Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 14

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 14 as we continue to go through the exhortations by Moses on the plains of Moab, the longest being chapters 5 to 28, basically the giving of the moral law repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and then various bits of legislation along the way. And tonight, laws concerning death, diet, and tithing. So I'll read Deuteronomy chapter 14 at verse 1. You are the children of the Lord your God.

Separation from Pagan Mourning

You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. And the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. You shall not eat any detestable thing.

These are the animals which you may eat. The ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud among the animals. Never know if it's hoof or hoof.

I'll say hoof. That sounds a little bit more proper. All right. Nevertheless, of these that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these, the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax.

For they chew the cud, but do not have cloven hooves. They are unclean for you. Also, the swine is unclean for you because it has cloven hooves yet does not chew the cod. You shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.

These you may eat of all that are in the waters. You may eat all that have fins and scales and whatever does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat. It is unclean for you. All clean birds you may eat, but these you shall not eat.

The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds. Every raven after its kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, and the hawk after their kinds. The little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. Also, every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you.

They shall not be eaten. You may eat all clean birds. You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is within your gates that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner for you are a holy people to the Lord, your God.

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year, and you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide. The tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money.

Take the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

At the end of every third year, you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand, which you do. Amen.

Introduction

Well, as I said, we have specific regulations concerning death, diet, and tithes. I think Meredith Klein captures the flow of the chapter well when he says, Israel was a distinctive nation that must be manifested throughout the ceremonial dimension of the nation's life. Whether in connection with death, verses 1 and 2, or life, verses 3 to 21, the ceremonial practice of the people must reflect their peculiar sanctity. Their sacred consecration was also to be displayed in the consecration of the fruit of their life's labor to the Lord, their God, verses 22 to 29.

So the emphasis basically is upon God in all area and in every detail of your lives as the covenant people of God. So

Mourning Rites and Covenantal Identity

notice first the regulation concerning mourning rites in verses one and two. There's a reminder in verse one of their status, the status they bear before God, the living and true God, Yahweh of Israel. You are the children of the Lord your God. I think that arkens back to Exodus chapter 4 and verse 22, when the Lord refers to Israel as his firstborn son.

I think the designation of Jesus as the firstborn son in Colossians is not, as Jehovah's witnesses teach us, to underscore that he is a created being, but that he is the true Israel of God. Old covenant Israel was the firstborn son. Jesus Christ is the new covenant Israel. He is the firstborn son.

But this reminder concerning their status before the Lord, that obviously then lends itself to understand God's detailed legislation with reference to death, diet, and tithes. They are members of his household. And as members of his household, they must function in a manner that is consistent with the householder. Just like Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, these things I write to you so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the church of God, which is the house of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

In other words, God owns the church, so it is right and just for God to legislate what goes on in the church. God owned the covenant community, so it is right for God to legislate what goes on in the covenant community. So after the reminder, we see the command or prohibition rather concerning not cutting. You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.

And again, I think this is designed to separate them from the practices of the pagans and to underscore the difference of the Israelites. You see that even in the new covenant, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We do not grieve the way that the world does. Obviously, Paul's not talking about cutting our hair on our foreheads, which is kind of an interesting thing as I ponder it.

Maybe they were for monobrows back then. I'm not sure, but it seems a bit of an odd or peculiar thing to me. You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. But it does seem to indicate that it was something that pagans did.

So as I said, 1 Thessalonians 4.13, it's not anything about shaving. It's not anything about cutting, but rather there is a distinction between the covenant people who do not grieve as the world versus the world who grieves in a way that is consistent with the world. And then notice he then highlights the reason for you are a holy people to the Lord, your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. So again, it is to separate them from the pagans that are surrounding the covenant people of Israel.

You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead, like the pagans do, like these false religionists do, like these Baal worshipers do, like these Asherah worshipers do, like these Dagon worshipers do. You're not supposed to follow in their train. You're supposed to be distinct. You're supposed to be different.

And that's underscored again in verse two. You are a holy people to the Lord your God. Turn back to the book of Exodus for just a moment to see this sort of phraseology used back then with reference to the covenant nation of Israel. Notice in Exodus chapter 19, specifically at verse six, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. And then turn over to Leviticus chapter 20, Leviticus chapter 20, specifically at verse 26, you shall be holy to me for I, the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. If you remember when we went through the book of Leviticus, that's what we saw over and over again. That holiness code is primarily designed with reference to distinguishing the nation of Israel from the heathen around them.

And that's the primary emphasis in some of these laws that are under the heading of ceremonial laws that were specific to the old covenant fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ and are no longer binding in the new covenant, though I would say don't cut yourself in a morning, right? And don't shave the front of your forehead. And then notice as well, Deuteronomy chapter seven, picking up the same sort of language. And then I want to jump into the new covenant and see how that language is applied there.

But in Deuteronomy chapter seven, specifically at verse six, for you are a holy people to the Lord, your God, the Lord, your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. So that's the rationale, that's the reason, that's the purpose expressed for holy war in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 1 to 5. So this idea of a holy people, a people separate, a people chosen, a people set apart for God. You can turn to the book of Romans.

As you've probably heard me say more times than perhaps you would like to. Jesus is the true Israel of God. John 15, 1, he makes that very clear. He is the true vine.

He's contradistinguishing himself from that false vine, old covenant Israel that had become apostate, had violated the covenant, and had ultimately rejected her Messiah. So Jesus is the true Israel of God. The elect, by virtue of their union in him, are now called the Israel of God in this new covenant setting. And as a result, we see the same sorts of things applied, but again, in a new covenant setting.

Notice in Romans 12, I beseech you, verse one, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. God owns us. God has rights over us. and God is the one that has the authorization to command us to sacrifice ourselves in a God-honoring way each and every day that we live. Turn to Titus chapter 2.

Titus chapter 2. Remembering that language that we just saw in Deuteronomy 14, where God says that Old Covenant Israel was a special treasure above all the peoples. Notice in Titus 2.14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works. His own special people sounds a lot like a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

So you see language applied to old covenant Israel is applied to the new covenant Israel based on the work of the true Israel, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. And then turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, we see this particular language applied specifically to the church without any ability to miss it. 1 Peter 2 at verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. If you ask the basic question, what does Israel mean?

It means the people of God. Old covenant, it was ethnic Israel. New covenant, it's Jesus. And all those who by grace through faith are in union with him, whether ethnic Israel or ethnic Gentiles, we are indeed the people of God.

And based on that reality, that status or declaration or corporate identity that the people of God have in verses 9 and 10, look at then the imperative that follows. Verse 11, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Again, a similar approach to what we find in that old covenant setting in Deuteronomy chapter 14. Based on your identity as the covenant people of God, based on your status as the beloved of God, live in a manner that is consistent with the legislator himself, whether you're in the old covenant or the new covenant.

And then in Revelation chapter 1, in the greeting by John, specifically at verse 6, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever Amen So in the background, Exodus 19, 6, Leviticus 20, 26, Deuteronomy chapter 14 that we see now tonight. So in terms of mourning rites, you're not supposed to engage in those things the way that the pagans do. You're not supposed to cut yourself. You're not supposed to engage in self-mutilation as a form of religious expression.

You see that with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings chapter 18, probably around verse 28, they are gashing themselves with stones, making themselves bleed in the hopes that Baal will answer and that Baal will send fire upon their offering. So the pagans engaged in that manner of conduct. So God says, you're not supposed to do that. I have distinguished you.

I have separated you. I have chosen you to be a people for myself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. So the regulation concerning mourning rights in verses one and two

Dietary Laws and Ceremonial Separation

moves then to the regulation concerning dietary wrongs in verses three to 21. We're not going to go through a detailed sort of explanation of each of these animals and their significance. If you were here in our studies in the book of Leviticus, you'll remember that we took a stab at it there in Leviticus chapter 11, verses 2 to 23. You see a distinction made between clean and unclean animals, and you see a similar set of laws based in that reality here in chapter 14, verses 3 to 21.

So in terms of the regulation,

Clean and Unclean Animals

notice you've got land animals in verses 3 to 8. You've got sea animals in verses nine and 10. You've got air animals. That sounds odd, but I wanted to keep it consistent.

And then you've got the dead animal in verse 21a, and then the boiled kid in verse 21c. So again, these are dietary wrongs if they engage in them, if they eat the unclean, if they fail to comply with the dietary regulations that Yahweh had given them. Again, this was to keep the Lord God forefront in their minds in every jot and tittle of one's life. Your menu reflected your covenantal status.

Your menu distinguished you from the pagans around you. Your menu dictated what it was that your Lord wanted you to do in terms of service unto him. So the clean land animals have cloven hooves and they chew cod. The clean water animals have fins and scales.

And with reference to the, I think it's pretty cut and dry, as I've said, we've seen it in Leviticus chapter 11. Here's the clean animals. Here's the unclean animals. They're all specified.

But then

Dead Animals and the Boiled Kid

note the dead animal in 21a. You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is within your gates that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. So it cannot be because of hygiene or health, unless this was God's sort of horrible way to get back at the pagans, you know, sell them tainted meat and make them get botulism and eventually die.

No, I don't think that's it at all. I think the idea again is to separate or to distinguish them, but as well, they needed to validate the method of killing. When it came to the killing of animals, God was very clear on how it was to be conducted. Deuteronomy 12, 16, we saw it several weeks ago, and then Leviticus chapter 17, verses 10 to 14.

You needed to be able to verify how that animal was killed. So the prohibition was don't eat a dead animal that you find. You can give it to an alien or you can sell it to a foreigner. So again, probably not health or hygiene that's at stake.

And then the boiled kid in 21c. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Now, there's two interpretations here. One, the prohibition against cheeseburgers, and two, the prohibition against pagan rituals.

It really is taken as a prohibition against cheeseburgers. Jews today are not supposed to eat cheeseburgers, and it's based on this passage. And intriguingly, this isn't the only place this passage finds itself in our Bibles. It's in Exodus 23, 19, and Exodus 34, 26.

In fact, Alan Harmon, a Christian commentator, says this prohibition still has relevance today for the Jewish people in that it continues to provide the rationale for Jewish food laws forbidding meat and milk products being eaten together. So in its broadest sort of application, yeah, you didn't eat bacon cheeseburgers in Old Covenant Israel. That was three strikes against you. But more likely, the prohibition against pagan rituals.

A prohibition against pagan rituals, and Stuart defines it this way. Canaanite fertility religion imitated the fertility practices generally found throughout the ancient world. These included marrying seeds when planting a field, on the theory that such a ritual would magically stimulate the powers of nature to procreate, producing more fertile crops. Since mother's milk, the milk of the goat dough, was what made the goat kids grow big and strong, the folk theory developed that dough's milk employed in the process of a sacrifice, in this case by boiling rather than by roasting on an altar, would somehow impart strength to the goat flock, making the whole flock more fertile.

Such nonsense, if believed, could have led the Israelites to conclude that the power to shape their destiny and to live the abundant life was to be found in magical practices and fertility religion rather than in the only true alive God. Even if all other people groups known to them practice these sorts of rituals, the Israelites could not. As Yahweh's people, they were to be above such things, attributing all life to the single source thereof. So I think that's probably more in line with what the emphasis, the overarching emphasis seems to be here in this section concerning the dietary laws or regulations.

Don't be like the pagans. It should be reflected in your eating of the clean and the unclean animals. It should be reflected in the fact that you don't eat the animal that dies of itself. And it should be reflected in that you don't think there's somehow magical properties boiling a kid in its mother's milk in order to make things go further or to advance the flock.

No, you are God's people. And so in terms of all of these, the supposed reasons why that some have suggested God does this is pretty odd to me because the stated reason is given to us so clearly at the end of verse 21. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. I don't think that only modifies verse 21 in the prohibition against eating something that died in itself, but it's to the whole thing.

Your menu is a menu ordained by God because you are a holy people to the Lord your God. You're set apart. You're sanctified. You're different than the rest of the peoples around you.

But some have suggested an arbitrary interpretation. The rationale is known only to God, revealed as a test of obedience. Some have suggested a cultic interpretation. The unclean animals are those used in pagan worship or associated with pagan deities.

Some of that might have been true, but maybe not all of them. The hygienic interpretation, The unclean creatures are unfit to eat because they carry disease. Again, that's probably not the emphasis or the symbolic interpretation. The clean animals illustrate how righteous Israelites are to live and the unclean animals represent sinful men.

I don't mind that one too much. I think it has something going for it. But again, I think the emphasis is on you are a holy people to the Lord your God. In fact, turn to Leviticus 11. after giving these prohibitions and commandments concerning the food laws in Leviticus chapter 11 at verses 44 and 45.

For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves and you shall be holy for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

You shall therefore be holy for I am holy. So it is to separate, to distinguish. As Gil says, separate from all others as he was God, living holy lives and conversations agreeably to his will made known to them in imitation of him who had chosen and called them to be his people. For since holiness is his nature, it becomes those who are of his house and family, his subjects and people.

Again, that's how the chapter starts. You are the children of the Lord your God. As parents, we have no problem specifying what our children can and cannot eat. As parents, we have no problems telling them how they can mourn the death of a loved one.

As parents, we tell them what they're supposed to do with their money, as the end of the chapter makes clear. So God, as our father, tells us how we are to engage in terms of morning rites, in terms of dietary regulations. Christopher Wright said the food laws were thus a daily reminder to Israel of their status and role in God's purpose and of the consequent call to holiness and other morally significant areas of personal and social life. Holiness was woven into everyday life.

Every meal should have reminded the Israelite family of God's commitment to them and their commitment to God. A God who governs the kitchen should be not easily forgotten in the rest of life. So when we read these things, we think that's odd, that's strange, that's bizarre. But when you get the rationale, it's not odd, it's not strange, it's not bizarre at all.

And especially when you see it replicated in the new covenant, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. We are to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Why? Because of our corporate identity as the chosen of God, as the called out of God, as his special treasure, as his prized possession.

Michael Morales said, every meal served as a reminder of God's election of Israel out of the nations, but also of Israel's call to keep themselves separate from the uncleanness of those nations, to be a holy people. The food laws thus became a sign of Israel's identity and calling, a wall of separation between Israel and the nations. It was to distinguish, it was to separate, it was to set them apart.

Ceremonial Law Abrogated in Christ

Now, in terms of what we call ceremonial law, there's obviously a difference in Deuteronomy 5 and Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 5, we've defined as the moral law of God. Along the way, in this longest exhortation between chapters 5 to 28, we're going to see emphases on judicial law, laws governing the civil polity as they inherit the promised land. In other words, the punishment of criminals, the cities of refuge, laws and rules for evidence, and higher courts, and all that sort of thing, judicial laws.

But there's ceremonial laws which govern the worship practices of the people of God in Old Covenant Israel. Our confession defines ceremonial law this way. Typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of reformation are by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only lawgiver, who is furnished with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken away.

So we are now not told how to eat every jot and tittle of our food. You know, there's wisdom in not eating arsenic. There's wisdom in not ingesting, you know, rat poison. But in terms of a detailed dietary regulations set forth in Titus, we don't have that.

The positive law or ceremonial law governing the old covenant is abrogated and fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's no longer binding. Can we eat some of the things on the unclean animal list? If you've got a craving for hoopoe, knock yourself out.

And you can say either hoopoe or hoopoe. It's not part of my regular vocabulary, so I looked it up on the pronunciation guide, and it's proper to say hoopoe, but it's actually more proper to say hoopoe. Hoopoe sounds very odd to me, but if you have a desire to eat hoopoe or a stork or bats, I'm not too sure about all that, but we're not governed by those ceremonial laws in the Old Covenant. The particular emphases with reference to ceremonial law governed and regulated, or was a sort of an appendage to, an appendix to, the first table of the moral law.

The first table governs our duty toward God. It regulates our worship of God. It regulates the day upon which we worship God. So ceremonial law speaks specifically to the cult.

It speaks specifically to the religious apparatus in Old Covenant Israel And the ceremonial law included laws regarding the temple worship Well we not looking for a rebuilt temple Who is the true temple or who is the anti-type of the temple? It's our Lord Jesus Christ. Tear down this temple or destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. John 2, 13, it should be 13.

I don't think it's 13 to 22. I think it's around 21 to 22. the ceremonial laws included ceremonial law included laws regarding the priesthood. We don't have a functioning priesthood like they did in the old covenant. The new covenant says we're all priests.

We all have the ability to call upon God to intercede for one another. But priesthood as a specific class has been fulfilled by our Lord Jesus who always lives to make intercession for us. The ceremonial law foreshadowed the person and work of Christ And the old covenant itself treated that ceremonial law as temporary. It did not extend it into the eschaton.

In Psalm 110, David spoke of a priest who would surpass the Levitical priesthood. Isaiah the prophet spoke in chapter 53 of a sacrifice that would be efficacious. Zechariah 6, 12 and 13 spoke of a temple that would surpass the old temple. And then you have the obvious emphases throughout the book of Hebrews on the shadow nature, the typological nature of old covenant.

And when the substance arrives or when the anti-type comes, you're no longer bound by the shadows. You're no longer bound by the types. So ceremonial law regulated the religious apparatus of old covenant Israel. There is no ceremonial law such as we have it here spelled out in the New Testament for new covenant believers.

And if you move through scripture, there is a distinction made between moral and ceremonial law. I know that some people do not believe that, but the text of scripture displays that. God says, I desire obedience rather than sacrifice. That does not mean he's dispensing with sacrifice altogether.

The emphasis is upon the moral law of God. Jesus says you tithe mint and anise and cumin, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. There is a distinction.

The apostle Paul says circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but the keeping of the commandments. Or Jesus' invocation of the prophet Hosea, when he says, go and learn what this means. I desire obedience rather than sacrifice. There's a distinction built in by the Old Testament authors themselves, picked up by New Covenant authors, and we see that unfolded throughout Scripture.

The threefold divisional law. You've got the moral law, you've got the ceremonial, and you've got the judicial. The ceremonial is abrogated. Why?

Because it's fulfilled in Jesus. He's the anti-type of those ceremonial laws. The judicial laws expired with the Commonwealth of Israel, but the wisdom of the application of God's law in society, the general equity principle, still does bind and still does speak advantageously to civil polities in our own day. Now,

Tithing: Fear, Feast, and Generosity

finally, note the regulation concerning the tithe in verses 22 to 29.

The Annual Tithe and Feasting Before God

Note the command in verses 22 and 23. You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. and you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. So you shall truly tithe. In other words, give a 10th percent of all these particular categories and the specific reason is built in there in verse 23 at the end, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

As you move through this particular section, you see that these tithes in the yearly sort of rhythm of Israel's calendar, and then the triennial year, every third year, they had times of celebration. They had times of feasting. They took that money, that tithe money, not all of it, but some of it, and they had a great feast. They had a great party.

They had a great time together. And so when they were partying or when they were celebrating or when they were feasting, they were also learning to fear the Lord their God always. And I love what Christopher Wright says, or rather Peter Craigie says, by returning a tithe to God regularly, the people would learn to fear the Lord and know that prosperity did not depend on irrigation or advanced agricultural techniques, but on the beneficence and provision of their God. Wright says inculcating the fear of God could be achieved during a family party just as much as during family prayers.

So in other words, as you're enjoying all these benefits, if you're able to tithe these things, why is that? Well, look at verse 24. If the journey is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe. Remember in Deuteronomy 12, there's an emphasis on a central sanctuary.

As redemptive history moves on, where is that central sanctuary? It's in Jerusalem. What happens if you don't live near Jerusalem and you've tithed all of these various categories? How are you going to get it all there?

That's a problem that is addressed in our passage. So notice in verse 24, but if the journey is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you. You see that? You've been blessed.

In other words, if you can give a tenth out of all these categories, that means God has made good on the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you a blessed inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land rich with water source, a land rich with good dirt, a land that will yield, and a land that will be fruitful. I remember reading a commentary by Dale Ralph Davis and he said, sometimes I kind of grumble when I take out my trash, but then I'm thankful. I've got trash to take out. You see, these people, when they're tithing, and there would be the non-remnant grumblers over, oh, I've got to tithe, I've got to give 10%.

But the remnant, the faithful, look at how much God has blessed me. Look at how much God has provided for me. Look at how much God has prospered me. Therefore, it is a joy and a delight to give back 10% in these various categories.

So the Lord had blessed them. That blessing would inculcate this fear of the Lord, your God, always. In other words, it is in our hands. It is in our savvy.

It is in our ability with the land and dirt. It's God's provision. It's God's goodness. It's God's graciousness.

It's God's beneficence. You see, the emphasis on feasting in the Old Testament is legit. Be happy, enjoy, delight, but do it under God and for the glory of God. And that ought to be a new covenant mindset as well.

As he's prospered us, it is a joy and a blessing to give back. And it is a joy and a blessing to remember to learn to fear the Lord our God always. And so then the reminders come. There is a challenge in verse 24, the problem of distance and the problem of too much stuff.

How are we going to get all this to Jerusalem? Which, by the way, explains the next bit of legislation in verse 25, you shall exchange it for money. It explains why there were sellers outside the temple at the time of the Lord Jesus when he cleanses the temple. The fact that they were there probably isn't the problem.

It's how they were functioning there that was the problem. The two specific texts that Jesus cites or invokes is Isaiah 56, 7 and Jeremiah 7, 11. You've made my father's house a den of thieves. So perhaps you've got a lot of stuff and you sell that stuff and you take the money and then you go to Jerusalem and you want to buy an animal to sacrifice.

Again, that there were sellers isn't necessarily the evil part. Could have been they encroached too closely within the temple precinct, but most likely it was because it was more of a marketplace or a swap meet or a flea market than the very temple of the Most High that Jesus was driving out the money changers and Jesus was was driving out the beasts as a result. But here specifically, you've got this problem, distance and too much stuff. Imagine that.

They had too much stuff. This idea that God took these people just to simply punish them in the wilderness and make their lives miserable. The text everywhere betrays that interpretation. If the journey, verse 24, is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, then the Lord, your God, when the Lord, your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money.

Take the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord, your God chooses. And you shall spend that, spend that money. Notice for whatever your heart desires for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires, you shall eat there before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. That doesn't sound like a penalty.

That doesn't sound like a punishment. That doesn't sound like, you know, bad things. This sounds like celebration before the Most High. It sounds like God is invested in them for their good, as his chosen people, as his special treasure among all the peoples of the earth.

What does he do? He prospers them, he blesses them, and he calls them to delight in him, that, verse 23, you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Again, he's the householder. I mentioned as parents, we regulate our children's diets.

We regulate what they do with their money. Aren't we invested in their joy and happiness? Are we only about making sure they don't eat hoopoe? No, we're about their happiness and their joy and their prosperity and their thriving.

This is the way we should understand these texts, not some oppressive, barbaric, antiquated religious structure, which has this vicious God commanding people to do arbitrary things. No, that's not it at all. And then

Provision for the Levite

note the remembrance in verse 27, you shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. Simply meaning he didn't get a tribal allotment. The Levites didn't get a section of land. The Levites didn't have vast amounts of acres so that they could grow crops, so that they could feed herds, so that they could keep livestock.

They were dependent upon the people's generosity and their obedience to the tithing laws. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. That's not because he's a leper or he's, you know, a shutout. But again, he doesn't share that tribal allotment that all the other tribes are going to get once you get to the book of Joshua.

The Levites don't get a particular land. They get cities, they get to be, you know, part of the community and all of that, but they don't have tribal allotments that they pass pieces of property and flocks and herds and those sorts of things down to their succeeding generations. And then finally,

The Triennial Tithe and Care for the Poor

note the triennial tithe. Every third year, verses 28 and 29. At the end of every third year, you shall bring out the tithes of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And again, don't forget the Levite because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

Don't forget the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates so that they may come and eat and be satisfied, come and eat and be satisfied that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. So the distribution to the needy. James says, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. God has always been a God on the side of the widow and the orphan.

God has always been on the side of the fatherless and the widow. and the stranger as well. So the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. In other words, the giving of the tithes, the storing it up on the third year was to provide support, material support, physical support for the lesser fortunate members in society. It was in this manner and way that old covenant Israel looked after its own.

It was a manner or a means by which they could minister, a means by which they could show their appreciation of the God who had prospered them. They were cheerful givers, enjoying the blessings that he had given, and they were cheerful givers in giving to the needs of the poor And then at the end it says that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do There seems to be at least an implied reciprocity If you stingy with reference to these groups if you don care about the Levite if you don't care about the stranger, if you don't care about the foreigner, if you don't care about the fatherless and the widow, it may be the case that I'm not going to prosper you. I'm not going to let it flow. I'm not going to bring all of these things upon you because if you're stingy and you're clinging and you're only holding to those things and you're forsaking the downtrodden and the poor amongst you, then it evidences a heart, not a faith, not one of joy in the Lord, but one of greed and one of idolatry.

In fact, this seems to be the direction that Malachi goes in his famous section on tithing in Malachi the prophet. You can turn there. Malachi chapter three. Verse 8, Will a man rob God?

Yet you have robbed me. As I've explained before, Malachi is a series of exhortations or rebukes by the prophet in this way. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.

But you say, In what way have we robbed you? So the prophet comes and says, You've done this wrong. And then they say, Who, us? Me?

What do you mean? He says, in tithes and offerings, you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

Now, brethren, I get it. Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland and all those other weirdos with weird wives with big hair take this passage and turn it on its ear. And they abuse it. And they come to the people of God and they say, make sure you dump lots of money into the plate because then God will richly reward you.

And Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland and their weird wives with the weird hair. Buy Kenneth Copeland another plane because I think seven, is that what he has? He's got, you know, several. Guy needs another plane.

I mean, come on. Doesn't a pastor need eight planes? Don't begrudge the guy. I know this passage gets abused.

I know it gets thrown on the torture rack in the health, wealth, prosperity circles. You know, say it, say it, say what I want you to say. And we reject rightly what those weirdos say. But it does mean something.

There seems to be a principle of reciprocity that I think is picked up by the Apostle Paul in the New Covenant era. If we are stingy money grubbers that hold on to our mammon at the point where we're not honoring God and we're not helping to ameliorate the downtrodden and the poor, then God may cut us off. That's not a threat. That's not, you know, me as Benny telling you, you better give or God's going to kill you.

But the text must mean something, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And what happens with the food in God's house? The people enjoy it, right? and so do the downtrodden and poor. So do the Levite, so do the fatherless, so does the stranger, so does the widow.

And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts. and all nations will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. Well, how'd that work out for them? Well, by the time you get to Matthew's gospel, Jesus sounds a lot like Malachi.

Matthew 23, 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These were the kind of guys that would devour widows' fortunes. These were the kinds of guys that were extortionists. These were the kinds of guys that perverted justice and mercy and faith.

Okay, you tithe and weigh out the mint and the anise and the cumin. Good on you, champ. But you have forgotten justice, mercy, and faith? These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

Blind guides who strain out a net and swallow a camel. His indictment is strong. and the reproof is strong. He's not saying don't tithe mint, anus, and cumin. Yeah, do that.

But not to the neglect of justice and mercy and faith. Just do what you're supposed to do in terms of what God calls you to. So I think Deuteronomy 14, intriguingly, is a lot more practically relevant to our lives as New Covenant believers than a quick scan may suggest. God regulates every jot and tittle of Old Covenant Israel's life.

God regulates every jot and tittle of new covenant Israel's life. Not in the same way there's a difference in terms of ceremonial law or positive law. Not now are we kept from certain animals. Not now are we kept from certain things.

But in this new covenant setting, we're to present our bodies as living sacrifices unto our God. And we are to see that distinction that should be maintained, that should obtain with reference to the saints of Christ versus the pagans in the world. There should be a difference. Sanctity and sanctification and pursuing those things that are pleasing to our Father should distinguish us from the pagans around us.

And may God indeed bless and prosper and help us to use the resources that he gives and to be thankful. Again, there's a couple of ways to give that tithe. I can't believe I gotta give this 10% versus I praise God, I have something I can give 10% of. It's a whole different vantage point.

Grumble on the way to the trash can, but at least you're taking out trash. And that's because you've been blessed abundantly by the Most High God who gives to his children many good and blessed gifts. Well, let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Deuteronomy 14 and for the things that we learn here concerning your relationship to Old Covenant Israel. We thank you for our New Covenant scriptures that teach us about our Lord Jesus and about the blessed union we have with him and help us as the Israel of God to walk faithfully before you, empowered by your Holy Spirit, distinguished from the ungodly people in this world. And even as I pray this, I know we will stumble.

I know we will fall. I know that we are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love. So we thank you for Jesus, that great and perfect and obedient, righteous one who kept the law for us. May it be the case, most high God, that we would continue to rejoice in the gospel of our salvation and by the Spirit to follow the Lamb wherever He bids us to go.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Questions and Answers

Any questions or comments? Yes. No, I've not had hoopoe. don't kill the cow, the mother of the cat at the same day and then if you find a bird, a bird, don't take the bird and the egg. Yeah.

Similar to the goat and the mother's one. And anything has a relationship to how you should take animals. Like an ecological, an ecological application. I think there are some along the way.

I would think more just like to see the root and kill the mother. Well, when we get there, I'll explain, I'll try and explain it. But the alternative isn't any better. So I can't remember specifically where it is.

Roger, do you remember where that is? It's not far from here. I'm not going to find it. Yeah, if you find, maybe 21.

Oh, yeah, 21.6, or 22.6. If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall surely let the mother go and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. I don't know that there's a humanitarian way to make that sound good.

The best thing would be to leave the mother and her eggs alone, right? So either alternative is some degree of viciousness if you happen to be part of the bird equation. So I don't, it may be, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? To keep the food chain going.

There might be some of that too. But no, I don't think there's, you know, we shouldn't be anti-environmentalists. We shouldn't adopt an environmentalist reading and explain away 90% to maintain Mother Earth. But I think responsible stewardship on the part of God's creatures involves good stewardship of other creatures.

We shouldn't be vicious. Proverbs says that a righteous man has regard for his beast. Balaam's donkey said, I've served you all these years. Why are you hitting me like this? you know, it's just not right.

And it shows or expresses, you know, a viciousness that is symptomatic of sinful men. Killing and eating is not sin. Killing and eating is fine. But killing just for killing or killing, you know, to revel in it or to engage in some cultic practice, yeah, that's all condemnable.

But yeah, there's... We'll get there, hopefully. but just so you can go through it so you get context Leviticus 11 4 and 3 you shall not make yourselves abominable with any people's name that creeps nor shall you make yourselves unseen with with them lest you be filed by them look at that it means you shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping things that creep. Probably eating or probably worshiping or probably otherwise using them in ways that you shouldn't. Maybe.

There could be some tribalistic stuff in there. Or yeah, a pet snake. Maybe a pet snake is forbidden here. I don't know.

I don't know. Yes, sir. it sounds to me like you would travel to this central sanctuary in Jerusalem and it would be a big feast it would be a big party it would be a big time to rejoice and celebrate again in verse 23 there to learn to fear the Lord your God you know feasts and celebrations were a very practical part of Israel's calendar. But yeah, as far as I can tell, on every year and then every third year, make sure the money goes into the storehouse for the supply of those categories of persons. Certain sacrifices, when you offered up sacrifice, certain sacrifices were consumed wholly, whole burnt offering.

Others, the sacrificer was able to participate in as well as the priest. And so I think it's probably a parallel principle here. You're giving tithe with reference to church and state. And it's interesting because if you ask the question, who looked after the downtrodden and the poor, you don't have as clearly demarcated a line between church and state.

It was a theocratic nation. Everything was churchly and stately, at least in some level. I think there is a distinction. You know, the state executed criminals. the cult, you know, preach the gospel and administer the sacraments.

But in terms of this, this principle of sacrifice, it seems that tithing follows that as well. That's the best I can do, because obviously they're celebrating. I mean, the language is very, very profuse in terms of the benefits, buy whatever your heart desires. I doubt that means, you know, a temple trinket to the day gone, but it's pretty, pretty amazing.

You shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires for oxen or sheep, for wine. It's literally or strong drink, wine or strong drink for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. So yeah, yearly feast based on God's beneficence to the children of Israel.

And they use the tithe money to finance it. Yeah. Which I guess validates the potluck luncheon.

Scripture References

• Exodus 4:22; 19:6; 23:19; 34:26
• Leviticus 11:2-23; 11:44-45; 17:10-14; 20:26
• Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 7:6; 12:16; 22:6-7
• 1 Kings 18:28
• Psalm 110
• Isaiah 53; 56:7
• Jeremiah 7:11
• Zechariah 6:12-13
• Malachi 3:8
• Matthew 23:23
• John 15:1
• Romans 12:1
• Colossians 1:15
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13
• 1 Timothy 3:15
• Titus 2:14
• James 1:27
• 1 Peter 2:9; 2:11
• Revelation 1:6