I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 21-23.

    When I came to Deuteronomy I was expecting to struggle with what to write about it. After all, Deuteronomy means, more or less, “Second Law”, so I perceive it too a large degree as being a repeat of things said in earlier books (primarily Leviticus). I was pleasantly surprised as I read through it this year with the new perspectives on things I found there. Until today. Today’s passage contains a lot of miscellaneous regulations to which I see no common theme. That being said, I still believe there is value in reading through it regularly and I suspect that next year I will have a different perspective on it.
    There was one section that I want to expand on a little. When I was a child there was a saying we often used, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” I knew many adults who used it as well (although, I am pretty sure my parents never used it and discouraged my siblings and I from using it). In this passage, God makes it clear that that saying is not His ideal either. If we find something of value, we should seek to return it to its rightful owner. If we know who they are and they live nearby, we should take it to them. If we do not know who they are, or they live more distantly, we should hold it for them until they can be identified and/or arrangements can be made for them to retrieve it. The next verse is on a similar theme. If we witness someone struggling with a task, we should assist them.