covenant abuse

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
activity board game connection desk

Photo by CQF-Avocat on Pexels.com

covenant abuse

Deuteronomy 19:16-21 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 19:16 “If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime,
Deuteronomy 19:17 the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of Yahveh before the priests and judges in authority at that time.
Deuteronomy 19:18 The judges are to make a careful investigation, and notice if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely testified against his brother,
Deuteronomy 19:19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you.
Deuteronomy 19:20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.
Deuteronomy 19:21 Do not show pity: throat for throat, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

covenant abuse

No one admires a person who uses the law to take advantage of someone else. How much more evil is it when the law in question is the biblical covenant law. People bristle at such regulations as are represented in 19:21, but usually because they ignore the context. In this context, there is no question that the wrong could have been prevented. It was a premeditated attempt to abuse the covenant in order to harm someone else, and benefit from that harm. If people are allowed to do that with immunity, the covenant itself becomes a workshop for crime.

But in a different context, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” just becomes a slogan justifying personal revenge. Jesus rightly condemned that, because it too was an abuse of the scriptures (Matthew 5:38-39). Instead, Jesus teaches that we should love and pray for those who wrong us.

Respecting what God has said entails living according to his precepts, not using them to our advantage. Sometimes, the right thing to do is walk away praying for the one who damaged your eye and a broke your tooth.

Lord, show us how to show love even to those who wrong us, and leave the vengeance to you.

Posted in discipleship, revenge, scriptures | Tagged | 1 Comment

shame crimes

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
portrait old person sad

Photo by omar alnahi on Pexels.com

shame crimes

Deuteronomy 19:14 -15

Deuteronomy 19:14 “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.
Deuteronomy 19:15 “One witness cannot establish any violation or mistake against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

shame crimes

Moses knew that individuals in the community would be tempted to prey on others. These two prohibitions represent one kind of temptation there would be. Both are particular violations of another person’s human rights. In both examples, the violation makes the innocent party look guilty. It is bad enough to steal from me, but if you steal my boundary marker, you make me look like a thief. If you accuse me of a crime, you have committed a crime against me. Both of these are crimes against a person’s reputation. They are shame crimes. Like many other cultures around the world, in Israel the shame crime was considered especially reprehensible.

Loving our neighbors like ourselves means protected their honor, not preying on it. God’s counsel for New Testament believers is to “give preference to one another in honor” (Romans 12:10). We need to be lifting up each other, not finding secret ways to tear each other down.

Lord, show us how to lift each other up, and so demonstrate the love and respect you call us to have for one another.

Posted in consideration of others, shame | Tagged | 1 Comment

closing the loophole

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
wall grey castle stone

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

closing the loophole

Deuteronomy 19:11-13 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 19:11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and runs away to one of these cities,
Deuteronomy 19:12 the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.
Deuteronomy 19:13 Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

closing the loophole

The English word loophole comes from the Middle English loupe, which referred to the opening of a city wall that made it possible to shoot arrows towards one’s enemy, while still being protected by the wall. The term came to mean any way of evading or escaping the consequences of a rule or law that was meant to protect someone else.

Moses closed the loophole to the city of refuge law quickly. The law was intended to protect the innocent, but someone guilty of premeditated murder would try to escape to a city of refuge in order to escape prosecution and execution. So, the elders of the murder victim’s city are responsible to extradite the suspect.

In the New Testament, Jesus often condemned the legalistic Pharisees for finding loopholes in the law to benefit themselves, and so ignore the weightier matters of the law — consideration of others and loving God above oneself. God’s rules are not a playground.They are designed to make us better people. When we use them against others, or to enrich ourselves and protect our sin, we will not be protected by them.

Lord, purge us of our hypocrisy and self-centeredness.

Posted in Bible, consideration of others, discipleship, exploitation, hypocrisy, law, legalism | Tagged | 1 Comment

innocent blood

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
adorable baby baby feet beautiful

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

innocent blood

Deuteronomy 19:8-10 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 19:8 If Yahveh your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give them –
Deuteronomy 19:9 provided you watch every one of these commands I am commanding you today and follow them, loving Yahveh your God and walking in his ways at all times – you are to add three more cities to these three.
Deuteronomy 19:10 In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

innocent blood

The larger the covenant community gets, the more need there will be for cities of refuge. The purpose for these places of self-imposed exile is to protect innocent lives. God will hold the entire community responsible for not valuing the lives of the innocent. He wants his people to protect those who are in danger and cannot protect themselves.

Our unborn cannot flee to cities of refuge — places where they can be safe from those who want to destroy them simply because they are not convenient. Our laws and courts are on the side of the predators. Our communities have become guilty of bloodshed by neglecting the innocent who are their prey.

Lord, show us how to protect our innocent from those who seek to destroy them.

Posted in abortion, law, protection | Tagged | 1 Comment

handing over our hurts

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
brown wooden axe besides brown leather knife holster

Photo by Lum3n.com on Pexels.com

handing over our hurts

Deuteronomy 19:4 “Here is the instruction concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to stay alive, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:
Deuteronomy 19:5 If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to fell timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may run away to one of these cities and stay alive.
Deuteronomy 19:6 Or else, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and slit his throat. Yet he did not legally deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.
Deuteronomy 19:7 This is why I am commanding you, and this is what I say: separate three cities for yourselves.

handing over our hurts

I mentioned yesterday that there was a social and psychological need for these cities of refuge. If someone killed another person — even if it were accidental — it meant that the community itself could no longer support and protect him. A life had been taken. An offense had occurred requiring retribution. But the retribution in the case cited above would actually be an escalation. The innocent accident would lead to someone being guilty of premeditated murder. So, part of the social reason for the cities of refuge was to prevent that. The family of the victim of manslaughter would know that the person who killed their kin is out of the way, and they would be free to go on with their lives and grieve normally, without becoming another domino in a long line of falling dominoes.

Christian, has someone done something wrong to you or someone you love? Don’t dwell on it. It is not healthy to let thoughts of bitterness and revenge eat away at your mind. Turn it over to God. Let him heal your hurt. If you keep opening the wound every day, it will never heal, and you will be stuck in a cycle of hurt and hate. Pray to God for the strength to go on with your life.

Lord, today we resolve to no longer live with the hurts and resentments of the past. We hand our hurts over to you.

Posted in anger, vengeance | Tagged | 1 Comment

the price of refuge

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
close up of computer keyboard

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

the price of refuge

Deuteronomy 19:1-3

Deuteronomy 19:1 “When Yahveh your God eliminates the nations whose land he is giving you, so that you take possession from them and live in their cities and houses,
Deuteronomy 19:2 you are to separate three cities for yourselves within the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.
Deuteronomy 19:3 You are to determine the distances and divide the land Yahveh your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

the price of refuge

The cities of refuge were not easy places to live. One had to immediately separate himself from all that he had known before and escape to a self-imposed incarceration. It involved living a life totally sacrificed to all one’s previous ambitions and affections. It was stressful and difficult, but the alternative was to be hunted down and eliminated like the nations who had previously occupied those cities.

There was a social and psychological need for those cities of refuge. If someone killed another person — even if it were accidental — it meant that the community itself could no longer support and protect him. A life had been taken. An offense had occurred requiring retribution. He had to escape. The cities of refuge provided the needed ticket out. But the price of that ticket was self-denial to the point of death to self.

As such, the cities of refuge provide a picture of Christ and the deliverance he offers. Each of us has offended a sacred and omnipotent God, and we deserve death for all our offenses, even the ones we consider mistakes. Our righteous God is also a loving God and he has provided a way for us to escape the death penalty — but it comes at a price. We need to immediately deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Christ. Repentance requires radical and immediate transformation.
Lord, thank you for providing an escape from the death penalty we all deserve. We ask for courage to respond to our plight with the necessary swift and immediate repentance.

Posted in deliverance, Jesus Christ, repentance | Tagged | 1 Comment

telling the difference

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
food colorful sweet bear

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

telling the difference

Deuteronomy 18:21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message Yahveh has not spoken?’
Deuteronomy 18:22 When a prophet speaks in Yahveh’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message Yahveh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be intimidated by him.

telling the difference

I woke up early this morning, and did not have access to my computer, so instead of writing my devotions (which I usually do first thing) I decided to watch a sermon on my tablet. The sermon was from a preacher I had never listened to before, from a tradition I am not always comfortable with, so I didn’t know what to expect. But after a few minutes, I looked beyond all that and asked myself

“Is it biblical?” I would have to answer “Yes.”
“Is it relevant?” “Yes.”

I concluded that this preacher was speaking to me, and that God had orchestrated my life so that I could hear that message. I am so thankful for events like this, where God uses something out of my ordinary to encourage, strengthen and sometimes challenge me.

The Israelites would encounter true prophets, and false prophets. They would be able to tell the difference. So can we.

Thank you Lord, for the times when you speak to us, and we know it.

Posted in Bible, discernment, revelation, scriptures | Tagged | Leave a comment

the audience factor

Posted on February 29, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
man with hand on temple looking at laptop

Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

the audience factor

Deuteronomy 18:19 I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.
Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods– that prophet must die.’

the audience factor

With great power comes great responsibility. The prophets who emerged in Israel were greatly respected and feared, because God said that he would hold his people accountable for listening and heeding their words. But prophets who dared to say things knowing that those messages did not come from Yahveh would also be held accountable for the rebellion. Such rebels warranted the death penalty. But even the death penalty to the false prophets could not undo the damage done in the hearts and lives of those who listened to them. Lies spread like an epidemic.

How careful are we today to make sure that what we say comes from the Lord? We are now living in an era of unimaginable distribution of information. Any one of us has the potential to communicate in a few seconds to an audience which would have taken a lifetime to cultivate. We should be all the more careful about the words we say and write. It is not only the enormous audience of today, but the staggering audience of the future who is potentially listening.

Lord, make us people who are meticulous to represent you with what we say and write.

Posted in discernment, heresies, prophecy, rebellion, revelation | Tagged | 1 Comment

the alternative to Mount Doom

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Jefferson Vann
Mt_doon_08-1024x569

Mt. Doom, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Photo courtesy shadowofmordor wikia.

the alternative to Mount Doom

Deuteronomy 18:16 This is what you requested from Yahveh your God at Horeb on the day of the collected assembly and this is what you said: ‘Let us not hear the voice of Yahveh our God again or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die! ‘
Deuteronomy 18:17 Then Yahveh said to me, ‘They have spoken well.
Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

the alternative to Mount Doom

Notice that it was the Israelites themselves who pleaded for an alternate to Sinai’s revelation. They realized their own propensity to sin and fall short of the glory of God — a glory that had been manifested at Sinai. The voice they heard was to them a voice of condemnation. The fire and darkness could only be a precursor to Gehenna. They had to get away from that Mount Doom.

So, if the people would not come into his presence on the mountain, God would send his presence to them through a prophet. He intended to do that all along, but like so many other things, God waits for his people to ask before he gives them what they need.

Ultimately,the answer was — you guessed it — Jesus. He is the revelation of God to a sick, sinful, hurting, needy people. His words are his Father’s words, and they lead to life, not death — forgiveness, not condemnation.

Thank you Lord, for the Prophet who is your presence.

Posted in Jesus Christ, prophecy, revelation | Tagged | 1 Comment

completeness in Christ

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Jefferson Vann

 

black and white blank challenge connect

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

completeness in Christ

Deuteronomy 18:13-15 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 18:13 You must be complete1 before Yahveh your God.

Deuteronomy 18:14 Though these nations you are about to take possession from listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, Yahveh your God has not permitted you to do this.

Deuteronomy 18:15 “Yahveh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

completeness in Christ

Moses had just condemned the animistic practices of the pagan nations surrounding Israel. Next, he tells the Israelites that God expects them to be complete before Yahveh, their God. Here Moses anticipates a rejoinder: “how can we be complete without the spiritual power that these animistic specialists can give?” The answer: “Yahveh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Completion will come from the coming prophet.

Christian, are you tempted to look for other sources of spiritual power and wisdom, even though you have Jesus? Forsake those sources. God’s Son, whom he raised up from among our brothers – he is all we need. We need only listen to his words to get all the wisdom and power we need to be complete before God.

LORD, thank you for our completeness in Christ.

1תָּמִים Deut. 18:13; 32:4.

Posted in animism, dependence upon God, Jesus Christ, listening, revelation | Tagged | 1 Comment