Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Did you know that God made mankind to flourish? Deuteronomy 23 through 24 provides protections for human flourishing. These are laws that protect the people from pagan influence and the spread of disease.
These are laws that protect the family and those vulnerable to oppression. God cares about human flourishing. eventually providing the means for our spiritual flourishing through His Son Jesus. Listen as Pastor Rich shares this message titled, Your camp must be holy. Calling us to protect and champion that which contributes to human flourishing.
We're going to read. our passage from Deuteronomy 24. five through fifteen. When a man is newly married, He shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge. If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die.
so you shall purge the evil from your midst. Take care in a case of leprous disease. to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so shall ye be careful to do. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.
When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, You shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside. and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you.
And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God. You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor indeedy. whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners. who are in your land within your towns. you shall give him his wages on the same day.
before the sun sets, for he is poor and counts on it. lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin. Let's pray.
Okay. Lord, we thank you. For your word and the freedom to study it. I pray that we take the opportunity. Given to us this morning and embrace it.
We lean into it. opening our hearts to receive your instruction. and moving us to worship you. We invite you and ask for your presence here among us to do this work in us. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Okay. Thank you, Brett. Good morning, church.
So, turning your copy of the scriptures to the book of Deuteronomy, this is all about the law, the law of Moses. And Grace Bible Church, why are we talking about teaching the law?
Well, because it's in the scriptures. That's why, and all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
So, it is for us. It is for us. We learn from it. And we've learned previously that every precept of Scripture is anchored in the person of Scripture. Every command is anchored in the character of God.
That's what makes this law unique. And so we are going to be looking at chapters 24 and 25 today. And if we learn anything from the law, it is this: that God is holy. And the law was there constantly to remind his people that God is holy. And it reminds them of the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of man, which is why man needs the laws.
So The things we're looking at today mostly have to do with protections. We're going to look at it from that angle. protections to keep God's people flourishing. Why? Israel.
Remember the big picture here. Israel. is the people through whom Messiah would come. It was God's purpose to send a savior for mankind. And that Savior came through the Jewish people.
That Savior's name is Jesus. We know him. Right? And so this is why God is doing this. He called his people out of bondage.
He took them into the wilderness. He set a charter for them, which is this: the law of Moses. He says, I am holy. You are my people. This is what I expect of you.
So we're learning from this in that way. We understand that we are under the new covenant, the new testament, right? But we can learn from the old covenant, which is this that we're looking at today.
So protections to keep God's people flourishing because God has a purpose for Messiah to come through these people. It is the promise that God made to Abraham long ago: through you all nations of the earth will be blessed. That's a promise of Messiah. God was in Christ. Reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.
That is a powerful verse. Aren't we thankful? that God called the Jews and protected them. And through them sent Messiah Jesus so that we could experience his salvation.
So protection to keep God's people flourishing. Let's look at several of them. I'm going to be jumping around through chapters 23 and 24.
Okay, so first of all, chapter 23, let's begin at verses 1 to 7. This section deals with protection from pagan influences. And it calls in here the three types of the assembly of the Lord, four times: one, two, three, and seven. The assembly of the Lord. My understanding of it is.
That these were the elders and the officials. The elders and the officials of the tribe, 12 tribes of Israel, right? And every tribe had elders and officials. And this was the means of official communication. When something came down from leadership, whether it was God or Moses, they communicated to the assembly, and then the assembly went and communicated to the peoples.
For example, Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 28, assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears.
So in other words, he's going to list three kinds of people here who could be a part of the community, brought into the Jewish community, but they could not have positions as leaders among the tribes. And this is because God was protecting his people against pagan influences. The first kinds of people were men who had been dedicated to pagan gods or that held government positions in other nations. And the reason why is because often these men had been emasculated, and that's how they were identified. Like, for example, the word eunuchs.
In Acts chapter 8, we are introduced to one. There's a man from Ethiopia, and he's met by Philip, and he's reading the prophet Isaiah, right? And he's at, and Philip leads him to Christ.
Okay, but he's a government official. He's called a unit. And this is how these people were identified. And the Lord says, people who had. Who are dedicated to foreign gods by this mark, or they held positions in other governments, they cannot be leaders among the tribes.
And this was God's purpose of protecting his people from pagan influence. Here's a second. Children that are born of forbidden marriages, whether they were foreign or pagan, because of the potential cultural influence there. Or the offspring of cult prostitutes. Cult prostitution was rampant among the Canaanite religions.
And that is why God said, those that are born from that cannot be a part of the leadership among my people. And then he mentions the Ammonites and the Moabites. These are descendants of Lot. You remember Lot, okay? And the reason why is because God's looking at history.
He says, when we were coming into the land and through the wilderness, the Ammonites did not help. They asked for help, come through the land, let us have food and water, we'll be on our way. The Ammonites said, no way. The Moabites went beyond that. They said, we are going to actively oppose you.
From fulfilling God's purpose. And because of that, God said none of their descendants can be leaders among the people of Israel. The Moabites actually called for Balaam. Remember Balaam? Numbers chapter 22.
And Balaam Was working as hard as he could to get the money he could from proclaiming a curse on Israel. And he tried, but God turned it into a blessing. Tremendous story. Numbers chapter 22. All right, so those people.
So that's protection from pagan influence. Let's move on here. Chapter 23, verses 8 to 14. And then chapter 24, verses 8 and 9. God wants to protect his people from the spread of disease.
From the spread of disease.
So, in other words, he calls them in 23, 8 to 14, he calls them to proper hygiene, keep the camp clean. keep the camp clean from human emissions. He's calling for necessary and adequate latrines to prevent disease. Listen, I've traveled to lots of places in the world. I grew up in South America.
I've been in places where there is extreme poverty. And there are places where people don't know what latrines are. And there's disease there. And there's a reason why God establishes this, because proper hygiene is very important. And also, he mentions in chapter 24, verses 8 to 9: in the event of leprosy, that somebody has leprosy, that person needs to be quarantined.
It's a highly contagious disease, so they should be quarantined. And he mentions Miriam. Remember what happened to Miriam, and this is recorded in Numbers chapter 12. She was shut outside the camp for seven days. That's the quarantine.
That's to protect the other people from the spread of that disease.
Now, when we talk about clean and unclean in the Old Testament, we've mentioned this before. But the clean, that which is considered unclean. This is a whole contrast of the corrupting condition of man and creation.
So that which is called unclean is that which tended toward decay and death. But that which is called clean is that which led toward flourishing and life.
So it is contrasting the corrupting condition of man and creation. versus the holiness of God. Which tended toward that was clean, which tended toward life, flourishing in life. How many of you heard the phrase cleanliness is next to godliness? But you know that's not in the Bible.
That exact phrase. But This is where it originates. This is where it originates. It was first used publicly, it was believed by Francis Bacon. Which I have a lot of, you know, issues with him.
Not because of his last name. That's my essential point. We do that. John Wesley was the first one believed to have used it actually in a sermon. Cleanliness is next to you.
godliness but That statement has its roots in ancient health. That's written in nerves, quite nice.
So Um listen, there's the gospel here, okay? There's the gospel. God came to us in Jesus to draw us to himself. He came to us. He didn't wait for us.
to come to him. He came to us. so that he could give his life. and die for us. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace.
You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission. is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
