Deuteronomy 23:1 ¶ 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: 4 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. 7 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.
Any man understands verse 1. The word wounded in the
context of testicles shows that this is not a reference to any type of
attempted gender modification so bringing that up in a sermon against modern
practices abuses the text. Verse 2 we all know has to do with someone born out
of wedlock, something which has lost its shame in today’s world. We remember
that the Ammonite and the Moabite were the descendants of incest between Lot’s
daughters and himself while stone-cold drunk. But the reason for their
rejection is that they did not welcome the Israelites when they were moving
into the Promised Land and we remember how they hired Balaam to curse the
Israelites and while he could not do that he did pervert their ways. Read
Numbers, chapters 22 through 25.
They are commanded not to hate the children of Esau, the Edomites,
or the Egyptians and that in the third generation after a union with one of
them they could become a part of God’s people. It is odd because Egyptians
tried to recapture the Israelites or even kill them at the Red Sea and Edom in
Numbers 20 would not let them pass through.
Deuteronomy 23:9 ¶ 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.
Here are some very practical public health considerations that if
the Medieval Christian had followed there would have been much less disease.
Streets were open sewers and toilets emptied out the back of city walls into
rivers from which drinking, bathing, and washing water came. Here God tells the
Israelites that that their toilet needs must be accomplished outside the camp
and they are to have a digging tool on their weapons to dig and cover up their
waste.
God walked in the camp and demanded no such uncleanness be done in
the place where He walked. There are a great many sermon possibilities from
this passage about the sewage in our lives that God does not want polluting the
spirit of someone in whom He resides. It is remarkable that God chose to walk
among the Israelites as He chooses to live inside each Christian today. I get
so annoyed when someone prays and asks that God come down (He has to already be
here or we are not saved) and walk amongst the pews (if He is not in each and
every one of you walking amongst the pews you are not saved). God is not afar
off. He is with us here now.
Deuteronomy 23:15 ¶ Thou
shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master
unto thee: 16 He shall dwell with thee, even
among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it
liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him. 17
There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of
the sons of Israel. 18 Thou shalt not
bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD
thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD
thy God. 19 Thou shalt not lend upon
usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing
that is lent upon usury: 20 Unto a stranger
thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon
usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand
to in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy
God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require
it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. 22
But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. 23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt
keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed
unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth. 24 When thou comest into thy neighbour’s
vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure; but thou
shalt not put any in thy vessel. 25
When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou
mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto
thy neighbour’s standing corn.
If, as some believe, we are to follow the Old Testament as the law
of the land, which I think is ridiculous, cruel, and not warranted by the
Scriptures at all, then our supposedly Christian forbears would not have
returned runaway slaves to their masters which they commonly did. In fact,
contrary to the idea of the South fighting for State’s Rights they pushed the
Federal Government before the Civil War to enact a Federal fugitive slave law
that mandated that officials and private citizens arrest slaves that had run
away from their forced servitude even if the state they fled to did not permit
slavery within its borders. In fact, the United States Constitution required
such a thing in Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3.
And yet, under the Law given to Moses forcibly returning an
escaped servant was forbidden.
From
Sodom we get the word sodomite for a
male temple prostitute in contrast to a whore
which denotes a female temple prostitute. Compare and contrast 17 and 18 for
word definitions provided for us by the contrasting words. Whore versus sodomite
and whore versus dog. God isn’t talking about a pooch.
Deuteronomy
23:17 There shall be no whore of the
daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or
the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even
both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Even
today, in some quarters, a male prostitute is called a dog in slang.
Men
would enter a pagan temple in the Ancient Near East and toss a coin into a
temple prostitute’s lap to have sex with them as part of their worship of Baal
and Ishtar. Greek writers, Herodotus and Lucian, tell us of this practice as a
symbol of Ishtar’s union with Tammuz. It is evident from the Bible that this
was the form of worship that God abhorred and wanted erased.
It was forbidden
to loan money or goods or food at interest, usury to another Israelite
but
okay to do that to a stranger,
a Gentile or non-Jew. The word usury has come to mean lending at
exorbitantly high rates of interest. In the Middle Ages Jews were often the
middlemen between aristocrats and peasants and loaning to non-Jewish peasants
at 30%-40% interest made it impossible for a peasant to pay a loan back which
resulted in the loss of property. This was one excuse Medieval Europeans had
for not liking Jews and came to be a stereotypical view of the Jew as a
moneylender. There were Medieval Catholic laws against charging interest as being
Un-Christian which was probably a strike against the Jews as much as holding to
the Old Testament. Credit in Colonial America lent by British merchants due to
the lack of commercial banks was usually at 3% to 5% up to as much as 10% due
to the shortage and inconvenience of hard money currency. But at the time the
word is used here it merely means charging any interest at all to a brother.
Verses 21 to 23 bring to mind a couple of passages. First
from Solomon;
Ecclesiastes 5:4 When thou
vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools:
pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better
is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Then, the account
of Jephthah’s regrettable vow made in Judges 11 which is so controversial we
will discuss it when we get there.
I thought about
comparing this with the abuse mentioned in Mark 7 with regard to Corban, the
gift, but perhaps the context would not be suitable for this section of
Deuteronomy.
Verse 24
suggests a more generous attitude towards one’s neighbor than we are used to
feeling in our culture. Imagine your thoughts if you saw your neighbor standing
in your garden munching on one of your tomato’s without asking. To satisfy
hunger this was fine but outright theft was not permitted. According to some
Jewish commentators this was a reference only to workmen being able to eat as
they worked but the text doesn’t warrant that, I don’t think.
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