Deuteronomy chapter 22. Is it warm in here to anybody?
Is it too warm? You alright? You guys alright? Don't want to get too warm? A little too late for that. Let me begin reading in Deuteronomy
chapter 22, and let's read verse 22 and finish this chapter, maybe
stopping in verse 29. Beginning in verse 22, Deuteronomy
chapter 22. If a man be found lying with
a woman married to an unhusband, then they shall both of them
die, both the man that lie with the woman and the woman. So shalt
thou put evil from Israel. If a damsel, that is a virgin,
be betrothed, be engaged to none husband, and a man find her in
the city, and lay with her, then ye shall bring them both out
into the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones,
that they die. The damsel, because she cried
not, being in the city, and the man, because he hath humbled
his neighbor's wife, so shall thou put evil away from among
you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel, damsel in the field,
and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that
lie with her shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt
do nothing. There is in the damsel no sin
worthy of death. For as when a man raises up against
his neighbor and slayeth him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the field,
and the engaged damsel cried, and there was none to save her.
I want you to particularly notice verses 28 and 29. If a man find
a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, not engaged,
and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found,
then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's
father fifty shackles of silver, and she shall be his wife, because
he hath humbled her, He may not put her away all his days. Now, one of the reasons I want
you to especially take note of verses 28 and 29 is because here
is the way some people, some worldly people, interpret this
passage of Scripture. Let me read it to you. Let me
quote. A man sees a certain virgin and forces her to lay with him,
and they are caught in the And the man's punishment is to pay
the virgin's father a certain amount of money, and the woman
is forced to marry the man who basically raped her. Now that
sounds awful, don't it? If that's the true interpretation
of this verse, then that sounds awful. Here's a man that forced
a woman, and then a man that forced her pays her father a
certain amount of money. The girl is forced to marry the
man she raped and can never divorce him. if that's the true interpretation
of that. But that's not the true interpretation
of this passage. But I told you last week I wanted
to look with you just a little bit tonight at some of the things
that people say about the Bible and therefore God about women. I guess it's not only in our
day but it's been for a long time that some people say that
God is biased towards women. That the Bible is even prejudiced
towards women, or some people say even cruel against women.
Now nothing could be farther from the truth. And I'm not able
to go into a lot of this, but I wanted to go into it just a
little bit this evening. But as we read the Bible, and
as some read the Bible, some say, well, you look at the Bible,
you read the Bible, and there's no doubt that men have a prominent
role in the Bible. The women are basically relegated
to the back. Well, that may be so. That may be so. But look in society. Look in society itself. Look
in circular society. Look at ancient history as best
I know it as well as biblical history. Is man not prominent
in circular history as well as biblical history? How many judges
in the Judges do you see women? How many places do you see women
ruling in the Scripture? Well, to be honest with you,
I know of only one woman that God set as a judge in Israel,
and that was Deborah. I read that there was only one
queen in all the Gentile world, and that's the queen of Sheba.
It's still that way, isn't it? Men are prominent in this world. When you come to modern history, how many women
do we see in modern history that take the leadership role in nations?
Israel was established as a nation in 1948. There's only been one
woman, as far as I know, elected to be prime minister of that
country, one woman. I know of only one woman today
that rules in a leadership role, and that's in Germany, Merkel. How many do we have in this country?
Have we ever had a woman president? Not one, have we? So why go to
the Bible and say, well, in the Bible, you never see women in
prominent roles. You never see them in leadership.
Well, it's that way in society, isn't it? It's just not in secular
society, it's in biblical society, and it's in both biblical society
and in secular society. In some, in modern history, we
see this. But say this, in the beginning,
God put a distinction between a man and a woman, did he not? Now when you talk about this,
you have to be so careful because you get yourself in trouble.
I have to be so careful because I'll make one little slip. You'll
forgive me. But if somebody hears on this
tape what is on the sermon audio, they're going to be calling me.
And they're going to say, You hate women. I told you the Bible
hated women. But when God made man and woman
in the beginning, did He not make man first? And was not man
therefore prominent in creation? Well, sure she is. He is. Man's
prominent. Does that mean God made woman
inferior to man? Well, no. She's not inferior
to man. Here's the order, and this will
never change. The head of every man is Christ. The head of every woman is the
man, and the head of Christ is God. No matter what society you
look in, you look in ancient society or modern society, you
look in secular society or biblical society, and this is the conclusion
that you reach. Man is prominent. The male is
prominent over the woman. Now that's so, isn't it? That's
just a fact. And you know something? God made
it that way. And you know something? It will
never change. It will never change. That's
a fact that cannot change. Peter was writing to us and he
said the woman is the weaker vessel, didn't he? Now what did
he mean by that? Did he mean she was intellectually weaker?
Of course he didn't mean that. There's a lot of women that's
much smarter than men. Did he mean she was emotionally
weaker? No. You know what those two words
mean? She's tender and she's delicate. And isn't that wonderful
about a woman? We love that about women. I don't
want to be married to a manly woman. Do you? I want a tender
woman. I want a delicate woman. I bet you when the Lord made
Eve, you know, the Lord couldn't find a helper out of her. And
He named all of these animals and He looked at them all and
there was no animal for Him until God put Him to sleep and made
this woman and she He brought her to Adam. And I bet you one
of the things that appealed to him was just this. She was tender. She was delicate. Man, he was
rough. God made him a real man. But
here was a delicate person. Here was a tender person. And
I think that's one of the things that attracted Adam to Eve. And you know that's one of the
things that's so attractive about a woman? That's one of the things
that attracts children to their mother. And don't we need both
of those? We need a manly dad and we need
a tender mother. And you can see the difference
in those two people as they raise their children. I used to take
my boys outside and, man, we'd wrestle and I'd throw them. and
play and get so rough with them and Joe come out on the porch.
Stop that! You're going to hurt one of those
babies. And if she didn't watch over me, I probably would have
hurt one of them. What's the difference between me and her?
She's tender. And that's the honorable part
about a woman. God made them that way. Peter
said, Give in honor to the weaker vessel. That's an honorable thing
to be tender, isn't it? It's an honorable thing to be
gentle. But that's one of the reasons,
the very reason why, in general, women don't take a prominent
role in society. That's man's. We never did send
women off to war until just a few years ago. And we brag about
that. How much do we love our women
to send them off to war, knowing that they're the weaker vessel?
That's not right, is it? But God made her that way, tender.
This is one of the reasons, and my wife has told me this before.
She's had men come in where she used to work, and they tried
to intimidate her to do something that's wrong. and to get her
in trouble with the books and things. And why she sometimes
has time putting the man in her place is because he's prominent
and she's the weaker vessel that leads trouble for some of you
ladies, don't it? Naturally it does. Naturally it does. So God made the woman distinct
from the man. And here's the distinction. She's
more tender and more delicate. And because of that, now listen
to this, because of this, God has put safeguards around this
woman. He's put safeguards around her.
Here's one of them. I've heard people complain why
God don't call women to preach publicly. Sometimes I'll flip through to
see what's going on in the religious world, and I'll light up on a
preacher or something. Sometimes I'll stop on Joyce
Meyers. Have you ever seen Joyce Meyers
preaching? She's the lady preacher. I've
never heard her very much, but it seemed like every time I listened
to her for a few minutes, she is complaining because somebody's
complaining that God didn't call her to preach. And she's trying
to justify her preaching. She must feel guilty about it.
But listen, God does not call women to preach publicly. I suffer
not a woman to teach, nor to usher authority over the man. In the church, they're to be
in subjection. And they're not to teach and
to preach. And somebody will stand up and say, well, that
God is prejudiced against women. God is biased against women.
Listen, God protects the woman. What a protection that is! Nobody
that's preached, nobody that's been called to preach understands
the burden of preaching. Nobody but a pastor understands
the burden of what it is to pastor. The old prophets used to say
it like this, the burden of the Word of the Lord. Paul said,
when I came to you preaching, I came with weakness and fear
and in much trembling. It's a burden to be called to
preach, to carry the Word of the Lord, to represent God. I'm
going to stand and give account to God for what I've done. I watch for your souls. Man,
I wouldn't have that burden for 10,000 worlds if God hadn't called
me into it. But every man that the Lord saves, you can look
at that man and say, boy, there's a perspective preacher. And I tell you, when I hear somebody
saying that, I say, God have mercy on him. God have mercy
on him. But you know, when he saves a
woman, you don't even think that, do you? Why? Because God has
protected her from that burden. What a blessing it is that she
don't have to worry about that. And if poor little Joyce Myers
would step down and stop doing it, it would take a big load
off of her conscience, I'm sure, because God hasn't called her
there. He hasn't called her to that. He didn't put that burden
on her, has he? What a blessing! And think of this. If the Lord
is biased, if He's prejudiced or even cruel against women,
as some have accused Him of being, why does He, throughout the Scriptures,
depict and picture His church as a woman, as a bride, as His
wife? and tell us things like this,
that He loved her and gave Himself for her. If He is prejudiced
against women, why does He call His church His wife? And just
as Adam could not be satisfied, just as he could not be fulfilled
until God brought him this woman, the Lord Jesus Christ has declared
Himself that He cannot be fulfilled. apart from his church, the wife,
his bride. Listen to what Paul said about
it. The church is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. He refuses to say that he's full
apart from her. That's how much he thinks of
his wife. And you know he's never going to be satisfied until he
has her in heaven with him. And he's never going to be satisfied
until he's removed all the distinction of male and female. For there,
there'll be no such thing as that. They'll be as the angels
of God in heaven. He's going to do away with this
distinction once and for all. So no matter what age in history
you study, God's way, God's rule, and God's Word does the most
honor for women. And that's the safest for women
when they abide there where God has put them. If you were a woman
in the Old Testament, you want to be a Jewish woman. Why? Because God gave commandments
to protect and safeguard the Jewish women. And when Israel
feared the Lord and walked in the fear of the Lord, everybody
was saved, especially the women. When the gospel is preached in
a country and it's believed and the fruits of that gospel permeate
society, it's good. And you know who reaps
the greatest fruits of that? Women. And when evil permeates society
and it goes unrestrained and oppression reigns, who is it
that fares the worst in a society like that? It's women, isn't
it? It's women. God's way, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ always, always puts the woman in her proper
place. That's where God goes. And if
she'll abide there, she'll be happy there. She'll be happy
there. Look here now in verse 21 of
our text. Verse 21 and verse 22. Chapter
22. Notice in verse 22. Look in verse 22. If a man be found lying with
a woman, married to an unhusband, then both of them shall die,
both the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so thou
shalt put evil away from Israel." Now these laws were not given
to oppress people, were they? These laws were given to secure
people from evil. Three times in these verses He
says, So shall you put evil away from you. That's the blessing
of God, isn't it? When Peter was preaching to the
Jews, he said, God sent His Son to bless you. He raised Him up
and sent Him to bless you. Then he goes right on to proceed
and tell us what that blessing is, in turning every one of you
away from His iniquity. That's the blessing, isn't it?
Where the gospel reigns, where men's conscience are tender,
where sin is avoided, that's the blessings of God on a society.
But where it doesn't, and where the conscience is not tender
over sin, and men will not obey the law of God, they will not
obey nature itself, then boy, you better look out, nobody's
safe, are they? These laws that we read about here, this was
not to oppress men or women, but it was to deliver them from
the evil, an evil society. That's what it was given for.
And he says here in verse 22 that you were to kill both the
man and the woman. You remember that woman in John
chapter 8 that they brought to the Lord Jesus and said, We found
this woman in the very act, and Moses said, Well, right here,
he says, stone the man and the woman. I guess they conveniently
forgot to bring the man, didn't they? But it's not the Lord that
causes things like that. It's man. It's sorry man that
makes these distinctions. Now, I'm not advocating killing
adulterers and adulteresses in our day. I'm not for doing that
at all. I'm glad it ain't that way. A lot of us would have never
lived long enough to be saved, wouldn't we, if that's the case.
Today we have no-fault divorces. We have abortion on demand. We
have same-sex marriage. We have legalization of harsh
and dangerous drugs. How is that working out for us?
Oh, this is harsh. Just look how harsh God's ways
is. To secure people from evil is
harsh? We want our liberty. Well, you
got it. You got it. And the more you get, the more
the misery index is going to skyrocket. Look how miserable
people are today. And why is it? Evil, sin, and
Satan. That's why. These aren't stoning
a man. Well, I'm not for doing that.
Stoning a woman, I'm not for doing that either. But he says
right here, you do this, and that's to put evil. I tell you,
when God saves a man, He stones him, don't He? He puts him to
death. That old man dies and a new man
is born. What a blessing. What a blessing. Salvation from the penalty of
sin, from the guilt of sin, from the dominion of sin, from the
love of sin. That's the blessing. That's the
blessing. Verses 23 through verse 27 now.
Look at this one. There's a lesson here for these
Jewish women and there's a lesson for us today. If she really hated what this
attacker was doing to her, if she really hated what he was
doing, then you know what she did? She cried out. And when
she cried out then, they found this attacker and they put him
to death. But if she didn't cry out, that
was an evidence that Maybe she consented. So cry out. That's what He was
telling them. He was warning them to cry out.
If some man is trying to rape you, cry out. If you're in the
city, somebody's going to hear you. If you're out in the country,
he may get by with it, but not for long. They'll find out. When
you report him, they'll find out and they'll stone him to
death. Here's a good lesson for us, though, as believers. When
sin oppresses you, when Satan attacks you, then don't be quiet. Cry out. Cry out to the Lord. Tell Him about it. Here's what
David said, ìIn the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. I
cried unto God with my voice, and He heard me.î And I tell
you, when Satan attacks you and you cry unto your Savior and
he hears you, Satan's in trouble and he knows. A lot of times
when you start crying, He'll tuck His tail and flee because
He's scared of the consequences. When sin and temptations molest
you, cry to the Lord. And when He hears you, then He'll
take your part. That's a good lesson in that
for us, isn't it? Now, verse 28 and verse 29. Here's why we
should be careful when we study Scripture. When I first read
this myself, I thought, now, boy, that just doesn't seem right.
that here was this woman and some guy basically raped her
and now her dad makes her marry him and her dad gets paid for
it? That ain't right until I study
closer. Brothers and sisters, I would
encourage all of us when we study the Bible, study words, get definition
of words, run some references on them. Let me give you a good
example of this. In verse 28, if a man find a
damsel that is a virgin which hath not betrothed, not engaged,
and lay hold on her, you know what that word lay hold means?
It means manipulate. I thought, man, that explains
some stuff. He manipulates her and then what
happens? Well, let me show you the parallel
passage. There's so much planned. Look at the parallel passage
in Exodus. You can let go of Deuteronomy. Look in Exodus 22.
Exodus chapter 22 and look in verse 16 and verse 17. Look here of the words that's
used. And then you realize why, what happened. In verse 16, Exodus
22 and look in verse 16. And if a man entice a maid that
is betrothed and lie with her, now look at that. Over here it
is manipulated, here it is enticed. How did he entice her? Why, we
know something about that, don't we? Don't you remember those
vulgar days? Oh, baby, I love you so much.
Yeah, I'll marry you. Well, sure, I'll marry you. I
love you. I love you. I'm telling you I love you. You
know what it's about, don't you? Well, that's what he did. He
manipulated her. He enticed her and she consented. And she consented. Read on. He shall surely endow
her to be his wife. He had to pay her so much money.
Now she is his wife. But notice this. This wasn't
even forced on her. We didn't read the whole story
over here because the Holy Spirit wants us to search these out
and find more information. Look in verse 17. If her father
utterly refused to give her to him, he shall pay money according
to the dowry of virgins. So if he enticed her, if he tempted
her and finally she gave in and consented, she still didn't have
to marry him. As far as I know in the Scripture,
we know that the dads and moms in the Scripture had a lot of
influence over their children who they married. But you know
we never read in the Scriptures where one dad ever forced his
daughter to marry a man. We look at these Arabs sometimes
and what they do to their women and their daughters and we try
to apply that to the Bible. It's not their brothers and sisters.
You never read anywhere where God permitted a man, a dad, to
force his daughter to marry anybody. You say, Bruce, what about Abraham
when he sent Eliezer to get a wife for Isaac? Remember what he said
to her? He said to Abraham, what if she's
not willing to come? Then he said, you fulfilled your
obligation. Then when he got over there, and told her brother
and her mother, said, I'm going to take her back. They said,
call her and ask her. They called her and he said,
Will you go? That's not forced, is it? Will you go? And she said, I'll
go. And he took her back then to
Isaac. And they loved one another and married. But nobody in the
Scriptures can say that God forced me or God forces me to give my
daughter to another man. I can't help but see the way
I look at this. Here's a girl that let some rascal entice her. She lay with him, and she realizes
what she did wrong. She goes to Dad and says, Dad,
I don't love that man. I hate that man. I hate what
he did for me. Now I fell to his temptation. I don't want
to marry him. And the Dad said, Then you'll
not marry him. I'll not force you to marry him. That's what
a godly Dad would say. You take a scandal like some
of the Pharisees, they'd probably try to force her to do it just
to get money. But you can't blame God for that,
can you? God loves women. He loves women. And He's never
hurt a woman, has He? He honors women. He just put
a distinction between them. And if a woman would walk in
the place where God put her, I tell you, that's when she's
the happiest. That's when she's the happiest. And that's my opinion,
and I think the scriptures would bear that out.