Deuteronomy 25 FAIRNESS, FAMILY, FREEDOM Laws really have no value if they are not able to be enforced by a punishment imposed on one who breaks those laws. We have laws by which the government controls and restrains the population of a country and by which means they are able to maintain order and freedom. The point of having laws is so that citizens can live free from fear and raise their families safely. Law breakers can disrupt the lives of a lot of people if they are not caught and punished so they will not do those same things again. The same holds true for family life and assembly life. In order to be fair towards everyone, just laws are in place and need to have just punishment that can be laid on those who refuse to discipline themselves to cooperate with the social unit of which they are a part. In Israel when a court case had been heard and the judgment passed on the offender, there was physical punishment for the one convicted of the crime. Punishment was not overlooked or put off until the offense committed was forgotten by the people. The punishment by beating was with a certain number of stripes to be laid on a person's back right in front of the judge as soon as the sentence was passed. That action was not only punish the offender, but to serve as a warning to others looking on lest they do the same thing. The number of stripes to be laid on a person was to suit the consequences of the act he committed in a just and fair way. It took place at the sentencing and the punishment reflected the seriousness of the offense. The law of fairness kept the punishment from being too great or too little, but enough to change the behavior of the person being punished.
In family life there is the need of rule and order to maintain a domestic atmosphere that is beneficial to all the family members. Children need to know where the limits are when it comes to behavior and what the consequences will be if they go beyond those limits. Family tranquility is very hard to maintain without just rules and fair punishment to enforce those rules. Rules for appropriate behavior are to be taught and enforced in church life. The degrees of corrective action are clearly taught in the New Testament and are enforce by appropriate discipline carried out. It is not fair to a person to withhold from them the kind of consequences they face if they will not conduct themselves in a disciplined and righteous way. It is not fair to those who are part of an assembly and the miscreant if punishment is not imposed in a scriptural way.
Order and fairness, extends even to the way we treat our animals. To work an animal until it drops is not right. Animals are to be able to eat what is necessary to maintain strength to labor. An ox working at the grinding wheel was to be left without a muzzle so it could put its head down and get something to eat as it was laboring for the benefit of the owner. Horses that are "worked to death" have been abused and that is not fairness either to the beast or the person who owns the beast. When left to themselves, animals spend all their time eating and sleeping. That is the nature God gave them for their survival. By giving man dominion over the beasts, man can benefit from the strength of the animals. Their natural tendency is to eat more or less constantly to maintain that strength. Fairness gives them time to replenish what they lose in their work. It is important that we treat animals with care and concern.
Family life is important to maintain in spite of the disintegration of family units today. A heritage and the inheritance that goes along with it was of major importance in Israel to provide care for the aged and provide for the young. Much of the inheritance to be passed on from one generation to the next was physical assets. Animals were important sources of income, worship and the maintaining of life for the family. They were sustained by the animals they owned. A person with a large number of animals, was considered to be a rich person. Other articles could be passed on that were worth a certain amount and were fairly divided. The firstborn son was the one who inherited the family title and the family goods. When he married, his wife and children would come into the first of the inheritance.
If a man died before having children, his wife was not in the line of the inheritance unless she married another family member. The social structure of families more or less determines how the inheritance will be passed on. There needs to be fairness in delegating material benefits. Daughters will usually go into a different family by way of marriage. Unmarried daughters are the responsibility of the original family and are entitled to their share of the inheritance. The oldest son is the first to start out life on his own normally and needs assistance to begin assuming responsibility for his own family. It takes wisdom and tact to act with fairness in as family setting so that descendants will maintain the integrity of the family name.
Sometimes events near us seem to be taking place without an equal fairness about them. Our inclination is to interfere and put our weight behind the person we favor. It is not always our place to step in and meddle in a controversy other people have between themselves. If we do not know all the facts behind a thing nor what has led up to the controversy taking place, we should stay out of the matter. The person we favor may be in the wrong. By putting our opinions or actions into the situation, we may be responsible for the wrong outcome. In the interest of fairness, it is best if we "mind our own business." Those who are involved in a dispute need to work out the solution in as small a group as possible. If for some reason we are asked to arbitrate a dispute, our opinion and judgment must be made impartially no matter who is involved.
Business matter lend themselves to the temptation to move things around to make them come out to our advantage unfairly. The standards we are to go by in our business life should be righteous and accepted by all with whom we do business. Manipulating things in our favor will soon irreparably damage one's reputation in a community. If a person is unfair in money matters, most people will take serious offense at that and will consider you personally a person not to be trusted, and your character flawed. Unfair profit margins, unfair business practices, unfair wages and unfair expectations of others will cause damage that will never be repaired. Even more than what people come to think of us and judge us by, is the fact that God is the unseen observer of every transaction. Unfairness and crooked dealing with others, means that to God, that person is an abomination. How far-reaching are the acts of covetousness! They reach all the way to the "Judge of all the earth!"
Amalek is a type of the flesh that preys on the weakness of God's people. There is nothing in our natural man that can be salvaged and made acceptable to God. In Israel that particular enemy came behind the children of Israel like a scavenger pack of dogs to kill the weak and helpless who were lagging behind the rest of the travelers. Wolves, coyotes and other carnivorous beasts, follow hard behind the herds of caribou, antelope, deer and other animals that cannot easily defend themselves when they are alone. The people of God need the fellowship and support of other believers to be safely preserved and to maintain the freedom we have in Christ. The flesh will stalk us and make us think we are in danger if we do not add to the work of God with our own works in order to be right before Him. Some attractions are added to the simplicity of the Gospel to make it more acceptable to people. The flesh likes sensual things that appeal to our senses rather than to our spirits. When that appeal becomes so strong, we will find ourselves coming into the bondage of the flesh rather than living in the freedom of the Spirit to do God's will from our hearts. Laws that govern fairness in a society and family, may not appeal to the flesh but they are best for us because they keep us in the blessed bonds of grace and gratitude to God for the freedom to walk in the path He chooses for us.