the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 22:1-12
The Lord does not only condemn obvious and serious evil (ch. 21). He disapproves of all forms of selfishness. Losing an ox or an ass is a sign of a lack of vigilance (1 Samuel 9:3). However God uses this to teach me that I have no right to be indifferent to what happens to my neighbour. He reminds me that the latter is my brother and invites me to be concerned about what belongs to him as conscientiously as if it were mine. Without his sheep for sacrifice, his ox for ploughing, his ass for carrying loads, how could an Israelite serve the LORD and exist? Let us not be like those believers whose absence of a spirit of service Paul deplored: "For all seek their own" (Philippians 2:21; read also 1 Corinthians 10:24).
V. 5 applies particularly to the modern world where woman is trying to make herself equal with man. This is turning upside down the order of God in creation. In all our ways, even if the relevance of such instructions escapes us, let us beware of "disputing" them (1 Corinthians 11:16). Vv. 9-11 remind us that God does not want, in the lives and witness of His children, either confusion or mixing of divine truths with the principles of this world.
