Deuteronomy 23:1

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 23:1-3, “He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.[2] A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.[3] An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever.” Under the law three groups of people were not allowed to enter into the congregation of the Lord: those with certain types of physical infirmities, those with certain family origin issues, and those with certain nation origin issues. God’s standard is perfection. And in order to show that, God used this symbolism to teach spiritual lessons. From a spiritual standpoint, no one can stand before God without perfection. That is one of the benefits that believers get through Christ. When we believe in Jesus and trust Him to be our Savior, the righteousness of Christ is credited to our account. This is called imputed righteousness. In God’s eyes it as though we did not sin, and the good deeds that Jesus did, we did too. O what a wonderful salvation we have! How safely we are eternally secure in the arms of Christ! God did not loosen His standards of requiring perfection, but He also made a means such that imperfect people can still get into heaven through Christ.

There are a couple of other lessons that can be learned from the situation concerning the Ammonites and Moabites. For one thing, these were two countries. God watches nations and what they do. God judges nations as well as individuals. What was it about the Ammonites and the Moabites that made God so opposed to them? That question is answered for us in the next few verses. It says in Deuteronomy 23:4-6, “Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.[5] Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.[6] Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.” The Ammonites and the Moabites opposed the children of Israel when God was leading the children of Israel to the promised land, the land of Canaan. The lesson here: woe to those who oppose the people of God and to those who oppose the will of God. God will hold nations responsible for knowing what God wants. Nations will be judged. The future of nations will be altered based upon how they treated Israel and how well they fulfilled God’s will. The judgment may not come for decades or even centuries, but it will come.

In spite of the efforts of the Ammonites and the Moabites to harm Israel, notice what is said in verse 5, “but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.” This verse has tremendous implications for every believer. What it means is that no one can harm you in any way. Those who oppose you, those who hate you, and those who try to harm you will all fail. God will alter what they try to do, God will change what they try to do, and God will use what they do in order to accomplish His will. It says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” God loves His children, and God is so powerful that somehow God can take the evil deeds that unbelievers do and make the final consequence to end up having a good result for His children. For example, if some unbelieving and hard-hearted person out of malice towards you puts a road block in your way and keeps you from doing something you were trying to do, God will use that to direct your life. Either the road block will crumble and not work, and God will set a new plan and a new direction for you. Either way it is God’s will that shall take place. God will turn the curse into a blessing because He loves you.

There is another spiritual truth hidden in the following statement made in Deuteronomy 23:3, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.” One reason for this is because these two peoples had false religion. God wants churches and Christians to have a pure doctrine and to not be corrupted with false ideas. The principle of separation from evil applies to your beliefs as well as your secular associations. God wants us to have a pure faith. That is one of the reasons that we study the Bible: to learn God’s truth and to be faithful to it. The book of Jude warns Christians to not allow false teachers into their congregations. It says in Jude 1:11-11-13, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.[12] These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;[13] Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”

There is one more important point to make about the Ammonites and the Moabites. Ruth was a Moabite. The Lord did not keep her from joining the congregation of the righteous. The Ammonite and Moabite people were kept out of the congregation of the children of Israel because the Ammonites and Moabites had their own false religion. But if any Ammonite or Moabite turned from their false religion and turned to the one true God, they would be accepted. Ruth said to Naomi the Israelite in the book of Ruth 1:16-17, “…for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:[17] Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” Anyone is welcome into the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ who will repent of his or her sins and turn to Jesus for forgiveness.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 23:7-8, “Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.[8] The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation.” Two peoples are mentioned that the Israelites were supposed to treat better than other peoples that lived in and around Canaan. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, and so the Edomites were also in the lineage of Abraham. God loved Abraham and Abraham’s faith. “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” The status that the Edomites were given symbolizes God’s faithfulness to His promises. The blessings that were pronounced upon Abraham were directly related to faith, and so everyone that was associated with Abraham was blessed too. The Egyptians have a special place reserved in God’s plans because the children of Israel lived in Egypt for so long. Even though they were slaves in Egypt, they did prosper there until it was time for them to go into the land of Canaan. We see all through the Bible that God remembers Egypt and has a certain amount of favor granted to Egypt.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 23:9-14, “When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing.[10] If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:[11] But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.[12] Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:[13] And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:[14] For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.” Verse 9 sets the theme of this passage of scripture very well. God wants His believers to be holy. That has always been the case whether we are talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament. One of the things that can corrupt a believer is contact with unbelievers: no matter how that contact comes about, even if the contact is a result of war. One of the bad effects of wars has to do with the social upheaval that can occur, and this includes intermingling with the people from another culture and another religion. Because people are social beings, we are easily influenced by those around us. The goal is always that we will influence others by our Christian character, and not the other way around. In the case of the children of Israel, it turns out that they did not take heed to this warning from the Lord. They were eventually corrupted by the nations around them, as the Israelites adopted the religious ideas and other philosophies of those nations.

The rest of the verses in this passage use symbolism to emphasize the fact that God wants His believers to lead holy lives. God wants us to make sure that nothing corrupts us: that we lead a clean life. This concept supports the old saying that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Cleanliness certainly symbolizes godliness. That which is not clean symbolizes that which is not godly. Think of human sewage. It is dirty, of course. There is a spiritual meaning and symbolism used by the Bible comparing food that we eat that we take in to human sewage that comes out of us. Jesus used this symbolism. Jesus said in Mark 7:1-23, “There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.[16] If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.[17] And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.[18] And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;[19] Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?[20] And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.[21] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,[22] Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:[23] All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Jesus is saying that food that goes into a person cannot defile the person. That is because good food that is properly prepared goes into a person and helps them and benefits them. But eventually what goes in, comes out. What comes out is human sewage: stinky and dirty and full of bacterial. It goes into the sewage system for a reason. If that sewage touched someone, the human waste would make that person dirty: it would defile the person. There is a spiritual teaching in all of that which is spelled out for us in the Old Testament and in the teachings of Christ. It is not what goes into a person that defiles them: it is not what they hear or see that defiles them. But it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. Jesus listed off what can come out of a human being that can defile them: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” This shows what God thinks about our sins: that He compares them to human sewage. When we sin, we are dirty, filthy, and stinky. We need to be cleansed. Jesus can cleanse you of your sins so that you are whiter than snow. If you have never bowed before Jesus and asked Him to forgive you of your sins, today is your opportunity to do that. Remember the parable of the human sewage.

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