Deuteronomy 14-17

God’s message to me: Love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Simple Ideas but, God promises prosperity to those who follow them. He promised that doing so would ensure that his people were lenders and not borrowers and rulers but not ruled. how clear can God be. Forgive debt at a reasonable time and give to the poor and you will be RICH.

Promises: Do you want prosperity? GIVE. Do you want debt freedom? FORGIVE. The poor will always be among you(this was not a call to socialism but to charity).

Commands: The Easter season is starting and that means that the time of Passover is coming. God appointed a number of feasts for the Israelites to always celebrate and Passover is the first. It is one we Christians see as the foreshadowing of Christ’s death on the Cross for our salvation. With all the debate over the origins of Easter we must not forget what it is we are commemorating as Christians. The Easter Bunny didn’t rise from the dead. Easter Eggs don’t grant salvation. Jelly beans can’t wash away our sins. The Son of God was Born as a man, lived a perfect life, was murdered brutally to be a sacrifice for all our sins, was buried and rose from the dead victorious over death, hell and the grave.

Timeless principles: The tithe belongs to God. PERIOD. With the spreading of the Israelites across the land it would become difficult to haul grain, produce and livestock to the temple from some locations. For that situation God permitted the tithe offering to be sold and the money for it taken to the temple where it could be used to purchase other produce, grain and livestock for the tithe. No excuses were given for not bringing the tithe. If you couldn’t bring the original product you could bring the durable cash it bought.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: When a slave was set free, in the year of debt forgiveness, his owner sent him away well supplied with food and wine and livestock. No slave was kept longer than 6 years unless owner and slave both chose to stay together as family rather than as master and servant.

more to learn for in-depth study: Chapter 14 gives a partial list of clean and unclean animals in regard to Kosher laws. Deuteronomy 17:18 hundreds of years before the Israelites even asked for a king, God mad it law that such a king would be required to copy all the law in writing and read it and keep it. He would be required to copy it from the written book of the law that was before the priests. In other words, once again, we clarify that these laws and books were in written form from the beginning and kept by the leaders and priests of Israel in written form. THIS IS NOT AN ORAL TRADITION!!!!

Here is a thought. Where do you think the US got the idea for a law that clears things from your credit record after seven years. More importantly, isn’t it interesting that the governments financial situation with deficient, debt and instability worsens dramatically the more it tries to exempt itself and it’s allies from this debt forgiveness.

tomorrow: Deuteronomy 18-21