A very common accusation raised against God is that He is unfair and unjust. Unbelievers back up this belief by finding fault with God sending unrepentant people to an irreversible eternity in hell. Unfortunately, fleshly believers sometimes criticize God’s plans and timing as being unfair, such as when Jonah despised God’s decision to give the Ninevites the chance to repent. Despite these many criticisms, the more we study Scripture through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the more apparent God’s perfect justice, unfathomable mercy, and relentless grace become. This is especially seen when examining the laws He gave the Israelites to follow.
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”
This rule outlawing remarriage between a divorced man and woman after the woman is widowed or twice divorced may seem strange. However, it was an example of God graciously protecting His people because it signified the severity of divorce. God did not wish for His people to treat marriage and divorce as casual decisions they could easily make and go back on. Rather, God desired that His people treated both as serious and lasting decisions.
It is crucial to note that while God permitted divorce, it was never part of His original and perfect design for marriage. Jesus states this explicitly, as seen in Matthew 19:3-9, “And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Furthermore, in Christian Behaviour, C. S. Lewis perfectly articulates how severe, serious, and destructive divorce is: “[Christians] all regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body, as a kind of surgical operation. Some think that the operation is so violent that it cannot be done at all; others admit that it is a desperate remedy in extreme cases. They are all agreed that it is more like having your legs cut off than it is like dissolving a business partnership or even deserting a regiment.”
As Scripture clearly shows, while God is gracious in permitting divorce in the event of immorality, it is not His perfect will, nor is it desirable or beneficial. In fact, it often results in immediate suffering and lasting consequences. As God established in the very beginning and as Jesus reiterated, marriage is meant to be a permanent union between a man and a woman. For the sake of His glory, our protection, and our witness for Christ, we must wait on Him, if it is His will, to bring together a marriage rooted in His love, enjoined by His Spirit, and headed by His Son.
5 “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
6 “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.
7 “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 “Take care, in a case of leprous disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.
10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.
14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.
16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.
17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.”
This assortment of laws showcases the depths of God’s goodness and justice towards His people, with a specific emphasis on His desire to protect the poor, indebted, and needy from being taken advantage of. For example, concerning the law on the millstone in Deuteronomy 24:6, Matthew Henry’s commentary notes that it refers to a tool that a person used for his livelihood and to feed his family. This law was setup to protect people from losing their means of supporting themselves and their families. Also, verses 10-11 were given to preserve the safety and dignity of the indebted. Lenders were not to angrily demand their pledge, but to respect their neighbor and patiently wait to receive it. Finally, verses 19-22 see God institute a system to care for the needy by requiring the Israelites to leave some of their crops behind for them. Notably, Ruth 2:2-3, 16 see Boaz follow this law to provide food for Ruth and Naomi.
Likewise, Christ calls us to have His love for others and care for them, as Luke 6:35 states, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Other verses that echo this call to surrender our selfishness and serve others through Christ’s love include the following:
“If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, 2 then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. 3 Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.
4 “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ 9 then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’ 10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’”
God’s caring nature is again seen thoroughly in these laws. Concerning verses 1-3, God instituted a limit on how many times the guilty could be beaten to protect them from abuse and excessive humiliation. Also, Matthew Henry’s commentary on verse 4 explains that it forbade the Israelites from preventing their cattle from eating while they worked, showing God’s care not just for His people, but also for their animals.
In addition, verses 5-10 discuss the kinsman-redeemer and levirate marriage system, where a childless widow would be married to one of her dead husband’s brothers or nearest male relative. This system helped the childless widow receive care and gave her dead husband’s name a chance to survive through his wife’s children. While the law permitted the dead husband’s male relatives to refuse this marriage, it was considered dereliction of duty and brought lasting public shame upon them. Notably, levirate marriage was seen in Ruth 4, where Boaz married Ruth due to her dead husband’s nearest kin refusing to do so.
Furthermore, this system foreshadowed Christ redeeming mankind. Because of our sin, we were left helpless like the widow and in desperate need of redemption, lest we face God’s righteous wrath and judgment. As Romans 3:23 states, we have all sinned, fallen short of God’s glory, and therefore deserve His eternal judgment. Although God, as our holy and righteous Creator, would have been perfectly just in leaving us in this condemned state, His love and care for all mankind led Him to send Christ to the world to purchase our salvation through His perfect blood.
Similar to the kinsman-redeemer being the dead husband’s next of kin, Jesus became like one of us and considers us His brothers, as Hebrews 2:11 states. Those of us who place our faith in Him are then enjoined to His church, which is His bride. Ephesians 5:25-27 state on the matter, “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Thus, the system of levirate marriage not only demonstrated God’s care for the Israelites, but also was a foreshadowing of Christ’s love and redemption for His bride, the church.
Ruth could have remained bitter about losing her husband, but she trusted in God and He richly blessed her through her marriage to Boaz. Likewise, God can be accused of being unfair by giving mankind free will and permitting sin and death to enter Creation. However, Christ’s salvation not only saves us from eternal condemnation, but also gives us access to something greater that Adam and Eve had: Christ in us. Through His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can know God personally and through surrender to Him, receive His mind, love, and life. All of these enable us to overcome sin, effectively share His Gospel, know and obey God’s will for us, and be drawn into greater dependence on Him amid life’s trials. As the levirate marriage system demonstrates, God is not unfair in permitting the consequences of sin and fiery trials of life to affect mankind, for through them He has provided His richest blessings and the deepest expressions of His love through Jesus Christ salvation and life in those who place their faith in Him.
11 “When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, 12 then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.
13 “You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. 14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. 15 A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.”
The first law in this set, while seemingly harsh, showcases God’s care to protect a man’s ability to bring forth descendants. The second set of laws concerning differing measurements showcases God’s demands for His people to avoid cheating one another. Proverbs 11:1 comes to mind: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.”
Finally, God’s desire for the Amalekites’ complete destruction showcases His perfect justice. While this seems harsh, God is perfectly just here because He was not only avenging the grave mistreatment His people received from the Amalekites, but, being omniscient, He knew the problems they would cause in the future. This began to come to pass in 1 Samuel 15, where King Saul was tasked to carry out this command to eradicate the Amalekites. Because he failed to do so, not only did enough of them survive to capture members of David and his men’s families in 1 Samuel 30:1-2, but also resulted in the birth of Haman, who attempted to completely eradicate the Jews as seen in the book of Esther. Because of their grave sin and the great evil their descendants would commit in the future, God’s desire to exterminate the Amalekites was perfectly just and showcased His love and protection for His people.
For our application, we can likewise trust God to exact His perfect judgment when others wrong us. This is not our responsibility, for Romans 12:19 says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”” Rather, we are called in Matthew 5:38-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”” Such behavior cannot be produced from human love, but only the perfect, unconditional love of Christ. It is our responsibility to share this love with all, even our enemies, and allow God to judge those who mistreat us in His perfect timing and justice.
Though many see the laws and accounts of the Old Testament and believe God is unfair and cruel, a thorough, Spirit-led study reveals the great depths of God’s perfect justice and indescribable love for His people. The laws covered in these chapters of Deuteronomy clearly showcase these attributes, from Him protecting the poor and widowed to exacting His perfect vengeance on His people’s enemies. Though Christ has fulfilled the Law and it cannot save us, studying it is for our benefit, for its entirety is a window into the perfect heart of our heavenly Father, whose Word always demonstrates the unfathomable depths of His grace, mercy, and love for us.