Day #76

Sermon - Audio
Deut 17-20 - Audio
Deut 17-20 - Daily Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment



17

Overview = Moses is very repetitious throughout Deuteronomy. Themes of Israel's disobedience, God's grace and justice in that disobedience, and the worship of oneself and other gods continues on in these chapters.

v1 = These sets of verses pertain to offering blemished sacrifices to a holy God. In Malachi 1:8 we see that they didn't always obey this command. Remember with Cain and Abel that God wants the best. We have a tendency to not give him that.

Q - What things are you giving God 2nd best in?

v3-v5 = Idolatry was such an abomination to God that it required a life. A stoning, actually. In stoning, the executioner would be a group of people (a community effort so to speak). These people would more than likely first hinder the "idolaters" ability to move by either throwing them off a ledge of some sort or by enclosing them in a small area. Then the people would proceed to throw stones at the person until they died. As you can probably tell, it wasn't a pleasant way to die. The apostle Paul was stoned in Acts, but lived through it! I'm not sure you'd want to.

v6-7 = This idea of two-three witnesses makes its way into the NT as well. In 1 Timothy 5 we see that issues against an elder will need to be brought by two or more witnesses as well. This could be because God is just as concerned about his reputation being kept. He doesn't want people wrongly accused and He understands the sinfulness of man.

v8-9 = Straightforward judicial cases are dealt with in local courts. The difficult cases are to be taken to the central sanctuary. The place that the LORD your God will choose indicates the integration of worship with justice, deriving from the character of God as just and implying that ultimately God himself is the judge

v10-13 = The high courts decision is final. The people must accept the verdict given.

v14-15 = Israel was commanded to permit itself no foreign rulers. This is a token of the fact that Israel was a people set apart by the Lord to be—through both declaration and example—His unique representative among the nations. To be ruled by a foreign king would open the door to contamination of Israel’s faith through the influence of pagan religion. Ultimately it would lead to the dissipation of God’s purpose in bringing salvation to all nations through a pure and separated people.

v16-17 = Here God is warning that governmental leaders will constantly face the temptation to abuse their power for the sake of personal gain, which is contrary to his will. (ESVSB) We can see that this exact thing happens later with David, Solomon, and almost every other king.

v18-20 = Why does he do this? Look closely: 1. learn to fear God 2. Obedience 3. Perseverance

18

v9-v14 = These verse pertain to the pagan worship of Molech. The eight banned practices for determining future actions are those of:
(1) a diviner—the methods are listed in Eze. 21:21
(2) a sorcerer—possibly referring to conjuring or astrology;
(3) one who interprets omens;
(4) a witch—one who makes use of magic formulas or incantation;
(5) a charmer—Ps. 58:4–5;
(6) a consulter of mediums—see (7);
(7) a wizard, often used with (6)—Isa. 8:19 describes the practice; and
(8) necromancer—one who seeks to interrogate the dead. (Scofield)

v15-19 = Acts 7:37 = This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ The Jews expected this "prophet" who was Jesus. While there would be a line of prophets to come, all would culminate in Jesus.

v20-22 = False prophets are put to death. The two criteria of a prophet are that they 1. Speak only on God's behalf. 2. They report only God's words. (JSB)

19

v1-13 = These verses discuss the separation of cities and handling for manslaughter. See Num 35, Ex 21, etc.

v14 = “You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker,” refers to moving markers so as to enlarge one’s own property. Such action was a serious moral offense and the perpetrator of such an act is cursed in 27:17. (WBC-OT)

v15-20 = Once again, One witness was never enough to establish a fact in a Biblical court of law. One needed two or three to establish something. If a false witness came against somebody, then the person giving the false witness suffers the same penalty as they accuse a man of.

21 = This is known as the "Lex talionis" = “Jesus’ criticism of this law (Mt. 5:38f.) arose from its use to regulate conduct between individuals. He did not reject it as a principle of justice which should operate in the courts of the land. For private relationships He proposed the ideal of brotherhood, a strong principle throughout the book of Deuteronomy. To extend the lex talionis to this interpersonal domain was to destroy the law of God.” (Thompson)

20

v1-4 = Moses is telling the people to not be afraid of their enemies for they will conquer them.

v5-8 = Exemption from military service is extended to three groups of people. See the parallel covenant curses in 28:30. The priority is on enjoying the blessings from God in housing, crops, and marriage. The exemptions show that Israel did not need to depend on every last man fighting and that warfare was not to be an end in itself but a means to a greater end. Those who fight serve the interests of the whole community. A fourth exemption from military service is extended to any who are fearful and fainthearted (cf. Gideon’s army in Judg. 7:2–3). Psychologically, fearfulness could be contagious throughout the army. More significantly, fear is disobedience and God does not allow such disobedient warriors to fight. (ESVSB)

v9-18 = Moses tells the people to offer peace when they come to a city. If they accept this offer, then their enemies will become slaves for them. If they do not accept then they will go into war. Interestingly enough they are allowed to keep the women and little children as spoils, except when they come to the promised land where they must kill everyone.

v19-20 = Really weird verses here. They are called to only cut down the non-fruit bearing trees. A couple different thoughts on this:

1. The law of protection of fruit trees acknowledges that Israel is to inherit trees that it did not plant (see 6:11). This law also puts a brake on human shortsightedness: the ultimate end of the land is to be a fruitful garden for God’s people to enjoy. (ESVSB)

2. The anomaly of trees being spared while human beings were slaughtered lies precisely in the fact that human beings sin and therefore are culpable whereas trees, not being sentient, are “innocent.” This underscores the awfulness of sin and explains God’s abhorrence of it and need to punish it. (ASB)