Category: Devotional

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 3rd

September 3, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses gives the Israelites instructions on keeping themselves holy as a people, keeping their camp holy, and keeping their conduct towards one another holy. Verse 14 tells us why this kind of holiness is necessary for the people of God: God Himself dwells and walks in the midst of His people!

The presence of God with His people is a major theme in the Scriptures as a whole: God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, dwelt among His people Israel, took on human form and dwelt among us in Christ, and now dwells both in and with His people in the Holy Spirit. The significance of God’s holy presence being with His people cannot be overstated! 

In the New Testament, Paul picks up on this same call to holiness on the basis of the Lord’s presence with His people, saying that believers, both as individuals and as a corporate body, are a temple of the Holy Spirit, a dwelling place for God’s holy presence (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 2:19-22) Because God dwells with us and in us in all His holy splendor, we too must be holy!

Deuteronomy 23

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

2 “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever,4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5 But the Lordyour God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. 8 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

9 “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

10 “If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, 11 but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

12 “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. 13 And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement.14 Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

15 “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. 16 He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

17 “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. 18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

19 “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

21 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

24 “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What does it look like to really esteem the holy presence of God with and in us? How does that motivate us in pursuing holiness ourselves?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 2nd

September 2, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses continues to explain some of the various laws which the Lord gave to His people in order that they would be distinct from every other people. He discusses a wide range of laws governing things such as how the people were to treat one another’s property, clothing, negligence in construction, how they were to run their vineyards, and sexual ethics and conduct. 

In the first section of this chapter Moses discusses how the people were to treat one another and one another’s property. He commands them that they should never ignore their brother’s wayward animal, but should take it to their own home and care for it until the owner should come seeking it. They were not to ignore the needs of their neighbors, but respond in both compassion and in action to the needs they saw!

The same is true for us who belong to Christ. 1 John 3:17-18 says this: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” The kind of love that Christ calls us to as His followers is a love that does, a love that responds in both compassion and in action to the needs that we see around us. John goes so far as to imply that a failure to respond in action towards the needs of our fellow believers would indicate that God’s love is not in us, that we are not even saved in the first place!

It is hard to live this way. We live in a culture and time which encourages us to ignore the needs around us and to choose the way which is most convenient for ourselves; inconvenience, discomfort, and sacrificial love are not highly valued in our culture, but they are the things that Jesus calls us to in order to embody His love towards people! Love for other people that does not merely claim to care but shows that care and compassion through action is one of the defining marks of a true disciple of Jesus!

The Law and the New Testament agree: we cannot claim to follow God and ignore the needs of those around us. We must respond in a compassion that move us to action!

Deuteronomy 22

Various Laws

22 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. 4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

6 “If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7 You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

8 “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

9 “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

13 “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. 20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

28 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

30 “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • Why do we tend to ignore the people in need around us, even our brothers and sisters in Christ? How can we take a step towards embodying the love of Jesus by responding to those needs in action?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 1st

September 1, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

Here we once again see God’s concern for the holiness of His people as well as for justice among His people. Moses addresses multiple issues in this chapter: atoning for unsolved murders, laws about marriage to war captives, inheritance rights, what to do with rebellious children who won’t obey even when disciplined (the solution may surprise you!), and taking criminals hanged on a tree down before nightfall. 

It is important that we remember how different the ancient world in which the Law was given is from our world and culture today as we read, and we have to understand that these sorts of laws would have made Israel incredibly unique among the nations! As Moses said towards the beginning of the book, no other nation had a god so near to it as the Lord was to Israel, and no other nation had statutes and rules that were so righteous as these (see Deut. 4:5-8)! These laws made Israel shine like a beacon of light pointing the rest of the world to the glory, wisdom, righteousness, and justice of God!

One of the more specific things we see in this passage is God’s compassion towards the marginalized, the mistreated, and the unloved. We see this in His commands for justice to be done towards women taken captive in war as well as His commands for the children of the unfavored, unloved wife to be treated with equity and fairness. God knew that, in their sinful nature, His people were prone to take advantage of one another and act selfishly; these laws served to protect the helpless against that kind of behavior!

It is plain from any honest reading of the Scriptures that God has a special kind of care and compassion towards those who have nothing, those who are oppressed, marginalized, or otherwise mistreated and looked over by society. Do we share His heart in this?

Deuteronomy 21

Atonement for Unsolved Murders

21 “If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him,2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Marrying Female Captives

10 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife,12 and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. 13 And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

A Rebellious Son

18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How can we be people who fight for justice on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves? How does that help us to reflect the tender heart of God towards such people?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 31

August 31, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses instructs the people in how they are to wage war against the nations they are about to dispossess. It is significant that God tells them that they must not be afraid when they go to battle against their enemies, because He Himself is with them in the fight! God’s presence with His people means that they never have to be afraid of what they are up against; it is never mightier than Him!

God expands His promise to the people of Israel in verse 4: not only will He be with them as they fight their battles, but He promises to fight for them and to give them the victory! No one is able to stand against the Lord, and this promise ought to bring immense comfort and total peace to His people!

This promise of God still stands for His people today. In fact, the promise of giving us the victory has already been fulfilled for us in Christ Jesus (1Corinthians 15:57). We are victorious in Jesus’ own victory over sin, death, and darkness! 

Paul tells us in Romans 8:37 that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We are already victorious in Christ, and we have the presence and power of the Holy Spirit with and in us as we wage war on sin and on the spiritual forces of evil, the kingdom of darkness and of this world. There is nothing that can stand in the way of God’s purposes and God’s Kingdom advancing in us and through us!

We have every reason to walk into the battle each day with absolute confidence, complete faith in the victory that Christ has already won. He has already won the victory once and for all, and God the Holy Spirit is with us as we move into the battle! “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

Are you walking in victory?

Deuteronomy 20

Laws Concerning Warfare

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.7 And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.

10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What is an area of your life that leaves you feeling defeated? Is it an affliction, a sinful pattern, a suffering, an anxiety? How does the presence of God with you in the fight and the ultimate victory He has already accomplished for you in Christ change the way you approach or perceive that problem?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 30

August 30, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this passage the Lord reveals to us His concern for justice to be upheld among His people. Moses commands the people concerning cities of refuge, to which those who had killed someone unintentionally could flee for their lives, the establishment of property boundaries, and false witnesses. Notice that each of these laws is a specific application of one of the ten commandments (v.1-13 you shall not murder; v.14 you shall not steal/covet; v.15-21 you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor).

The extent of God’s justice, as well as the extent to which the people were to purge all evil from among themselves, are displayed in verse 21. The retaliatory judgment against evildoers was perfectly just: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. Exactly as they had done, or exactly as they intended to do, it was to be done to them.

God is the God of mercy, but He is also the God of justice. We see both put on display ultimately in the cross, where God’s just wrath towards sin and His compassionate mercy towards sinners meet. As His people, God calls us to put His justice on display in the way that we conduct ourselves and in the way we treat others!

Deuteronomy 19

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lordyour God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lordyour God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

4 “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— 5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.8 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • Do you think that one of the characteristics of the church today is a concern for justice? Why or why not? How can we move towards being people of justice, as God has called us to be?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 29

August 29, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses gives the people instructions concerning the sacrificial portions for the priests and the Levites in the land, commands them not to adopt the wicked spiritual practices of the nations they are dispossessing, and tells them that the Lord is going to raise up another prophet like him for the people. 

This last portion of the chapter is of utmost significance to our understanding of the Jewish anticipation of the Messiah; if you will turn to the end of Deuteronomy (spoiler alert!) it says that there has not been another prophet like Moses. The five books of the Torah end with this anticipation, that a prophet like Moses is going to come; similarly, the part of the Hebrew Scriptures called the prophets ends with an expectation that a prophet like Elijah is going to come (Malachi 4:5-6). 

It is no coincidence that these are the two exact figures from Israel’s history who appear to converse with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). Jesus is the prophet like Moses that God is promising His people here! It is a bit ironic that God promises this prophet in response to the peoples’ request that they should no longer hear the voice of God, since in hearing Jesus speak they heard the voice of God once more!

This is so significant for us because it means that, over the course of human history and down to the tiniest details, God is faithful to His promises. Not one word that He has spoken will fail; it shall all come to pass in due time. Put your trust and all your hope once more in His faithfulness today, and celebrate that the prophet like Moses has come and has reconciled us to God!

Deuteronomy 18

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lordis their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

6 “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, 8 then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.

Abominable Practices

9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lordhas not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How do the Old Testament promises of God fulfilled in Christ Jesus bolster and grow our faith in Him?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 28

August 28, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses gives laws concerning proper sacrifices, dealing with idolaters in the land, solving legal cases that are too difficult for the local authorities to handle, and how the king who the Lord chooses for Israel should conduct himself. In all of these things it is stressed once more that God’s people are to be holy; they are to live and worship and rule in a way that is so different from the nations around them, in a way that reflects the character and holiness of their God!

In verse 1 Moses tells the people that, when they offer sacrifice to the Lord, they must not offer an animal that has any defect or blemish, because to do so is an abomination to the Lord. The animals they offered were to be spotless, without fault of any kind. They were to do this out of reverence and worship towards God; because He is holy and incomparably great, He deserves the best of what we could offer Him, and offering Him anything less than that demonstrates a blatant disregard for His glory!

What was true for Israel then is true for us now: when we offer our worship to the Lord, we should be giving Him the absolute best that we have! In our busy schedules today, many of us struggle to make having time with God a priority, and even when we do it we’re so tired or so focused on getting to the next thing that we are hardly being still in His Holy presence. Why are we so often content, even happy with ourselves, when we give God merely the scraps of our time and attention?

The Lord is clear in this passage: He wants our all, our everything, the very best that we have to offer to Him. He has not withheld anything from us, not even His own Son; will you then withhold anything from Him?

Deuteronomy 17

17 “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lordyour God.

2 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

8 “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. 10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. 11 According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. 12 The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Laws Concerning Israel’s Kings

14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lordhas said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What are some ways in which you tend to withhold the best you have to offer from God?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 27

August 27, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

In this chapter Moses explains the three main festivals that the people of Israel are to observe each year: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. Each of these feasts serves as a reminder of the way that God had delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, and during these feasts the entire land was to rejoice before the Lord!

Why was it so important that the people of Israel have these feasts to remind them of God’s saving work in their lives? They needed these reminders because, as Moses has already asserted multiple times throughout the book of Deuteronomy, they were prone to forget God, to forget all He had done for them, and to go after other gods because of it. This is demonstrated in the ending of the chapter: Moses launches immediately from talking about these festivals of remembrance to warning them against injustice and, once more, against idolatry! 

If you think about it, the church calendar functions in a similar way: we have the season of Lent leading up to our celebration of Easter, and the season of Advent leading up to our celebration of Christmas. We observe these things as a means of being reminded of the way that God has moved and worked in history to accomplish our salvation through Jesus Christ! 

Because we are fallen, sinful creatures, we are all still so prone to forget God and all He has done. When we forget, we try to find our identity, our security, our joy, and our peace in lesser things that can never, ever give them to us! We need to be reminded daily of Who we serve and Whose we are, daily reminder of the truths of the gospel that we proclaim! 

Choose to remember and to be reminded today! 

Deuteronomy 16

Passover

16 “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. 5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks

9 “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths

13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

Justice

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Forbidden Forms of Worship

21 “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lordyour God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What are some ways that you can daily be reminded of who God is and all He has done for us in Christ? How can you set up reminders for yourself of these truths?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 26

August 26, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

Moses continues explaining the Covenant Law to the people of Israel. In this chapter, Moses continues to lay out practices of worship, generosity, and social equity that would have very much distinguished them among the neighboring nations. Their way of life was to put the glory and holiness of the God they served on display, and that Law was the means of doing that!

Moses specifically speaks to the matter of the Sabbath year and the generosity which was to characterize the people of God. In reverence and worship towards God, without a grudging heart nor a fearful one, everyone in Israel who had lent to another was to release them from that debt in the Sabbath year. It didn’t matter if the person had paid or not, whether they had the debt for six of the seven years or only a couple of weeks; all debts were to be forgiven in the seventh year. 

The Lord also commanded His people to give generously to all their Israelite brothers or sisters who became poor in the land. They were not to harden their hearts in greed nor even consider how close the Sabbath year was (and therefore how likely they were to actually get repaid for the loan); they were to live with an open hand and a soft heart towards those who were in need around them.

If the people of Israel obeyed these commands, the Lord promised to bless them. The very same expectations, along with the very same promises, exist for God’s people today; in light of the incredible generosity of God towards us in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9), we are to be people characterized by generosity and open-handedness towards those in need, especially those within the church. 

In Acts chapters 2 and 4 we see descriptions of the radical generosity that the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the gospel produced in the lives of the early believers in Jerusalem. They gave as there was need among them, so that “There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). What would it look like for us to really live this way, in this radical kind of generosity that the Lord calls us to?

Just like it was for the early church, this kind of genuine love demonstrated through generosity is one of the most powerful witnesses to the world of the reality of God’s presence in and among us as His people. In the end, the call of God towards this sort of generosity is a call to trust Him and His promises. If we truly believe that He is who He says He is, and we truly trust that He will follow through on His promises to bless us when we live this way, then that frees us to walk in radical open-handedness towards those in need!

Deuteronomy 15

The Sabbatical Year

15 “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

12 “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. 14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. 16 But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you,17 then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same. 18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker he has served you six years. So the Lordyour God will bless you in all that you do.

19 “All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. 21 But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.22 You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer. 23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What are some excuses that we sometimes make for not helping the people we see around us who are in need? Is it possible that those excuses say more about our own hearts than they do about the needy people we see? How does the command of God towards the people of Israel, as well as the example of the early church, challenge you to live with greater generosity towards others?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-August 25

August 25, 2020

The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!

This chapter begins with a significant statement which helps set us up to understand the rest of the chapter as well as the Law as a whole. Moses tells the people of Israel that they are the sons of the Lord their God, and that God has chosen them out of all the peoples on the face of the planet to be a special and holy people unto Himself. 

The fact that God intended for this people to be holy, set apart, unique, distinct from every other people on the earth, helps us to understand at least in part why God commands them the way that He does concerning food laws. This may seem strange or obscure, or even somewhat boring to us, but at least part of the point is that God wants His people to be so holy, so different from all the other peoples, that even the food they consume looks different from the rest of the world!

This concern for the distinctness and holiness of God’s people comes through in the commands concerning tithes as well. The people were to set apart a tenth of all that they produced and bring it to contribute it to the Temple each year, as well as setting it apart for those who had nothing to partake of it every three years. While many in the church today might see the giving of tithes as an obligation, the people of Israel were to see it as a delight, an act of worshipful response to what God has done for them that year. They were to rejoice in giving it (v.26)!

All of these things demonstrate the need for God’s people to be holy. Holiness is more than simply morally righteous behavior; it is distinctness from everything else, and this means that God’s people are to look different in every aspect of their lives in view of God’s grace towards them. The question then becomes, how different from the surrounding culture do we really look in our lives? Have we settled for looking different from the world around us in how we choose to spend our Sunday mornings and perhaps a bit of our time, being distinct from the world in little else? Where have we unwittingly compromised with the culture around us when we should be distinct from it?

God calls us, as His chosen and beloved people, to a level of holiness which surpasses the way in which many of us live and which affects the way we live in every area of our lives. He calls us to live not as citizens of nation but of an eternal Kingdom. He calls us to be distinct, because He is distinct: there is no one like our God! Are we really living this way?

Deuteronomy 14

Clean and Unclean Food

14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3 “You shall not eat any abomination. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you.8 And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.

9 “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

11 “You may eat all clean birds. 12 But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 13 the kite, the falcon of any kind; 14 every raven of any kind; 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; 16 the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl 17 and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 20 All clean winged things you may eat.

21 “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithes

22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses 26 and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

28 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How do we find the balance between celebrating the good things in our culture and still looking so different from it in every aspect of our lives? What areas have you compromised with our culture where you should be looking distinct from it?