Day 075 (Deuteronomy 14-16) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Moses is still giving his final speech to the Israelites before he dies and they enter the promised land. He starts with some peculiar commands about haircuts. Back in the day, one of the way pagans grieved was by shaving their heads. And Moses was outlawing this because it was pagan-adjacent.

This law had already been given to the priests back in Leviticus 21, but here Moses gives it to all the Israelites who were supposed to look and live differently than their neighbors. Pagans were also known to cut themselves as a part of their ritual mourning practices, and Moses forbids that too. He also covers some dietary laws, much of which we've seen before. One of the interesting ones here that carries a lot of weight in keeping kosher comes from 1421, the command not to boil a goat in its mother's milk.

Over the years, many rabbis have debated over what all the laws mean and how to apply them. They often extend the boundaries of what is unacceptable to make sure they don't get anywhere close to breaking the actual law. They call this building a fence around the law.

One of the things the rabbis deduced about this law was that they should avoid mixing milk and meat. So today, if you go to Israel, you'll find that those two things aren't served at the same meal for any place that keeps kosher. You can switch it up however you like schedule-wise, but typically, dairy is served at breakfast, loads of cheeses and milks and yogurts, and meat is served at the other meals. Kosher households won't even use the same plates for meat and dairy.

And if you're a wealthy kosher family, you probably even have two whole separate kitchens. This is how far people would go to avoid breaking these laws. And the heart behind this could be good, but we'll see over time how these fences began to be treated like they were the law itself, instead of a man-made attempt to protect the law.

In the laws for the sabbatical year, we see God's heart toward the poor on display again. Debts are forgiven and servants are released from their contracts. God promised that if they remain faithful to His command, there will always be enough to go around. And those who would be considered poor will be cared for by the surplus of the wealthy. If they're faithful to Him, He will bless them so much that the other nations around them will borrow from them and they won't ever have to borrow.

This keeps the Israelites free from the kind of financial attachments to pagan nations that might result in their being enslaved again. God also sets out some commands about how to feel and think, not just how to act. God's concern for things at a heart level doesn't just start in the New Testament. He's always been after our hearts, not just our obedience.

In 15.9-10, he says things like, In February's RNC episode, we talked about how the arrangement for debtors is different than the Atlantic slave trade, even though the word slave is what's used in Scripture. If you missed that conversation, check it out when you have a chance. I think it will be really helpful. We'll link to it in the show notes today.

In the arrangement for the Sabbath year release of these servants, God commands that they not only be released, but be blessed and provided for. By the way, do you remember how Jacob agreed to serve his father-in-law Laban seven years in exchange for his daughter Rachel? That's exactly the kind of agreement we're talking about here, arranging to work for someone for seven years to pay off debt. In Jacob's case, he was working off the bride price, and he had to do it twice since he accidentally got himself two wives.

He voluntarily stayed with Laban for a few more years after his debt was paid. Then he asked Laban to bless him with some animals when he left. This gives us a good picture of what these slave relationships were like, even though that particular one was still far from ideal. If a slave really liked his boss, he would decide to stay with him forever and be absorbed into the family, which was always voluntary. They would mark this decision by piercing his ear.

Moses also goes over some of the festal calendars again. He's reiterating a lot of these laws now because, remember, they've been celebrating these things in the wilderness for 40 years, and now the way they're going to do things will shift since they'll be spread out in the promised land instead of gathered together as one large group. These festivals will require them to travel to the central location where the tabernacle will be established once they take the land.

In 16.3, Moses says, You'd think that would be the kind of thing most people would want to forget, like, the past is behind you, don't look back or you'll never move forward. But that's not God's approach to this.

He says remembering where they came from and what he has done for them is what will keep them humble and grateful. The Exodus is for Jews what the resurrection is for Christians. It's the most important thing in their history. Moses tells them to always look back at that to remember who they are, just as we should always be looking back at the resurrection to remind us who we are. But we also get to look forward to the return of the resurrected Christ.

We live in the time period theologians call the already but not yet, because we live between the first coming and the final coming of the Messiah. The best way for us to stay humble and worshipful is to remember these two things as well. And that's where my God shot came in. I saw that not only will remembering keep us humble and worshipful, but it will keep us joyful too.

In 16, 14 through 15, when Moses is talking about the Feast of Booths, he says, "...you shall rejoice in your feast, and the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful." He's after our joy, and he knows where joy is found. It's one reason he keeps drawing us near to himself. Not only does he want to be near us, but he wants us to be joyful.

In Psalm 1611, David says it like this, In his presence there is fullness of joy. And David was right. He's where the joy is.

We know lots of you are fans of The Chosen, so if that's you, we have great news. We have a sneak peek of Season 5, which premieres in theaters on March 28th. This scene depicts a tense moment among the religious leaders of Jesus' day. We'll link to the full clip in our show notes. We have a common problem. Jesus the Nazarene operates entirely outside our jurisdiction. Dismissive of tradition and precedence.

He pushes the people's attitudes towards an uncharted realm of thought, alien to both our interpretations of Torah.

One of my favorite things to do is study the Bible with other people so we can share what God's teaching us in His Word, and that's exactly what DGroup is all about. If you've never heard of it, DGroup International is one of our partner ministries, and the D stands for discipleship. In DGroup, you can join a small group where you're all learning together as you dig into the Bible, memorize scripture, share prayer requests, and serve together. We meet in person or online, we start new studies every six weeks, and we'd love to have you join us as we launch our next session.

If there aren't any dGroups near you or if they're all full, consider starting one. Everything you need to know is at mydgroup.org or click the link in the show notes.