For those following the study guide note they stopped at
chapter 24, so I am going to adjust the readings a bit through the end of the
study 16-20, 21-25, 26-31. Verse 17:1 talks about the sacrifice and how we
respond to it:
Moses: Don’t sacrifice
an ox or a sheep to the Eternal your God if it has any defect or problem. He
would be deeply offended by such an offering!
Today we don’t raise sheep or ox for the most, but we do
earn money. When the offering plate is passed do you give pocket change or is
the first check you write after payday your tithe? This is the analogy today
that God may use and how we should look at this. Sure we can justify it by
seeing how grandiose the church is so they don’t need the money. That should
not limit our giving. If you somehow believe the church is the wrong place to “tithe”
then do it elsewhere. Honestly the “tithe” is for making sure those who work
only for God can survive. If you don’t like the way your church is spending the
money, then maybe you need to look at where you attend or become active in the
operation. Either way, GIVE and make sure it’s your first.
Verse 17:17 is part of God’s warning about declaring a king:
This king must not have many wives. If
he takes foreign wives in marriage alliances, they could turn his
heart away from the Lord and lead him to worship foreign gods. And
the king must not accumulate great quantities of silver and gold for himself.
In reading this chapter you see that God essentially prophesizes
what would happen in the future. We see that David and Solomon failed in this
verse. David married too many and could not quench his lust resulting in the
murder of Bathsheba’s husband. Solomon married many including foreign wives
like the Pharaoh’s daughter. This eventually did exactly what God said having
Solomon produce The Lesser Key of Solomon which is widely used by Luciferian
cults.
Verses 18:21 & 22 talks about recognizing prophets:
21 Now you
may be wondering, “How will we recognize something He hasn’t commanded a
prophet to say?” 22 If a prophet speaks in the
Eternal One’s name, but the words turn out not to be true or the prediction
doesn’t happen, then He wasn’t actually speaking. That prophet arrogantly spoke
in the Lord’s name, but he didn’t really have a message from Him. And so you
don’t need to be afraid of what the prophet said.
Today we have people trying to “prophesize” about
everything. The only time I can say something like this was true was a guy came
into the shop, looked like Jay Leno, and said he saw an illuminated cross and
that we would be blessed. Well months later our shop was used as a backdrop for
a Michael O’Brian video. When the final product was done it closed with the TV’s
in our window turning on to an illuminated cross. Was this guy lucky or was
this a prophecy proven true? I believe the latter.
Verse 20:18 is another warning that was eventually lived out
by the people:
If you don’t, they’ll teach you to
do all the horrible things they do for their gods, and you’ll sin against Him.
The people allowed many in these nations to survive
and they polluted the nation for a period. We read things like this and think
God is a maniacal ruler with a twisted blood lust, yet He was just wanting to
ensure His people remained pure and true. Sometimes I read things like this and
wonder if God told Moses what would happen and Moses injected what He thought
God wanted to be done to ensure this did not happen. I think much of the law
was produced off the Ten Commandments for this same reason, the people kept
asking what about when this happens or that. Each explanation required another
as we see in ALL legal systems today, the law may not remain simple and just
but must keep addressing unique circumstances.