Deuteronomy 22:1 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.
Well, I hope you have your list for the day. I am sure you have your itinerary for the month, and know exactly where you are going, what you are thinking, and what you are going to accomplish. The problem with all this, of course, happens Monday morning the first hour you are awake. Sometimes it seems that we have the best of intentions, but they get instantly hijacked. Instead of taking action, we seem to be responding to other people the entire day! No matter what we plan, we seem to have other plans imposed upon us.
In Deuteronomy 22, God gave a number of instructions to His people. All of them are important and relevant in some way to us right now. The sum and substance of it is that evil will overtake the land that will not put it away.
Verse 21 says, “So shalt thou put evil away from among you.” There were a number of situations where God’s people were to do the right thing. Now sometimes we think of doing the right thing as some initiative we take, and that is certainly true. But sometimes we are initiated upon. Someone does something to us or around us and we are required to decide whether we are going to passively watch or we are going to respond in a way that requires action and courage.
There are numerous examples. Let’s take verses 1-2, “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.” Perhaps you’ve heard the old saw, “finders keepers; losers weepers.” That is unfortunately pithy, but it is not Biblical. The Bible continues, “And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.”
So, if you find your brother’s car, truck, or animal, it is not just that you can’t take it for yourself, you need to take care of it for him until he returns. That is a big obligation. Who asked for this? I am having a hard enough time taking care of my own sheep, cows, and farm to worry about someone else’s, yet the Bible says, “Thou mayest not hide thyself.” In other words, God doesn’t just judge us by what we do or what we initiate, He judges us by how we respond.
All it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing. Sometimes we plead ignorance when really we should be pleading guilty. Ignorance is not bliss, and sometimes we do not want to acknowledge the things that we know because it then puts an obligation upon us. Yet, there is a peace that comes from confronting things we did not choose, facing them with courage because we know it is the right thing.
I don’t go out looking for trouble, and I don’t go out looking for a lost cow, ox, or donkey of my neighbor. I suppose the equivalent today may be some other possession, maybe an electronic or something else, but when I am faced with a situation, I need to respond in a way that is an honor to God and a help to other people.
At the end of today, our innocence or guilt are sometimes determined not by what we initiate, but by our response to situations we did not initiate. When we respond as we should, God will do what we cannot.