A Fowl Tale

The sun had been down less than an hour, Farra was doing the barn chores. Bobby had just arrived home and I was preparing dinner when there was a knock upon our front door. When I opened said door a middle-aged man in a ball cap, stranger to me, asked if we had two white geese. I hesitated a moment until logic surfaced in mine brain and I surmised that he wasn't requesting of us two white geese (that would be strange indeed), rather was inquiring as to whether we claimed the ownership of two particular white geese, which, it was revealed upon my negative answer, were lounging in the road near our home.

Bobby joined us with a declaration that he had also seen the geese. In fact, nearly ran them over. We discussed whom they might belong to, came to no conclusions, the man left and we went about dinner preparations, wondering to each other if something should be done about these stray waterfowl. We were reminded of this passage in the Torah:

Deu 22:1 "You shall not see your countryman's ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman.

Deu 22:2 "And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.

Deu 22:3 "And thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them.

So, should we collect the geese and keep them until the following day when we might find their owner? Being calmed by night's darkness, as most birds are, it wouldn't require much to gather them up and put them a stall in the barn where they would be safe until we found their owner. But... mightn't we be considered legalists if we adhere to the old testament law, the law of Moses? What will people say? Isn't this a burden too great to bear?

Sarcasm. Just one more service I offer.

We did as Yahweh instructed and saw the geese safely home this afternoon. It was our pleasure and our neighbor was very grateful.

I will add that before we were ever aware of this passage in Torah, it was in our hearts as believers to do this thing. We do believe that as gentiles grafted into the true vine and partakers with Israel, Yahweh has written his law in our hearts:

Jer 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

Jer 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares Yahweh.

Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares Yahweh, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

Does this mean we automatically know what's right and wrong? Preprogrammed, so to speak? I find that hard to believe. I think, though, that we learn as we grow closer to him. If we truly seek him he shows us the way to love him and to love our neighbors, for on these two commandments hang the law and prophets (Matt 22). Every law or instruction given is for our good, that it may be well with us! The whole of Torah is summed up in those two commandments because the whole of Torah teaches how to love Yahweh and how to love our neighbor.

Also, notice that this new covenant is with Israel and Judah. Yes, the new covenant, embraced by those gentiles who proclaim the old covenant to be for Israel and Judah only, was also to be with Israel and Judah only.  Praise Yahweh that he has always wanted to include gentiles, as long as they would join themselves to him and keep his commandments! (A short study on how Yahweh regarded "strangers" and "aliens" will reveal much. I highly recommend it.)