February 28 / Deuteronomy 24-27

Deuteronomy 24-27

You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Deuteronomy 25:4

I hope we all know that we are not now bound by the letter of all these laws. First of all, I am guessing that most of us are not descendants of Israel, and so are not really part of the “covenant community” to which these laws are given as part of that covenant. Second, even if we were descendants of Israel, we have a New Covenant in Christ, which supersedes this Old Covenant. (We’ll eventually get to that much later in our readings.) And we should all be exceedingly thankful for that New Covenant because otherwise we’d be subject to the curse of Dt. 27:26: Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

Even though we may be free from needing to strictly observe all these laws, we still need to pay attention to them, because they give us principles that express God’s heart. They show us what is right, what is just, what is fair, what is proper. And so it is with this law regarding oxen. On the surface it just says that an ox should be allowed to eat as it works. On the surface the law applies only to oxen. So, strictly speaking, muzzling a cow being used for the same task would be OK, but I think we all recognize that the LORD would frown on such an interpretation. We should instead look for the LORD’s heart and extrapolate a bit. We should recognize that the LORD expects us to act with compassion, even justice, with oxen — and much more generally than with just oxen.

Saint Paul quotes this verse twice, in I Corinthians 9:9 and in I Timothy 5:18, to argue that ministers of the Gospel deserve to be paid for their preaching and teaching. And he is right, of course. We should not expect our pastors and other church staff to live as paupers or to have to work a second job just to put food on the table. We should, in fact, recognize the tremendous value of their ministry and generously give to provide for their needs.

As we approach the end of Deuteronomy and we look back over the Torah and the 613 commandments that the rabbis tell us it contains, let’s not just consider the letter of the law and all its detail. Let’s find the spirit of the law, what God is really and truly looking for. Let’s recognize that it is all summed up in those two greatest commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor.