“’You are not to deprive the foreigner or the orphan of the justice which is his due, and you are not to take a widow’s clothing as collateral for a loan. Rather, remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and Adonai your God redeemed you from there. That is why I am ordering you to do this.'”-Deuteronomy 24:17-18
Okay, we’ve now arrived at the final stretch of Deuteronomy Chapter 24.
Good job in staying in the race with me so far.
Trust me.
All of this is going pay off big-time in the long run.
And truth be told, if you’ve been with me from the very beginning (meaning from Genesis Chapter One, Verse One), you can be confident you now know more about the Torah than 99% of all gentile pastors anywhere in the world.
I’m not even kidding.
That’s practically a guarantee.
But only gentile pastors.
Compared to an Orthodox Rabbi, you would only be scratching the surface of his knowledge.
But that’s not the point of this blog.
The point of this blog is to take mere beginners and give them the foundational knowledge apart from the oppressive doctrines of Rome and give them the basic tools to take things to the next level if they so choose.
Personally, I think this is the basic knowledge any believer anywhere should possess
Anyways, I digress.
So let’s move forward.
The laws listed at the end of Deuteronomy 24 go on to deal with humanitarian ideals.
They talk about the protection of foreigners living in the land, orphans, and widows.
The concept being driven home here is that it is the duty of every Israelite to look after the welfare of orphans and widows.
This is a theme repeated throughout the whole Bible all the way up to the New Testament.
We are not only given a divine command to care for those who are disadvantaged due to no fault of their own, but we are also forbidden from taking advantage of or exploiting them.
Verse 17 starts off by saying…
…”You are not to deprive the foreigner
or the orphan of the justice which is his due…”
This verse is simply referring to fair legal process in a court of law.
When a judge is judging a case involving a foreigner or an orphan, he is to be impartial (meaning “fair” for my non-native English-speaking readers).
Next, the second half of verse 17 is actually connected to verse 10 about the law of the pledge.
“…and you are not to take a widow’s clothing as collateral for a loan.”-Deuteronomy 24:17
Recall how we connected this command to the story of Isaac and Rebecca whereby Rebecca was considered Isaac’s pledge.
If you want to read it again, you can do so by clicking right here.
Now there is one very important difference between verse 17 and verse 10.
Do you have any idea what it might be?
The difference is this.
In the case of verse 17, it is okay for a lender to use a poor person’s garment or cloak as collateral or a pledge BUT…
…he must return it each night to the debtor.
However, in the case of a widower, her garment can NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be used as collateral.
Interestingly, there is more concern for the widow than the stranger or orphan in this situation.
And in fact, traditional Judaism took this even further and insisted that not just a widow’s garment but none of her belongings are to be taken away from her to serve as collateral for a loan.
Finally, Moses reminds Israel the reason they are to show mercy is because great mercy was shown to them when the Almighty Lord rescued them from the hand of slavery in Egypt.
Just as God showed mercy to Israel when they were the least in society, so to should Israel show mercy to the least in their society.
And Yeshua himself expounded on this idea when he claimed those who helped the least of his brothers was the same thing as if they were helping him.
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