horrible injustice visited upon the least among us by mob violence. Mob violence directed against the weak is a shame of the highest degree and can never be condoned. In Germany, the shame of the Holocaust has been memorialized in such a way that the citizens of that country are forever reminded that they must never permit such atrocity again. To this day, the United States struggles to reach the same level of humility and humanity in regards to her original sin: slavery. May God have mercy on us.

Exodus 23:3 NKJV

3 You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.

I’m a contrarian at heart. I pull for the underdog in almost every situation. I was watching a recent cinematic rendition of a children’s fable, Robin Hood this past weekend. That whole; “take from the rich and give to the poor” sentiment is truly engaging, but it is not God’s way. God will stand for the poor, but not in an unjust way. We must not show undue favor to the poor in rendering judgment, for that too, is a perversion of Justice.

Exodus 23:4-5 NKJV

4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.

God now entreats us to lay aside our animosity toward one who has wronged you if you see that they need… a hand. A helping hand extended to one with whom we contend may help both of us to escape a ditch. When Jesus entreated us to love our enemies, it was that we might reap the benefit of forgiveness. Unforgiveness is too great a burden to bear.

Exodus 23:6-7 NKJV

6 “You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. 7 Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked.

You must not take sides against the poor. The implication here is that the poor, the powerless are victimized by a system maintained by the powerful to benefit the powerful. Whether that system is energized by greed or race or caste, God’s people must discern the inequity and take care not to align themselves with it. Unfairness on any level is un-Godly. God will not allow it to remain, forever unpunished.

Exodus 23:8 NKJV

8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

Bribes come in many forms. The promise of steady employment will cause one to turn a blind eye to injustice within their own workplace. A bribe always carries the threat of repercussions if the person being bribed is unwilling to ‘accept’ the bribe. In John 9:23, the parents of the blind man that Jesus healed at the Pool of Siloam offered no opinion on their son’s regaining of his sight for fear of losing their place in the synagogue. Who among us fears losing our place in our congregation, our place of employment, or our community for standing up for what is right. Whether we are bribed to keep silent or intimidated into silence, our silence has been purchased by the forces of evil for the purposes of evil. This must not be so amongst the people of God.

Exodus 23:9 NKJV

9 “Also you shall not oppress a [a]stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Thus we are never to become agents of injustice. Never. God lends the example of the ‘stranger’ or immigrants that dwell among us. In essence, God commands us to love and to be fair to people who don’t look or speak like us. Unconditionally. This ‘command’ is imperative. God wants all of us to understand that no matter our race, creed, or color we are not to oppress others. No matter that their cultural differences offend our cultural biases, we must stand for justice on their behalf. In reminding His people of their oppression in Egypt, He was warning them not to fall into the snares of racism or classism when God elevated them to a Holy and Righteous nation. By that same token, God exhorts believers to avoid the same snares of racism or classism now that we have been translated into the Kingdom of His marvelous Son, Christ Jesus. This does not call for an elimination of ‘race’, as many ‘Christian’ leaders suggest, but rather a real confrontation of racism and classism and the elimination of both amongst His people. The distinction is quite stark and requires real work on the part of all believers toward the purpose of Justice… for all.

Exodus 23:10-12 NKJV

The Law of Sabbaths

10 “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 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. In like manner, you shall do with your vineyard and your [b]olive grove. 12 Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day, you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.

In these verses, God establishes the rules surrounding the principle of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is to offer ‘Rest’. It establishes that after a certain period of work that His people should observe a period of rest. Thus, the land, the animals, the slaves, the immigrants, the poor would all have a time, ordained by God, for surcease of their burdens. God would expand these laws of the Sabbath into a lengthy, elaborate observation of Sabbaths that would culminate in what would normally be a once-in-a-lifetime event called Jubilee, a super Sabbath, if you will that took years in planning and preparation. What was God’s end goal? To create a people unto  Himself who would live a life toward the goal of the Sabbath on purpose. Read that again slowly. God’s purpose for putting forward this system of ‘Sabbath’ was to create a people unto  Himself who would live a life toward the goal of the Sabbath: Rest, on purpose. Does this mean that our life’s work is toward ease and relaxation? Hardly. That would lead to the very injustice that God so abhors. Beloved, God intends that we commit our lives and our resources to the benefit of others toward the purpose of ‘Rest’, or Sabbath for all. Thus, justice and fairness can be had by all. And that Beloved, is worship. 

Selah

wb

 

Mark 2:27-28 NKJV

27 And He (Jesus)said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

 

_________________________

 

Yesterday, in defense of voting rights and ultimately democracy, President Biden quoted from the previously quoted passage in Amos in exhorting his audience that all Americans must stand for justice against the forces who currently oppose democracy in this country. Good on him. If his words spur us, his hearers toward the cause of social, economic, or even environmental justice, I applaud him.

 

Amos 5:15 NKJV

 

15 Hate evil, love good;

Establish justice in the gate.

It may be that the Lord God of hosts

Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

 

My dad used to tell me, “Son, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” I’m happy to stand in God’s shadow on behalf of justice.