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Okay, you can turn in your Bibles 
to Deuteronomy 23. One of the benefits, obviously, 
of consecutive expository preaching is that we're forced to deal 
with things we probably otherwise wouldn't. I don't know how many 
people with sane faculties would take chapter 23 as the subject 
for discussion, but this is consecutive, and it does have many good things 
to teach us concerning our God, concerning sanctity with reference 
to Israel, and a whole host of applications. So I'll just read 
chapter 23, beginning in verse 1. He who is emasculated by crushing 
or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. One 
of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. 
Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall 
enter the assembly of the Lord. and Ammonite or Moabite shall 
not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the 10th generation, 
none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord 
forever because they did not meet you with bread and water 
on the road when you came out of Egypt. And because they hired 
against you, Balaam, the son of Baor from Pethor of Mesopotamia 
to curse you. Nevertheless, the Lord, your 
God would not listen to Balaam. but the Lord your God turned 
the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God 
loves you. You shall not seek their peace 
nor their prosperity all your days forever. You shall not abhor 
an Edomite for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian 
because you were an alien in his land. The children of the 
third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the 
Lord. When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep 
yourself from every wicked thing. If there is any man among you 
who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go 
outside the camp. He shall not come inside the 
camp, but it shall be when evening comes that he shall wash with 
water, and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. Also, 
you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go out, 
and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when 
you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover 
your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in 
the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over 
to you. Therefore, your camp shall be 
holy that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away 
from you. You shall not give back to his 
master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. He may 
dwell with you in your midst in the place which he chooses 
within one of your gates where it seems best to him. You shall 
not oppress him. There shall be no ritual harlot 
of the daughters of Israel or a perverted one of the sons of 
Israel. You shall not bring the wages 
of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your 
God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination 
to the Lord your God. You shall not charge interest 
to your brother, interest on money or food or anything that 
is lent out at interest. To a foreigner you may charge 
interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, 
that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your 
hand in the land which you are entering to possess. When you 
make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, 
For the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would 
be sin to you. But if you abstain from vowing, 
it shall not be sin to you. That which is gone from your 
lips, you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to 
the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. When 
you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill 
of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your 
container. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, 
you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not 
use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain. Amen. So the three broad categories 
that we find here, the first is found in verses one to eight, 
exclusion, those excluded from the assembly of the Lord. Secondly, 
The second aspect deals with cleanliness, specifically within 
the camp of the army. When the army goes out to battle, 
they are to maintain sanctity, they are to maintain ritual purity 
and cleanliness, which is befitting the people of God. One commentator 
said, cleanliness really is next to godliness, as we find here 
in verses 9 to 14. And then there are various miscellaneous 
laws in verses 15 to 25, specifically dealing with escaped slaves, 
ritual prostitution, lending with interest, making vows, and 
eating from a neighbor's field. Again, all of these things peculiar 
to the theocracy, the people of God, the covenant community. 
Remember they're poised on the plains of Moab getting ready 
to enter into the land of Canaan and God is calling them to live 
in a very particular way. Meredith Klein says the theme 
of these chapters is the sanctification of the theocratic kingdom. They 
were to be distinct among the people. They were to be a people 
that were a peculiar possession of God the Lord in the way that 
they ate, in the way that they farmed, in the way that they 
loaned money. in the way that they granted sanctuary or asylum 
to escaping slaves. All of these things are befitting 
the people of God Most High. Now, as I've had cause to remind 
us many, many times, as soon as we end the book of Deuteronomy 
and we actually get into the Promised Land, They didn't obey 
these particular mandates, they didn't obey these particular 
commandments. In the history of Israel you'll 
see the prophets come and indict the people for their failure 
to obey the covenant stipulations that God the Lord had enacted 
with the people of Israel. So let's just move through this 
particular chapter. Some of it's very clear and doesn't 
need a lot of amplification, so we may just end early tonight. Pretty straightforward. Some 
things require a little bit of explanation, but let's look first 
at the exclusion from the assembly of the Lord. Notice that phrase 
there, the assembly of the Lord. This is the Qahal. That's the 
Hebrew word. The Greek translation of the 
Old Testament translated with the word ekklesia. We know that 
word as church. Interesting though, church derives 
from the word kuriake, not from ekklesia. A better rendering 
of ekklesia is assembly or congregation. Church comes from the Scottish 
word kirk, which kirk comes from kuriake, the Greek word which 
means something that belongs uniquely to the Lord. That word 
kuriake is used twice in the New Testament. Once with reference 
to the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 and once with reference to 
the Lord's Day with reference to Revelation 1.10. This is one 
of the means by which or one of the evidences for a Christian 
Sabbath. Yes, The Lord Jesus owns all 
food. The Lord Jesus is sovereign over 
every meal that we have together. But there is the Lord's Supper. 
There is that unique one set apart for his specific use. Yes, 
Jesus is sovereign over all seven days of the week. but he has 
separated or sanctified a particular day, called it his, so that his 
people could indeed engage in rest and blessing and all those 
things that God the Lord has established for us. So the assembly 
of the Lord, remember the design of God was to bring Israel into 
the land and to make them a kingdom of priests. to testify of His 
glory, to testify of His honor, to publish throughout the nations 
of the earth at that particular time the glory of the God of 
Israel. So this assembly of the Lord 
refers to the covenant people of God, particularly when they 
are gathered in His presence. Thus, to enter the assembly of 
the Lord would indicate a person who became a true Israelite and 
who therefore shared in the worship of the Lord. So there is a restriction 
placed upon certain categories, whether it be physical issue, 
which is the first two, or ethnic, which is the next two. There 
is, under God, times when certain persons are restrained or kept 
from or barred from the assembly of the Lord. The fact that persons 
were excluded from the assembly indicated the sacredness of the 
assembly. You didn't play around or you 
didn't play games, in the presence of God Most High. You did things 
the way He stipulated. You did things according to the 
way He stipulated. You were not to be innovative. 
You were not to be created. God regulated His worship and 
God regulated the approach that man was to take. to come into 
his presence. And the ones excluded due to 
physical concerns. Notice first is one who is castrated. Verse 1, he who is emasculated 
by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the 
Lord. Now probably this does not refer 
to those who had this happen accidentally. It probably doesn't 
refer to somebody who perhaps contracted testicular cancer 
or had an illness, but rather it was the deliberate and willful 
choice to do this, probably connected to some sort of a religious obligation. Most commentators that I have 
read agree that this does not include accident or illness, 
but idolatry. One man said, the self-castrated 
who carry on their bodies the sign of their recognition of 
another God shall not enter the congregation." So the idea seems 
to be someone who engaged in this particular activity of his 
own choice in order to mark himself as one for use in the service 
of a competing God. And so if that was the case, 
you bore in your body the very marks of that idol, and so God 
the Lord restricts access and says that you are forbidden to 
come into the assembly of the Lord. The second one excluded 
due to physical concerns. Verse 2, one of illegitimate 
birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth 
generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the 
Lord. If you notice for just a moment, the Ammonite and the 
Moabite are forbidden down to the tenth generation as well. 
But it's qualified, or it's amplified, or it's given more of a definition 
at the end of verse 3. Even to the 10th generation, 
none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord." 
Notice, forever. The 10th generation probably 
is a symbolic use of the number 10 to indicate completeness. When we drop down to two particular 
qualifications with the Edomites and the Egyptians, they are restricted 
from entering in until the third generation. But a grandchild, 
having been raised in Israel, having shown himself faithful 
to the Lord God Almighty, was given access into the assembly 
of the Lord. But with reference to the self-castrated, 
with reference to the illegitimate child, the Ammonite and the Moabite, 
they were restricted from entering the assembly of the Lord forever, 
and he gives specific reasons in the text. Now when we pick 
up this statement, one of illegitimate birth, we might have a problem 
with Jephthah, for instance. He was a judge in Israel and 
he was the son of a harlot. There's about three different 
ways of looking at this word illegitimate. The first idea is that it is 
not the normal word for illegitimate that we find. The only other 
use of this particular form of the word is found in Zechariah 
chapter 9 and verse 6. We'll get to that in just a moment. 
But some commentators suggest that what is forbidden here are 
the children born of an incestuous relationship. The children born 
of an incestuous relationship are always restricted from entering 
into the assembly of the Lord. A second view is it is the children 
that are in view or the children that come as a result of the 
ritual prostitution condemned in verses 17 and 18. More on 
that in just a moment. When you get to 17 and 18, This 
isn't garden variety harlotry. This isn't garden variety homosexuality. Not suggesting that that's somehow 
okay. But this ritual or cultic prostitution. Remember that the deities of 
the pagans or the deities of the Canaanites very often were 
what? They were fertility gods. How 
do you think the fertility gods were worshipped? They were worshipped 
in expression of fertility ritual. How do men and women exhibit 
that particular ritual but through fornication? And so connected 
to the pagan deity, you had ritual prostitutes, whether they were 
female or whether they were male. That's the dog of verse 18. That is a homosexual ritual prostitute. So some have speculated the illegitimacy 
in verse 2 is either the children of an incestuous relationship 
or the children of these ritual harlots that were conducting 
themselves in these ungodly sorts of ways. Zechariah 9.6 says a 
mixed race, this is the word here, the illegitimacy, a mixed 
race shall settle in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the 
Philistines. One commentator says the reference 
in Zechariah 9.6 may give the best clue as it refers to the 
mixed population of Ashdod. Here the word could well refer 
to children born of mixed parentage. Any child of a Hebrew pagan marriage 
would be excluded until the 10th generation, which probably means 
forever, as the number 10 was symbolic of completeness. But 
interestingly enough, when we get to the Ammonites and the 
Moabites, how did they come about? Through incest, right? I think 
it's a tough one to nail down, this illegitimate child of verse 
2. There's sort of some evidence 
supporting each of the particular views. I wouldn't die on any 
of these particular interpretations, because I'm just not the Hebrew 
scholar that competent. But those are the three positions. It probably doesn't refer to 
a child that is born in a way that is, again, I don't want 
to say garden variety as if to excuse it. But we want to make 
sure we don't think any, or we don't want any child to think 
that they were born illegitimately, and therefore they are not heaven 
bound, or they cannot be I don't think that's what's in view here. 
It's either incestuous, it is the children of these ritual 
harlots, or it is this sort of mixed idea with the pagans and 
the Hebrews and the children that they would have. But regardless, 
that one qualifying in verse 2 is restricted from entering 
the assembly of the Lord. and then the ones excluded due 
to ethnic concerns. I've already referenced them, 
the Ammonite and the Moabite. They are excluded even to the 
10th generation. The Ammonite specifically is 
excluded because they did not meet you with bread and water 
on the road when you came out of Egypt. This is highlighted 
in chapter 2 as well, verses 26 to 30, as Moses is rehearsing 
their history. The Ammonite did not respond 
graciously to the Israelite. And so God says they are not 
allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord Forever. The Ammonites 
are outside of the pale of the covenant community in the Old 
Testament. But as well, the Moabites. What 
did the Moabites do? They took or they paid Balaam, 
son of Baor, to curse Israel. Now God, in His grace and in 
His mercy, did not allow that to happen. The curse ultimately 
falls upon Balaam, and blessing falls upon Israel. And note the 
reason why God did this. Numbers 22 to 24 is the Balaam 
narrative. The whole idea is summarized 
here for us in a small compass in verse 5. Nevertheless, the 
Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your 
God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your 
God loves you. Here's some John 3.16 in the 
midst of Deuteronomy 23. The covenant community is loved 
by God. You see, when we read these stipulations 
about those excluded from the assembly, how we're to deal with 
our waste when we're soldiers out on military campaign, how 
we are to deal with all these various things spoken of here, 
We need to remember it's all in the context of God's love 
for his people. This isn't a machine acting upon 
subordinate machines. This is a loving, gracious, heavenly 
father who knows what's best for his children and is regulating 
their conduct in the land for his own glory and for their well-being. Again, when we get to verses 
12 to 14, for just a Just an illustration. The fact that God 
has them bury their excrement cuts down on a great deal of 
disease. Cuts down on a great deal of 
sickness and illness. God knew all about germ theory 
long before anybody in the created realm figured it out. Bury it, 
because if you don't, flies and other insects will take that 
bacteria and land on people and they'll get sick. So when we 
read through this, we think, boy, that seems kind of odd. 
Well, remember, there are people mixing among pagans, going into 
combat with them, and God doesn't want them to get sick. God wants 
them to maintain sanctity and sanctification. and holiness 
and all of those concerns to be sure, but he and his love 
is protecting them and watching over them. We've already seen 
this in Deuteronomy. When you go into the land, I'm 
going to keep you from getting the diseases that were rampant 
in Egypt. Remember in Egypt, elephantiasis 
and other forms of disease were rampant. Well, it's no fun to 
inherit the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, 
and having all of these blessed benefits, and then contracting 
a disease and dying. God loves his people. God loves 
the covenant community. And specifically, he says, he 
turned this curse of Balaam into a blessing because the Lord your 
God loves you. So make sure you receive it in 
the context in which it's giving. We can approach these things 
as outdated, antiquated, having no relevance for us whatsoever, 
or we could see a gracious Heavenly Father caring for His people 
under tutelage in the New Covenant, caring for His people in and 
through the person of His Son and by His Holy Spirit. The same 
loving Father on the plains of Moab is the same loving Father 
that is over us now. Verse 6 is a prohibition against 
entering into treaty. or covenant with the Ammonites 
or the Moabites. You shall not seek their peace 
nor their prosperity all your days forever." That doesn't mean 
they go out and necessarily try and promote everything good and 
happy and well-being in the land of Ammon. or in Moab. No, it 
is a prohibition against a treaty or a covenant, a political treaty 
with these persons. If we look at these concepts 
used in the Old Testament, peace and prosperity is the language 
of treaty and of covenant. So they are prohibited from engaging 
in this sort of a thing with these particular nations. So 
God had a genuine axe to grind against Ammon and Moab, and they 
are forbidden to enter into the assembly of the Lord. And then 
notice, the third category, those are the ones excluded for a season. The ones excluded for a season. You shall not abhor an Edomite. 
Why? It's your brother, Jacob and 
Esau. Right? That's who the Edomites 
were, the descendants of Esau. He is your brother. Again, this 
isn't the language of acceptance with God. This isn't the language 
of they're saved. This isn't the language of they're 
heaven bound necessarily. It is the language of life in 
the land with reference to Edomites. If they want to proselytize, 
be proselytes within Israel, Don't abhor them. Don't despise 
them. He is your brother. Same with 
the Egyptians. You shall not abhor an Egyptian 
because you were an alien in his land. The specific stipulation 
is found in verse 8. The children of the third generation 
born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. Again, Alan Harmon 
says, after three generations, those of these groups could enter 
the assembly. Time was needed to ensure the 
immigrants were truly one with the covenant community. We want 
to make sure you're of us before we let you into the assembly 
of the Lord. We actually think you should 
speak Hebrew. We're not going to make voting 
pamphlets in your native tongue. You're going to learn our customs. 
You're going to learn about our God. You're going to swear fidelity 
to Him. And in the third generation, 
when you've proven yourself well as an Edomite or an Egyptian, 
we'll let your grandchildren in to the assembly of the Lord. 
immigration, they weren't anti-proselytization, but it had to be done in a proper 
biblical way. Nations can learn things from 
this. It's not about immigration. We're not anti-immigration. We're 
anti-illegal immigration. Do things the right way and God, 
well not God necessarily, but hopefully everybody will be happy 
and life will be good in the land. that the children of the 
third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the 
Lord. Time was needed to ensure the 
immigrants were truly one with the covenant community in their 
faith and in obedience. So that's exclusion. Are those 
persons excluded from the assembly of the Lord? Notice secondly, 
broad category, cleanliness in the military camp. Verse 9 gives 
us the general rule. When the army goes out against 
your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. When 
the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from 
every wicked thing." Don't do what Achan's going to do. Achan should have listened to 
this. What did Achan do? He saw these good things, he 
coveted, he took, and he buried them in his tent. And so God 
says to Joshua and the people of Israel, stone them to death. 
That's a no-no. It's under the ban. It's anathema. It's under that principle of 
It is something devoted to destruction. So when the army goes out against 
your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. Now 
it's talking about cleanliness, ritual purity, and overall hygiene 
within the camp of the soldiers as they're out battling against 
the enemies of the Lord. Notice the specific examples, 
too. First, the unclean man, and secondly, 
the disposal of waste. Again, this is the word of the 
living God, just as much as Romans 9 is, or Ephesians 1, or Matthew 
11. Verses 10 and 11, if there is 
any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in 
the night, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside 
the camp. Now, people compare this with 
Leviticus 15, 16, And see this is what some have called a nocturnal 
emission. More than likely that's not what's 
in view here. It's a different word that's 
used. Probably what verse 10 speaks 
to is urination. The man doesn't want to go outside 
the camp. The man doesn't want to walk 
that distance. Perhaps either he had an accident, 
hopefully he's not a bedwetter in the armies of Israel out in 
the middle of, you know, fighting their enemies. More than likely, 
he's a lazy guy that doesn't want to walk outside the camp. 
But you were supposed to dispose of waste outside the camp, maintain 
the sanctity and the purity and the hygiene concerns within the 
camps. It's probably urination, as we 
see in verses 12 and following, what we see there is defecation. So how do we keep the camp pure 
and clean? Verse 11, it shall be when evening 
comes that he shall wash with water, and when the sun sets 
he may come into the camp. Now notice I'm not jumping to 
the New Covenant with some directly relevant applications. Use your 
bathrooms properly. That's the application to us 
today. If you find yourself out battling 
in the, you know, for the wars of the Lord, make sure you go 
outside the camp when you need to take care of those bodily 
needs. And then specifically with reference 
to the disposal of waste in verses 12 to 14. Also, you shall have a place 
outside the camp where you may go out. There was a place specifically 
designated outside the camp where soldiers were to go to take care 
of this particular need. God regulates the conduct of 
his people. God regulates their practice, 
ritual purity, to be sure, as well hygiene. You shall have 
an implement among your equipment. And when you sit down outside, 
you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. You're 
not the pagans. You're not the heathen. Don't 
live in squalor. Don't live in garbage. Control 
yourself and function appropriately. This is a great text for moms 
when you're trying to police your children. In fact, I think 
my wife used this passage, at least a loose application of 
it, to exhort our children to cleanliness. God is a God of 
order. And when we look at these particular 
concerns, verses 9 to 13, the temptation is to say, well, this 
is so mundane, it is so worldly, it is so carnal in nature. But 
look at the underlying reason given in verse 14. It is theological 
in nature for You are to dispose properly of your excrement, and 
if you are unclean because you violated the purity law, the 
rule with reference to the camp, you need to go out, wash, wash 
with water when the sun sets, then you may come back into the 
camp. There is a rule and a reason for these things indicated in 
verse 14. For the Lord your God walks in 
the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over 
to you. Therefore your camp shall be holy that he may see no unclean 
thing among you and turn away from you. Remember the word holy. 
We think of holy as if I don't do this or I do do this. Holy 
not only means moral purity, but it means set apart. It's 
sanctified. It is not for common use. Well, the people of God Most 
High were holy. They were sanctified. They were 
set apart. They were not common among the 
the nations of the earth. Even when they were engaged in 
military campaign, the armies of Israel must conduct themselves 
according to the purpose of God so that he may be glorified. 
For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp. I think 
this is how Rebecca used it. The Lord your God is proud. Don't 
let your room look like this. That's not pleasing to the Lord. 
That's not glorifying to God. It's not good stewardship. It's 
not honoring to him. He's a God of order. He's a God 
of discipline. Those are good things. So the 
Lord gives a theological reason for this particular situation. Harmon says the holiness of the 
covenant bond had to be reflected even in physical cleanliness 
and hygiene lest the Lord take note of their breach of his stipulations, 
he sees anything indecent among you, and turn himself away from 
them." And don't think this principle is lost even in the secular realm. 
You know being a soldier yourself. They spend a lot of time teaching 
you how to be clean. You don't go into the camp of 
Israel and stink. You don't go out into the camp 
of Israel and be a disease-carrying person. This was necessary to 
fight effectively the wars of Yahweh so that they could accomplish 
the task of dispossessing the land of the Canaanites. This 
pleases the Lord God Almighty. Meredith Klein said, in war as 
in peace. By the way, Meredith Klein, who 
I quote often, was a man. I don't know why his parents 
named him Meredith. I've never heard that name applied 
to a man. Not that women commentators are 
necessarily evil. I'm just making the qualification 
that Meredith Klein was a man. He's in heaven now. But anyways, 
he said, in war as in peace, God was present among his people 
and his name must be hallowed. Physical cleanliness was the 
appropriate symbol of the holiness of the covenant relationship. 
So all the parents tonight with little children are going to 
go home and crack the whip. You better be clean, right? You 
better hop too. I got a sermon for you. Listen 
to this. Deuteronomy 23, 9 to 14. This is great for potty training 
your two-year-old as well. Well, let's look finally at the 
last section, verses 15 to 25, miscellaneous laws for the community. Verses 15 and 16 deal with escaped 
slaves, and probably it's dealing with escaped slaves from foreign 
escaped slaves. In other words, probably not 
slaves within Israel. Remember, there are rules speaking 
to that situation in Deuteronomy 15. And the slavery there wasn't 
what we oftentimes associate with slavery, the shadow slave, 
the African slave trade, or some of the abuses we've seen. It's 
more of a business or more of an employer-employee relationship. than what we are usually prone 
to consider. But more than likely, this is 
when they were going about in their wars in Canaan when a slave 
escaped and sought sanctuary or asylum in Israel. Notice the 
rule. Verse 15, you shall not give 
back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master 
to you. And probably the reason for this, 
at least if the commentators are to be believed, that the 
nations surrounding Israel had agreements, basically saying 
that if a slave left his master and sought asylum or sanctuary 
or refuge in another country, they had extradition laws in 
place. You see, Israel was forbidden 
to enter into those alliances with the nations around them. 
So when a slave came from Canaan, for instance, to Israel, and 
he said, I've escaped from my master, you granted him asylum. You didn't send him back to that 
particular country, because that would have been, again, to operating 
in terms of treaty or covenant with those other nations. So 
the primary emphasis is probably seen in that very thing. You 
shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from 
his master to you, because it will involve you in the larger 
problem that was already condemned in chapter 7. You are not to 
enter into any alliances whatsoever with these pagan nations. But 
then notice, not only does the man gain asylum, not only does 
the man gain sanctuary, but he's free to live wherever he wants 
in Israel. This is a good place to be, wasn't it? I mean, look at the text. He 
may dwell, verse 16, with you in your midst, in the place which 
he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to 
him. And what would be a benefit for 
this man? He'd come in to the covenant 
community. He could gain instruction concerning 
Yahweh of Israel. It was a win-win situation for 
the parties involved. It was as well a means of evangelizing. When this guy comes in, what 
do you do? You teach him the ways of the 
God of Israel. And then at the end, in verse 
16, you shall not oppress him. Don't oppress him. Don't lay 
heavy burdens upon this man. Let him come in to Israel. It's a pretty amazing thing, 
isn't it? You know, you see the rhetoric sometimes, especially, 
you know, we just read we're in Sudan and in Somalia, where 
they want to impose Sharia. People say, well, Sharia is just 
like Old Testament law. No, it isn't. It is not like 
Old Testament law. Not at all like Old Testament 
law. Old Testament law had built into 
it great humanitarian concern. I mean, just tonight I saw in 
Egypt that they're sending these sex mobs upon women in Egypt 
to rape them. I mean, this is coming from the 
government. It's terrible. They don't treat 
women well in these countries. What happens in Israel? If you 
see a female captive of war, you can bring her into your home. 
You can marry her. Well, that's just not typical 
of the nation surrounding Israel. There is great humanitarian concern 
within Old Covenant law. Something absent from Sharia. Verses 17 to 18 deals with, as 
I've already mentioned, ritual prostitution. or cultic prostitution. Notice if you have the New King 
James in verse 17 you have a marginal note where it says harlot and 
perverted one. It's got a number 3 and a number 
4. Well basically what the margin tells you is that it's Kedoshah 
and it's from the, that's the feminine noun from the masculine 
Kedash. You know what that word Kedash 
means? Holy. They're holy. I mean, Israel 
wouldn't look at them as holy, but the pagan deities and the 
Canaanites would look at these ritual prostitutes as holy. They were set apart for the service 
of their deity. It is cultic or ritual prostitution 
that is in view here. And so what God prohibits, verse 
17, there shall be no ritual harlot. How does the ESV get 
that? cult prostitute, another good rendering, there shall be 
no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel or a perverted one 
of the sons of Israel. So the harlot is the female, 
the perverted one is the male. So what you have here is a female 
cult prostitute and a male cult prostitute. You are not supposed 
to allow such things in Israel. This is an abomination. It is prohibited. This is wrong. This is bad. Verse 18, as I've 
already mentioned, when it says, you shall not bring the wages 
of a harlot or the price of a dog. The price of a dog probably is 
that male homosexual cult prostitute. And so what is in view in verses 
17 and 18 are actually two prohibitions. The first is the prohibition 
against ritual prostitution. The second is the prohibition 
against a perverse vow offering. So if there is money made by 
a ritual harlot, which I don't think in verse 18 is even a ritual 
harlot. It could just be a garden variety 
harlot. She makes money or a male homosexual 
makes money. They are not to give that to 
Yahweh of Israel. You don't say, well, you know, 
this is the way I make my money, so I'm going to give a tithe 
to the Lord. God doesn't want your filthy 
money. That is what is prohibited here. 
You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a 
dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, 
for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. So the 
both of these is the act of ritual prostitution and this giving 
of a perverse offering. Remember in Revelation 22.15 
there is a mention of dogs being excluded from the New Jerusalem. 
That's not canines. It's male homosexuals who engaged 
in cult prostitution, or just the male homosexual. So what we find in verses 17 
and 18 is something that was rampant among the Canaanites. Cult prostitution was practiced 
frequently in the worship of God, or their gods. God of Israel 
says, don't do that. It is an abomination to the Lord. The third miscellaneous law is 
lending with interest. Lending with interest. What's 
the rule? Don't do it. Unless it's a foreigner. Then you can charge interest. 
And it was Kelvin that made the distinction between what we might 
call a business loan and a hardship loan. I don't know if he used 
these exact words. But what we find prohibited here, 
you shall not charge interest to your brother, interest on 
money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. When 
we review or when we compare other passages, it's probably 
not, you know, some guy has a good idea and he needs a bit of startup 
capital, so you loan him some money. And you charge him a bit 
of interest. That's like renting a tractor. You don't rent the tractor for 
free. You pay to rent the tractor. 
Well, in the case of some startup capital for a business, you're 
renting the money. I don't know that that's necessarily 
denounced here. What is in view is a man who's 
in poverty. A man who is hungry, a man who 
has nothing, a man who is in an impoverished state. Obviously, 
you do not charge interest to your brother because there's 
two problems if you do. You only compound his poverty 
if you do. Your brother's starving and you 
say, I'll give you 100 bucks and I'll charge you 20. You're 
not helping him. You may think you are, and you 
may pat yourself on the back, but you're not helping him one 
bit. You're compounding his problem. 
And secondly, you're not exhibiting that love of covenant community 
that is to be practiced within Israel. If you have an impoverished 
brother, somebody that's about to die, he needs food, he needs 
shelter, he needs clothing. Give him money without usury. Give him money without charging 
him this interest. But with reference to foreigners, 
probably traders, foreign traders. This was a promise, or this will 
be a promise later in Deuteronomy. You will lend to many nations, 
but you will not borrow from them. It's a good thing. You're 
lending to these foreign traders. Yeah, hit them with some interest. 
Make some money for the Commonwealth. Then you can pay your tithes 
and everybody benefits. in that arrangement. But you 
shall not charge interest to your brother, interest on money 
or food or anything that is lent out at interest." The fourth 
miscellaneous is making vows to God. Our confession makes 
a distinction or defines the difference between an oath and 
a vow. An oath is between men. A vow 
is a solemn promise to the Lord. That's the difference between 
an oath and a vow. An oath is to men and a vow is 
to the Lord. Well, it is not a sin to abstain 
from making an oath. Notice, when you make a vow to 
the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it. For the 
Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin 
to you. So if you make the vow, pay it. If you make the vow, 
do what you vowed to do. That's the principle. But notice 
in verse 22, if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to 
you. You might take the real practical 
instance. I'm commanded to give a tithe, but I'm going to vow 
to the Lord to give an extra 5%. If you vow to the Lord to 
do that, then you better do it. But if you don't make that vow 
and you still obey the law to tithe, you're not in sin, you're 
not in jeopardy, you're free to take that vow on. That, verse 
23, which has gone from your lips, you shall keep and perform, 
for you voluntarily vow to the Lord your God what you have promised 
with your mouth. Wisdom cautions us against hasty 
vows. Wisdom tells us we need to consider 
ourselves properly. It is a snare for a man to devote 
rashly something as holy and afterward to reconsider his vows. I'm going to give the Lord 40%! 
And then you start saying, wait a minute, I didn't really think 
this through, did I? Well, you made a vow, man. This 
is why wisdom says, be careful. Ecclesiastes 5.4, when you make 
a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for He has no pleasure 
in fools. Pay what you have vowed. Better 
not to vow than to vow and not pay. You see, nobody's putting 
a gun to your head to make this vow, but if you make this vow, 
be a man of your word. Be a man of integrity. The Lord 
God of truth, the Lord of the covenant, calls his people to 
function in like manner. Don't be a liar, don't be a cheat, 
and don't be deceitful. Do not let your mouth cause your 
flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it 
was an error. Why should God be angry at your 
excuse and destroy the work of your hands?" So this idea of 
vowing is very clear. You make a vow to the Lord, here 
it is, bang it. Think about it before you make 
the vow. Don't devote something rashly as holy and then say, 
wait a minute, I don't know what I did. Make sure you know what 
you're doing before you make this particular vow. And then 
the last miscellaneous law, number five, is eating from a neighbor's 
field. Verses 24 and 25, pretty simple. When you come into your neighbor's 
vineyard, you can eat grapes. A little laughter going on. Have 
you eaten grapes recently? What's the prohibition? Don't 
stuff your container with grapes. When you're in your neighbor's 
field, you can pluck the heads of grain. You're hungry. But don't use a sickle. Now obviously 
the law applies to travelers. I do not think we're supposed 
to assume that you're sitting in your house and you're hungry 
so you go to your next door neighbor's vineyard or into his standing 
grain. Remember in Matthew 12, Jesus 
and his disciples are walking through the grain field. And 
his disciples pick the heads of grain, and they eat. And the 
Pharisees called Jesus not on the act of eating the grain. That was lawful. It was OK. If you were traveling through 
your neighbor's standing grain, you could pick enough to eat 
so that you wouldn't die. The issue in Matthew 12 was that 
they did it on the Sabbath. That was the big crime in view. 
But you see, very specifically here, within the covenant community, 
we are supposed to be gracious. Somebody takes a few grapes, 
you know, don't shoot them when the baby died. like I want to 
do with these crows that are all over this roof. I mean, I 
hear this all day long. If you were here, you'd say somebody's 
knocking at the door. No, it's all my friends, the 
crows. I like to sit out in the back with a gun and shoot them. 
But I don't think that would look good on the Chilliwack Progress. 
Mike, my son-in-law, told me the other day, you've got to 
shoot them with a BB gun. I said, I don't know that that would 
look good. Pastor on Wellington shoots birds. He said, yeah, 
you're right. He said, you ought to come and sit here during the 
week and clock them off. But what we find here is that 
there is this gracious, benevolent attitude. We're not supposed 
to want to destroy somebody because they eat some of our grapes or 
they eat some of our grain. Now, if they're stuffing buckets 
with our grapes, it betrays the reality that they're just hungry 
and need an immediate meal. If they pull out their sickle 
and start chopping up our grain, we can surmise they're looking 
for a little bit more than enough to fill their belly. So the law 
encourages kindness. It discourages theft. It is another law that speaks 
to a person's property. The person is given the privilege 
for sustenance, but not for profit. Certainly you're not going to 
fill your pail with grapes and then go sell them somewhere, 
or take your sickle out and chop down a bunch of grain and then 
go sell it somewhere. No, you eat enough as is sufficient 
for you without fearing your neighbor's BB gun or his .22. And in the same token, you're 
not going to rip off your neighbor. Again, Klein says the law of 
crops provided such liberty as to satisfy the principle of brotherly 
hospitality. But it prohibited the changing 
of liberty to license in violation of the property rights of this 
brother. So you could take grapes, you 
could take grain, enough as to eat in a traveling day. Not just because you could see 
his grapes, you would run over there and eat it. So those are 
some miscellaneous laws that were pertinent for life in the 
land. We learn from this holiness. Again, sanctity, a set-apartness. The community is holy. They are 
set-apart. from the nations surrounding 
them. This is reflected in the assembly, in hygiene, and in 
the various ways they relate within the community itself. 
Perhaps if you were in the Canaanite nations, you could take your 
tractor and take everything your neighbor possessed. And there 
was no law. Actually, there were laws. There 
were law codes that restricted that sort of thing, even in those 
nations as well. But as well, we see they're regulated. The community is regulated by 
God. Israel was not left to be creative 
when they entered the land, as that would have most certainly 
meant imitating the pagans around them. It's like your kid. You 
have to regulate your kid so he doesn't do foolish things, 
right? Well, that's something that I think we garner from the 
book of Galatians, that Israel, Old Covenant Israel, was sort 
of like the the adolescent phase of God's redemptive plan. God's 
redemptive plan included this Mosaic Covenant where he hedged 
the people in and regulated everything so as to keep them from doing 
foolish things with the nations around them. If they didn't have 
a rule, if they didn't have a law, they'd look over at their Canaanite 
neighbors and they'd do what they were doing. Now, God says 
you're to function in a distinctive way. As well, ethics is highlighted 
in this section. The community is to reflect justice 
and equity in their dealings with other covenant members, 
and above all, with the Lord of the covenant. There is to 
be righteousness in our practice. There is to be godliness and 
holiness in the way that we conduct ourselves within the community 
toward one another and toward our covenant Lord. And then as 
well, we learn something of new covenant expansion. In Isaiah 
56, it is prophesied that eunuchs would enter the assembly of the 
Lord. In Isaiah 56, the prophet is 
preaching the messianic age. He is preaching Jesus Christ. And isn't it interesting? The 
way we find Acts chapter 8, an Ethiopian eunuch, comes upon 
Philip. And what book is Philip reading? 
Isaiah the prophet. And from Isaiah 53, Philip preaches 
Jesus to that eunuch. That eunuch is baptized. He enters 
into the assembly of the Lord God Most High. With reference 
to the New Covenant, there is no nation barred to the 10th 
generation. There is no nation under the 
ban in terms of they cannot come to the assembly of the Lord. 
Matthew 28, Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples of all the 
nations, not avoiding those ones because they are under the ban. 
until the 10th generation. No, go make disciples of all 
nations. So there are some distinctive 
differences in the New Covenant in terms of a global approach. 
to God's redemptive plan, to save a people from every tribe, 
every tongue, every people, and every nation. So Old Covenant 
Israel was God's dealings with adolescents. When we get to the 
New Covenant, God is dealing with his son, his firstborn son, 
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in him that we are given 
the task to preach the gospel to eunuchs, to preach the gospel 
to heathen, to preach the gospel to all nations, and call them 
to believe on Him and to enter into the assembly of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we thank 
You for Your Word and we thank You for these wonderful, wonderful 
lessons and the laws that You have given. We just pray that 
You would give us the mind of Christ to receive these things, 
to make the applications in our own hearts, in our own lives, 
that we would learn something of the character and nature of 
God, that we would learn something of the character and nature of 
holiness before you, that we would see the things that you 
despise, and that we would likewise despise them. As well, we would 
see the joy and the blessing that we have in the new covenant, 
and we do pray that this gospel would be proclaimed throughout 
the earth, and that you would be pleased to save to the uttermost 
all who draw nigh unto you through your Son, the Lord Jesus. And 
it's in His name that we pray. Amen.