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

Exodus Chapters 10-12

God's message to me: Revenge is in God's hands. As He punished the land of Egypt for it's oppression He will punish those who wrong me.

Promises: He will deliver me from the worst conditions and see that I come out in prosperity.

Commands: Do what God commands even if it doesn't make sense to you. His plan sees beyond what you can and will work for the good in the end. (Caveat: God will not command you to do anything that violates his previous command. If you feel led to do something which the bible forbids then you are not led by God but by your own mind, your own heart, or by the enemy.)

Timeless principle: In this case the principle is expressed in writing. The Passover feast has been held by practicing Jews from the time of their escape from Egypt until this day. Easter is set on our calenders and isn't always consistent with theirs but, will always fall with a short time of passover. Christ was Crucified just before the passover and rose from the grave just after. The blood on the doorposts and lentils is prophetically symbolic of the crucification. The command against breaking any bones of the passover lamb is symbolic of the fact that none of Christs bones was broken.

Passover is a feast of remembrance for the people of Israel so they do not forget their escape from Egypt. It is doubly significant to the Messianic Jew who know what it prophesied and can look back on the deliverance from Egypt and the deliverance from sin by Christ. For those who feel that Easter has to many pagan trappings, perhaps you should consider the time of passover as the appropriate time to celebrate Christs deliverance of your soul.

more to learn for in-depth study: Why did God harden the heart of Pharaoh? Why did he force Pharaoh into doing things that brought such horrible judgments? The answer is in the text.

The father of this particular Pharaoh had taken the children of Israel from the position of honored friends of Egypt to the position of slaves. The Egyptians went along with this for the most part. Exceptions, like the midwives who spared the children from being killed by Pharaoh's command, were rewarded by God. Most were complicit in the oppression of God's people. This continued until the Pharaoh's son, and Moses' adoptive brother, took the throne and he continued the oppression.

For the crime of oppressing His people, God brought judgment on the Egyptian people. He hardened the heart of Pharaoh because he was their leader. Through his actions God could demonstrate his justice by punishing Egypt. God could demonstrate His power, by reminding everyone of the terror He could bring when His commands are disobeyed. God could demonstrate his grace by freeing His children and bringing them to prosperity.

It's a basic rule that society has no real, long term, memory. God could have made Pharaoh free the Jews the first time he was asked. If he had done that the Egyptians would have missed their slaves, they would have sent them away with nothing, they would have probably come to retake them, and they would have forgotten the incident inside a generation. Instead the people of Egypt have never forgotten the plagues brought on them for their actions against the Jews. They went from being among the most powerful Empires on the earth to being lucky to find food in 1 year. They were made so afraid of God and so impressed by His works on behalf of the Jews that they gladly gave their treasure to the Israelites when they asked for it.

Think of it in terms of today. The history of this country isn't learned very well but most people can tell you a few facts. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and so was JFK. Terrorists smashed the twin towers of the World Trade Center with Airliners full of people. We fought a civil war between our northern and southern states and that war ended in the elimination of slavery. WWI and WWII Brought the whole world to war. An event called the Great Depression caused great financial turmoil when banks failed and no jobs could be found for years. Finally, most people know that we got into a war because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a sneak attack. We remember that which went very, very wrong. Few manage to remember the pleasant events.

We remember the hostages in Iran but few remember Reagan sending Carter to greet them when they were freed. He gave the former president credit for weathering the storm and standing watch for those poor people for so long. We forget the overwhelming outpouring of help to the survivors of the world trade centers and Katrina. We forget the Joy when early Amber Alert systems resulted in recovery of stolen children. We remember our deepest losses and our greatest and most hard won victories. Everything else is background noise.