Deuteronomy 26-28

God’s message to me: Every bad thing can be turned to blessings through God if I serve Him as He commands. Every good thing can be turned to a curse if I refuse to glorify God in it.

Promises: Deuteronomy 27:15-26 Deuteronomy 28:1-68 The promises of the Lord are both blessing and curse. For those that love Him and honor His commandments the good of every promise is theirs to claim. For those who fail to serve him with gladness in abundance the opposite of every good promise will be their reward and they will instead serve others in bondage and despair.

Commands: The rules regarding distribution of the tithe get a little complicated under Hebrew law where much of government was handled through the temple. There were many offerings and tithes and per person fees paid to support the temple, the Levites and the priests and each was budgeted in it’s own way to serve those needs as well as charity. As Christians, we simply bring our tithes and offerings to the church and the church leadership is responsible to God for their stewardship of those funds. I have heard people, including pastors, refer to handling the congregations money. This is wrong. The money belongs to God, not the church or it’s congregation and only He is judge of what is right or wrong in it’s handling. This is why we choose good and God fearing men to lead us then trust in God to lead them.

Timeless principles: Most people think they are good and believe they are doing their best to follow God’s commands. They admit to lying, the occasional curse word and maybe a little lust but they think they do OK beyond that. It pays to know and understand God’s word.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Read it, Study it, write it down, post it in obvious places and commit it to memory. “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” Even knowing all the rules it is impossible for man to obey them completely without God’s help and intervention. Want a little proof? Take the good test.

more to learn for in-depth study: Deuteronomy 27: 3 “YOU SHALL WRITE...” I know I’m repeating myself and I don’t care. Not only did God carve the law in stone, and command the law and the history to be documented in writing; God also commanded billboards to be made at the entrance to the promised land so that all the people could plainly see the words of the law in print as they entered and when they passed back and forth to the lands of the tribes who established their territory before the Jordan river.

tomorrow: Deuteronomy 29-31

Deuteronomy 22-25

God’s message to me: Do not show favoritism. Be evenhanded in all dealings. Be fair and just.

Promises: Life will be well with you so long as your dealings are honest, fair, and even handed.

Commands: If you see something wrong you have a duty to help. Ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away. Considering it someone else's business just isn’t helpful to anyone.

Timeless principles: We see some basic civil rules here as well. Rooftops were typically flat and a parapet is a low wall around the roof to prevent accidental falls. Without one the owner is liable for harm to those who do fall.

Times change, civilization advances, people get new attitudes but, SEXUAL SIN REMAINS THE SAME. No amount of political correctness will change God’s view on this. “The world is different now” is not an excuse. It’s not different. The Old Testament is discussing the same issues 6000 years ago that we are claiming should change our views since the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. Adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, bestiality, child molestation, and the list goes on. These are not new, they are not reasonable or natural and they are always sin.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: A man in the western US recently followed the principle of the gleanings. Having taken only the base portion of his harvest he left the field and arranged a day when people could come and gather the remainder. Thousands showed up and picked the fields clean, grateful for the opportunity to gather food for their families. Imagine if every US farm followed this practice, what would be left of our hunger problems.

more to learn for in-depth study: This section is filled with commands as the law of Israel is repeated and extended. The book of the law is a separate text but it would be easy to recreate it by simply gathering the laws written in the first five books of the bible. Keep in mind the bible is not intended to give you a comprehensive picture of Israel at the time, but to provide you with the details God wanted to pass on for the purpose of teaching us truth. Israel’s history, legends and a lot of details not useful to our study but, interesting historically, can be found in the Jewish Talmud.

Edomites were the children of Esau, twin brother to Jacob who was named Israel by God. they were to be considered brothers to the nation of Israel. Egypt was the nursery in which the young nation of Israel was reared and they were to be considered friends.

tomorrow: Deuteronomy 26-28

Exodus chapters 22-24

More Laws

God’s message to me: God provides what you can handle. He promised to deliver Canaan a piece at a time until the nation of Israel was large enough to handle it, not all at once so that the land would go wild and be unmanageable.

Promises: Following God’s laws brings blessings. He promised the Israelites health, wealth, long life and property.

Commands: Plenty of laws are mentioned below but a general theme is shown. Don’t involve yourself in that which is unjust. Spreading rumors, false testimony(even if you think it serves the right ends), lynching, not being impartial and anything else that might pervert justice is wrong. Keep in mind that we serve a just God. There is a societal responsibility to adjudicate criminal matters for mutual protection. To many people make it personal and press for someone to be punished even if the law doesn’t support it. This perverts justice. Remember that the ones we can’t catch, God will, and knowing that we can accept our losses in court.

Timeless principles: Justice must be impartial to be just. All to often a demand for “justice” is a demand for revenge and such demands don’t involve a demand that the right people be punished. It does no good to avenge the crime if you take out the wrong criminal. When that happens the real criminal is left to continue his crimes.

more to learn for in-depth study: Note Exodus 24:4 once again it points out that Moses wrote these things down. I know I’m repeating myself on this subject but I have heard more than enough from the folks who claim none of this was written until hundreds of years later. To many Christians have tried to tell me that nothing was written until the Babylonian captivity over 1000 years later. It’s nonsense and proves they don’t read their bibles. It was just after this that God carved the law into stone tablets for Moses to bring to the Israelites.

Let’s avoid becoming a law book and hit the highlights

Killing a burglar is not a crime and not punishable civilly. That seems like common sense but the US is only beginning to understand the principle after more than half a century of punishing the homeowner for protecting his family and property.

Accidental losses are paid for and restored from the best available but only the loss is restored. This is not a problem for the civil courts except for things that depreciate. The bible calls for the loss to be restored from the best available to the person that caused the loss. Depreciation is an excuse that leaves people with a little cash but unable to replace the thing they lost. Theft is repaid double triple or more. That would clear the jails and lower crime even if we had to put all the thieves on chain gangs to earn the money they owe. Rented property is expected to receive wear and risk damage. The rental payment is owed but not more even if it is damaged. Why is it the renters responsibility to insure the rented property? Shotgun weddings were the rule and paying the dowry was required even if the girls father wouldn’t let you marry her.

Sorcery=bad, bestiality= bad, Sacrificing to other gods= bad, any of these things could end in a death sentence and they are still a bad idea today, though the penalty is less.

Treat the stranger(resident alien)well. The Children of Israel were resident aliens in Egypt. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were resident aliens in Canaan. The pilgrims were resident aliens in Holland before coming to
America. We all want to be treated well away from home and so we should treat others well also. Treating the widows and orphans and children of single mothers well should be expected but, too often it is not. What we know of welfare was meant for them but the welfare state that expands it’s use has made us cynical.

Lending to the poor is fine, charging interest is not, nor is taking security. Never delay your tithes.

Don’t spread falsehoods, don’t testify to a lie, don’t help to pervert justice, don’t show partiality in disputes, help the one who needs it even if you don’t like the guy. Don’t kill the innocent, avoid being involved in false matters, TAKE NO BRIBES.

You have 6 days to work, God expects you to rest on the seventh as he did and to let all the people and animals that work for you rest as well. The land gets a Sabbath rest every 7 years. Work the fields for six years and let them rest on the seventh. It’s a formula to avoid topsoil erosion, replace soil nutrients and ensure good crops.

The feasts of Passover, Harvest, and ingathering are appointed holidays.

From the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and from the desert in the south to the Euphrates river, these were the boundaries of the promised land

Genesis Chapter 50-Exodus chapter 2

The Cross-over. I won’t be able to do this very often. Most books of the bible are different enough that crossing the end of one book and starting another would lead to confusion of subjects. the Torah(the first 5 books of the bible)is an exception. Written together to go together they cross over easily. In fact, in the fine old Hollywood tradition, Exodus is a sequel. In point of fact it is the continuation of a story that wasn’t finished in Genesis. Genesis takes us from the beginning of the world to the beginning of a nation. Exodus will tell us about the birth of that nation and remind us of the rough time it had as a toddler.

God’s message to me: God rewards those who do right in the face of oppression. The midwives were given a direct order from the king. In that time such orders were law. The ignored and unjust and evil law and were rewarded by God. God tells us to submit to government but he has never told us to ignore His law in favor of political power. When the government gives unjust or evil laws we are bound to ignore them for the sake of obeying God. Slavery and segregation were such laws. Any law which violates God’s law or prevents worship qualifies.

Many of God’s servants violated local laws and international treaty to bring the word of God to the Soviet Union. In the last Olympic games we heard a lot of rumors about Christians violating the law to bring the word to China. Others have been at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many are in danger in countries we aren’t politically involved with for the same reason. When we here of missionaries in danger for teaching the word we must pray for them and stand up for them. Regardless of government policy or popular sentiment they must be held as heroes. Our government cannot be allowed to harass them or abandon them and Governments who oppress them must be opposed and fought.

Americans have the freedom to practice religion and the responsibility to spread that freedom. Those who fail to do so deserve to lose that freedom and be forced in to secret worship like those who they do not defend. Notice that the bible never speaks a word against those who lie to protect actions that are right. The midwives lied to protect lives and avoid being replaced by those who would follow Pharaohs law. God rewarded them for protecting his children.

Promises: God remembers his promises even in the darkest hour. Under 2 Pharaohs, the children of Israel were oppressed and then God began to make their way out, as he had promised and prophesied.

Commands: Do what God would want you to do no matter what. No law should prevent you from doing God’s will. No oppressor should push you into doing the wrong thing. No amount of fear or public pressure should make you ignore God’s way.

Timeless principles: God raises up leaders to bring us out of harms way. No leader is perfect and most have a skeleton or two in the closet. To ignore a good leader because of a checkered past is to give up on leadership altogether. Abraham slept with his wife’s maid. Jacob was a polygamist, Joseph was accused of rape, Moses was a murderer, king David was a murder and a polygamist and stole a man’s wife. Solomon worshiped false Gods and had over 900 wives. The list goes on to the modern day. I have my problems with Pres Bush and I know he was a drunkard in his youth. He freely admits it. I also know he takes time to pray with the families of anyone who comes to him with problems and he never makes decisions without first bringing them to God in prayer. The same can be said of a lot of presidents from both sides of the isle.

God can use the selfish sinner even in the depths of his depravity but, when such a man gives himself to God and drops his selfishness in favor of God’s plan, he can turn that person into the greatest among us. Whenever you hear rumors of the past indiscretions of potential leaders you need to look at what they are doing. Some exchange one set of evils for another. Many have their pasts dragged out to discredit the good they are doing. How many true heroes have we ignored because someone found a mistake in their past that we didn’t like. You many people with an indiscretion in their past were kept from doing great good in the present because we were turned against them. When was the last time you dropped your support for a good person because you found out he or she did something in the past that you did and were ashamed of.

more to learn for in-depth study: God blessed Joseph mightily. The Egyptians, respecting his upbringing, honored Josephs father as they would the father of a king. When Israel(Jacob) died all the land of Egypt mourned his death for 70 days and the royal honor guard sent with his sons to Israel's funeral and burial in Canaan mourned him greatly another 7 days in Canaan so that the people of that land changed the name of the place in honor of the great mourning that went on there. Joseph was promised by God that his body, too, would be buried in Canaan, like his father was.

Archaeological note: The bible has just given an evidence of the past. The tomb of the patriarchs, the land purchased by Abraham for their burial, and the proof of the story telling how Israel became the heirs to the land they live on can be shown by finding the 2 Egyptian mummies. Both Jacob and Joseph were mummified in the traditional manner of Egypt and, having been a prince of Egypt until his death, the coffin in which Joseph was placed is likely to be the type of sarcophagus we are used to seeing in association with Pharaohs and other key figures from Egypt.

Prophecy tells us many things will occur in that land in the end times. The sacrifices will begin at the temple again. This cannot happen until the ark of the covenant is recovered and the temple rebuilt. It is unlikely the temple will be rebuilt without the Muslims giving up Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock being removed. The discovery of these mummy’s along with the recovery of the Ark would be major steps in that direction.

Archaeologists are busy on many fronts in Israel. Israeli and Christian archaeologists seek proof of Israel's past, like the mummies and ark, to prove the national claim. Muslim Archaeologists are actively trying to hide these proofs. When the secret vault under the temple mount was believed to be found the Muslims buried it behind over 20feet of reinforced concrete. They turned Solomon's stables into an underground mosque to prevent study that might find evidence of his kingdom. Bombings of digs, theft of artifacts and building mosques and the like on major finds to prevent study are a regular activity of the Muslim “historians”. Finally there are secular archaeologist who are just there because so much of civilization originated in the region and they want to learn. These are often our greatest allies because, without agenda, they prove our points. It was non-aligned Archaeologists who found the evidence proving the Philistines were seafaring warriors like the Vikings who controlled outposts near the cost but rarely, if ever, traveled more than a couple of miles inland and never controlled the Land of Israel as a whole.