Deuteronomy 23:24-24:524When thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. 25When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn. 1When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. 3And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; 4Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 5When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. (Deuteronomy 23:24‑24:5)
THEN thou comest into thy neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel."
It was the same with the neighbor's standing corn. He was not to mind their eating some of his grapes or his corn, but they were not to carry any away. God Himself was the real owner of the land; He is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and His bountiful harvests would banish all scarcity and hunger from it. But at the same time the rights of others were to be respected, and so we have a beautiful balance here.
How lovely these commandments! How they tend to create that warm happy feeling of friendship, welcome and kind-heartedness, so lacking in this world and alas, even among us as Christians today.
In the next chapter is the case of the divorced woman, defiled by another marriage; the original broken bond could not be renewed. God allowed an Israelite to divorce his wife, not because He approved of it, but because of the hardness of their hearts. This the Lord Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 19:88He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:8). God showed His mind about these things in the beginning when He presented Eve to Adam, and time does not change it. We must remember that Israel here was really the First man under trial, but until the Lord Jesus, the Second Man, came, God did not go beyond man as he was in his fallen condition. God bore with many things in Israel even though such were not His mind for man on earth.
But we need to remember too that in Christianity, we are much more responsible than the Israelite was. The Spirit of God now dwells in the believer as a divine Person, even as He now dwells in the Church of God, so Christian lands have been enlightened (Heb. 6:44For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (Hebrews 6:4)).
The believer has the power to live to please the Lord in spite of his circumstances, so if he or she is involved in an unhappy partnership God can use it to draw one nearer to Himself and so make all things work together for good. However, the believer is not to break that which God has joined together.
In the next verse we have a tender provision honoring the marriage tie. When a young man married he was excused from military service or any other business and be free at home for one year; "and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken." The loneliness of a young wife who has just left her father and mother and former home is not forgotten before God. He who created the heart knows all the inmost feelings and loneliness it feels at times. He would teach us to have the same care one for another.
Messages of the Love of God 10/26/1975