Preserving Dignity in War

Go. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. It's morning. We're at Deuteronomy chapter one. Oh, I hit the thing. It hit the camera. Everything shook. It was like an earthquake. Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 10 through 14. Deuteronomy 21 verses 10 through 14.
You're already there. Man, you're so smart. All right. We're going to have some coffee. We'll pray and get into God's word. You ready? Okay. You should have some coffee then. No coffee More of God's gifts to me then You ready for it? Yeah. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for time and your word. Thank you for time together. Father, we pray that you would please bless us as we read your word. We pray that it would be a joy to us, a blessing to us, that your spirit would teach us in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So we're coming to a passage that many people will come to and they'll go, oh, man, this is so horrible. One way is horrible. Another way, we see what God is doing. Okay, you ready? I'll let you read it.
Verses 10 through 14. When you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, you take them captive. and if you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her and would take her for a wife then you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and trim her nails she shall put off the clothes of her captivity and remain in your house, and mourn your father and mother in a full month, that you may go into her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but certainly shall not sell her for money. You shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
Okay, so we got three questions to ask ourselves. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? Okay, so this is a hard section. What's it talking about? Marrying your captive. Yeah, right. So if you, if the Israelites go to war, And they see a beautiful woman, look at her, man, she's beautiful. What are you allowed to do? You're allowed to take her. OK, well, interestingly, right, so you're allowed to take her, but if you take her, what does she have to be? She has to shave her head. Yeah, she has to shave her head and cut her fingernails. You have to give her a month Morning, right?
But notice what verse 11 sees you see a captive amongst the captives a beautiful woman and desire her and would take her for your wife Deborah this is something I need to warn you about. Okay. This is this is a The pages of history. I was to read to you a whole bunch of the history books over here and on the top shelves up there about wars that have happened in the world. There's a very.
There's a very, very sad thing that happens in war, OK? One of the evils and atrocities that happens with war. Is that men will treat women horribly? They treat women like objects to be used. For abuse and rape. One of the absolutely ugly things that has happened in almost every war that's ever happened. That's part of the depravity of man, it's evil and it's wrong and it's wicked. But notice, is that how the Israelites are to act when they go to war? Absolutely not. If they go to war.
And amongst the captives, they see a woman and she's beautiful. They're allowed to get married to her. But notice it doesn't say and she can become your sex object. You can become your sex slave. It doesn't even say she's allowed to be their concubine. She's to be there. wife. Right now, when they bring when a man, if she's if he says, OK, hey, man, she's a beautiful woman. I'm going to marry that girl. He marries her.
Is he to just ignore her past? No, right. She's shave her head, trim her fingernails, things like that. Right. But then what is he what must he allow her to do? Have one month to mourn. Yeah, right. This is preserving her dignity and preserving even the trauma that she's gone through. She's allowed to mourn for a year, for a month.
And after that, then, OK. You're able to go forward through with this wedding, but. What happens if things don't work out? They can. They can just set her free, but they can't sell her. Yeah, she is not a slave. My God permits in this situation divorce. But it's clear she's not his property. He doesn't own her. She's not a slave. She's not even a servant. She was his wife.
So God is, I think, here. I don't think he's saying this is what's good. This is ideal. I think this is a bad scenario. It's an ugly situation. And the Lord is kind of right. There's this whole capacity for sin. And the Lord is narrowing it down. Jesus teaches us, though, that. Who is marriage supposed to be between? man and his wife and what God has joined together. Let no man tear us under or rip apart. Right. Because that's what God has done in a marriage. Right. And so divorce sometimes happens. But here God is giving this to them, as Jesus will say, Moses gave this to you because of the hardness of your heart.
Not because this is what's good. but this is what you might even call like real politics, right? This is, this is in an ugly world. You have to have laws, try to limit the damage, but try to still care for first principles. The first principle here is that preserving the dignity of these women. So some people will come to this passage and they'll be like, Oh man, this is, this is just another evil. And it's no, no, hold on that evil in the world is real. It's mitigating this damage, it's trying to limit it as much as possible.
Now. Do you think that if a man treated his woman like a slave, right, notice her, you're not allowed to sell her for money, you shall not treat her brutally. Right. If a man started to do that, what do you think could happen? What do you think should happen? The wife should be taken away from him. Yeah. Right. Then she would be able to be set free. Right, so she's broken that marriage bond with her.
Then the elders are able to impose on him judgments for breaking the law. Right, so this is a protection also for these women. They were not to be treated brutally. They were not to be treated like slaves. So this was saying war is ugly. It's going to be ugly. It's always ugly. There's no there's no. Pretty thing about war. Jesus says there's always going to be wars and wars are always going to be ugly.
But the question for us is, how do we behave even in? So. Give me one sentence, a what is this about, what do you think this is about? Hmm. About marrying captive. OK, so marrying a captive, what do you think is the best verse to summarize this? Eleven. Do you think verse 11 is OK and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her and would take her as your wife? I think that's a good one. Yeah. What do you think? See calling. What are you called to do or how does this show you Jesus Christ? I don't really know what I'm called to do.
Well, should you marry a man who would treat you like a slave? No. Did you marry a man who would be brutal with you? Did you marry a man who would humiliate you? No. Did you marry a man who would treat you unkindly? Do you know what God tells husbands in the Book of Colossians?
What? Husbands, do not be harsh with your wives. Some people even translate that brutal, cruel, mean. Right. I hope that you'll find a man who would love you, as Ephesians says, like Jesus loves the church. Gentle, humble, meek, caring. But don't just go after the first boy who finds you cute. Right, but find a man who's going to cherish you and love you. Not treat you like a slave.
So I think that's a good one for you, but you know what that reminds me I got to love your mommy better. I got to continue to put to death my desire. To do whatever I want to do. And to love your mom in a way that would be sacrificial towards her. Because that's what Christian men are supposed to do. Because guess who lives sacrificially for us? Oh man, did you smoke a pack of cigarettes this morning? Jesus. Jesus, did he come to be served? No, what did he do? Came to serve. Came to serve, right. I think there's a lot this teaches us about marriage, about Jesus, about how we treat one another. Some good lessons here.
You ready to pray? God, I thank you so much for this time. Lord, we pray that we indeed would be blessed by your Holy Spirit to live out these words. Lord, we pray that you would raise up a generation of men who would not be brutal or harsh, but would preserve the dignity of the women who they love, their wives. Lord, I pray that you would please Help us to mitigate the sin of our own hearts. Teach us to walk in the spirit and not by the flesh. Father, please put to death the sinful desires of our flesh and live for you. Please, Lord, help us be loving, gentle, kind, patient, faithful and self-controlled.
For against these things, there is no law. Thank you for Jesus, who model all these for us. In his name we pray. Amen. May God bless you. As you look to Jesus Christ, the one who has loved you with a perfect love, and may you follow in his ways. See you next time. Bye. Bye.