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Revelation

Daily Reader for Day 62: Deuteronomy 15 - 17


by Dave Moore

At the end of yesterday’s reading, Moses reminds Israel that “the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow…shall eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”  The LORD’s blessing is listed as a consequence of their care for these groups. 

Our reading today launches along that same refrain.  We’ve seen before that the LORD sees each seventh year as a “year of release” of both debts and slaves.  This is the theme of chapter 15, but nested within is a challenge: “There will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you…if only you will strictly obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.” 

When you turn to chapter 16, listen to how this theme of blessing now permeates the commands regarding Feasts and Festivals.  As they celebrate the Passover, their care for the sojourner, widow, and orphan, is directly connected to remembering that they were slaves in Egypt.  So with the Feast of Booths – a reminder of how the LORD provided for them in the wilderness. 

Moses turns now to the courts, where judges “shall not pervert justice,” nor “show partiality,” These instructions regarding civil justice bookend another warning about worshipping other gods – and the penalties that offense carries.  If proximity is an indicator of connection, then it’s possible that perversion of justice and perversion of worship have something in common.

These three chapters have been building to the crescendo at the end of chapter 17: instructions regarding Israel’s future kings.  Notice throughout that the focus is not on whether or not a king is a good idea, but on the LORD’s vision for that king, which is distinctive among the nations.  The king shall neither amass wealth through many marriages nor build military power with an overwhelming cavalry. The king is not the lawmaker, but is to be a student of God’s law.  In this his blessing – and that of his dynasty – will be found. 

Our verse for this week is Matthew 22:39: And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  

Deuteronomy chapters 15 through 17.  Now let’s read it!

Deuteronomy 15 - 17

At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because Jehovah's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. However there will be no poor with you (for Jehovah will surely bless you in the land which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance to possess) if only you diligently listen to Jehovah your God's voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you today. For Jehovah your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Jehovah your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, "The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand," and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to Jehovah against you, and it be sin to you. You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Jehovah your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. It shall be, if he tells you, "I will not go out from you," because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you, then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for he has been double the value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Jehovah your God will bless you in all that you do. You shall dedicate all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock to Jehovah your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it before Jehovah your God year by year in the place which Jehovah shall choose, you and your household. If it has any defect--is lame or blind, or has any defect whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God. You shall eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle and as the deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water. Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Jehovah your God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by night. You shall sacrifice the Passover to Jehovah your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Jehovah shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the meat, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which Jehovah your God gives you; but at the place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. You shall roast and eat it in the place which Jehovah your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Jehovah your God. You shall do no work. You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. You shall keep the feast of weeks to Jehovah your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give according to how Jehovah your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before Jehovah your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. You shall keep a feast to Jehovah your God seven days in the place which Jehovah chooses, because Jehovah your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before Jehovah empty. Every man shall give as he is able, according to Jehovah your God's blessing which he has given you. You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Jehovah your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Jehovah your God gives you. You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside Jehovah your God's altar, which you shall make for yourselves. Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Jehovah your God hates. You shall not sacrifice to Jehovah your God an ox or a sheep in which is a defect or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Jehovah your God. If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Jehovah your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Jehovah your God's sight in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded, and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you. If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Jehovah your God chooses. You shall come to the priests who are Levites and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Jehovah chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you. According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left. The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Jehovah your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. When you have come to the land which Jehovah your God gives you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me," you shall surely set him whom Jehovah your God chooses as king over yourselves. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Jehovah has said to you, "You shall not go back that way again." He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the Levitical priests. It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.

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You Can Read the Bible is supported by Bellefield Presbyterian Church and blessed with its wonderful volunteers, including: Dave Moore, Jose David Aguilar Posada, Meagan Carter, Fiona Carter, Tanya Carter, Greg Burdette, Madeline Kulp, Andie Young, Justin Ray, Gary Liberati, Maureen Hinchman, Ken MacLeod, John Dolan, Roberto Cantillo, Charlei George, Josh Brown, Jeanne Griffith, Zachary Fritts, Dan Hinchman, Sophia Young, Lynette MacLeod, Gladys Cantillo, Grace Watson, Marianne Seah, Ian MacLeod, Liz Zimmerman, August Hall, Paza Boyd, Kristin Horner, Daniel Young, Paul Griffoen, Ben Moore, Meredith Carter, Bob Willson, Rosie Wagoner, Nick Bersin, Rhonda Hall, Helen Dolby, Emily Moore, Rick Zimmerman, Matt Jones, Kiana Jones, Jane Carter, Marilyn Long, Renee Hairston, Heather Weaver, Carol Williams, Anita Woolley, Andrew Thorpe, Emily Wenz, Matt Carter, and many others.

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