Commentary - Deuteronomy 22:11

Bird's-eye view

Here in Deuteronomy, as Moses is reiterating the law for the generation about to enter the Promised Land, we come across a series of statutes that can seem perplexing to the modern reader. This particular prohibition against wearing a garment woven of two different kinds of thread, wool and linen, is one of them. It is nestled among other laws that deal with purity, separation, and maintaining the distinctions that God has established in the created order. These are not arbitrary rules designed to make life difficult. Rather, they are pictorial representations of a profound spiritual reality. The central theme is holiness, which at its root means to be "set apart." Israel was to be a nation set apart for Yahweh, distinct from all the pagan nations surrounding them. These tangible, everyday reminders, down to the clothes on their back, were meant to catechize them constantly in this central truth. The ultimate fulfillment of this separation, this holiness, is found not in fabric choices, but in the person of Jesus Christ, who was utterly separate from sin, and who calls His people to be separate from the world.

This law, like the prohibitions against mixing seed or yoking an ox with a donkey, is a symbolic law. It's what the Westminster Confession would categorize as part of the ceremonial and judicial law given to the nation of Israel, which has expired with the coming of Christ. However, the Confession also wisely directs us to consider the "general equity thereof." This means we are to look for the underlying, permanent moral principle that the specific statute was illustrating for Israel. The principle here is one of integrity, purity, and the refusal to compromise. God is a God of order, not confusion. He made things according to their kinds, and this law was a visible parable teaching His people to honor those distinctions in every area of life, from agriculture to worship to their very clothing. It was a guard against syncretism, the blending of true worship with pagan worship, which was the besetting sin of Israel. And for us, it points to the great divide between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, between the righteousness of Christ and the sin of Adam.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 22 is a chapter full of what we might call case laws. It addresses a variety of specific situations in the life of Israel: finding a lost ox, the responsibility for a bird's nest, building codes for rooftops, and, in our text, clothing regulations. The common thread running through these diverse laws is the application of God's covenant righteousness to the nitty-gritty details of everyday life. The Lord is not just concerned with what happens in the Tabernacle; He is Lord over the farm, the home, and the wardrobe.

This particular verse about mixed fabrics is part of a small cluster of laws that forbid mixtures (see also Deut. 22:9-10). This context is crucial. God is teaching His people that He has established a certain order in His creation, and that this order is to be respected as a reflection of His own holy nature. The surrounding nations were steeped in religious syncretism and chaos cults that blurred all distinctions. Israel was to be different. Their lives, in every facet, were to be a testimony to the God who brought order out of chaos in Genesis 1, the God who separated light from darkness, and who separated them from the nations to be His own treasured possession.

Key Issues

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

v. 11 “You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and flax together.”

You shall not wear a material mixed... The command is direct and personal. This is not a suggestion for the priests, but a command for every Israelite. The law of God is to shape the personal habits of every one of His people. The issue is not with either material in itself. Wool was good. Linen was good. God is the creator of both the sheep that gives the wool and the flax plant that gives the linen. The prohibition is against the mixture, the shaatnez. This is a law about unholy combinations, about compromising the integrity of two distinct things that God created.

This is a picture of the spiritual adultery God's people are so prone to. We are not to weave the worship of God together with the worship of the world's idols. We are not to mix the wisdom of God revealed in Scripture with the foolish philosophies of men. We are not to yoke ourselves together with unbelievers in enterprises that demand a shared ultimate loyalty. The world loves to blend, to compromise, to create a gray mush out of everything. But our God is a God of sharp, clear, glorious distinctions. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. This command, applied to the believer's wardrobe, was a constant, tactile reminder of this foundational truth.

...of wool and flax together. Why these two materials? There is a rich symbolic tapestry here. Linen, derived from a plant, represents the righteousness of man, our works, our best efforts. Think of the fine linen worn by the priests, representing purity. But it is a created purity, a righteousness that comes from the ground, so to speak. Wool, on the other hand, comes from an animal, a living creature. It is associated with sacrifice. An animal had to give its life, or at least its covering, for the wool to be obtained. It represents a righteousness that comes through sacrifice, a covering provided by the death of another.

To weave them together was to create a symbolic confusion. It was, in picture form, to attempt to weave together man's righteousness with God's provision of righteousness through sacrifice. It is the error of Galatia, trying to mix faith and works for justification. It is the error of Cain, trying to approach God with the fruit of his own labor from the cursed ground, rather than through the blood of a sacrifice. The law was teaching Israel, in a way they could feel on their own skin, that you cannot mix these two principles. You are either clothed in your own righteousness, which is as filthy rags, or you are clothed in the righteousness that God provides through the Lamb who was slain. You cannot have it both ways. The gospel demands an exclusive trust in the finished work of Christ. This Old Testament statute was preaching the gospel in fabric.

Key Words

Shaatnez, "Mixed Material"

The Hebrew word here is shaatnez. It's a loanword, likely from Egyptian, and its exact etymology is debated. What is clear is its usage. It refers specifically to this prohibited mixture of wool and linen. It appears only here and in Leviticus 19:19. This is not a general prohibition against all blended fabrics, but a very specific one with deep theological resonance. It was a technical term for an unholy mixture, a fabric that represented a compromised identity. For the Israelite, to wear shaatnez was to wear a lie. It was to say, with one's clothing, that the line between holy and common, between God's way and the world's way, was not so important after all. It was a sartorial compromise that reflected a spiritual one.

Application

So, should Christians today go through their closets and throw out all their wool-linen blend suits? Of course not. To do so would be to miss the point entirely and fall into a kind of Judaizing legalism. The ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ. He is the perfect fulfillment of all these pictures and shadows. He is the ultimate reality to which the fabric pointed.

The application for us, the "general equity," is to take the underlying principle of separation and apply it with Spirit-led wisdom to our lives. We are not to be spiritual isolationists, but we are called to be a people set apart. We are in the world, but not of it. Our thinking, our loves, our ambitions, our worship, our ethics, all of it is to be distinct. We are not to create a syncretistic blend of Christianity and the spirit of the age. We are not to weave together the worship of the true God with the idolatries of our culture, whether they be materialism, sexual revolution, or the worship of political power.

And most fundamentally, we must apply this principle to the gospel itself. The message of salvation is not "Jesus plus your good works." It is not "grace plus your own efforts." It is Christ alone. He is our righteousness. His sacrifice is the wool, the covering provided by God. Our own works are the linen, which can never be woven together with His perfect work to make us acceptable to God. We must be clothed in Him, and Him alone. This strange little law about fabric is, in the end, a powerful illustration of the purity of the gospel. We are to wear that gospel without mixture and without compromise.