February 3, 2025
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Reading along with us in Deuteronomy and Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 17 (NIV)
1 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant,……Continue Reading
Deuteronomy 17 and 18
Deuteronomy 17. It sounds like some Israelites were not giving God the worship he deserved, they tried to shortchange him with imperfect sacrifices. God knows the hearts of men, and our giving shows where our hearts are. Don’t put things before God like worshipping other Gods, the
Sun the moon, the Israelites were doing that. God was quite clear with the punishment for that, and there had to be more than one witness before they would stone them to death for their sins. God wanted the evil purged from Israel.
DEUTERONOMY 17
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if leaders today had the word or God written upon their hearts and referenced it daily in their decision making. The world would look very different for sure!
Psalm 42-45; Deuteronomy 17
During matters where people couldn`t decide on a judgement; they were to bring the matter before the Levites, priests, and a judge. They were to decide the matter. If the man didn`t listen to this judgement, he would be put to death. This would put away the evil. Such is a nation with laws for without them there would be trouble with everyone doing whatever they wanted leading to sin. Even the instructions about having a king. God knew that the people would in time want their own king, so He provided instructions for it. Here they are: {1. God would choose the king. 2. He would be one of their own people. 3. He shall not multiply horses to himself. 4. He shall not multiply wives to himself. 5. He was to write himself a copy of the law in a book out of that which is before the priests and the Levites. 6. It was to be with him always. 7. He was to read it all of the days of his life. 8. He was to walk in all the ways of the Lord. The results would be that his heart would stay closer to the Lord and not led astray by many wives or circumstances. He would remain faithful to the Lord. We know from history that Israel got kings and many of them didn`t follow the Lord but instead were evil. There were some good kings, but they even had sin. Look at king Solomon. He had many wives and was led astray even though God gave him wisdom. He had great riches, and horses. In the end, he was corrupted, and the kingdom was divided. The Bible is God`s words to us so that we may grow in Him and learn important lessons. God bless us as we walk with Him.
Deuteronomy 17
Defying God and worshipping anything else in the same way was a serious matter and was to be dealt with harshly, with death. The same would happen to those who defied the decisions handed down by the levites and judges that were to render judgements in matters the Israelites couldn’t resolve. In both cases, an example would be set and the opportunity for people to be deceived to follow them would be discouraged. And it is interesting that God includes here instructions for a king that He knew the Jews would eventually seek. In general, the king was not to engender things to himself or trust in military power rather than God. He was to remain pure and let the word of God guide him in how he was and what he did. How different the history of the Jews would be if this happened. It made me think of king Josiah where God’s words were found discarded somewhere because it wasn’t being read the way it should.