SHEEP AND GOATS
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Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, continue to increase my understanding of who I am in Christ. Continue to teach me how to walk in his ways.
Read DEUTERONOMY 23:1–24:9
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Exclusion From the Assembly
23 [a]No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
2 No one born of a forbidden marriage[b] nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.
3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. 4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim[c] to pronounce a curse on you. 5 However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. 6 Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
7 Do not despise an Edomite, for the Edomites are related to you. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country. 8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Uncleanness in the Camp
9 When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure. 10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. 11 But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.
12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
Miscellaneous Laws
15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.
17 No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute[d] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.
19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.
21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.
24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.
24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.
7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
8 In cases of defiling skin diseases,[e] be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 23:1 In Hebrew texts 23:1-25 is numbered 23:2-26.
- Deuteronomy 23:2 Or one of illegitimate birth
- Deuteronomy 23:4 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
- Deuteronomy 23:18 Hebrew of a dog
- Deuteronomy 24:8 The Hebrew word for defiling skin diseases, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘… broad is the road that leads to destruction … and narrow the road that leads to life.’1
Today’s reading describes people forbidden from entering ‘the assembly (qahal) of the Lord’ (vv. 1, 3). The exact meaning of this term is debatable. However, the prohibition clearly rendered full participation in the life of the community impossible for the excluded. In light of today’s emphasis on inclusivity, it seems cruel to discriminate on the basis of physical deformity, illegitimate birth, or foreign extraction. If all people are created equally in the image of God, how could God bar certain types of individual from integration into the Israelite community?
Well, throughout Deuteronomy, the Israelites are commanded to be different from the neighboring nations. Several times already in the book of Leviticus, God had commanded them, ‘be holy, because I am holy.’2 ‘Holiness’ basically signifies ‘otherness.’ God himself is wholly other, so his people must not treat him flippantly and with presumptuous overfamiliarity. As his representatives on earth, they must be wholly other too. Therefore, God imposes certain standards that we today might find unfair but that were intended to maintain Israel’s national uniqueness.
In the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, qahal is often translated using the word ekklesia. This means literally ‘a called-out assembly.’ In the New Testament, this is commonly translated as ‘church.’ Christians desire to be as inclusive as possible. Nevertheless, we must remember that the assembly of God’s true people consists exclusively of those who have faith in Jesus. Christ’s analogy of the sheep and goats3 illustrates how mankind will ultimately be divided into two categories, based on what is done (or left undone) for him. Nothing keeps anyone out of Christ’s redeemed community except refusal to believe in him.
Apply
Who is it that you can invite to join you in church this weekend and to experience the love of Christ?
Closing prayer
Jesus, give me opportunity to share the way of salvation with people around me, to tell of your faithfulness to those who put their trust in you.
1 Matt 7:13,14 2 e.g., Lev 11:44 3 Matt 25:31–46
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