Deuteronomy 24: Social Justice

If you've ever been in charge of others - such as being a teacher, a pastor, a policeman or a parent - you know how difficult it can be to keep the peace and get people to treat each other fairly.  Deuteronomy 24 contains God's words for various social situations and how to keep things just.

What do these principles look like?

• Don't trade spouses back and forth (vs. 1-4).
• Give a newlywed a year of marriage before making them serve in the army (vs. 5).
• Don't take someone's livelihood or essentials away from them as collateral (vs. 6, 10-13).  Be respectful toward your debtors.
• Be ruthless against such evils as kidnappings and outbreaks of leprosy (vs. 7-9) 
• Pay a worker promptly (vs. 14-15).  Don't make people wait unnecessarily long to receive their wages.
• Don't punish one person for the crimes of another, such as parents for children and vice versa (vs. 16).
• Be especially kind and thoughtful toward aliens, orphans and widows (vs. 17-22).

Even though we live in quite a different world and time in history today, these principles still represent the heart of God for social justice.