A ssurvey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 13 (Part 2)

Now, let us consider the first of the “major prophets”, Isaiah. In Hebrew his name is יְשַׁעְיָה (yᵊšaʿyâh, “Yah has saved”). He was sent to prophesy to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, during the time of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, probably beginning in 740BC with his vision recorded in Isaiah 6:1-13 and extending at least as far as the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701BC. There is a theory that the book of Isaiah was written by three different authors, chapters 1-39 being attributed to the prophet himself, chapters 40-55 is said to be written by a second author (Deutero-Isaiah), and chapters 56-66 by a third author (Trito-Isaiah) . Whether this is true or not does not take away from the fact that this entire book was spoken by God, whoever the authors may be. Besides, this theory only came about in the 1700s (like the “Documentary Hypothesis” about the book of Deuteronomy), and is not accepted by most conservative Bible scholars:

 

Most reputable Bible scholars reject the “Deutero-Isaiah” theory. Their conclusions include the similarity of writing styles in both sections, the consistent use of the same words throughout, and the familiarity of the author with Israel, but not Babylon. Furthermore, Jewish tradition uniformly ascribes the entire book to Isaiah. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain a complete scroll of Isaiah dated from the second century BC. The book is one unit with the end of chapter 39 and the beginning of chapter 40 in one continuous column of text. This demonstrates that the scribes who copied this scroll never doubted the singular unity of the book. Neither did the New Testament authors, nor the early church, as quotations from both sections are attributed only to Isaiah.

(https://www.gotquestions.org/Deutero-Isaiah.html) 

Isaiah’s prophetic office was one of dire warnings, not only to the nation of Judah, but to the pagan nations surrounding them. One of Isaiah’s earliest prophecies is the Messianic prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14—(repeated in Matthew 1:23)—“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” This is the first of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecies. The word translated “virgin” is the Hebrew עַלְמָה (almah, “virgin, young woman; of marriageable age; maid or newly married”). In the Septuagint this word is rendered in the Greek as παρθένος (parthenos, “a virgin; a marriageable maiden; a woman who has never had sexual intercourse with a man; one's marriageable daughter”), as it is in Matthew 1:23. The fact that the Holy Spirit led Matthew to use this word παρθένος rather than a word which would insinuate a woman who had had sexual relations with a man should be enough to quell any thoughts that Mary was not a chaste virgin when the Holy Spirit came upon her. “Well, hold on now! In Genesis 34:3, the LXX uses the Greek word παρθένος to describe Dinah after she was raped! So how can you say that this word only means a chaste virgin??” Simple. Because Dinah was taken in rape, and it is probable that at the time she was still chaste. Genesis 34:3—His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman (LXX, παρθένος). But in the very next verse (Genesis 34:4) the LXX uses the word παιδισκην (paidisken, “a young girl, damsel; a maid-servant, a young female slave”) for “young woman.” Genesis 34:4—So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young woman (LXX, παιδισκην) as a wife." So why did the translators of the LXX use two different words for “young woman” (KJV, “damsel”)? Here’s why: because before Shechem took her, she was a virgin. After he took her, she was now simply a “young woman”, no longer chaste. So let’s put these verses together. Genesis 34:3-4—His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman (Hebrew נַעֲרָה, [naʿărâ, “young woman”]; LXX, παρθένος). So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young woman (Hebrew יַלְדָּה [yaldâ, “marriageable girl”]; LXX, παιδισκην) as a wife." It is also possible that Shechem spoke kindly to her to get on her good side and seduce her and that when this didn’t work he took her by force. I found this at the website for Summit Theological Seminary (which appears to be affiliated with the Church of Christ. I do not agree with many of the doctrines of the Church of Christ, but that does not negate the fact that the following is most likely a correct exegesis of the text in Genesis 34):

 

Notice that the narrative in verses 1-3 are presented as a single event in time. That is, he saw her, he took her, he lay with her, he violated her, was attracted to her, loved her, and spoke kindly to her all at the same time. To read this as a progression of events each happening after the other is likely a mistake. Was he only attracted to her after he violated her? That is absurd. Why would he take her, lay with her, and violate her if he was not attracted to her? When exactly did he love her and speak kindly to her? Was it only after he had violated her? It is possible that the account is telling us that he loved her and spoke kindly to her before, during, and after he violated her. That in no way minimizes his guilt. In fact, it makes it that much worse. He raped a girl that he loved, spoke kindly to, and later wanted to marry. That is very twisted behavior. The original Hebrew structure of these verses also indicates that the events of verses 2 and 3 happened simultaneously. These verses contain a series of what is called vav-consecutives. Essentially, that is a list of actions strung together by conjunctions to indicate a quick series of events or events occurring simultaneously. It can be illustrated in English as follows:

And he saw her…

And he took her…

And he lay with her...

And he violated her…

And he was attracted to her…

And he loved her…

And he spoke kindly to her…

The Septuagint translators evidently recognized this Hebrew construction as they used the Greek conjunction “kai” meaning “and” to begin each of the phrases in these verses. This is as close as you can come to mimicking the Hebrew vav-consecutives in Greek. This indicates that the translators were not saying that she was a virgin after he raped her, but when he raped her.

(Summit Theological Seminary, “Was Dinah a Virgin After She Was Raped?”, from “The Gospel Unashamed”, vol. 37 no. 1, found at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://summit1.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GUN_Vol_37_1_-_Jan_2024_-_Was_Dinah_a_Virgin_After_She_was_Raped_by_Terry_Carter.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjTlozYotCLAxXaRTABHf0gC7AQFnoECCkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2RtlDL2KZWYVH_ssRu-s9k)

Whatever the case may be, Matthew was well within his rights to use παρθένος to describe Mary, as Mary was still a chaste virgin at the time of Jesus’ conception. Luke 1:34—Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" Luke’s words give still more evidence that this she was pure at the time of this miraculous event. 

The next words of Isaiah we will look at are the words he wrote of the “Suffering Servant”. Keep in mind these words were written some 700 years before Jesus came and fulfilled them. When Messiah came, the people were looking for a military leader like David (as they knew Messiah would be the son of David) and throw off the yoke of the Romans as Judas Maccabee had done about 200 years prior. They were not looking for a Messiah who was coming to save the people from their sins, to die for those sins and unite Jew and Gentile into one body. They probably also expected him to be a handsome man like David was. They expected him to be popular, to be adored by all the people. But that was not the picture Isaiah drew of Him. Isaiah 53:3-10—3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. So many prophecies just in these verses that were fulfilled by Christ: 

1.       He is despised and rejected by men (see Matthew 27:39)

2.       And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him (see Matthew 26:56)

3.       Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (see 1st Corinthians 15:3)

4.       Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted (see Matthew 27:46)

5.       But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (see 2nd Peter 2:24)

6.       All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way (see Romans 5:12),and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (see Romans 5:15)

7.       He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth (see Luke 23:9)

8.       And they made His grave with the wicked (see Luke 23:33)

9.       But with the rich at His death (see John 19:38-41)

10.   When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed (see Matthew 28:16-17; Mark 16:7; Luke 24:36; John 20:19) 

Ten prophecies in eight verses. And they all were fulfilled. No “Prophet” today could give even one prophecy that would come true. But what do we do with that phrase in verse 10, the one that says Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him? Was the Father really looking forward to watching His Son beaten and crucified to death? Was He really that vindictive? Do we Christians serve, as we have been accused by many, of belonging to a “blood cult” that vicariously derives some sick and twisted pleasure from the Father watching with unbridled glee as the murder of His Son is carried out? God forbid! God did not take delight in the death of Jesus, but that what He willed from before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) was coming true. Why? Why did God ordain that His Son should suffer and die? The answer is simple: He did it for us. And in all actuality, He did it for His glory. He would not wipe out Israel for their groanings in the desert for one reason: His glory. And He would not allow the crown of his creation to all go to eternal destruction for one reason: His glory. 

When he comes, our glorious King,/all his ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:/Hallelujah, what a Savior! 

Jesus ransomed us from eternal death in the depths of Hell so that He might bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10), and by so doing He brought glory to the Father (John 17:1). We could talk about so many more prophecies we find in the book of Isaiah, but I think that will suffice for now. 

Let us move on then to the prophet Jeremiah. He was called as a prophet before he was born, before he was even conceived in the womb. Jeremiah 1:4-5—4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." His was a sad calling, as he was called during the reign of Josiah and Josiah’s wicked son Jehoakim, all the way through until the captivity of Judah under King Zedekiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3). He was to prophesy to the people about their coming exile into Babylon. Not a very happy message to be delivering to the people. Not one you would hear on TBN these days. Not gonna fill a stadium for Jesse Duplantis. But such was the lot in Jeremiah’s life; such was the burden he carried for Judah. They had seen the Northern Kingdom of Israel taken into captivity 135 years prior, and now the same fate was going to befall them. And Jeremiah had seen it all in his prophecies, and was going to live it out in flesh and blood. 

And why did they go into captivity? Jeremiah 2:1-5—1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them," says the LORD.'” 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the LORD: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?” Jehoiakim, Jehoachin and Zedekiah were the final kings in Judah, and they all did wicked before the LORD. Jehoiakim’s name was Eliakim before Pharaoh Necoh changed it to Jehoiakim (2nd Kings 23:34). It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar came up to Judah to take it into captivity (2nd Kings 24:1). Jeremiah had had his scribe Baruch write a letter, a prophecy he had received from God in Jeremiah 36 to warn Jehoiakim of the captivity that was to come upon Judah. And much like many things that God said to rebellious people, this was not taken well. In fact, Jehoiakim was so outraged that this prophet dare say that Jehoiakim’s reign would come to an end that he burned the scroll that Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch (Jeremiah 36:23). And he thought this would be the end of the thing God said He would do. But God is God, and His plans will not be foiled by men, so He ordered Jeremiah to take another scroll and write on it the very same words He had given the prophet in the previous scroll (Jeremiah 36:28-32). 

In Jeremiah 37:1 we read these words, Now King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. Coniah was the name given to Jehoiachin (also rendered as Jeconiah in 1st Chronicles 3:17), who was cursed by God in Jeremiah 22:24, 30—24 “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off…30 Thus says the LORD: 'Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah.'” The words 'Write this man down as childless' present us with a problem, however. For Coniah—along with his son Shealtiel—is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1:11-12. If he were childless, how could he beget Shealtiel and be listed in this genealogy? In fact, 1st Chronicles 3:17-18 list the sons of Jehoiachin. So how do we answer when this is brought up as a challenge to the inerrancy of Scripture? Here is where a deeper study of Scripture is warranted. In 2nd Kings 7:12-13, God says to David, 12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” So God had promised to David that a king would sit on the throne of Israel forever (see also Jeremiah 33:17, which says “‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel’”). Yet Coniah (Jehoachin), who was descended from David, was to be “written as childless” and is yet included in the genealogy of Christ. 

And here is where we come to our solution: The genealogy found in Matthew is the descent of Joseph (the one found in Luke is the descent of Mary). Was Joseph the natural father of Jesus? No. Matthew 1:18—Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Joseph could not have fathered Jesus, as (1) Joseph was a man—a decent man, but one tainted by the curse of sin, and would have passed his sinful nature to his son; and (2) Joseph was naturally descended from Jeconiah. The answer lies in Luke’s genealogy. Luke 3:27-28—27…the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er… In 1st Chronicles 3:16-17 we read that Jeconiah was the son of Jehoiakim. 1st Chronicles 3:16-17—16 The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son and Zedekiah his son. 17 And the sons of Jeconiah were Assir, Shealtiel his son... So Jeconiah and Neri were two different people, having different fathers. The best explanation for Luke listing Neri as the father of Shealtiel (that I have found) is that Shealtiel was the product of a Levirate marriage and was born to Jeconiah’s wife after Jeconiah went into captivity to Babylon, thus not a natural son of Jeconiah. Luke was a meticulous historian and would not have overlooked something as simple as the parents of Shealtiel. And if he was indeed the product of a Levirate marriage (and not Jeconiah’s natural son), this would fit even better into Luke’s genealogy. Keep in mind, Luke listed Jesus’ lineage as “X, the son of Y, the son of Z”. Thus, it would be very probable that this would be the case. “So why does Matthew say that Jeconiah begat Shealtiel?” Because Matthew is not listing Jesus’ credentials as king, whereas Luke is. Remember the words of God, 'Write this man (Jeconiah) down as childless'. Thus, the theory that a Levirate marriage produced Shealtiel is further undergirded. More evidence is provided by this rather lengthy passage from Keil and Delitzsch:

 

The omission of Assir in the genealogies in Matthew and the Seder olam also proves nothing, for in the genealogies intermediate members are often passed over. Against the appellative interpretation of the word, on the contrary, the want of the article is decisive; as apposition to יְכָנִיָה, it should have the article. But besides this, according to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:27, Shealtiel is a son of Neri, a descendant of David, of the lineage of Nathan, not of Solomon; and according to Haggai 1:1, 12; Ezra 3:2. 5:2; and Matthew 1:12, Zerubbabel is son of Shealtiel; while, according to 1st Chronicles 3:18-19, he is a son of Pedaiah, a brother of Shealtiel. These divergent statements may be reconciled by the following combination. The discrepancy in regard to the enumeration of Shealtiel among the sons of Jeconiah, a descendant of Solomon, and the statement that he was descended from Neri, a descendant of Nathan, Solomon's brother, is removed by the supposition that Jeconiah, besides the Zedekiah mentioned in 1st Chronicles 3:16, who died childless, had another son, viz., Assir, who left only a daughter, who then, according to the law as to heiresses (Numbers 27:8, 36:8), married a man belonging to a family of her paternal tribe, viz., Neri, of the family of David, in the line of Nathan, and that from this marriage sprang Shealtiel, Malchiram, and the other sons (properly grandsons) of Jeconiah mentioned in 1st Chronicles 3:18. If we suppose the eldest of these, Shealtiel, to come into the inheritance of his maternal grandfather, he would be legally regarded as his legitimate son. In our genealogy, therefore, along with the childless Assir, Shealtiel is introduced as a descendant of Jeconiah, while in Luke he is called, according to his actual descent, a son of Neri. 

I know that whole explanation may have been a bit long, but sometimes you must go around the whole block to make a left-hand turn. So, in stating that Jehoiachin would be written down as childless, Jeremiah was saying that he would have no natural sons. 

The next prophecy of Jeremiah we will look at is the word that came to him from God that God would establish a New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34—31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” We are no longer under the Old Covenant. Nobody is. That was done away with at the Cross. When Christ died, was buried, and rose from the grave, a New Covenant came into effect, doing away with the regulations found in the Law, and ushering in a new era of grace (not that the Old Covenant was without grace). 

So “Now”, you may ask, “Who and what is Israel?” It is not the physical descendants of Jacob that are Israel, but rather those who are of faith in Christ who are Israel. Do not be mistaken, however, there are some who are physical descendants of the Patriarchs who are of faith in Christ and who are, therefore, Israel. Romans 11:1-2—1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. But we Gentiles who also believe in Christ are Israel. Romans 11:11—I say then, have they (the Jews) stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God has always accepted Gentiles into the congregation of His people. But they had to go through certain rites (e.g., circumcision) to be accepted into that people. They had to become like the Jews. But now, there are no special things we need to do to be counted among the people of God. He has grafted us wild branches into the natural olive tree. Romans 11:17-21—17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. God broke off some of the natural branches of the natural olive tree and has grafted in us Gentiles—wild branches—that we may be one people with the natural Jews. In other words, He has made the two—Jew and Gentile—one, through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:11-14—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

 Part 3 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 13 (Part 1)

Deuteronomy 13:1-18—1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'—which you have not known—'and let us serve them,' 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. 6 If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you. 12 If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 13 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods"'—which you have not known—14 then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. 16 And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 17 So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, 18 because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.” 

Let’s talk a little about prophets. When God speaks to a people, especially His people, He does so through prophets. The prophets did not speak their own words, or whatever came into their mind, but they spoke the words given to them by God. 2nd Peter 1:21 (George Williams New Testament)—No prophecy has ever yet originated in man's will, but men who were led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. When Ezekiel lay on his left side for three years (Ezekiel 4:5), it wasn’t because of some weird idea he had. That was what God commanded him to do.  When Isaiah spoke against Moab (Isaiah 15:1-9), it wasn’t a speech he prepared the night before and carefully proofread. The words he spoke were the words given to him by God. These things that were done and spoken by the prophets seemed strange to the people at the time, but we now see that these things were done and said because God gave them the words and the actions to perform.

Today, men (and women) set themselves up as prophets, and claim to speak all kinds of things, claiming they are from God, and that the people hearing them ought to obey because they are speaking for and from God. I shared some of the “prophecies” of Benny Hinn that were blatantly false here. The fact that these prophecies did not come to pass automatically disqualifies him from being a prophet and would have caused him to be stoned to death under the Old Testament Law (Deuteronomy 18:22). But these self-appointed “prophets” include two things in their “prophecies”. The first thing they do is to make sure that they are telling the people something they want to hear—how God is going to rain down material blessings on them, that they are going to be rich and healthy and that everything they will do will succeed. So they thus grab the favor of the people. The second thing they do is to warn the people not to judge them or second-guess them or compare their “prophecies” to Scripture, or they will suffer greatly by God. The warning they give most of the time is from 1st Chronicles 16:22—"Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm." By setting themselves up as prophets, and by claiming to be anointed by God, they can use this verse to try to silence their critics and keep their followers in line. Whether it’s Creflo Dollar or Kenneth Copeland or TD Jakes, they all use this verse to deflect criticism of their false teachings and warn those speaking against them that they are enemies of God. 

But let’s talk about the true prophets of God. The ISBE says this about true prophets:

 

According to the uniform teaching of the Bible the prophet is a speaker of or for God. His words are not the production of his own spirit, but come from a higher source. For he is at the same time, also, a seer, who sees things that do not lie in the domain of natural sight, or who hears things which human ears do not ordinarily receive; compare 1st Samuel 9:9, where נָבִיא (nābhı̄', “speaker, spokesman, prophet”) and  רֹאֶה (rō'eh, “seer”) are used as synonymous terms. Jeremiah 23:16 and Ezekiel 13:2 are particularly instructive in this regard. In these passages a sharp distinction is made between those persons who only claim to be prophets but who prophesy “out of their own heart,” and the true prophets who declare the word which the Lord has spoken to them. In the latter case the contents of the prophecy have not originated in their own reflection or calculation; and just as little is this prophecy the product of their own feelings, fears or hopes, but, as something extraneous to man and independent of him, it has with a divine certainty entered the soul of the prophet. The prophet has seen that which he prophesies, although he need not have seen it in the form of a real vision. He can also “see” words with his inner eyes (Isaiah 2:1, and often). It is only another expression for this when it is frequently said that God has spoken to the prophet. In this case too it is not necessary that there must have been a voice which he could hear phonetically through his natural ear. The main thing is that he must have been able sharply to distinguish the contents of this voice from his own heart, i.e. from his personal consciousness. Only in this way is he capable of speaking to the people in the name of God and able to publish his word as that of Yahweh. In this case he is the speaker of Yahweh (נָבִיא, nābhı̄'), or the mouth of the Lord (compare Ezekiel 7:1 with Ezekiel 4:16). 

Long story short, those gifted with the gift of prophecy can distinguish between what they simply feel in their heart or mind and words spoken to them by God. 

Many think of Samuel as the first prophet, but this is not the case. For before him, Moses spoke with God “face-to-face” (or rather, “Mouth-to-mouth”, as Moses was not allowed to see God) and even Noah could be considered a prophet and his building of the Ark a sign to the people. We are seeing the prophetic office of Moses as we study the Law, so let’s talk about Noah. Genesis 6:6, 8—6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart…8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. The world had become altogether corrupt, save for one man and his sons. Did God give a warning to the corrupt people? Yes, He did. He had Noah build an ark as a sign to the people and to save them from the flood. Hebrews 11:7—By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. In all the days of building the Ark, he must have been laughed at and scoffed at by the wicked. “What is he building? Why is he building it? He must be a madman!” They thought nothing of the wickedness they were doing. They were just going about their daily lives, doing whatever they thought in their hearts, drinking and carousing and carrying on, not thinking about how this may have been grieving the heart of God, if they even thought of God. It was as Jesus said in Matthew 24:38-39a (repeated in Luke 17:26-27)—38 “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.” Noah was giving them a sign, and they ignored it. It was not only a sign to the people then, but Jesus even used it to warn us to be careful to watch for His second coming. Matthew 24:37, 39b—37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be…39 so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. We see today many who ignore God, who ignore the pleas to come to Christ that they may be saved from the wrath to come. But they don’t listen, they don’t care, they don’t know God and don’t want to know Him. They go about their daily lives, doing whatever they think in their hearts, drinking and carousing and carrying on, not thinking about how this may be grieving the heart of God, if they even think of God.

 Samuel was set apart to God as a boy. 1st Samuel 1:24, 28—24 Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young…28 “Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD.” We have already talked about how Samuel was a Nazirite all his life. And we see in this same book that God began speaking to him at a young age (1^st Samuel 3:4). The first prophecy he heard from God was not a pleasant one, for it foretold of the end of Eli (the second-to-last judge in Israel), and he had to tell it to Eli. But such was the lot of a true prophet of God—they do not always have feel-good stories to tell the people, tales of health and wealth and prosperity. Many times when God speaks through a prophet, it is to warn of impending doom. 1st Samuel 2:16-19—16 Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son!" He answered, "Here I am." 17 And he said, "What is the word that the LORD spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you." 18 Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him." 19 So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. Samuel was a true prophet of God, and what he told the people to do or to not do was to be obeyed, as the words he spoke came from none other than God Himself. 

This applied not only to the lay people, but even to the king Himself. In 1^st Samuel 15, he gives a command to King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites—everything living among them was to be destroyed. 1st Samuel 15:2-3—2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3     Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'” Pretty clear and straight forward, no ambiguity there. The command was simple: Saul was to have his army wipe out every living thing of the Amalekites, including the women and children and livestock. But Saul had a better idea. 1st Samuel 15:9—But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. “Let’s destroy the bad stuff but keep the best things alive and sacrifice them to God! What’s the worst that can happen?” Well… 1st Samuel 15:10-11—10 Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11 "I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments." And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night. Not only did Saul’s disobedience grieve God, it grieved His prophet as well. That is how close the relationship is between God and His prophets. His heart is their heart and their heart is His heart. It is as if they were one and the same. Not only that, but the heart of the prophet is with the people his words come against. I’m sure he felt no joy about telling Eli that he and his sons were about to die. And it obviously did not tickle him to tell Saul the words that God was about to speak against him. Here, Saul thought he was doing a great thing by keeping King Agag and the best of the livestock alive. He thought he knew what God wanted better than the prophet to whom God Himself spoke. 1st Samuel 15:13, 15—13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD…15 They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” But Samuel had told him what God had told Samuel—everything and everyone of the Amalekites was to be destroyed. “Everyone?” 

 

 

Yes, everyone. Saul did not give obedience to the command of God—he gave partial obedience, which is disobedience. “I have performed the commandment of the LORD!” 1st Samuel 15:14, 18-19, 22-23—14 But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?…18 Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?"…22 Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." Because Saul did not harken to the words of the prophet, and did what was right in his own eyes, God took the kingdom away from him and gave it to David. 

Interestingly, Samuel’s final prophecy came after he died. King Saul had banished all necromancers and mediums (1st Samuel 28:3, as well he should have). But the Philistines were coming to attack Israel, and when Saul went to inquire of God, He would not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets (1st Samuel 28:6). God had taken His spirit way from Saul, and had cut him off as king, and this attack from the Philistines was to be his final downfall. And because God did not answer him, Saul had another brilliant idea. “I’ll go to a necromancer and medium, even though I have put them out of Israel!” In other words, he did what was right in his own eyes. He went to the Witch of En Dor to have her bring up the spirit of Samuel (1st Samuel 28:8-11). Necromancers and mediums are another class of false prophets. None can speak with the dead (see Isaiah 8:19-20), and anyone who says they can are in danger of destruction. But Saul was so bent on holding on to his kingdom that he went against the word of God that he used this as his last resort, hoping that Samuel would give him a word from God that would allow him to keep it. But, alas! God did bring up Samuel, by His own hand and not by the hand of the witch. 1st Samuel 28:12—When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!" She knew that her necromancy was false, and when Samuel appeared she knew that this was of God. Many use this as an excuse to use psychics to tell them things they want to hear. When actually, this is a warning against such practices. G. Campbell Morgan:

 

It is strange how this story has been made to serve in defense of things occult, which, as a matter of fact, it condemns. Let it be carefully read, and it becomes perfectly patent that this woman had nothing to do with bringing up Samuel…When in response to her incantations, as it seemed, Samuel actually appeared, she was startled beyond measure. That Samuel actually did appear to Saul there can be no doubt. However, he was sent of God for the express purpose of delivering the terrible message to Saul, to which the king listened in amazement. It was the pronouncement of his doom, and the call from the other side to the spirit of the man who had so utterly and disastrously failed to fulfil his opportunity. 

1st Samuel 28:16-19—16 Then Samuel said: "So why do you ask me, seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy? 17 And the LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. 19 Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines." Even in death, the prophet of God was speaking to Saul, and not good things, but rather reinforcing what he had already told him, and that this was going to happen the very next day!

Part 2 next week

 

Je4sus Christ is Lord.

Amen. 

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 12 (Part 3)

Deuteronomy 12:5-12—5 “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you 

Let’s look at that little phrase “Every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes”. This is a phrase we find twice in the book of Judges (Judges 17:6, Judges 21:25), and are in fact the last words in that book. When men turn away from God and do what they think is right and forget the One who says what is right and wrong, they set themselves up for all kinds of disaster. This is the theme of the book of Judges, as that was a time after the death of Joshua and the time when God would establish prophets in the land. And instead of looking to God’s Law to see what was right and what was wrong, they took it upon themselves to establish these things. Judges 2:13—They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And what happens when the people of God forsake Him? He sends them judgment, and delivers them into the hands of their enemies. Judges 2:14-15—14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed. The people rose up to play, they ate and drank, they played the harlot with other gods, and God had to put them in their place, and remind them that they belonged to Him. God does not play around (as we saw in Numbers 11). When He says that the people were to do or to not do something, He is not speaking just to hear Himself talk. He expects the words e speaks to be listened to and obeyed. And if His words are disobeyed, He will bring judgment. 

But is He a God without pity? Absolutely not! Judges 2:16, 18—16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them…18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. The word “judges” in the Hebrew is שֹׁפְטִים (shiphtim, plural of the root word שָׁפַט, [shaphat, “to judge, govern, vindicate, punish” ]). God would not allow this infant nation to come to a halt so soon, for it would bring shame to His name, just as Moses had pleaded with Him twice (see Exodus 32:12-13; Numbers 14:13-19). So He showed them mercy, and raised up men (and one woman) whom He would be with and whom He would use to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. Othneil, Shamgar, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Ehud and Deborah. When the people cast off YHVH, and followed other gods, the true God would allow them to go into captivity to a pagan nation. He would then raise up someone to deliver them, He would give them deliverance…and they would go right back to bowing down to idols. Judges 2:19—And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. 

Judges chapters 1-2 are basically a summary of the whole book. Beginning in chapter 3 we read the details of the 450-year period of the judges. The first of these judges was Othniel. Judges 3:7-9—7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. 9 When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Othneil was a nephew of Caleb, and thus saw the conquest of Canaan with his uncle Caleb and Caleb’s friend Joshua. He knew what it meant to have a heart for God, as he had seen it in his family. He had the same fighting spirit as his uncle, who told Joshua “Give me this mountain” (The mountain of Hebron, which were inhabited by the Anakim, in Joshua 14:6-14). He saw the fearlessness of his uncle and his desire to drive out those who opposed the people of God, and that same desire burned within him. And he delivered the people from the oppression of Cushan-Rishathaim. 

So who was Cushan-Rishathaim anyway? Well, we don’t have any information about him outside of the Bible. The ISBE tells us that his name means “Man from Cush, he of the twofold crime”, while Strong’s renders is “Twice-wicked Cushan”. Notice the first part of this man’s name, “Cushan”. (Thomas Constable believed the last part of his name was given to him by the Israelites who suffered under him for eight years.) This comes from “Cush”, a son of Ham (one of Noah’s sons, the one who disgraced him in Genesis 9:22). The Cushites mostly dwelt in Africa, but some settled in the land of Shinar (Mesopotamia, see Genesis 10:10). So this man was a descendant of Ham, and another wicked one (in fact, as his name implies, twice-wicked). Why would God allow this Twice-Wicked man to conquer the people of Israel? They forgot the LORD their God. So (according to one theory found in The Expositor’s Bible) this Mesopotamian king made an alliance with the Hittites (whose land he would have had to traverse to reach Canaan) to attack Israel and conquer them as they had conquered the peoples who were living in the land they now occupied. Because they forgot the LORD their God. So He gave them up to this alliance, let them feel the weight of oppression for eight years, then delivered them by the hand of Othniel. 

We see also in the New Testament that when men forsake God—any man, whether or not he is a man of God—he will be given over to his lusts, that God will cause him to forget and forsake God, and He will punish them for it. Romans 1:20-25—20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. The natural man knows there is a God. They may not know Him as YHVH, but they know He is there. This is why we are called to take the Gospel to the world, that they may know the truth about God and Christ—so the ones whom God has not yet delivered over to a debased mind may believe. It may turn out that they will not believe. This is sad but true. It is not until God opens their eyes that they will know the truth. But that is not what we are called to do. We are called to simply take the news to them—it is up to God to open their eyes and their hearts. 

For the ones who have already made up their mind, that they will not believe in God and do not want to believe in God—it may be too late. Romans 1:28—And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. Once this happens, that door has been shut. Once God has given them over to a mind that wants nothing to do with God, and only wants to fulfill the wants of the flesh, it is too late for that person. They will not hear the truth, they will not believe the truth, and they will not be convinced by Scripture and sound reason of the truth. They will spend the rest of their days storing up wrath for themselves, filling up their measure of sin, their lives filled with nothing but waiting until the final judgment and their eternal fate. “But it is the will of God that all men repent and be saved!” So then man is superior to the will of God? If God wants all men to be saved, why does He give them over to a debased mind? Why doesn’t He give every single man the knowledge of the truth that they may be saved? Would this not be a delightful thing? Yes, to us it would be delightful. That would mean we wouldn’t have to worry about our loved ones or our friends burning in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. But that is not what He does. Some, God gave them over to a debased mind. So how do we reconcile these two ideas? We can, but it would take too long to talk about here and would get us off track. Suffice it to say, He wants all of His people to be saved (2^nd Peter 3:9, notice the apostle says that God is longsuffering to us. That is, believers). Those who do not believe and who do not want to believe, He gives over to their sin, and lets them have all of it they want. It is they who does whatever is right in his own eyes. 

Deuteronomy 12:3-27—13 “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. 19 Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20 When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.” 

Another lengthy section, but again we will break it up into smaller chunks. Also, these verses kinda jump around a bit so I will try to group them together to make them a little more understandable. 

Deuteronomy 12:13-14, 21-13, 26-27—13 “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you…21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat…26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.” God would choose one place to put His name, and it was there—and only there—where the people’s sacrifices were to be taken. They would no longer have the pillar of smoke by day and the fire by night. They would have the Tabernacle of Meeting, which would reside in one city in one of the lands of a tribe. The first place where the Tabernacle rested in Canaan was the city of Gilgal, in the land that would become the land of the western tribe of Manasseh, just north of Jericho (see Joshua 4:19). In Deuteronomy 12:5 it says “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.” Eventually, under King David, that city would be Jerusalem, and the place where He would put His name would be the temple there. Even King Darius said as much in Ezra 6:12—“And may the God who causes His name to dwell there destroy any king or people who put their hand to alter it, or to destroy this house of God which is in Jerusalem.” It was only in the place where God caused His name to dwell, whether Gilgal or Shechem or Jerusalem, where the people were to offer their sacrifices. The pagans, on the other hand, with their many temples and high places, offered up incense to their gods at various places. This was not to be so for Israel. There was to be one place where the people of Israel were to bring their sacrifices in worship of the one God. This was also true of the tithes of the land—they were also to be eaten in the place where God chose for His name to dwell (see Deuteronomy 12:17-18). 

21 “If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.”. When they were all of one camp, and the Tabernacle was set up in the center of all the tribes, it was not impossible for the people to bring their animals to the Tabernacle to make sacrifice. When they conquered the land of Canaan, and as God said He enlarged their borders, it would become more difficult, if not almost impossible, to do so. Let’s say a family lived in the land of Dan in the north, or in the land of Simeon to the south, and God placed His name at the other end of the entire land of Israel. This would be a trek of almost 150 miles, give or take—roughly the same distance as it was from Mt. Sinai to the southern edge of Canaan. So it would take 11 days to traverse the full length of Israel if this were the case. So God made provision for the people if this problem arose. He could take the animal to the Levite that lived in his land, and they could slaughter it and offer it to God for their sacrifice. And they could eat as much of it as they wanted to. 

But for their daily food, they could eat it at any place within the gates of their city. Deuteronomy 12:15-16, 20—15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water…20 When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.” If a man had been out hunting, and brought home a deer or a gazelle, they could eat of these, assuming they were properly slaughtered and the blood drained out (see the discussion of ingesting blood in our covering of Leviticus 17 here), both he and his family, within the city of his residence. And even if his son or daughter were unclean by reason of touching a dead body or because of some other uncleanness, they could eat of it as well. In Leviticus 17, we saw that any man who slayed an animal did not bring it to the Tabernacle was to be cut off from the people (see Leviticus 17:3-4). They had manna to eat, a daily gift from God, and did not involve the death of an animal. If a man wanted to sacrifice an animal as a Peace Offering, he had to bring it to the Tent of Meeting where it would be processed by the priests, and he could partake of it over the next two days (see here and here). But he could not go out and kill one of his livestock for a meal. But now he can. If he brings home some venison, and slaughters it properly and drains the blood, his family is gonna eat good. He does not need to bring it to the Tabernacle as a Peace Offering. 

Why? Because it is ““The blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.” He was now giving the people meat to eat—meat that they craved so badly in Numbers 11 He was now giving them as a blessing. And if they had flocks or herds, they could eat of them as well. John Gill:

 

They might kill such cattle that were allowed for food, and eat the flesh of them in their own cities and houses in which they dwelt; they were not obliged to bring these to the place God should choose, and kill them there, as they had been wont to bring them to the tabernacle while in the wilderness…whatever they had a mind to, or their appetite craved, and were desirous of, provided it was not anything forbidden, but was allowed to be eaten…[whatever God gave] in the power of their hands to procure for themselves; they might live according to their abilities, and keep a table answerable to what God had blessed them with; from which they were so far from being restrained, that it was rather commendable in them so to do. 

God gives us food. He gives us what we need. We can eat what we want, and it does not defile us (see Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:18). We are not cut off from Christ if we eat a pork chop. We can eat whatever we want, because we know the difference between the clean and the unclean, between the holy and the profane. We are not commended to others by food. 1st Corinthians 8:4-8—4 Concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. Paul was telling the Corinthians that even if they did eat meat that was once offered to idols, that was not the end of them. They were now in Christ, sheltered from the Law, protected from dietary rules and restrictions which could make no man better or worse in the eyes of God. They were now free to eat what they desired—with one caveat. Don’t let your freedom in Christ become a stumbling block to a new or potential believer. 1^st Corinthians 8:9—But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. Are you witnessing to a Muslim? Then don’t eat pork. Are you witnessing to a Hindu? Don’t eat beef. Are you witnessing to a vegan? Don’t eat meat at all (and don’t show up to their house wearing a real leather jacket). Be free in Christ, live your liberty—but don’t use that liberty in a way that could dampen your witness to the lost.

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Deuteronomy 12 (Part 2)

Deuteronomy 12:5-12—5 “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.” 

Let’s look at that little phrase “Every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes”. This is a phrase we find twice in the book of Judges (Judges 17:6, Judges 21:25), and are in fact the last words in that book. When men turn away from God and do what they think is right and forget the One who says what is right and wrong, they set themselves up for all kinds of disaster. This is the theme of the book of Judges, as that was a time after the death of Joshua and the time when God would establish prophets in the land. And instead of looking to God’s Law to see what was right and what was wrong, they took it upon themselves to establish these things. Judges 2:13—They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And what happens when the people of God forsake Him? He sends them judgment, and delivers them into the hands of their enemies. Judges 2:14-15—14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed. The people rose up to play, they ate and drank, they played the harlot with other gods, and God had to put them in their place, and remind them that they belonged to Him. God does not play around (as we saw in Numbers 11). When He says that the people were to do or to not do something, He is not speaking just to hear Himself talk. He expects the words e speaks to be listened to and obeyed. And if His words are disobeyed, He will bring judgment. 

But is He a God without pity? Absolutely not! Judges 2:16, 18—16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them…18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. The word “judges” in the Hebrew is שֹׁפְטִים (shiphtim, plural of the root word שָׁפַט, [shaphat, “to judge, govern, vindicate, punish” ]). God would not allow this infant nation to come to a halt so soon, for it would bring shame to His name, just as Moses had pleaded with Him twice (see Exodus 32:12-13; Numbers 14:13-19). So He showed them mercy, and raised up men (and one woman) whom He would be with and whom He would use to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. Othneil, Shamgar, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Ehud and Deborah. When the people cast off YHVH, and followed other gods, the true God would allow them to go into captivity to a pagan nation. He would then raise up someone to deliver them, He would give them deliverance…and they would go right back to bowing down to idols. Judges 2:19—And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. 

Judges chapters 1-2 are basically a summary of the whole book. Beginning in chapter 3 we read the details of the 450-year period of the judges. The first of these judges was Othniel. Judges 3:7-9—7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. 9 When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Othneil was a nephew of Caleb, and thus saw the conquest of Canaan with his uncle Caleb and Caleb’s friend Joshua. He knew what it meant to have a heart for God, as he had seen it in his family. He had the same fighting spirit as his uncle, who told Joshua “Give me this mountain” (The mountain of Hebron, which were inhabited by the Anakim, in Joshua 14:6-14). He saw the fearlessness of his uncle and his desire to drive out those who opposed the people of God, and that same desire burned within him. And he delivered the people from the oppression of Cushan-Rishathaim. 

So who was Cushan-Rishathaim anyway? Well, we don’t have any information about him outside of the Bible. The ISBE tells us that his name means “Man from Cush, he of the twofold crime”, while Strong’s renders is “Twice-wicked Cushan”. Notice the first part of this man’s name, “Cushan”. (Thomas Constable believed the last part of his name was given to him by the Israelites who suffered under him for eight years.) This comes from “Cush”, a son of Ham (one of Noah’s sons, the one who disgraced him in Genesis 9:22). The Cushites mostly dwelt in Africa, but some settled in the land of Shinar (Mesopotamia, see Genesis 10:10). So this man was a descendant of Ham, and another wicked one (in fact, as his name implies, twice-wicked). Why would God allow this Twice-Wicked man to conquer the people of Israel? They forgot the LORD their God. So (according to one theory found in The Expositor’s Bible) this Mesopotamian king made an alliance with the Hittites (whose land he would have had to traverse to reach Canaan) to attack Israel and conquer them as they had conquered the peoples who were living in the land they now occupied. Because they forgot the LORD their God. So He gave them up to this alliance, let them feel the weight of oppression for eight years, then delivered them by the hand of Othniel. 

We see also in the New Testament that when men forsake God—any man, whether or not he is a man of God—he will be given over to his lusts, that God will cause him to forget and forsake God, and He will punish them for it. Romans 1:20-25—20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. The natural man knows there is a God. They may not know Him as YHVH, but they know He is there. This is why we are called to take the Gospel to the world, that they may know the truth about God and Christ—so the ones whom God has not yet delivered over to a debased mind may believe. It may turn out that they will not believe. This is sad but true. It is not until God opens their eyes that they will know the truth. But that is not what we are called to do. We are called to simply take the news to them—it is up to God to open their eyes and their hearts. 

For the ones who have already made up their mind, that they will not believe in God and do not want to believe in God—it may be too late. Romans 1:28—And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. Once this happens, that door has been shut. Once God has given them over to a mind that wants nothing to do with God, and only wants to fulfill the wants of the flesh, it is too late for that person. They will not hear the truth, they will not believe the truth, and they will not be convinced by Scripture and sound reason of the truth. They will spend the rest of their days storing up wrath for themselves, filling up their measure of sin, their lives filled with nothing but waiting until the final judgment and their eternal fate. “But it is the will of God that all men repent and be saved!” So then man is superior to the will of God? If God wants all men to be saved, why does He give them over to a debased mind? Why doesn’t He give every single man the knowledge of the truth that they may be saved? Would this not be a delightful thing? Yes, to us it would be delightful. That would mean we wouldn’t have to worry about our loved ones or our friends burning in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. But that is not what He does. Some, God gave them over to a debased mind. So how do we reconcile these two ideas? We can, but it would take too long to talk about here and would get us off track. Suffice it to say, He wants all of His people to be saved (2^nd Peter 3:9, notice the apostle says that God is longsuffering to us. That is, believers). Those who do not believe and who do not want to believe, He gives over to their sin, and lets them have all of it they want. It is they who does whatever is right in his own eyes. 

Deuteronomy 12:3-27—13 “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. 18 But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. 19 Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20 When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. 21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.” 

Another lengthy section, but again we will break it up into smaller chunks. Also, these verses kinda jump around a bit so I will try to group them together to make them a little more understandable. 

Deuteronomy 12:13-14, 21-13, 26-27—13 “Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you…21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. 22 Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat…26 Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. 27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.” God would choose one place to put His name, and it was there—and only there—where the people’s sacrifices were to be taken. They would no longer have the pillar of smoke by day and the fire by night. They would have the Tabernacle of Meeting, which would reside in one city in one of the lands of a tribe. The first place where the Tabernacle rested in Canaan was the city of Gilgal, in the land that would become the land of the western tribe of Manasseh, just north of Jericho (see Joshua 4:19). In Deuteronomy 12:5 it says “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.” Eventually, under King David, that city would be Jerusalem, and the place where He would put His name would be the temple there. Even King Darius said as much in Ezra 6:12—“And may the God who causes His name to dwell there destroy any king or people who put their hand to alter it, or to destroy this house of God which is in Jerusalem.” It was only in the place where God caused His name to dwell, whether Gilgal or Shechem or Jerusalem, where the people were to offer their sacrifices. The pagans, on the other hand, with their many temples and high places, offered up incense to their gods at various places. This was not to be so for Israel. There was to be one place where the people of Israel were to bring their sacrifices in worship of the one God. This was also true of the tithes of the land—they were also to be eaten in the place where God chose for His name to dwell (see Deuteronomy 12:17-18). 

21 “If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.”. When they were all of one camp, and the Tabernacle was set up in the center of all the tribes, it was not impossible for the people to bring their animals to the Tabernacle to make sacrifice. When they conquered the land of Canaan, and as God said He enlarged their borders, it would become more difficult, if not almost impossible, to do so. Let’s say a family lived in the land of Dan in the north, or in the land of Simeon to the south, and God placed His name at the other end of the entire land of Israel. This would be a trek of almost 150 miles, give or take—roughly the same distance as it was from Mt. Sinai to the southern edge of Canaan. So it would take 11 days to traverse the full length of Israel if this were the case. So God made provision for the people if this problem arose. He could take the animal to the Levite that lived in his land, and they could slaughter it and offer it to God for their sacrifice. And they could eat as much of it as they wanted to. 

But for their daily food, they could eat it at any place within the gates of their city. Deuteronomy 12:15-16, 20—15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water…20 When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.” If a man had been out hunting, and brought home a deer or a gazelle, they could eat of these, assuming they were properly slaughtered and the blood drained out (see the discussion of ingesting blood in our covering of Leviticus 17 here), both he and his family, within the city of his residence. And even if his son or daughter were unclean by reason of touching a dead body or because of some other uncleanness, they could eat of it as well. In Leviticus 17, we saw that any man who slayed an animal did not bring it to the Tabernacle was to be cut off from the people (see Leviticus 17:3-4). They had manna to eat, a daily gift from God, and did not involve the death of an animal. If a man wanted to sacrifice an animal as a Peace Offering, he had to bring it to the Tent of Meeting where it would be processed by the priests, and he could partake of it over the next two days (see here and here). But he could not go out and kill one of his livestock for a meal. But now he can. If he brings home some venison, and slaughters it properly and drains the blood, his family is gonna eat good. He does not need to bring it to the Tabernacle as a Peace Offering. 

Why? Because it is ““The blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.” He was now giving the people meat to eat—meat that they craved so badly in Numbers 11 He was now giving them as a blessing. And if they had flocks or herds, they could eat of them as well. John Gill:

 

They might kill such cattle that were allowed for food, and eat the flesh of them in their own cities and houses in which they dwelt; they were not obliged to bring these to the place God should choose, and kill them there, as they had been wont to bring them to the tabernacle while in the wilderness…whatever they had a mind to, or their appetite craved, and were desirous of, provided it was not anything forbidden, but was allowed to be eaten…[whatever God gave] in the power of their hands to procure for themselves; they might live according to their abilities, and keep a table answerable to what God had blessed them with; from which they were so far from being restrained, that it was rather commendable in them so to do. 

God gives us food. He gives us what we need. We can eat what we want, and it does not defile us (see Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:18). We are not cut off from Christ if we eat a pork chop. We can eat whatever we want, because we know the difference between the clean and the unclean, between the holy and the profane. We are not commended to others by food. 1st Corinthians 8:4-8—4 Concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. Paul was telling the Corinthians that even if they did eat meat that was once offered to idols, that was not the end of them. They were now in Christ, sheltered from the Law, protected from dietary rules and restrictions which could make no man better or worse in the eyes of God. They were now free to eat what they desired—with one caveat. Don’t let your freedom in Christ become a stumbling block to a new or potential believer. 1st Corinthians 8:9—But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. Are you witnessing to a Muslim? Then don’t eat pork. Are you witnessing to a Hindu? Don’t eat beef. Are you witnessing to a vegan? Don’t eat meat at all (and don’t show up to their house wearing a real leather jacket). Be free in Christ, live your liberty—but don’t use that liberty in a way that could dampen your witness to the lost. 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.