Unequally yoked
This week's verses are from Deuteronomy 22:9-11:
These verses came to mind in a conversation I was having with friends last Sunday, but I thought they were in Leviticus for some reason. I guess I need to read the Bible more! A lot of times they're quoted as an example of the ridiculousness of the Old Testament Law compared to the shiny awesomeness of New Testament Grace. And yet the Old Testament Law comes from God and is a glimpse at His goodness. Let's look at the context at the time.
Things repeated in three variations always seem to be important. The first example is of mixing two kinds of seeds for one crop. We know now that plants hybridize and that the offspring of that intermixture have inconsistent traits. Imagine hanging your livelihood on something you expect to be predictable, and instead finding it to be useless! God designed the seeds. He knows how they work. The seeds might produce a good result or it might be disastrous. Unless you can afford to take the loss, you shouldn't experiment with it.
The second example is hooking an ox and a donkey together. Paul riffs on this example in 2 Corinthians 6:14 when he talks about Christians and non-Christians being unequally yoked. An ox is bigger than a donkey. Either the donkey is going to slow the ox down or the ox is going to drag the donkey along. (Hooking the German and Greek economies together comes to mind.)
If you try hooking two odd-sized animals together, one or both of the animals will be injured. And it will be hard to get them to plow in a straight line because one will naturally move faster than the other. If you haven't thought about the physics involved in hooking two different animals to the same yoke, you're probably thinking "Hey I've only got one ox where I need two, but hey look, I have a donkey. Good enough!" And God is saying "Don't try it!"
The last example is the one I thought was in Leviticus. It says to not weave linen and wool together in a garment. Wool and linen have different properties. They absorb dyes differently. They are different strengths. They come from radically different sources. If you mix them, you're going to end up with something that isn't going to wear the same, and isn't going to be able to be cared for the same as one or the other. Why exert extra effort to produce an inconsistent, potentially low-quality product when you have options that will give you something nice already?
A lot of the Old Testament laws are moral in nature, but these seem to be almost like engineering best-practices. God is giving design tips to his otherwise uneducated people. Instead of it being this restrictive petty thing that people make it out to be, it is actually a deep act of love. None of these people know genetics, or material sciences or physics, but God mentors them in a way that they can benefit from his wisdom.
It's a principle in God's creation. Things which are moving at different speeds and or different directions are not able to be hooked together. Whether it's genes, or workers, or materials, or guiding core values, trying to get them to perform together as if they were the same is a recipe for disaster.
Paul's reference to this principle in 2 Corinthians is a solid explanation as to why partnerships forged between Christians and non-Christians are likely to produce strife. Your core values as a Christian are likely to be different from those of a Muslim or secular partner.
When it comes to making key decisions using limited resources, you are going to pull in different directions. When that happens, what's it going to do to the thing you've built? Will the results be muddled, like the crossbred grapes? Will one of you injure or hinder the other or damage the yoke, like the ox and donkey? Or will it be a complicated mess like the garment? How well can righteousness and wickedness, or light and darkness, occupy the same space or chart the same course?
It's interesting to meditate on these verses and see how it affects our life decisions. Could multitasking really be a mixture of unlike things competing with each other, for instance? And if so, does it affect the fruit our efforts can bear? Are we torn somehow by trying to reconcile our religious beliefs with our political beliefs? Can we live out our Christian values while trying to conform to a secular world that is hostile to many of our beliefs?
While religious police aren't going to necessarily drag us out into the street and beat us for wearing a cotton-polyester blend, it doesn't mean that these old verses don't still have something to say. If an unequal mixture of things is sinful in principle, maybe there are things in our lives where God would prefer that we choose one or the other, or to simplify how we produce what we produce.
Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
These verses came to mind in a conversation I was having with friends last Sunday, but I thought they were in Leviticus for some reason. I guess I need to read the Bible more! A lot of times they're quoted as an example of the ridiculousness of the Old Testament Law compared to the shiny awesomeness of New Testament Grace. And yet the Old Testament Law comes from God and is a glimpse at His goodness. Let's look at the context at the time.
Things repeated in three variations always seem to be important. The first example is of mixing two kinds of seeds for one crop. We know now that plants hybridize and that the offspring of that intermixture have inconsistent traits. Imagine hanging your livelihood on something you expect to be predictable, and instead finding it to be useless! God designed the seeds. He knows how they work. The seeds might produce a good result or it might be disastrous. Unless you can afford to take the loss, you shouldn't experiment with it.
The second example is hooking an ox and a donkey together. Paul riffs on this example in 2 Corinthians 6:14 when he talks about Christians and non-Christians being unequally yoked. An ox is bigger than a donkey. Either the donkey is going to slow the ox down or the ox is going to drag the donkey along. (Hooking the German and Greek economies together comes to mind.)
If you try hooking two odd-sized animals together, one or both of the animals will be injured. And it will be hard to get them to plow in a straight line because one will naturally move faster than the other. If you haven't thought about the physics involved in hooking two different animals to the same yoke, you're probably thinking "Hey I've only got one ox where I need two, but hey look, I have a donkey. Good enough!" And God is saying "Don't try it!"
The last example is the one I thought was in Leviticus. It says to not weave linen and wool together in a garment. Wool and linen have different properties. They absorb dyes differently. They are different strengths. They come from radically different sources. If you mix them, you're going to end up with something that isn't going to wear the same, and isn't going to be able to be cared for the same as one or the other. Why exert extra effort to produce an inconsistent, potentially low-quality product when you have options that will give you something nice already?
A lot of the Old Testament laws are moral in nature, but these seem to be almost like engineering best-practices. God is giving design tips to his otherwise uneducated people. Instead of it being this restrictive petty thing that people make it out to be, it is actually a deep act of love. None of these people know genetics, or material sciences or physics, but God mentors them in a way that they can benefit from his wisdom.
It's a principle in God's creation. Things which are moving at different speeds and or different directions are not able to be hooked together. Whether it's genes, or workers, or materials, or guiding core values, trying to get them to perform together as if they were the same is a recipe for disaster.
Paul's reference to this principle in 2 Corinthians is a solid explanation as to why partnerships forged between Christians and non-Christians are likely to produce strife. Your core values as a Christian are likely to be different from those of a Muslim or secular partner.
When it comes to making key decisions using limited resources, you are going to pull in different directions. When that happens, what's it going to do to the thing you've built? Will the results be muddled, like the crossbred grapes? Will one of you injure or hinder the other or damage the yoke, like the ox and donkey? Or will it be a complicated mess like the garment? How well can righteousness and wickedness, or light and darkness, occupy the same space or chart the same course?
It's interesting to meditate on these verses and see how it affects our life decisions. Could multitasking really be a mixture of unlike things competing with each other, for instance? And if so, does it affect the fruit our efforts can bear? Are we torn somehow by trying to reconcile our religious beliefs with our political beliefs? Can we live out our Christian values while trying to conform to a secular world that is hostile to many of our beliefs?
While religious police aren't going to necessarily drag us out into the street and beat us for wearing a cotton-polyester blend, it doesn't mean that these old verses don't still have something to say. If an unequal mixture of things is sinful in principle, maybe there are things in our lives where God would prefer that we choose one or the other, or to simplify how we produce what we produce.
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