“You are not to watch your brother’s ox or sheep straying and behave as if you hadn’t seen it; you must bring them back to your brother. If your brother is not close by, or you don’t know who the owner is, you are to bring it home to your house; and it will remain with you until your brother asks for it; then you are to give it back to him. You are to do the same with his donkey, his coat or anything else of your brother’s that he loses. If you find something he lost, you must not ignore it.“-Deuteronomy 22:1-3
In my last post I established that obeying God’s commands is not to be done in a legalist mechanical fashion.
Instead, we are to obey the Lord’s instructions out of love for God AND…
…love for our neighbor.
To this point, verse 1 in Deuteronomy 22 gives us a very specific and practical example of how this is to be played out.
We’re given an example of someone stumbling upon a brother’s ox or sheep that has gone astray.
The first question that needs to be answered is who exactly is my “brother” in this context?
The Hebrew word for brother is ACH and refers to a fellow Hebrew kinsman.
Technically speaking this means a member of one’s same clan or tribe.
However, in a more broader sense, it can also be referring to a fellow member of the nation of Israel.
Later on, the Messiah, expounding on these very verses went on to say that our “brother” is anyone in our midst who is in need and then told the famous story of the Good Samaritan to make his point.
That aside however, understand that in this context, verse 1 is really saying “You are not to watch your fellow Hebrew’s ox or sheep straying and behave as if you hadn’t seen it”.
This command is telling us that the very instant our eyes witness a brother’s farm animal straying, the option of inaction no longer exists.
You cannot turn your back on the situation.
You are to be proactive and take action.
And it doesn’t matter whether you personally benefit from it or not.
In fact, do you wanna know what the opposite of “love your neighbor” is?
It isn’t hating your neighbor.
It is “being indifferent to your neighbor”.
It is looking the other way or pretending not to see an obvious need your brother has.
This isn’t actually the first time we’ve come across this instruction.
Check out this verse from the Book of Exodus:
“If you come upon your enemy’s ox
or donkey straying,
you must return it to him.”
-Exodus 23:4
Again, understand that here in Deuteronomy, Moses is expounding on the Law that was first given at Sinai.
This is Moses’ Sermon on the Mount and later on Yeshua will do the same thing when he gives his Sermon on the Mount.
How exactly is Moses expounding on the instructions handed down at Mount Sinai?
Simple, he takes a basic law given before and by adding practical applications demonstrates in an easy-to-understand manner how to apply the law in one’s life…
…which incidentally is the job of a pastor, preacher or teacher.
The challenge facing the person who stumbled upon his brother’s farm animal is that there’s no one in sight to lay claim to the animal.
He has no idea who owns the animal.
Yet, it doesn’t matter.
Indifference is still NOT an option.
If at the moment he is unable to locate the owner of the animal, he must take the animal into his own home and tend to the animal as if it is one of his own until the owner comes around to claim it.
And when the owner does, his animal is to be returned to him.
The selfish idea of “finders keepers, losers weepers” holds no application here.
You might be wondering about the instruction to “bring the animal inside your house“.
This doesn’t make sense to us modern folks.
Understand that in those days and actually in many areas of the Middle East today, a person’s home was built around an outside yard where the animals were kept.
Or a house was constructed consisting of two floors.
The first floor and the outside yard were where the animals and humans could stay with each other…
…and the upper floor was the area reserved for humans only.
Remember in those days, farm animals were wealth.
They needed to be protected from wild beasts, robbers and violent weather just as much as we humans do.
Next, notice verse 3.
“You are to do the same with his donkey,
his coat or anything else of
your brother’s that he loses.
If you find something he lost,
you must not ignore it.”
Moses understanding very well our sneaky tendency to always want to find a loophole makes it clear that the definition of lost property is NOT restricted to just farm animals.
It can pertain to any type of property that your brother may lose whether it’s a coat, jewelry, or whatever.
This reminds me of why I’ll forever be indebted to the current nation of Japan where I’m living right now.
I actually lost my wallet twice while living out here.
Now get this.
Both times my wallet was returned to me with the contents still inside.
What happened was a couple of days later, I received a postcard from the police station notifying me that they had my wallet and to come and pick it up.
When I went to the police station, I fully assumed I would be going to pick up my “empty” wallet but when it was returned to me, I opened it up and to my happy surprise all the money, bills and coins, were still inside!
About $300 dollars worth!
And this happened twice (the second time there was only $20 in my wallet however)!
Now what is the likelihood of this same thing happening if I lost my wallet in the United States?
Unfortunately, knowing what I know about the United States, as much as I love my home country, I highly doubt I’d even get my wallet back let alone its contents.
Because of this kindness I experienced in Japan, I make it a point to ALWAYS my return my “neighbor’s property” whenever I come across it.
In fact, just last week when I went to use the restroom at Starbucks, I came across a wallet sitting on the sink counter.
I didn’t even think twice.
I left the restroom to report it and hand it over to the staff but before I even had a chance to do that, I ran into the owner of the wallet, a young girl who was rushing back towards the restroom in a panic.
I gave her property back to her and I could tell she was so relieved.
I was so happy to give it back to her, not only because it was the right thing to do, but I’ll never forget the kindness her “kinsmen” showed me in the past when I lost my wallet TWICE.
Now there’s something really important I want you to notice about these commands we’re studying here.
Obeying these commands doesn’t have anything to do with “emotional concerns” or “warm fuzzy feelings” towards our neighbor.
Our emotions are to take second place to getting up off our butts and taking vigorous action to actively help our neighbor whoever they may be when they need our help.
Before closing, let’s quickly take a look at verse 4.
“If you see your brother’s donkey
or ox collapsed on the road,
you may not behave
as if you hadn’t seen it;
you must help him
get them up on their feet again.”
Here we see a continuation of the instruction immediately preceding this one.
If you see your neighbor’s beast of burden about to topple over because of the heavy weight of its load, you are to help the animal.
We can see here the concern we are to have for BOTH our neighbor and his animals.
The last instruction was about showing concern for your brother while verse 4 is about showing concern for your brother’s animal.
In both cases, one is forbidden from ignoring the situation.
I’m done.
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