Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

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I have been struggling to find the way to start talking about what I see in today’s passage.  The core of the lesson I want us to take from this passage comes in the portion about the sabbatical year.  Moses tells us that if we strictly obey the voice of the Lord our God, there will be no poor among us.  Notice that Moses does not say here that we should just obey the commands which God has given through him.  He tells us to obey the voice of the Lord.  The instructions about the sabbatical year was that every seven years they were to forgive all debts which were owed to them by their fellow Israelite, by their brothers.  Then, Moses tells them that if one of their brothers does become poor, they should lend him sufficient for his need…and they were not to take into account how close, or far, they were to the sabbatical year.

I really want to look at that.  Moses did not tell them to give their brother who had fallen on hard times what they needed.  No, he told them to lend it to them, but to forgive the debt in the seventh year.  So, when we give aid to those in difficult times, we are doing so in a manner which encourages them to stand on their own two feet.  The aid we give them is a loan, with the understanding that they just need a hand to pull themselves together and then they will be able to pay us back.  However, we are not to be heartless in doing so.  If the seventh year arrives and they have not yet paid us back, forgive the debt and move on.  I noticed a thought related to that in the commands regarding the Feasts later in the chapter.  During the Feasts, they were instructed to make a freewill offering which was to be given “as the Lord your God blesses you.”  From that offering they were to rejoice before the Lord, along with their children, their servants, the Levites, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who were among them.   We should strive to aid those who are less fortunate than ourselves in ways which build them up and encourage them to make their lives better.

Finally, I want to look at the instructions regarding future kings of Israel (future from the perspective of those to whom Moses was speaking).  It starts out with a set of instructions which directly goes against much of what Solomon did.  The king was not to acquire many horses for himself.  We are told that Solomon acquired many horses.  The king was not to send people to Egypt to acquire horses.  Solomon acquired horses from Egypt.  He was not to acquire many wives.  Solomon acquired many wives.  The king was not to acquire excessive silver and gold.  Solomon acquired huge amounts of silver and gold.  All of these instructions were listed as things which might cause the king to turn away from God.  Solomon did indeed turn away from God.  However, these instructions are not just about Solomon.  All of these instructions indicate ways in which those who govern over others betray their duty to look out for the interests of those over whom they govern.

Aside from the negative instructions, the things the king was not to do, there was a positive instruction, something the king was to do.  The king was to write for himself a copy of the law.  One which was checked for accuracy by the Levitical priests.  He was to keep that copy, which he himself had written, with him and read from it daily.  The purpose of this was to remind him to keep God’s laws and to keep him from thinking himself better than those over whom he governed.  Again, we should all do this so that we too do not think ourselves better than others and so that we do not turn aside from doing God’s will.  OK, maybe not write a copy of God’s law, but certainly we should read from His word daily.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

I was debating what to write about on today’s passage.  It starts out talking about clean and unclean foods, then gets into the regulations for tithes.  Then in the middle of talking about canceling debts every seven years I came across this sentence, “However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,  if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.”  If we fully obey God He will bless us and the land we live in so that no one need be poor in the land.  Nevertheless, Moses gave instructions about how they should, how we should, treat the poor.  He told us to be openhanded and lend freely to them whatever they need. Further, Moses instructs us to give generously to the poor and to do so ungrudgingly.  Also in this passage Moses gives instructions concerning how the king should behave.  Interestingly, nowhere in his instructions for the king, instructions for the government, does he say anything about the poor.  Moses gives instructions to the people about how they should treat the poor, but does not give the king any instructions about what the government should do for the poor.  We should care for the poor, we should lend them resources without concern about whether they can pay us back before the seven years are up when all debt is cancelled.  We should not attempt to fob off on the government our responsibility to help the poor.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 14-17.

I do not have any profound thoughts about today’s passage, but there are a couple of things which inspire thoughts about how we interpret Scripture.  The first of these has to do with the way in which Orthodox Jews interpret kosher food laws.  In particular this phrase from verse 21 of chapter 14: “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”  The traditional Jewish interpretation of this command leads them to not cook any meat with any dairy products.  But this passage does not say anything about sheep or cattle, just goats, as do all of the other places where the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) repeats this command.  Looking at this causes me to observe how often we read more into a passage then is actually there.

Following that is an injunction to set aside a tenth of what the fields produce, the tithe.  Moses instructed the Israelites to set aside a tenth of what their fields produced and take it to a central location where they would all worship God together.  When they got there they were to eat the tithe.  So, the purpose of the tithe was to supply a feast which would be consumed along with all of the Israelites as they worshiped and thanked God.  This passage also discusses three feasts for which all of the Israelites were to gather in order to worship God together.  All together, the instruction to tithe and the three feasts, indicate that God’s people should gather regularly in order to live in unity and peace with one another.  In the same way today it is important for God’s people to gather to worship God and fellowship with one another so as to remain united under God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 14-17.

The Israelites were commanded to put aside a tenth of what their fields produced each year and take it, along with the first born of their herds and flocks, to the central location where God had designated that all of Israel should gather to worship Him.  We tend to focus on the tithe portion of this command and not what they were supposed to do with that tithe.  God commanded that when they got to the place He had designated, they should eat that tithe in company with all of their fellow Israelites.  They were to share this feast with the Levites, who did not have any land on which to grow crops from which to tithe.  So, the purpose of setting aside this tithe was in order to have a big feast with the rest of Israel.  It was designed to bring all of the Israelites together in unity.  Further, in the next section, they were told to give generously to their fellow Israelites who were in need, but not as a gift, as a loan.  However, they were to forgive any such loans every seven years.  The Israelites were to gather on a regular basis to eat and drink together.  They were to make sure that all of their countrymen could join in this celebration.  They were not to worship any other gods, nor incorporate any of their worship practices with those commanded by God (in particular, God called out to forbid the worship practices of the fertility gods of the region).  In addition, they were not to tolerate the presence of those who worshiped other gods.  All in all the commands given in this passage seem designed to bring unity among the Israelites by making sure that they shared values and that economic stratification never lasted more than a generation.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 14-17.

Moses laid out God’s rules for canceling debts every seven years.  First, he specifies that all debts should be canceled in the seventh year.  Then he talks about being openhanded and generous towards the poor.  Jesus was referring to this passage when He said that we would always have the poor among us, but this passage also tells us to act so as to aid the poor.  Throughout this passage we are told to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.  Earlier the passage speaks about taking a tenth of our harvest and consuming it as a celebration before God, but a third of that tithe should be given to those who do not have sufficient to feast themselves.   It speaks of freeing those who sold themselves into servanthood because they could not care for themselves.  However, it is not enough that they be freed, those who own them are instructed to send them away with the supplies which they need to make a new start for themselves.

Moses also lays down instructions for judges and rulers.  He instructed judges to judge fairly and to not pervert justice.  The passage describes two ways in which justice might be perverted: showing partiality and accepting bribes.  But the passage makes clear that any other perversion of justice should be avoided as well.  The passage goes on to lay out rules for kings, but I think these rules provide good guidelines for anyone in authority.  In particular, the passage instructs kings to make their own copy of the Book of the Law by copying an existing copy with their own hand.  Then, once they have written out their own copy, they  were to keep that copy with them and read from it regularly.  From this study, the king, or any other ruler, should strive to follow God’s commands and not consider himself better than others.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 14-17.

There are several interesting things in this passage.  Once again we have the laws regarding kosher foods.  As I pointed out earlier in the year when we read the kosher rules in Leviticus, while not every animal in the forbidden categories is a disease risk when eaten, the animals in the clean categories are all essentially safe to eat.  Another point of interest, the tithe was to be consumed as part of a feast by those who made the offering, except every third year, when it was to be given to the Levites for the benefit of the Levites and to aid orphans and widows.

Which brings us to God’s commands regarding debt and dealing with the poor.  I want to focus on what Moses tells them, and us, regarding the poor.  He tells them that there will not need to be any poor among them, if they only fully and faithfully follow God’s commands.  However, Moses essentially acknowledges that they will fail to do so such that there will be poor among them.  Those who are well-to-do and/or wealthy should freely lend to the poor whatever it is that the poor need, and not attempt to profit at the expense of the poor.  My father said on several occasions something which I think sum up how we should apply this today.  “There is nothing wrong with a Christian being a millionaire, and there is nothing wrong with a Christian being on welfare.  But there is something seriously wrong if one congregation has someone who is a millionaire and someone who is on welfare.”  He meant by that that those of us who are wealthy should aid those who would otherwise depend on the government so that they do not need to depend on the government.  I want to note that here, and everywhere else in the Bible where it is discussed, the wealthy have an obligation to God to aid the poor, but the poor do not have a right to that aid.  The Bible does not give the poor the right, or even the standing, to demand that the wealthy help them out.  I also want to point out that this passage makes no provision for the King (the government) to aid the poor (except insomuch as he is one of the wealthy).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.