Read: Deuteronomy 13:1-15:23; Luke 8:40-9:6; Psalm 71:1-24: Proverb 12:5-7
God warned his children of false prophets who performed miracles. They were a test to see if the people loved the Lord with all their hearts. If anyone, even someone one in their own house tried to persuade them to worship other gods, they were to report them and have them stoned. They, themselves were to throw the first stone.
What do both of these things mean to us now? There are many people in the world with the ability to do miracles who don’t claim Jesus. We can’t use their miracles as signs that they are true. We have to look at the source. If the source is wrong and doesn’t come through Jesus, then we are to speak out against it. Stoning has to do with throwing words at a target. If someone who is close to us is being deceived it is up to us to go to them and teach them the truth. What they do to that truth is up to them. Hopefully the stone or Word we give them will kill their false thoughts.
They were not to cut themselves or shave the front of their heads for the dead. It was a common practice of idolaters, in their worship and at funerals, to make incisions on their faces and other parts of their bodies with their finger nails or sharp instruments. (We see that in 1 Kings 18:28 with the worshippers of Baal.) They also made a large bare space between their eyebrows (Jeremiah 16:6). These degrading practices of hopeless sorrow were not to be practiced by God’s people. We are not to be those who mourn without hope. We know that we will one day see our loved one and that they are in a much better place.
In the things God told them not to eat, there were sanitary, dietary, and spiritual reasons.
God took careful attention to the Levite and the poor. Neither were to be neglected, but those that had were to give to those who had need. Servants and slaves were to be released during the year of jubilee. If they chose to stay the master would take an awl and pierce the servants ear into the door and he would be his for life. This is a picture of the cross. The door is Jesus, and this man is being pierced to Jesus making him a part of the family.
In Luke, we have a 12 year old who is dying and a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. Twelve stands for government and these two women stand for the picture of the spiritual condition of Israel. They were bleeding and dying with no hope. The young girl died and Jesus resurrected her just as the old government had to die and be resurrected in the power of God. Jesus healed both of them showing that salvation had come to their nation to heal and restore. Jesus then called the 12 together and gave them authority to drive out all demons and cure diseases and sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. This was the picture of the government Jesus was bringing.
Lord, increase our discernment of right and wrong and increase our compassion for the poor and the ministers of God. Lord, bring in your government of the kingdom.
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