Deuteronomy 24 - Craigie Notes

Deuteronomy 24

Summary Sentence:
From this chapter I see how all God's laws are for the good of marriage, the protection of victims, the poor, the alien, the orphan and the widow.

Self-examination and some questions:

1. Do I look for loopholes in God's laws?
2. God's grace:  what about....all the widows who lost their soldier-husbands in the first year of marriage.
3. What if a married couple never had a chance to enjoy a proper honeymoon or a time in which they could get to know each other and adjust.
4. What if you have/had been or are being exploited as a vulnerable person?  (Pray!)
5. What if anyone is a hoarder of wealth, living in luxury while not paying the poor their salaries?
6. God's compassion for the needy is so clear here.
7. God showed us compassion and liberation when we were slaves - not making bricks in Egypt, but maybe there was a time we were in debt and we are out of debt.  But definitely we were slaves to sin and in Satan's kingdom of darkness and He showed Himself to us as our God of all grace - our God who saves!  How can we close our hearts to others?
8. I need to remember that sin is detestable to God and like my Father I need to get away with tolerating or even enjoying sin.
9. Do I fear and love my God so much that I am careful to find out His will and gladly do it?
10. Am I sensitive to others' needs and do I have a generous and compassionate heart.
11. Should there be any beggars according to Deuteronomy 24?
12. We are God's church, Christ's body - so sin is something that has to be purged from our lives and from the church.
13. What are the results of my parents' wrongdoings in my life?
14. What are/would be the results of my wrongdoing be in the lives of my children?

Gospel!  Jesus stood in my place and took the punishment of

• my cheating heart that looks for loopholes in His law, 
• my unfairness towards  the vulnerable, 
• my unsympathetic heart, 
• my carelessness about God's will 

upon Himself.......the innocent Son

• who kept the law with His whole heart,  perfectly, 
• who is so gracious and sympathetic, perfect in every way -  

and died for me.......so that
now the Father can look at Jesus and justify me.
And so that now, with my new heart

• I can be full of sympathy, 
• careful to do God's will 
• and be generous and gracious to the poor and vulnerable because my God has delivered me. 

I'm so unworthy, so thankful and worship my compassionate Lord in word, song  and glad obedience!

1. God wants to see generosity to the poor so that they don't lose their job or self-respect.
2. Breaking God's command is detestable to Him - verse 4
3. Sin is not just sin by an individual but it affects the whole community verse 4
4. Punishment is so that evil will be purged - verse 7
5. We are to follow carefully what God commanded us - verse 8
6. We are to look at other lives and testimonies and see what to do - verse 8
7. If you care for the vulnerable they will thank you - verse 13
8. If you care for the vulnerable God will regard it as a righteous act in His sight - verse 13
9. If you mistreat the poor they will cry to the Lord against you - verse 14and you will be guilty of sin - verse 14.
10. Don't deprive the vulnerable - remember you were slaves in Egypt and God redeemed you from there - Verse 17 and verse 22.  This is why God commands you these things.
11. Give your extra harvest to the vulnerable and God will bless you in all the work of your hands - verse 19.

24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of theLord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

There is only one piece of legislation in this passage:

Verse 4a "then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled." This law relates to certain cases of remarriage.  Divorce is treated as a practice already known.

In verses 1-3 we see something of the procedure of divorce.  Something indecent in her.  (Dt 23:14) where it suggests something impure.  The meaning is uncertain. The bill of divorce, gave her a certain protection under law from any further action by the man.  She is sent away.

In this passage, the divorced woman marries another man.  
The second marriage is terminated either by divorce or the death of the man. Now...under all these circumstances the first man may not remarry his former wife.  Because she has been defiled.  This language suggests adultery.  
The sense is that her remarriage is similar to adultery.  So if she remarries her first husband after divorcing the second:  the analogy of adultery becomes stronger.  The woman first lives with one man, then another and then returns to the first.

So if divorce becomes too easily it could be abused and would become a "legal" form of committing adultery.  This legislation restricts the loopholes.  The purpose is to keep free from sin the land which God would soon be giving to his people as an inheritance.

5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

A further exemption from Military Service.

Compare Deuteronomy 20:5-8

This law is to promote health and growth of a new marital relationship.  The newly married man is exempted from military service and other community duties.  This law guards against a newly married man dying and leaving a young widow behind - and for the establishment of a new marriage.

6 Do not take a pair of millstones – not even the upper one – as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.

Laws regarding millstones.  Not allowed to take a millstone as a pledge.  In every Israelite home a small milling machine would be a basic and essential part of culinary equipment.  Each morning the wife would use it to prepare flour to bake daily bread.  Taking the millstone or part of the millstone would cause hardship for the family and would be contrary to the spirit of generosity which should characterise the lender.

7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.

The crime is kidnapping, though not in a literal sense.  In this case the theft would be followed by sale into slavery, either for direct payment of money or in exchange for goods. This is the stealing of a life - a crime of social murder, for though the victim does not die, still it is cut off from the covenant family of God.  Hence the severe penalty for crime:  death.

8 In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.9 Remember what the Lordyour God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.

Legislation concerning leprosy.  It's assumed that the legislation about leprosy is known to the audience. - so Moses is simply exhorting the people to be diligent in keeping this law.  This condition could include a variety of skin diseases.  Verse 9 - remember.

10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbour, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. 11 Stay outside and let the neighbour to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbour is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbour may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.

This law protects the poor.  The privacy of the poor is protected and leaves him the choice to bring the article outside or not to do so.  It means a man can borrow depending on honour.  This garment is a blanket-like piece of clothing used as a cloak by day and a bed-covering by night.  The creditor is not allowed to use the pledge for himself and so deprive the borrower of his protection against cold at night.  A spirit of humanity and charity were to characterise the covenant community of God.  There would inevitably be needy people among the Israelites.  These laws would alleviate their hardship which would reflect the terms of the covenant love of God for his people.

14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Laws against oppressing the poor.  You shall not withhold the wage.  You shall not oppress the hired labourer.  Labourers were paid at the end of their day's work - and not at the end of too long a period. This applied to Israelites and to aliens.  They were not to suffer hardship. The money would be needed each day to feed a family. The law once again expressed humanitarian concern for those within Israel  and the aliens who would be less fortunate. 

Failure would bring down sin on Israel as a community. "Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin."

The poor and needy would cry to God in their distress.  God would help but that help should have come from the people of God

James 5:Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.


The point is that a man is responsible for his own sin. If a father was condemned to death, the son was not to be executed with him or in his place of vice versa.

Deuteronomy 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lordyour God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Here we see that the repercussions of the parents' acts spread beyond themselves to affect the family.

17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lordyour God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

See why God gives these commands and compare verse 22.

19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that theLord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

Provision is to be made for feeding underprivileged people such as aliens, orphans and widows.  There needed to be an awareness of the vulnerable in the community.  Throughout Deuteronomy there is a strong anticipation of the promised land. Everybody had to enjoy the promised land including those who aren't landowners.  They had to maintain their honour and self-respect and not become beggars. They too would have to work for their small harvest.

What did the Israelites have to remember when they kept this law with thankfulness.