Deuteronomy 16 – 18
Again we get into looking at more detail of festivals and holidays on the Jewish calendar. The ESV uses the actual Hebrew names for the months like Abib which falls over March and April. Verse 16:19 get into something that affects all people in the USA today:
You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
In theory this is how our legal system works.As you read all the Laws concerning Justice it matches our system. This system has been used as a model for most “civilized” countries, except brutal dictatorships and socialist/communist countries. The key to any judicial system working is showing no partiality.
Unfortunately today’s system of “justice” has become so complicated and bias you cannot represent yourself. I have been involved with two “pro-se” cases where we were ignored by the judge. One instance we were never notified about the trial since our lawyer “recused” himself and we handle it ourselves, pro-se since it was open and shut. We never got notification, the judge would not set aside and the appeal was not done to the letter and we lost. The other one was 4 lawyers against me in court, the two that were in the gallery were doing research. The pulled at precedence which allowed them to do part, but not all and the judge took their side without consideration of the mountains of cases which were in my favor.
Verse 17:17 is talking about rules for a king if they choose to have one:
And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
The great king Solomon broke both these laws in his reign over Israel. He also broke the Law marrying outside the faith, specifically his wife from Egypt that appeared to pervert his mind. This is when the nation fell apart as he started into the sorcery of the Egyptians. This is the time when he allegedly wrote incantations to summon demons in the Lesser Key of Solomon. Jesus also points this out in his teachings since both will pull your attention away from God and more to yourself.
Verse 18:10 seems obvious, but was apparently a custom then:
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer
We still have fortune tellers and the laundry list that follows, but to my knowledge people don’t burn their children as offerings. Now to me this implies sacrificing them, but it may imply just burning them, which is a practice that is still done in cults. Either way how anyone could harm their own children is beyond my comprehension. With that said there are active Luciferian cults all over the place that will sodomize their own children to “enlighten” them to the second heaven. The key is never follow or consider any on these practices or subsequent verses. This includes the horoscopes, which seem benign but are from worshipers of the starts and sun (which is warned about in 17:3).