Deuteronomy 25 - Punishment for Wickedness | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church
The Bible by David Alley · David Alley
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (content.rss.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
In this video listen to Deuteronomy 25 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.
In Deuteronomy 25 we find an interesting verse about oxen that is quoted several times by Paul in the NT. This was a verse Paul quoted in 1 Timothy 5:18 and in 1 Corinthians 9 which he used to say that a preacher should get paid for his work, and not be expected to work without being fed. People wouldn't typically muzzle their own ox because they have to feed it anyway, and a healthy ox performs better than a starved one.
Justin Taylor of the gospel coalition writes that this rule cuts in when an ox is borrowed or leased. The user has no regard for the ox, but wants to harvest as much of his own grain as possible, so muzzles the ox. In this example no care is given to the beast doing all the hard work. In the case of those laboring in God’s field, they should not be taken advantage of says Paul.
God cares more about people than oxen. But most interesting to me in this example is seeing how Paul has understood Moses. This was obviously a practical rule for then, but a spiritual rule for all time. This is a demonstration of why the OT books are important for us now, and why even the most obscure rules have things in them for us to discover and learn.
We have been doing this to some extent in our videos. Then there is a strange verse about what to do when a woman grabs a man’s private area. This video discusses some of the thoughts behind that. Finally a discussion of Amalek, The Amalekites were long gone by this point, so why invent something like this if it was written later? (It wasn’t) The Amalekites are symbolic of the ultimate evil, and of the complete absence of the fear of God.
If Egypt is a symbol of the flesh and the world, Amalek is a symbol of the devil. The Israelites were to completely remove Amalek from their midst, and as believers we are to remove things which cause us to love the world, rather we are to fear God. When the Israelites left Egypt (symbolising the flesh and the world) they were unexpectedly attacked by Amalek in the desert.
When someone is liberated from sin and comes into the kingdom of God, the evil one seeks to attack them. We fight by coming into the fullness of our fear of God.