Deuteronomy: Chapters 22-30
Chapter 22: Practice chastity and godly love. Lead people to righteousness.
V. 1-4: If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. If you see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet.
V. 5: It is to distinguish man and woman lest we commit sexual immorality.
V. 6-7: God wants us to have concern even to the little bird. How this law reveals the great compassion of God.
V. 8: Make a parapet around your roof. It prevents people from falling from the roof. This law shows how considerate the love of God is.
V. 9: Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard. Do not mix secular principles or philosophies with true gospel. If we do that, we reap nothing from it. They cancel each other out.
V. 10: Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together. Do not arrange co-worker by man’s viewpoint. It is better to have co-worker paired by the Holy Spirit.
V. 11: Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Clothes stand for our external behavior that people can see. A Christian must live out a life of holiness and honesty. Never put up artificial or hypocritical behavior. Nor act like the Gentiles.
V. 12: God says when you look at these tassels: you will not follow the lust of your own hearts and eyes. Live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Tassels on garments are for us to remember and to keep all the commands of the Lord. (Numbers 15/37-39) The Pharisee put long tassels on their garment so that men will see how spiritual they are.
V. 13-21: Have proof of virginity. It is important for a Christian to have a witness of loving our God with pure and devoted heart.
V. 22: Put to death adultery.
V. 23-24: The reason to put to death the violated girl is because she was in a town and she did not scream for help. If she had screamed for help in a town, people would have saved her. But she did not scream for help to resist sins so that she is counted as giving consent to what happened to her. Therefore, she should also be put to death.
V. 25-27: But put to death only the man who violates a girl in the country. Do nothing to the girl because even she screamed, there was no one to rescue her in a country.
V. 28-29: If a man violates a virgin, he shall pay a price to cover her shame and marry her.
V. 30: A man is not to marry his father’s wife. This is unlawful sexual sins, a great wickedness.
The whole chapter of 22 shows us God’s holiness and His considerate love. He wants us to practice chastity and lead people to righteousness to have eternal life and not be perished.
Chapter 23: Be holy and kind. Stay away from all evils.
V. 1: This kind of people has defect in themselves that they cannot have natural descendants. They do not fellowship with God so that they cannot bear fruit. They may not enter the assembly of the Lord. The Assembly of God means meetings that have the presence of God. There God’s children exalt God as their King and they are blessed by God. (Deut. 33/3-5)
V. 2: Those who are not clearly reborn cannot draw near to God.
V. 3-6: No Ammonite or Moabite may draw near to God because they are born of human decision or sinful lust. They hired Balaam to curse God’s children. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
V. 7-8: Do not abhor an Edomite or an Egyptian, because they might be converted in the third generation. The Edomite means members at church but belong to the flesh. Egyptian means people belong to this world.
V. 9-14: Keep away from everything impure when you preach gospel to people. One Achan brings trouble on the whole nation. Therefore, your camp must be holy. Otherwise, God may turn away from you.
V. 15-16: Accept a slave takes refuge with you. Be kind to him and do not oppress him. How Paul has changed Onesimus, from a run away slave into a true Christian of God’s very heart.
V. 17-18: Never accept offering from the earnings of a female or male prostitute. This can also apply to any offerings from impure religion. Once I refused to accept an offering from a sister. It was because she comprised with communist religious organization. After that my God moved a sister to provide me every month for a long time. This sister lived very far away from me and I have never met her even up to this day.
V. 19-20: Do not take interest from a brother. (Share a testimony of Martha.)
V. 21-23: Fulfill your vow at once. How Hannah fulfilled her vow.
V. 24-25: Do not be greedy when you are blessed. Do not desire more or demand more for the worldly things. Be content.
Chapter 24: Be strict with self-discipline. Be compassionate to others.
V. 1-2: God permits His children to divorce because their hearts are hard.
God says, “I hate divorce and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment.”(Malachi 2/16) Therefore, guard yourself in your spirit.
V. 3-4: How the earth is full of sins! How God hates it, if a man marries a woman, divorces her, and then remarries her again.
V. 5: A recent married man can stay free at home for one year. But Uriah husband of Bathsheba refused to go home and relax when King David sent him home. He slept at the entrance to the palace and did not want to go home. Uriah only cared about those who were fighting in the open field. He was faithful to God and His people. What a true heavenly warrior he was.
V. 6-18: Do not gain on others lost. Nor oppress others or take advantage of them. All these are wickedness before the eye of God. They violate the loving way of God.
V. 19-22: Be compassionate to others. Then God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
In all, discipline yourself strictly and be compassionate to others is the secret to blessing.
Chapter 25: Honor the Lord’s name. Destroy the Amalekites and deal with everything honestly.
V. 1-3: Punish as one deserves. Do not overdo it.
The discipline from God is to do good to us. It is not to destroy us. Paul taught the church, “The punishment inflicted on him [an immoral brother] by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.” (2 Corinthians 2/6-8)
V. 4: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
Do not let servants of God minister with an empty stomach. Paul always reminded the church to support those who were sent out to work so that they would be lack of nothing. Share the testimony of sister Leong in London.
V. 5-10: Honor the name of the Lord. Do not be The Family of the Unsaddled.
It is our duty to bear fruit so that we can honor the name of our Lord. The Lord is the Elder brother of every Christian. Our Lord has sacrificed Himself and shed His blood to redeem us from eternal death. How can we repay all His gracious love to us? We will exalt His name so that many people will receive the blessing of salvation. The Family of the Unsaddled means a Christian who is unwilling to put on the sandal of gospel to proclaim the name of Jesus. It is shameful that a Christian only lives for his own interests. Let us not receive God’s grace in vain. Honor God’s name and bring many people to the Lord.
V. 11-12: Do not use wicked ways to save one’s husband.
Though the motivation of this wife is to save her husband, her method is wicked. It is so wicked before the eye of God that her wicked hand should be cut off. Jesus Christ is the husband of the Church. His name is Almighty Lord. That is why Moses was warned, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”(Hebrews 8/5) God struck Uzzah to death when he used his own hand to take hold of the Ark of God. How God hates it when we minister by using the way of men or the way of this world. Needless to say, God hates it more when we use wicked methods in His ministry.
V. 13-16: Deal with everything honestly.
Do not have two differing weights in your heart. Do not use double standard in your home. God’s Word is the yardstick of justice and honesty. Practice justice and honesty so that you may live long. Get rid of every selfishness or favoritism in your heart. God hates anyone who acts in injustice.
V. 17-19: Completely blot out the memory of Amalek.
The meaning of Amalek is warlike. It is the most stubborn enemy of God’s children. Amalek is just like our flesh and sinful desires that always war against our souls. We must be at war against it from generation to generation. Put it to death by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 5/3-6) Let us blot out the name of Amalek completely. DO NOT FORGET! We will not take up its name on our lips.
Chapter 26: Give offering with thanksgiving. Receive blessings and bless others.
V. 1-11: Give offering with thanksgiving to God when we are blessed.
When we have entered the good land, we take the first fruits of the land to the Lord. Take as much as you can and put them in a basket. Bring them to the place that proclaims pure faith and has the presence of God. Then we should count the blessings before the Lord. We share our blessings with God’s servants and people around us.
V. 12-15: Store up the blessings so that you can bless God’s servants and the poor.
Then pray to God: (1) I have not turned aside from your commands or forgot them. I have taken out the portion belonged to God and have given it to people. (2) I have not eaten the sacred portion when I was in mourning. (Mourning means defiled oneself with this world.) (3) I have not removed any of the sacred portion when I was unclean. It pleases God if we obey His words and cleanse ourselves before we make any sacrifice. (4) I have not offered any of it to the dead. Do not use the sacred portion as a present to entertain people.
Finally, ask the Lord to bless God’s children and the land God has given us.
V. 16-19: If we follow God’s words today, with all our heart and with all our souls, God will bless us according to His promises.
(1) Take hold of “Today”—the past is gone; the future is not at your hand; only “Today” is yours.
(2) From Today follow God’s words with all our heart and with all our souls. Be a good Christian that is grateful to God and kind to people.
(3) Then the Lord promises “Today” He removes all the sins in your heart so that you can keep all of His commands carefully.
(4) God will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations.
(5) God will make you holy to the Lord.
Has the Lord given you a job? Has the Lord delivered you from trouble? How can you and I forget God’s gracious kindness? Today, are you willing to be grateful to God? Are you willing to obey His words and be a blessing to others? Bring your tithes to the Lord and bless others. God will greatly bless you from Today.
Chapter 27: Imprint God’s words into your heart. Take God’s warnings seriously.
V. 1-10: As soon as we enter the land God gives us, imprint God’s words in our heart and make offering to God.
Abraham built up the altar wherever he moved around in the promised land. He prayed to the name of God and made offering on the altar. We must follow his good example. Wherever we go, the first thing is to pay attention to God’s words. Then we make offering to God. Dedicate ourselves completely to the Lord as a living burnt sacrifice. Let the Lord be our head. Be willing to be broken into pieces for the Lord. Cleanse ourselves completely. Serve the Lord fervently, like a sacrifice burning with fire on the altar. Give the entire fat portion, all of our love and honor, to the Lord. Then we will be full of peace and joy. Follow God’s words and walk in His way. Be a good child of God that can bring glory to God and bring blessing to people.
V. 11-26: God’s servants shall warn God’s people in a loud voice lest they be cursed.
Pay more attention to God’s words. Do the work of salvation with fear and trembling. If we take God’s words lightly, we may offend God in His ministry. We will end up like many of the Israelites dying in the desert. We may be cut off from the blessing and the good land God gives us.
In the past we did not paid attention to this chapter. Therefore, whenever we arrived at the mission field, we were busy with settling down, taking showers, or other things.
We did not know that the first thing we should do was to meditate God’s words and to dedicate ourselves completely to the Lord. That was why many times we lost the battle field right from beginning. Before we realized it, Satan had put some idol in our hearts. Two of our co-workers lost their power for that when they just arrived at the mission field. The Israelites fell into the trick of the Baal of Peor right before they were going to enter the Promised Land. They commit sexual immorality with gentile women. Then the plague came and it killed 24,000 men. How dreadful it is, if we ignore God’s words!
The greatest command of the Lord is for us to love His words with all our hearts and with all our souls. The second is to love others as ourselves. All the wickedness listed from V. 15-26 is against God’s way. A curse will surely be the result of it. Let us repent because we have not paid attention to God’s words. Let us start to guard His words well in our hearts and take His warnings seriously from today. Then, we will be blessed, not cursed.
Chapter 28: Listen to God and walk in His ways attentively. You will be blessed, not cursed.
How can we fully obey and carefully follow all of God’s commands? Jesus is our best example. He went to the temple when he was only 12. He did not care about anything but listened to the teachers and asked them questions. Jesus had paid attention to the words written in the Holy Bible. He obeyed them fully. That was why Jesus was baptized by John so that he could fulfill all righteousness. That was also why Jesus would fast and prayed watchfully 40 days and nights in the face of temptation. He asked the Holy Spirit to help him lest he be deceived by the tempter. When he was so hungry, Jesus was not tempted by the devil to change the stone to bread. Jesus guarded God’s words well, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” When Jesus was taken to the highest point of the temple, the devil tempted him to jump down. The devil even tried to use God’s words to mislead Jesus, saying that God would command angels to protect him. But Jesus had paid attention to God’s words so that he knew one should not misuse God’s promise in this way. Therefore, Jesus answered, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Then the devil showed him all the kingdom of the world. The devil asked Jesus to bow down to him to have all this. But Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan!” Jesus truly put God’s words richly in his heart. He understood His words and kept them in his heart all the time. Jesus would keep God’s words to the point of death.
This is why we have encouraged you: There is only one thing is needed. Sit before the foot of Jesus, humbly listening to His words everyday. Then you will do a beautiful thing that is after God’s heart. It is also why we must read the book of Deuteronomy everyday.
If we do not pay attention to what is written in the Bible, we may drift away from God in the following ways: (1) We may treat sins lightly. If we pay attention to God’s words, we will know how much God hates sins. And we will know how God has power and grace for us to be delivered from sins completely. In our heart there are evil thoughts, sexual immorality, greediness, cheating. If we truly determine to remove it,
God will certainly answer our prayers. Our part is to confess our sins and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus on the cross by faith. By the power of the Holy Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body. Never lose hope. Earnestly seek the Lord until He leads us to victory and sanctifies us.
(2) We may regard what is not sin as great sin. The Pharisees counted the disciples of Jesus as sinning because they picked some heads of grain and ate them on the Sabbath. We may therefore fear what we should not fear. And ignore what we should fear.
(3) Regard good as evil. The Pharisees regarded Jesus as committing great sin to heal the sick on the Sabbath.
(4) Go beyond what is written in the Bible. Balaam built up 7 altars everywhere because he wanted to make money from his ministry. He made lots of offering on his altars. But the more altars he built up, the more he led people to sin against God. A sister in London was like that. She thought she could help people by building up more altars. She fasted 24 days for a gambler. But that brother ran away to gamble again.
(5) Turn to left or right from the truth. Saul was like this. He asked people to vow not to eat when they were fighting against the enemy. But God said, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” God commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites completely. But Saul and his people showed pity to Agag king of Amalekites and the best of the sheep and cattle. He thought he did a great honor in this battle.
(6) We will be deceived easily by the devil, either be proud or be led astray by idols.
(7) We will follow great wonders or signs. The Lord said that even the Elect would be deceived by great wonders or signs in the end time.
From now on be sure to pay attention to follow God’s words more than anything. Then we will not go astray or provoke God to anger. We will get great blessing from God, not disasters.
Chapter 29: Carefully obey God’s words. Do not deceive yourself.
V. 1-15: Those who keep God’s covenant get blessings promised by God. They will prosper in all things.
God does not show favoritism. Whoever hears His words and puts them into practice by faith will get blessing promised by God. God has made this covenant with His children and sealed with an oath. We have also experienced great wonders of God by ourselves. Therefore, follow God’s words carefully so that we may prosper in everything.
V. 16-28: Do not deceive yourself. Whoever turns away from God’s words will be cursed.
Do not turn away from God to worship other gods. Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. Hebrew 12/15-16 tells us about the bitter root will cause trouble and defile many. The bitter root could be sexually immorality or godlessness like Esau. God will single out this person from all His people for disaster. The endings of this person will be like those who died in the desert and never entered God’s Promised Land. (1 Corinthians 10/5-10)
V. 29: Forever follow what God has told us clearly.
We must follow what God has told us clearly and continue to obey them fully by the power of the Holy Spirit for the days of our lives. In addition to it, we need to make every effort to know God’s words according to Proverbs 2/1-5. By meditating His words and by the Holy Spirit we enter into the depth of all truth. We may have an Insight into the mystery of the Bible. Paul and Daniel have done that. They are highly favored by God.
Chapter 30: Return to God and obey His commands. You will be blessed with the inherited land.
V. 1-10: Return to God when we have troubles. God will restore us and have compassion on us.
Very often we are like the prodigal son that does not appreciate God’s blessing. Therefore, we waste God’s gifts and grace in following the sinful desires. It is until we suffer to the bottom that no one gives us anything, not even the pods, and then we return to God. Our heavenly Father is waiting earnestly for the lost son just like that father. As he saw the son, he ran to his son, threw his arm around him and kissed him. Quickly the Father put the new robe on him. Put sandals on his feet. What a joy God has when we return to Him. How compassionate God will restore us. After we suffer enough for turning away from God, we will come back to follow God’s words with fear and trembling. Those who are forgiven more will love God more.
V. 11-14: God’s words are not too difficult to do.
His words are not beyond our reach. His words are in our mouth and in our heart so we may obey them. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”(Matthew 7/7) His word is true. Jesus has destroyed the power of sin on the cross. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome and be holy. Jesus has redeemed us so that we become noble instruments that can honor God and be blessings to people. By the power of the blood on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus can change a lowly prodigal son to a noble prince. How he had changed Saul to Paul. Hallelujah! So long as we love the light and draw near to the light, we will never be condemned. Continue to pray earnestly for the good we desired and to do the right thing. God will change us to the noble instrument that lives out His glory. God’s words are never too difficult to do. It is by faith and grace that we can do His words according to the Holy Spirit. We accept the salvation that has accomplished by Jesus.
V. 15-20: Life and death, prosperity and destruction; choose life.
Those who love God and keep all of His commands carefully will have eternal life and eternal blessings. If we are led astray to disobey His words or to worship other gods, we will perish. Therefore, you must choose life today.