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Deuteronomy 17-20    Listen Podcast

 

Serving other gods - still a death sentence! (Deuteronomy 17:1-7)

1 “You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.
2 ¶ “If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant,
3 who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded,
4 and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,
5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones.
6 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

Israel WAS NOT a freedom-of-religion nation. As a matter of fact, the daily life of the Hebrews revolved around their worship of Jehovah, the one true God. In these instructions, we see mandates to that effect.

First of all, verse 1 makes it very clear that any animal sacrifice must include an animal that is without blemish. What about something as blatant as worshipping OTHER gods? Here it is - get caught worshipping other gods, and you die. There's a caveat though; if you report someone in Israel for serving other God's, you'd better have other witnesses; it takes two or more witnesses to convict. Oh, one more thing - if you are a witness to this heathen worship, you gotta cast the first stone when he/she is put to death.

For a fuller view regarding the punishment of these corrupt worship practices, see Deuteronomy 13 (see notes).

Israel's equivalent of the supreme court (Deuteronomy 17:8-13)

8 ¶ “If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
9 And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.
10 You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the LORD chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you.
11 According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.
12 Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Keep in mind, these instructions are given to the people as they are preparing to go over and inhabit their new land. They will be spread out - decentralized for the first time in their history. This section deals with appeals made to a higher court (so to speak). If you take a legal matter to the priest or to one of the judges in Israel for that ultimate level of mediation (criminal or civil), he's the man! After he rules on a matter, if you disregard the ruling...it's a death sentence.

Rules regarding future kings of Israel (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)

14 ¶ “When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’
15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, “You shall not return that way again.’
17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18 ¶ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

As a matter of fact, Israel did plead for a king to reign over them in I Samuel 10 (see notes). Here are the guidelines for selecting a king to rule over Israel. He must be God-chosen, a home-grown Hebrew boy, not a gold digger, have a limited number of wives, not proud or conceited, and he better obey the law. As a matter of fact, he is to copy the law himself into his own book and read it daily as king. By the way, the practice of taking other Kings' daughters as wives ended up being the downfall of Solomon.

Notice these verses regarding Solomon's wives in I Kings 11 (see notes):

3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.

Solomon's wives erected altars to pagan gods right there on the Temple grounds. No wonder the Northern Kingdom after the death of Solomon never, never, never served God. He should have heeded these verses in Deuteronomy.

In contrast, while Solomon's father, David, had multiple wives (II Samuel 3, see notes), he did not indulge in excesses as did Solomon.

You gotta feed the priests! (Deuteronomy 18:1-8)

1 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and His portion.
2 Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the LORD is their inheritance, as He said to them.
3 ¶ “And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach.
4 The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.
5 For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons forever.
6 ¶ “So if a Levite comes from any of your gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the LORD chooses,
7 then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD.
8 They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

The priests had to eat...and with mighty fine cuts of meat; the sacrifice business had its rewards. They received compensation from the rest of Israel for their services to the people. Within the tribe of Levi, the priesthood proper was restricted to Aaron and his descendants according to Numbers 3 (see notes). All of them were to be treated equally with regard to provisions.

Incidentally, despite this Phinehas prophecy, there was a period of time where the priesthood was not controlled by a descendant of Phinehas. Eli, during the period of the Judges, was not his descendant. However, we see in I Kings 2:27,35 (see notes).

Upon arrival into Canaan, the Levites were to inhabit 48 cities spread through Israel (I Chronicles 23-26 (see notes). Verses 6-8 here specify that the Levite who comes from outside of the region where the tabernacle is located to serve at the tabernacle is not to experience any discrimination from the local Levites.

Those Canaanites have some bad habits (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)

9 ¶ “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.
13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.
14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.

You will recall that it was their heathen practices for which God allowed the Canaanites to be driven out of the land in the first place according to Deuteronomy 9:4 (see notes), "Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you." So, Israelites, you had better make DEAD sure none of those detestable heathen practices of worship rub off! It is worth noting that the practices of witchcraft are front and center in this section. Israel was to have nothing to do with witchcraft.

I think it is important to point out that, while these heathen nations were not under the Law of Moses, their practices of worship were such an abomination that God caused them to be driven out of their land. Do we see an era-spanning principle here? As a matter of fact, the wickedness of the nations in Canaan is also cited as the reason they had to be displaced in Leviticus 20:23 (see notes). Can it possibly be the case that God may orchestrate the demise of nations today based upon abominable practices toward the one true God?

Moses prophesies the Messiah (Deuteronomy 18:15-22)

15 ¶ “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,
16 according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
17 ¶ “And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good.
18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
21 And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’—
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Moses does two things in these eight verses. First of all, he prophesies regarding the coming of the Messiah to whom he refers as "a Prophet." At first glance, one might assume he is talking about Joshua. Actually, however, Moses is talking about Jesus himself. It is interesting to note that "Jesus" is the English transliteration of the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew for "Joshua." How appropriate that Joshua led them into Canaan and Jesus will lead them into the millennium. The Jews of Jesus' day understood this to be a reference to the Messiah, as evidenced by Philip in Acts 3:22-23 (see notes).

Secondly, Moses warns against false prophets and gives a set of criteria that any true prophet will meet. Here are some guidelines for anyone who professes to be a prophet:

  1. He speaks only God's words
  2. If he lies, he dies
  3. If he speaks for other gods, he dies
  4. If he's ever wrong, you can disregard him.

Whoops! I killed somebody...but I didn't mean to! (Deuteronomy 19:1-13)

1 “When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
2 you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
3 You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.
4 ¶ “And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past—
5 as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he shall flee to one of these cities and live;
6 lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past.
7 Therefore I command you, saying, “You shall separate three cities for yourself.’
8 ¶ “Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers,
9 and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three,
10 lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11 ¶ “But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,
12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

What if someone was killed by you as a result of an accident ("Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past...") as in the example found in verses 4-5? Well, in that case, you better high tail it to one of the 6 cities of refuge (3 in Canaan and 3 east of the Jordan River). If you really didn't mean to do it, they'll protect you. It's bad news though for the guy who intended to inflict harm (a premeditated murder) - they're going to turn you over to the blood-relative avenger chasing you when he arrives and allow him to take you out (so to speak) according to the stipulations of verses 11-12. Elsewhere, the regulations concerning the Cities of Refuge are found in see the chart accompanying the notes on Joshua 21.

About those original surveys (Deuteronomy 19:14)

14 ¶ “You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

Here's one verse dedicated to insuring that survey markings don't get moved or altered. You will recall that these land inheritances were perpetual. Even if you sold your land, it came back to your family in the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-55, see notes). So, don't remove those markers!

Sobering laws concerning witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15-21)

15 ¶ “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
16 If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,
17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.
18 And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother,
19 then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you.
20 And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you.
21 Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

As a witness to a crime, you had better be sure or you're in for a surprise! Better yet, make certain to have a couple of other witnesses along to validate your accusation. Here's the Hebrew version of "the loser pays the court fees" in verse 19. If the witness is deemed by the judges to be lying, he gets the punishment instead of the accused. It is likely that Jesus based Matthew 18:15-17 (see notes) on this passage with regard to the number of witnesses needed in the matter of church discipline.

Hebrew generals are soooooo understanding (Deuteronomy 20:1-9)

1 “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
2 So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.
3 And he shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them;
4 for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’
5 ¶ “Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
6 Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it.
7 And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’
8 ¶ “The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’
9 And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

Let's talk about going to battle. Never mind the fact that the enemy has you out numbered; God will deliver them into your hands. Notice the careful selection of troops to fight Israel's battles in these verses. "Sir! I just realized I forgot to dedicate my house before I came out here to the battlefield. May I be excused?" "Sure son; take off!" the general replies. Another says he's betrothed (more than engaged, but less than married) to a woman and another says he's working on his vineyard. "You're all excused!" the general replies. Then one guy pops up and says, "Got no house, got no vineyard, got no wife - I'm just scaaaaaared!" He also gets to go home; what an understanding army - that Hebrew army. WHERE WE'RE GOING AND WHAT WE'RE GONNA DO TAKES DEDICATION! Thus, all the fighting men in the Hebrew army were to be men who were there willingly and without hesitation. Incidentally, Gideon pared his fighting force down from 32,000 to 10,000 by encouraging those who were fearful of battle to go home in Judges 7 (see notes).

Battle procedures or rules of engagement (Deuteronomy 20:10-20)

10 ¶ “When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.
11 And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.
12 Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.
14 But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the LORD your God gives you.
15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 ¶ “But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive,
17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,
18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.
19 ¶ “When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food.
20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.

When Israel's army moves into a territory and the people surrender, make them tributaries. If they fight against Israel, kill all the men. This applied to territories outside Canaan (verse 15). None of the Canaanites should be permitted to stay (verse 16) because of their heathen worship practices - might rub off on the Israelites; the Hebrews did seem to gravitate to a good-looking idol. Again, keep in mind Genesis 19, see notes). Israel was simply to be God's instrument of judgment here. Also they were instructed, when you make war against the Canaanites, take it easy on the natural resources (verses 19-20).