The Bible says in Deuteronomy 16:8-15,
Six
days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly
to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.[9] Seven weeks shalt
thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.[10] And
thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a
freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God,
according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:[11] And thou shalt
rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy
manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and
the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the
place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.[12]
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in
Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.[13] Thou shalt
observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in
thy corn and thy wine:[14] And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou,
and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the
Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy
gates.[15] Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy
God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall
bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands,
therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. There are at least
three spiritual principles mentioned in these verses: giving, rejoicing, and
remembering. Concerning giving, it is interesting that tithing is not mentioned
here. As a matter of fact the principle of giving here in regards to the feast
of weeks is very similar to the New Testament principle of giving for
Christians. No amount is required and no particular percentage. God gives the
believer the freedom to decide how much they want to give to the Lord. In
Second Corinthians 9:6-8, But this I say,
He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully.[7] Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or
of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.[8] And God is able to
make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work: The
same principle was pronounced to the Israelites when God said concerning the
Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy 16:10, And
thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a
freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God,
according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.
There is something else that the Lord
would like us to give to Him: our hearts. One of the things that shows that He
has our heart is to rejoice. When we rejoice, we are expressing faith in Him.
When we rejoice, we are taking our eyes off of our
problems and putting them on Jesus. When we rejoice, we are being mindful of
all that God has done for us. That is the key: to remember. How good is your
memory? Do you remember all that God has done for you, and do you rejoice in
those memories? It says in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always:
and again I say, Rejoice. In Deuteronomy 16:14 it
says, And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast. It also says
in verse 15, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. God loves to
hear the voices of His people in prayer, and He loves to hear rejoicing voices.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy
16:16-17, Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD
thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread,
and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not
appear before the LORD empty:[17] Every man shall give as he is able,
according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
Concerning the three Jewish feasts that are mentioned here, once again the
Jewish people are not told to give a tithe, but to give according to the New
Testament principle: as each purposes in his own
heart. It says in verse 17, Every man shall
give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God
which he hath given thee.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy
16:18-20, Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which
the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the
people with just judgment.[19] Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt
not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the
wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.[20] That which is
altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land
which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The commandments of
the Old Testament were not just establishing a religion, but they were also
establishing a nation. That is another one of the differences between the Old
Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is establishing Christianity,
but has nothing to do with establishing a nation on the earth. Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world.
Every nation needs judges who will
make decisions about crimes and controversies between citizens. It will be
terrible for a nation that does not have just judges because it will mean that
justice will be perverted. Without just judges there will be no fair outcomes
and the nation will be perverted. These verses tell us two things that will
pervert a nation and pervert its judges. The first principle is that every
person should be treated equally who comes before a judge. There should be no
preference be given to one person because of their position or their wealth or
their reputation. Justice is blind to such things. It says in Deuteronomy
16:19, thou shalt not respect persons. That is how God is. The great
Judge of the whole earth is not a respecter of persons. He will treat everyone
equally. At least there will be justice in the final judgment when we all stand
before Jesus.
Something else that can pervert
justice is money. Money is the root of all evil. It says in Deuteronomy
16:19, Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither
take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words
of the righteous. Peoples decisions are influenced by who gives them large sums
of money. And so justice and truth are perverted when
that happens. One of the problems with the current political system has to do
with the great sums of money that are given to candidates for their election
campaigns. When they are elected, will their decisions be affected by the
source of all that money?
The Bible says in Deuteronomy
16:21-22, Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the
altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.[22] Neither shalt
thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.
God loves truth. He is the truth. Jesus said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. God
hates falsehood. He hates false teaching. He hates false doctrine. God has an
intense dislike (hatred) for false religion. That is why it says in verse 22, which the LORD thy God hateth. It does matter what you believe. The important doctrines
of the Bible do matter. They matter to God, and we will each give an answer as
to what we believed and what we taught others. Gods love is associated with
His truth. If you want to experience more of Gods love, then you must grow in
truth. You must learn truth and love it.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 17:1-5,
Thou
shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is
blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an
abomination unto the LORD thy God.[2] If there be found among you,
within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that
hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his
covenant,[3] And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them,
either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not
commanded;[4] And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and
inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such
abomination is wrought in Israel:[5] Then shalt thou bring forth that
man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even
that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
On the subject of false religion and false teaching, these verses give the
punishment that was handed out in the Old Testament: death. It shows us how bad
false teachings and false religion really are. Thank God that the Old Covenant
was replaced by the New Covenant. This is what Jesus taught about the woman who
was taken in adultery in John 8:7, He that
is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. In the New Testament through faith in Christ we are not
under law, but under grace. Jesus fulfilled the law, and thus the law is set
aside. The law is the former testament. Jesus paid the punishment of the law,
death, so that we would not have to pay it. One of the problems with the
religion of Islam is that it is somewhat similar to the Old Testament with its
harsh punishments, but a new testament replacement
never came to Islam, and thus they are stuck in the harshness of the old ways.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 17:6-7,
At
the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of
death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness
he shall not be put to death.[7] The hands of the witnesses shall be
first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people.
So thou shalt put the evil away from among you. These rules
given to the nation of Israel about their judicial system are based upon common
sense and normal fairness. One witness is not enough to determine a matter.
That would not be fair for a person to be condemned based upon one other
persons testimony. That comes down to a he-said vs he-said. One other
requirement in verse 7 is that when someone was condemned to die, the witnesses
had to be the first to cast the stones. Even in the Old Testament time of
harshness, no one would be allowed to let someone else do their dirty work for
them.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 17:8-13,
If
there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood,
between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of
controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the
place which the LORD thy God shall choose;[9] And thou shalt come unto
the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and
inquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:[10] And thou
shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD
shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all
that they inform thee:[11] According to the sentence of the law which
they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell
thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall
shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.[12] And the man that will
do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto
the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from
Israel.[13] And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more
presumptuously. There are a couple of principles that can be observed
from these verses. One of the principles shows once again how practical the
commandments were for a nation. If the judges could not make a decision, there
was a higher court established that could be appealed to: made up of the
priests and Levites. And then that higher court would make a final decision,
and everyone had to accept the decision of the final court. That is similar to
how the Supreme Court works in our society. Another principle concerning these
judges who were established in Israel had to do with the fact that their
decisions were based upon law and not based upon their own ideas or feelings.
It says in verse 7, According to the
sentence of the law
One of the problems with
this is that the law can be so unforgiving and so harsh. We need something more
than law, especially in the realm of our personal relationships and our
relationship with God. We need mercy. Shakespeare recognized this.
He wrote:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the
gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that
gives, and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the heart of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.
Thank God for His mercy through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can obtain that mercy by bowing your head and
praying to Jesus, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2015 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved