Sat.’s Devo - A Sure Foundation

Read: Deuteronomy 13:1-15:23; Luke 8:40-9:6; Psalm 71:1-24; Proverbs 12:5-7
God uses false prophets to try our hearts to see if we will believe their lies. The proof is not in their story or their miracle but in if it lines up with God’s Word. God told them to put that man to death. If that person is someone who is related to us by blood, then we are the first to put our hands on him and then the congregation would join us in putting him to death by stoning him.
Since we don’t live in the dispensation of the law but of grace, putting someone to death by stoning would mean that we bring him to the Word - the stone, and we show him the error of his teaching. If he repents then we have put him to death to his old belief. If he refuses to repent, then we put him out of the church and warn others of his false religion.
If a town is infected by a false religion, it is to bring all the vessels used in that religion to the center of the town and burn them. The whole town is to be burnt. So if a whole church has been built around a false religion, it is to be completely burned to the ground because its foundation was built on something other than Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.
When it tells what you can eat, it explains what is false and what is true doctrine. What we believe is what we consume so our food is our doctrine. They could eat any animal that had a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud. We are to eat the Word of God that is rightly divided and its foundation is even, not lob-sided in one teaching. Chewing the cud means that the Word of God is meditated on and comes up when needed. If we put the Word of God in our hearts it will guide us when we need it. That would be chewing the cud.
They could eat fish that had fins and scales. Fins allow the fish to swim upright and steady and stay in the right direction. Scales cover their hidden flesh. We are to walk upright and circumspectly, directed by the wisdom of the Word and the Holy Spirit. The blood of Jesus and our faith is our scales that shield us from sin and protect us from the firey darts of the enemy.
The first born of their animals and the first tenth of their fields was to be set aside to the Lord. God was to get our first and best because he gave us his first born and his best. Every three years the tithes were to go to pay the Levites for their service of teaching and all their service to the Lord on behalf of the nation.
At the end of every seven years, the slaves get to go free and all debts were cancelled. At the end of our lives we will no longer be a slave to sin or this world. All our debts in this life will be over. This happens spiritually when we become a Christian.
In Luke, Jesus made a point to recognize the woman who had been healed of her hemorrhaging. He was healing more than her body; he was healing her soul. She had been an outcast for twelve years and not able to enter the synagogue or walk down the street without yelling that she was “unclean”. She had come incognito to see Jesus and Jesus wanted to announce publicly that she was clean. Jesus wanted to take her shame away.
Lord, thank you that you not only save us but you take the shame of our past away. You pronounce us “Clean!”