A very warm welcome to our Wednesday Bible study. 446 is the hymn. Lord, speak to me. 446. 446. 446. 446. Lord, speak to me that I may speak. in living echoes of thy throne. As thou hast sought, so let me seek thy erring children, lost and lone. O lead me, Lord, that I may lead The wandering and the wavering feet. O feed me, Lord, that I may feed The hungering ones with manna sweet. O teach me, Lord, that I may teach the precious things Thou dost impart, and wing my words that they may reach the hidden depths of many a heart. O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord, until my very heart, O flow. In kindling thought and glowing word, Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show. O use me, Lord, use even me, Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where, Until Thy blessed face I see, Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share. 351. 351. He leadeth me. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words with heavenly comfort fraught. What e'er I do, where e'er I be, still this God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follow I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me. Sometimes meets in soft deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom, But water still, O troubled sea, Still this God's hand that leadeth me, he leadeth me. he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follow I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine, Nor ever murmur nor repine, Content whatever lot I see, Since this my God dead leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follow I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. And when my task on earth is done, When by thy grace the victories won, In death's cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me. His faithful follow I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Amen. 338. Show me thy way, O Lord. 338. Show me thy way, O Lord, and make it plain. I would obey thy word, speak yet again. I would not take one step until I know which way it is that you want me to go. O Lord, I cannot see, grant me Thy light. Darkness bewilders me, clouding my sight. Hold Thou my hand and keep close by my side. I dare not go alone, be Thou my guide. I cannot see Thy face, yet Thou art here. When will the morning chase my doubt and fear? When shall I see the place where day and night shall come not, for Thy glory is its light. I will be patient, Lord, and do Thy will. I will not doubt Thy word, my hopes fulfil. How can I perish if in Thee I hide? Jesus, my Comforter, my Hope and Guide. Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 8 to 19, Deuteronomy 22, 8 to 19. When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a betterment for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from thence. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, as of woolen and linen together. Thou shalt not make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vestures. wherewith thou coverest thyself. If thou any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, And when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the Demzor and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the Demzor's virginity unto the eldest of the city in the gate. And the Demzor's father shall say unto the eldest, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her. And lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid. And yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city, and the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him. And they shall immerse him in a hundred shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he has brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife, and he may not put her away all his days." Amen. Thank God for the reading of His precious Word. Laws for Family Life, Part Two is the title of our exhortation, taken from Deuteronomy chapter 22. and verses 18 to 19. In verse 8, we, in this continuing matter of family laws, look at the safety of a new home. As is regulated by the laws of God, we see that the Lord seeks to help preserve charity and good neighborship, as Matthew Henry puts it. And so if we would understand the ways of God, then you would see that in the society, in the world that we live in, even amongst family members, there will be a difference. Because there will be the grace of God that help us to live amicably and live in peace according to God's way by which He instructs us. And so verse 8 speaks of the safety of a new house. When thou buildest a house, then thou shalt make a betterment for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from thence. the betterment is a railing or restraint that must be built around the roof of a new house for the safety of those who might be present, that their lives may be saved from falling to death. I remember before moving into our house, when it was still under construction, I had the opportunity to view it, so walking up the flight of stairs all the way up, then reaching the balcony. At that time, the balcony has no wall yet. The wall has not been constructed. And so you could see very far, you could see the raw house as it is in construction. Well, you get a good view, but you see that, wow, it's actually quite dangerous. You can fall headlong if you move too close to the edge of the house. Here is given the instruction so that the house may be properly fortified and the point here is that this betterment would be a safety gadget so that there would be safety for anybody falling and injuring and how Crucial it is that we would take necessary steps to think how the house can be properly fortified or where railings is needed. There is railings where support is needed. There is support so that it will be a place of safety for those who are visiting, those who are staying there. And so it gives to us here the responsibility of looking at our house and ensuring ensuring that it is a safe place to live in. Of course, says O.T. Spence, the roof of a home was in reality the porch of the house, not only for the convenience of privacy, but also because of the comfort of the cooling evenings for sleep and hospitality, the roof was a better choice. Joshua 2, verse 6, the two spies who went into Jericho, they were brought up to the roof of the house and they were hit there with the stalks of flax. Remember, Rahab the harlot kept them there at the roof. It was also at the rooftop that David walked on the roof and saw something that he shouldn't see, a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon, that's where he fell. Acts 10 verse 9, on the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the six hours. So it was also a place where you can have a time of quiet before the Lord. And so the house is a good place, home, a place where you can find the needful rest, solitude, and peace from distractions. And so here is given to us this thought to ensure the safety of a new house. And from 9 to 11 is given to us what is called the mixture of things. There are certain things that should not be mixed together. Verse 9, to 11 gives us some clue. It says, Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy house which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, such as wool and linen together. There is a very consistent truth in the scripture. Man was not to mix. Creation came about, say O. T. Spence, because of God's ability to create and separate things. Separation is a great and old truth of the Bible. The Israelite was not to mix different kinds of seeds together and sow them in the same field. They were not to mix different kinds of animals together in labour, in ploughing, in hauling. And they were not to mix two different kinds of cloths together in the making and wearing of their garments. In a spiritual sense, as we think about what is being said here, well, we can apply this to physical necessities. We should see the principle here, not to mix the seed, the seed of the vegetable kingdom. A beautiful illustration Spence gives was that of a new birth. There is only one seed, the Word of God, that can be for our life. If And we cannot serve God and mammon, Christ and Satan. And so it's given to us here that there is a separation. The Church is called the Church. Because the members of the Church have been called out from the world. And that's the literal meaning of the word Church. The called out ones. The ones who have been called out of the world. So there is a separation that the Lord deems fit for His people. And so here is given to us to understand there are certain things that we should not mix together. There are certain things that you should not mix together. So the ox and the ass, well, they are animals of a different nature. The ox is for plowing. The horse is for riding. And so if you use the horse for the plowing together with the ox, there will be chaos. They move in different steps. And they are of different temperament. And so they could not work together. So here is given to us an observation. We must not mix two different kinds of dispositions, spirits and alliances in our labour for the Lord. An ox and an ass will not work together in the spirit of cooperation and harmony. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Of course the answer is no, isn't it? if there are differences of understanding, then you find that it does not move, isn't it? You have one saying like that, and another says like that, and which way to go? So wherever there is this situation, you find that two cannot walk together. The garment is often a type of man's habits and manner of life. So he's illustrating here. We cannot afford to mix the clothes of our garments of character and practice. We cannot manifest the garments of animal, which is the wool, and the linen, which is from the vegetable or from the plant. The first irritates, and the second smooths and cools, a different texture. And it's different nature. When you wear it, it gives you for different purposes. And so in these three examples, we give birth to a thing. The work of a thing or the character of a thing spends well explains, we must be born from above without the mixture of the world. We must work and labour in the unity of purpose without the pulling against of another energy. And we must maintain consistency of our character and practice. The birth, the walk and the life combined sets forth the godliness of the individual believer. So it's given to us here. Paul writes and tells us, Be ye not unequally yoked be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. Why does Paul gives this admonition? He said, what has light to do with darkness? What has idols to do with the people of God? They are different. And so here is taught to us that certain things should not be mixed together. When you have a mixture of it, you find that it affects each other. We are at the eighth thought, slander of a wife, verse 13 to 18. And here it said, the slander against a wife by her husband was protected by her by her purity. This is an instance when the husband feels he has a cause of slandering his wife because he suspects impurity of her at the time of their marriage. In those days, we can readily see the importance of the matter of the purity of the wife as a virgin. In our time, there are many such passages in the Bible that some might think corrupt the reader's imaginations as he reads it, but God with purpose and wisdom has left these passages quite appropriately But we do not always understand his purpose. Just because the abundant light of the sun might burn us at times, and the lack of light in the moon might cause us to stumble at night, does not mean that we do not need the sun and the moon. It is how we handle such information and light and other things that determines the good it will do for us and why God would give it to us that matters so much to us. So here is given to us our need of recognising the purity of marriage. Here, needed in those early years and the respect that is maintained whenever we remain pure to the fidelity of that marriage. It is never cheap to sin, O.T. Spence rightly points out. It will always cost a lot. A marriage cannot continue without respect, and it should never start without it. However, we certainly know that no matter what sin might do to us, God can save us by His grace, and we can be forgiven of any and all sins. That does not mean, however, that we will never have a problem after being saved by grace from sins that we commit in our youth. So sins that has been committed before, it does not mean that it is erased. There are certain things that we do that cannot be quickly or easily the consequences of it. We are talking about the consequences of it. So here, there is a custom that is presented here that indicates in the beginning of a marriage, of marriage life, proof was to be taken between the wife and her parents of the evidence of her virginity. that she has not had any relationship with other men. It seems clear that this was done with propriety, without the husband ever knowing about the actual token. At least if he knew, why would he later on doubt it? It is understood by some scholars that a bedsheet kept with evident proof by blood of the virginity of the wife, for if there had been prior intercourse, prior relationship with other men, there would be no blood by evidence which comes from the initial act of this union in the flesh. Of course, and again, if the wife was dishonest, no doubt she can fabricate a lie, a false evidence, and there was a need of the parents being honourable in their knowledge of the past of their daughter, when in all probability, godly parents would be able to suspect the loss of virginity by many other observations. However, the parents would not be knowledgeable in all instances if they and the daughter were honest. The actual method employed here might not be conclusive proof today. An active woman could lose this evidence through some athletic or other strenuous activity. With this very possibility of dishonesty, the husband had recourse in making his accusation against her. Here again, the elders of the city, to which the couple belonged, were to hold investigative counsel and decide the truth of the matter from the facts. If the accusation of the husband was untrue, he was to be chastised, and the elders would fine him in the amount of 100 shekels of silver to the father of the wife. This modest amount was not to repair what could not be repaired, but it was to give evidence of the triumph of truth and fidelity in the family in Israel. So you see how God's law teaches us and guides us so that we may know what is the appropriate approach towards life, the laws of God instructing us, showing us the way by which we ought to live. And so we thank God that the Lord teaches us and shows us. And you realise that when we come to know the Lord, that's where there is a lot of catching up to do. Catching up. So we are reading through the Bible in one year, because there are many of God's teachings, God's laws which we may have missed out. Or we may not have properly learned if we have not been taking time to dwell on God's Word, to think and ponder. So today we taught about four things. four things that the Lord wants us to learn. And you will see that there would be many lessons that the Lord would want us to learn in our spiritual journey for our equipping, so that we can be good stewards of the Lord, for the Lord. And therefore, it takes time. It takes time, isn't it? It takes time and we need to be patient. We need to take time to to think about this ourselves. So each time we go through here today, four laws. But if you think of it, if you want to consider and understand the implications and the practice, and you find that, wow, it is something that takes time to learn and internalize, and then to practice. practice. So you see that how far behind we are. We have not been taking time to study the Word of God. And so we thank God that God has helped us to at least make a start as a group of God's people that we try to read So I pray that the Lord would help us to read. And now we are at the book of Deuteronomy. There is a two weeks gap there. So we will be doing Joshua this week. Next week, we will be doing Joshua followed by Deuteronomy. So if you can, if you have not been able to catch up, do take the time to catch up. There are those who have been able to read consistently, they are already ahead. Quite a number are already in the Judges, reading the Book of Judges. So we pray that the Lord would help us, strengthen us, and grant us His grace to persevere in the consistent reading and study of His Word. So it's a habit that we build up. And the Lord wants us to build up this kind of spiritual habit, spiritual good habits, so that we would be able, in times where God gives us rest and peace, to prepare ourselves for any eventuality that He would put us in. that we will be prepared for life. So may the Lord strengthen us. May the Lord help us for His own namesake. Amen.