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The Lord Wants to Bless His People
The Lord Wants to Bless His People Deuteronomy 23:1-25 Key verse: 23:20 “You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.” Last week we reached a point in Deuteronomy where Moses begins to list various laws that the Israelites were to follow. These laws are not the laws that most Christians are familiar with. Sadly, I would say that many people who call themselves Christians don’t even realize that many of these laws exist. It is because they simply don’t read their Bible. They may know the stories in the Bible and they may even know the Gospel really well – well enough to know the different points of view of the four gospels. However, by not reading and studying the Bible personally, they may be completely missing the point about what it means to live as God’s chosen people in this generation. Many Christians say that Jesus has freed us from the law by what He did here on earth. In one sense this is true, but just saying that on its own is taking that statement way out of context (in fact, there is no context at all to it). Jesus did die and pay off the wages of our sins, but what are sins? Sins are transgressions (breaking) of God’s law. Jesus also rose from the dead, giving anyone who believes in Him the victory that He won over the power of sin and death. Therefore, by what Jesus has already done for us, we are free from the law, because our breaking the law and the consequence that that brings has been dealt with. However, what people forget is what Jesus said. First of all, He said in Matthew 5:8, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Furthermore, Jesus lived a sinless life – He never broke God’s law. He also taught people to live as He lived, and He said in Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The words that Jesus spoke were the same as the words of the Old Testament, because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and that word begins in the Old Testament. Today, we still must understand what God was saying to the Israelites of Moses’ time so that we can live as God’s chosen people today. Therefore, let’s study Deuteronomy 23 thinking about how God wants to set us apart as His people today. First, certain people should not be admitted into the assembly of the Lord (1-8). Before we even begin to study this section, it must be noted that Biblical scholars are not sure exactly what is meant by the phrase “assembly of the Lord,” but most believe that it has to do with the people mentioned here not taking up positions of importance among the Jewish community. This is one of those difficult areas of study in the Bible, because it seems to say that certain people are excluded from God’s salvation simply because of how they were born. However, a careful study of the Bible would reveal that this is not the case. Let’s take a careful look at who the people were that God did not want permitted into the assembly of the Lord. Look at verse 1. “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.” These people were commonly known as eunuchs. In those times, it was common for parents to castrate their young sons so that they could enter the service of a king or some other great man in society. Sometimes young men would make this decision on their own and do it to themselves. This was something that God would naturally frown upon (he would not look with favor on such a practice). God created man and woman in his image, and he gave them a command to be fruitful and increase in number, in order to subdue the earth and rule over it. If a person were to willfully change his body just so that they could serve another human being and not God, surely God wouldn’t want that person in His holy assembly. Such a person was rebelling against the way God had created him, to serve someone who was not God. However, a careful study of the Bible reveals that although these people were prohibited from joining the assembly of God, they were not cut off altogether from God’s salvation. If you look at Acts 8:26-40 you will see the story of Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch. In that story, Philip explains the good news of the gospel to the eunuch and the eunuch goes away rejoicing after having been baptized by Philip. Although, that Eunuch had committed a great sin by mutilating a part of his body that God had given him, this did not exclude him from God’s salvation. The next group of people who were forbidden to join God’s assembly were those who were born of a forbidden marriage or who were born out of marrhiage. These people represent impurity among God’s people. God was trying to set His people apart from the rest of the world so that they could display God’s purity and goodness to the world. In order to do this, God gave them very specific rules about who they could and couldn’t marry. Furthermore, outside of marriage He wanted them to remain pure and devoted to him. By giving the Israelites these rules, God was trying to ensure that His people would have good home environments to raise their children in. Children born outside of God’s plans might become rebellious and cause disturbances among His people. However, once again, a careful study of the Bible will show you that just because these people were forbidden to enter God’s assembly, they were not outside of God’s salvation. In fact, God could use such people in very powerful ways. In Judges 11 God uses a man named Japhthah to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of the Ammonites. Japhthah was born out of wedlock to a prostitute and driven away from his family by his half-brothers, yet in the time of need, they brought him back from his exile and spirit of God came on him and he defeated Israel’s enemies. The final people who were to be excluded from joining the assembly of the Lord were the Ammonites and Moabites. These people were the descendants of Lot’s daughters. Lot had chosen to separate from his uncle Abraham. Instead of following God, he tried to enjoy the pleasurable life of the city. This didn’t work out so well and ended up living in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. Many years later, when the descendants of Abraham tried to pass through their territory on the way to God’s Promised land, these people wouldn’t let them. In fact, the Moabites hired a sorcerer, Balaam son of Beor, to put a curse on the Israelites. God wouldn’t let that evil man curse them and He even turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing. However, Balaam was able to get the Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men and entice them into Baal worship. These people represent the enemies of God – those who try to work against and stop the work of God, so why would we expect them to be allowed into God’s assembly. However, once again a careful study of the Bible will reveal that God’s salvation is not withheld from these people. In fact, there is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to and even named after a Moabite. The book of Ruth is about the story of King David’s great-grandmother Ruth who was a Moabite. God’s mercy and salvation extend to all people, even if He does place certain restrictions on them. Finally, in this section, God speaks about the Edomites and the Egyptians. They were not allowed to immediately join God’s assembly, but after three generations they could. Presumably this was the third generation of an Edomite or Egyptian family living in accordance with the Jewish faith. The Edomites were allowed to join the assembly because they were close relatives of the Jewish people having been descended from Jacob’s brother Esau. However, including the Egyptians might seem to be a little bit odd. After all, weren’t these the people that had held them in captivity for the past 400 years. They were, but there are two things that we must remember here. First of all, the Egyptian people generally like the Israelites and they gave them articles of silver, gold and cloth to take with them when they left Egypt. Secondly, and most importantly, God wanted His people to take care of the foreigners who lived among them. God says this time and time again in His law, and in fact we will see this later in this message. The Jews had lived as foreigners in Egypt for more than four hundred years. Although the Egyptians eventually enslaved them, they first welcomed them as their guests and this is what God wants His people to do. As Christians, we should be willing to accept everyone. However, we must be discerning. Everyone should be welcomed to join us, but we must be careful about who we allow to be are elders and leaders – that is we must be discerning about who we let into the assembly of the Lord. Second, keep God’s camp clean. (9-14) Before beginning this section, it is important to remember where the Israelites were and what they were about to do. The Israelites were encamped just east of the Jordan River, preparing to cross it and take possession of God’s Promised land. This meant that they were going to be in military camps (like the one they were in at this time) for quite some time. In this section, God gives them a few laws concerning this. This section can be summarized in two words, “be clean.” During their campaign to conquer the Promised land they had to be very careful to keep their camp morally pure, ceremonial pure and, simply pollution free. Look at verse 9. “When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.” Moses begins by talking about a man that has a nocturnal emission, thereby making himself unclean. What Moses is really talking about here is the moral purity of the army. It might seem strange to talk about the moral purity of an army that is about to go and kill every man woman and child that they meet. However, there are very important reasons for this. First of all it must be remembered that this was God’s army assigned to take the land that He had promised them. They weren’t fighting just for themselves and their own gain. They were fighting for God so that He could establish them as His holy nation and kingdom of priests. Moral purity was essential for this. Furthermore, the men were facing battle with a very real possibility that they might die. If they were burdened with moral guilt, the thought of dying and facing the judgement of God might be enough to paralyze them with fear and greatly hinder their fighting ability. In order to maintain moral purity, they were to follow the ceremonial laws. If a man became ceremonially unclean, he had to remove himself from the camp until sunset and wash himself before reentering the camp. This means, that they had to live strictly according to God’s laws – their lives had to be right in God’s eyes. Likewise, we are fighting a spiritual battle today. In order to win the victory, we cannot live any way we chose. We need to maintain moral purity and even ceremonial purity before God. The truth of God’s law did not die with Jesus on the cross, only are guilt in failing to keep that law died. God’s truth is God’s truth and it will always remain that. The next thing Moses talks about is the physical cleanliness of the camp. He gives specific directions about how and where the people were to go to the bathroom. This may seem like a minor detail which didn’t need to be discussed, but it wasn’t. Actually, it was a major detail that needed to be stressed. There were over 600,000 fighting men who were going to spend the next several months if not years living in a military camp. If that camp was not kept clean, disease would spread and the number of fighting men would quickly decrease and their chances of conquering the Promised Land would fade. God remembered this very important detail and had Moses remind the people of this. This shows me once again that God is a God of great detail who is concerned with every aspect of our lives. I think the key to this section lies in verse 14. “For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.” Like the Israelites, we must know that we are God’s chosen people in this generation. We are still fighting a spiritual war to conquer His Promised Land. In order to win this battle, we need God moving among us to deliver our enemies to us. We cannot expect Him to do this we live our life just any old way we chose. We must follow the example of Jesus and put His words into practice. Jesus example is the perfect life lived before God, so we must be very careful to keep our camp clean in God’s sight. Third, some miscellaneous laws. (15-25) The first of these miscellaneous laws must have been very near to the Israelites hearts. Look at verses 15 and 16. “If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.” Remember the Israelites had been mistreated slaves for 400 years. If they could they would have run away. But what would they find when they got to a new land? The people of that land would just enslave them once again. Their situation would be no better. However, god wanted His people to be different. If a slave who had been mistreated fled to their land, they were to welcome them and let them live wherever they like. God forbade them to re-enslave these people or oppress them. As Christians, we need to do the same for all those who are fleeing from the slavery to sin. I remember almost thirty years ago now, how Dr. Ben, Mother Barry and Dr. Samuel Lee embraced me and welcomed me when I was fleeing from my own slavery to see. They didn’t turn me away or oppress me in any way. They simply let me live where I wanted to live and they helped me in every way they could to start a new life. This is how we must act as Christians The next law forbids Israelite men or women from becoming shrine prostitutes. It might seem odd now, but prostitution was commonly used as a way to worship and raise money for pagan gods. God expressly prohibited this among His people. God’s people must maintain their moral purity. When God created man and woman, He created the institution of marriage where one man would join with one woman to form one new being. A man or a woman is not to go around sleeping with whoever they want and then somehow call this their act of worshipping God. This is detestable in God’s sight, and it is just as true today as it was then. The next law leads to our key verse. God forbade the Israelites from charging their fellow Israelites interest on money they loaned to them. In today’s world, this seems like a very strange law indeed, but it is not if you just take some time to think about it. These were God’s chosen people, who God was taking care of. Once they got into the Promised Land, God made provisions for each family to have their own plot of land as their inheritance. God had also been raising them to live and act as a community of people set apart from others. Where other people lived according to the dog eat dog principle and the idea of winner takes all, the Israelites were to be different. They were to take care of each other, and they were to become great as a people – God’s chosen people. Therefore, they shouldn’t try to take advantage of each other a profit from the misfortune of their brothers and sisters. Just as in Moses’ time, God has called us to be for Him a kingdom of priest and a holy nation. He wants us to live as a community of believers who freely and willingly help each other out. When we put this into practice, this pleases God and the Bible promises us that he will reward us for this. Look at our key verse, verse 20. “You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.” When God’s people live together as a close community or, better yet, even a family, it is God’s heart’s desire to bless and make succeed in everything we do. God doesn’t want us to live miserable, lonely lives full of suffering and pain. He wants us to live in beautiful community full of blessing and fellowship. God wants to bless His people so that they can bless others. Moses then goes on to the making of vows. The law had many requirements that the Jewish people had to observe, but if they wanted to, they could make a vow and do even more. This wasn’t required of them, but Moses told them that if they did make a vow they should carry it out quickly. If they didn’t, even though the vow wasn’t required, it would be held against them as a sin. Likewise, today we need to be very careful of the things that we say that we will do for God. God see our hearts and hears even words we don’t speak. If we tell ourselves that we are going to do something for God, but then don’t do it God will hold us accountable for it. The final law Moses mentions in this chapter has to do with walking through a neighbor’s vineyard or grain field. In this law, God allows the person walking through to help himself to any grapes or grain he wants to eat. This almost seems like stealing, but from God’s point of view it is not. It is God who provides the sun and the rain to make the crops grow, and it was God who gave us every green plant for food. God also wants to sustain his people and see that they are satisfied. Therefore, God provided for the stranger walking through a grain field. The one thing God did forbid was gather the grapes or grain to take out of the field and profit from it in anyway. All the profit from that field belonged to the farmer, so gather some grapes or grain for that purpose would be stealing. I think this law goes back to our key verse as well. If Israelites lived in a harmonious community with each other, God would so bless them that the grain or grapes taken by a passing traveler wouldn’t even be noticed by the farmer. Furthermore, because of God’s blessing, if the farmer had been there while the man was passing through, I’m sure he wouldn’t have refused him if he had asked for the food. God wants to bless His people so that they can be a blessing to others. Today we thought about some laws that Christians don’t often take time to consider. Some of them may seem a bit strange to us today, but they show us how God wants us to live. He wants us to live in a community that He can bless so that we can be a blessing to others. May God help us to live as His chosen people in the world today. |
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