DEUTERONOMY

The fifth book of Moses

The Greek title “Deuteronomy” literally translates to mean “Second Law”. This title was derived from a mistranslation in the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Covenant) of Deuteronomy 17:18;

DEUTERONOMY 17:18

18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.

The proper translation is in the Jewish Publication Society and the King James Version says, “...that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book.”; and in the New King James Version which says, “...that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book....”

This book contains, not a Second Law, but a repetition and expansion of the laws in the previous four books that make up the Pentateuch (The Torah or The Five Books of Moses).

The Jewish Bible refers to this book by the third and fourth words of the Hebrew text “D’varim” or “Devarim” which means “The Words”.

Chapter Summary of the Book of Deuteronomy

Chapter 1 - Moses reviews Israel's history from Sinai to the present time

Chapter 2 - Moses reminds Israel of their defeat of Amorite king Sihon

Chapter 3 - Reminder of Israel's defeat of Og, King of Bashan, east of the Jordan river

Chapter 4 - Moses commands Israel to remember God's laws and works

Chapter 5 - Moses reiterates the Ten Commandments

Chapter 6 - Moses commands Israel to remember to follow God's laws in Canaan

Chapter 7 - Israel is to completely destroy Canaanites, make no covenants with them

Chapter 8 - Israel is to remember God's care for them in the wilderness for 40 years

Chapter 9 - Reminder of God's promise to Abram, reminder of the golden calf incident

Chapter 10 - Reminder of the separation of the Levites for the priesthood

Chapter 11 - Reminder of destruction of Korah, God's curse on previous faithless generation

Chapter 12 - Destroy all Canaanite places of worship, sacrifice only where God sets His name

Chapter 13 - Recognizing false prophets; serve no other gods in Canaan

Chapter 14 - Do not eat unclean animals, list of unclean animals, law of tithes

Chapter 15 - Release of debts after 7 years; help the poor; law of Hebrew servants

Chapter 16 - Laws of feasts of Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles; laws concerning Judges

Chapter 17 - two to three witnesses required for capital trials; hard judgment cases, law of kings

Chapter 18 - Laws of Levites' portions, witches to be killed; prophet like Moses to come

Chapter 19 - Cities of refuge established; laws of accidental manslaughter, false witnesses

Chapter 20 - Laws of battles and sieges; destroy all Canaanites completely

Chapter 21 - Law of unseen murder; captive women; firstborn inheritance; rebellious children

Chapter 22 - Lost and found items; social behavior; rape and incest; tassels on clothing

Chapter 23 - Emasculated or bastards cannot enter the tabernacle; laws of harlotry; vows

Chapter 24 - Divorce; pledges; kidnapping; leprosy; lending; servants; gleaning of fields

Chapter 25 - Punishment of wicked; childless widows; honesty in business, destroy Amalek

Chapter 26 - Laws of tithes and first fruits of the Land

Chapter 27 - Blessings recited mount Gerizim, curses on mount Ebal

Chapter 28 - List of blessings for following the Law; list of curses for disobedience

Chapter 29 - Moses reviews Israel's history since leaving Egypt

Chapter 30 - Warnings of future disobedience and consequences of future disobedience

Chapter 31 - Moses exhorts Israel; appoints Joshua to be his successor; prepares to die

Chapter 32 - Song of Moses

Chapter 33 - Moses blesses and prophesies over each of the 12 tribes individually

Chapter 34 - Moses sees Canaan, dies on Mount Nebo; Joshua takes command of Israel

DEUTERONOMY 1:1-4

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

3 Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him as commandments to them,

4 after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

At this time Moses was the only one left to die from the cursed generation that had died in the wilderness, never to live in the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb were also alive from that generation, but God had made them the exceptions because of their faith in Him.

Note that Israel was at the Jordan River at the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their wandering. One month was left of the full forty years that the Lord had given for the previous generation to die out. Only Moses was now left.

DEUTERONOMY 1:5-15

5 On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying,

6 "The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: 'You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.

7 'Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.

8 'See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give to them and their descendants after them.'

9 "And I spoke to you at that time, saying: 'I alone am not able to bear you.

10 'The LORD your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.

11 'May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!

12 'How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?

13 'Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.'

14 "And you answered me and said, 'The thing which you have told us to do is good.'

15 "So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

Moses tells the new generation the history of their parents’ journeys and the laws received from God. He starts by telling them how to set up a justice system so that one person doesn't have to bear the problems of millions of people. This also speeds up the justice system by having many leaders, each answering to someone higher which discourages injustice, essentially forming a "chain of command".

DEUTERONOMY 1:16-18

16 "Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, 'Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.

17 'You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.'

18 "And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

The judges appointed were to be fair, with equal justice for the rich and poor, the brother and foreigner.

DEUTERONOMY 1:19-46

19 "So we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the LORD our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea.

20 "And I said to you, 'You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us.

21 'Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.'

22 "And every one of you came near to me and said, 'Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.'

23 "The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.

24 "And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

25 "They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, 'It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.'

26 "Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;

27 "and you complained in your tents, and said, 'Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

28 'Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."'

29 "Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, or afraid of them.

30 'The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

31 'and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.'

32 "Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

33 "who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

34 "And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying,

35 'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,

36 'except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the LORD.'

37 "The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, 'Even you shall not go in there.

38 'Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

39 'Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

40 'But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.'

41 "Then you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

42 "And the LORD said to me, 'Tell them, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies."'

43 "So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the LORD, and presumptuously went up into the mountain.

44 "And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah.

45 "Then you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

46 "So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

Moses tells why the previous adult generation was not allowed into the Promised Land. This is also a warning to this generation about to conquer Canaan, that disobeying God or lack of faith in Him has huge consequences. These people had to grow up wandering the wilderness for 40 years because of their parents lack of faith and disobedience.

DEUTERONOMY 2:1-6

1 "Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.

2 "And the LORD spoke to me, saying:

3 'You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward.

4 'And command the people, saying, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully.

5 "Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.

6 "You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

The land given to Esau (the area around and including Mount Seir), they were to travel through, but not cause any trouble for the people of this land. The Israelites were to pay for their own food and water, with the treasures from Egypt and that which they had taken from the Amorites in battle.

DEUTERONOMY 2:7-12

7 "For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing."'

8 "And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab.

9 "Then the LORD said to me, 'Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.'"

10 (The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.

11 They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

12 The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the LORD gave them.)

Just as with the descendants of Jacob's brother Esau, they were to pass by the Moabites, the descendants of Abraham's nephew Lot without interacting with them.

Anakim - The peoples descended from Anak the "giant". These people were usually between 9-10 feet tall, and powerfully built. Emim the name the Moabites used for the race of giants which were similar to the Anakim peoples.

DEUTERONOMY 2:13-15

13 "'Now rise and cross over the Valley of the Zered.' So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered.

14 "And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the LORD had sworn to them.

15 "For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed.

Once all of the generation that was cursed by God had died (except Moses, Joshua, and Caleb), He began to lead them toward the promised land.

DEUTERONOMY 2:16-23

16 "So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people,

17 "that the LORD spoke to me, saying:

18 'This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab.

19 'And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.'"

20 (That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,

21 a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the LORD destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place,

22 just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day.

23 And the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)

Moses tells Israel not to be afraid of the giants, for the Ammonites, descendants of Lot's son Ammon had defeated and destroyed the giants whom they called "Zamzums".

The descendants of Esau had done the same with the giant Horites and the Philistines had done the same with the giant Avim along the coast of Canaan down to Gaza.

(Note: the Philistines were called Caphtorim - descendants of the Minoans who fled from Crete (Caphtor) after the eruption of the island volcano Thera (Greek: Fear) in the Aegean sea in 1546 B.C. which generated the legends of Atlantis).

DEUTERONOMY 2:24-37

24 "'Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle.

25 'This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.'

26 "And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying,

27 'Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left.

28 'You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot,

29 'just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD our God is giving us.'

30 "But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.

31 "And the LORD said to me, 'See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.'

32 "Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz.

33 "And the LORD our God delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people.

34 "We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining.

35 "We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took.

36 "From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the LORD our God delivered all to us.

37 "Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon anywhere along the river Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or wherever the LORD our God had forbidden us.

This was the first of many battles for the Israelites. They were not in the Promised Land yet, but they needed to learn to fight and obey God's directions if they were to possess the land of Canaan.

Notice that they killed everyone, to keep Israel from learning about and getting involved in the worship of their idols and other gods. God was using this as a training ground for them.

DEUTERONOMY 3:1-11

1 "Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

2 "And the LORD said to me, 'Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.'

3 "So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining.

4 "And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

5 "All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns.

6 "And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

7 "But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.

8 "And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon

9 "(the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir),

10 "all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

11 "For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.

This shows the magnitude of the kingdom of Bashan which Israel defeated, in that it had sixty heavily-fortified cities and their surrounding towns. King Og was the last of the giants remaining in Bashan. His bed was 13 feet 6 inches long and 6 feet wide!

Considering that most beds have a foot to spare on each end, Og must have stood 11.5 feet high and was probably 4 to 4.5 feet wide, assuming that the rest of the width was for his wife. It literally required an iron bedstead to carry his weight, which would probably have been 300-350 pounds at a conservative estimate.

DEUTERONOMY 3:12-20

12 "And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites.

13 "The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants.

14 "Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth Jair, to this day.)

15 "Also I gave Gilead to Machir.

16 "And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, the border of the people of Ammon;

17 "the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.

18 "Then I commanded you at that time, saying: 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel.

19 'But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you,

20 'until the LORD has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.'

Moses had given (at their request) the conquered land east of the Jordan river to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and to half the tribe of Manasseh from the eastern shore of Chinnereth (Kinnereth, the Sea of Galilee) down to the Dead Sea, all of the land of the Amorites. (The Ammonites lived east of the Amorites and the Moabites lived to the south of the Amorites along the Jordan valley.)

But the men of these tribes had to go with the rest of the Israelites over the Jordan river into Canaan. They couldn't go back home to their wives and children until every tribe possessed their new lands.

DEUTERONOMY 3:21-22

21 "And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, 'Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so will the LORD do to all the kingdoms through which you pass.

22 'You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you.'

Moses told Joshua to walk with the Lord and listen to Him, to walk by faith not by sight, because nothing is impossible for God. People tend to try to place limits on God's abilities to match their own limitations or perceptions, but God has no limits to what He can do.

DEUTERONOMY 3:23-29

23 "Then I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying:

24 'O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what God is there in heaven or on Earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?

25 'I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.'

26 "But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: 'Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter.

27 'Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.

28 'But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.'

29 "So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses pleaded with God to go into the Promised Land, but God said no. He did allow Moses to look at the land, but not to enter into it because of his rebellion in the wilderness.

God then appointed Joshua as the new leader of Israel, and it was he who was to lead the Israelites into the new land God was giving to them.

Pisgah - “Fortress”

DEUTERONOMY 4:1-11

1 "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.

2 "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

3 "Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.

4 "But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you.

5 "Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

6 "Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

7 "For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?

8 "And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

9 "Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,

10 "especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'

11 "Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

Moses is warning them to remember all they have learned, especially the harsh judgements against those that didn't follow the commandments and statutes of the laws. They are to teach all of these things to their children, generation after generation. Moses also stresses that they be diligent to remember these things, as sin can so easily draw us away from God and His commandments. We expect our children to remember and obey our commands to them. God expects the same from us.

We are also not to add or detract anything from God's Word that He has spoken or written! If we do so, we consider ourselves to be equal with Him, and He will surely pour out His fury on anyone who does so!

DEUTERONOMY 4:12-23

12 "And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.

13 "So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

14 "And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

15 "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16 "lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,

17 "the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

18 "the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

19 "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.

20 "But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.

21 "Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

22 "But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land.

23 "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

I often wonder how the Roman Catholic Church can preach from God's Word each day, while their carved, graven images and paintings of Jesus, Mary, the "saints" and others stare down at them from high places within the churches in which they preach.

How can they ignore these commandments concerning idols? This very willful violation of God's commandments marks Roman Catholicism as a man-made religion, one which violates God's laws in many, many areas. And those who follow their doctrines are guilty of these same violations and will be condemned by God at their Judgment, for they have known the truth and have turned from it.

If they say they didn't know because they didn't read about the commandment, then they will be condemned for not reading God's Word to see what was expected of them. We cannot merely rely on ministers and pastors to teach us God's Word, we need to read it ourselves and see what He requires of us.

DEUTERONOMY 4:24-40

24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 "When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

26 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 "And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

28 "And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29 "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

30 "When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice

31 "(for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

32 "For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.

33 "Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

34 "Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 "To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.

36 "Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

37 "And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,

38 "driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

40 "You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

Israel has for thousands of years tried to assimilate themselves in the nations where God had scattered them, seeking to be no different than the nations around them. Many out of fear for their lives have tried to hide their Jewish heritage.

But as Moses stated, God chose Israel to be His people, and He will not allow them to mingle with the other nations and disappear. Countless times throughout history persecutions have risen against them, reminding them of their heritage as Jews. The problem is, they blame the Gentiles for the persecutions they have suffered, apparently ignoring or not remembering these curses that Moses warned them would befall them if they fell away from God.

Even today they have again been gathered in the Land of Israel after 1878 years of exile and suffer constant attacks from the Arabs because of their unbelief. They rely on the United States to mediate for them, and rely on their military rather than rely on God who could and would sweep away their enemies before them. And so their persecutions will continue, even within their own land, until they open their eyes and understand and acknowledge the truth.

DEUTERONOMY 4:41-49

41 Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

44 Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel.

45 These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,

46 on this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel defeated after they came out of Egypt.

47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

48 from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon),

49 and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.

Moses sets apart 3 cities of refuge on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

DEUTERONOMY 5:1-6

1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.

2 "The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3 "The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.

4 "The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.

5 "I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

6 'I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Moses begins to reiterate God's laws to Israel so they would remember them after crossing the Jordan river into the Promised Land. They had heard with their own ears and seen with their own eyes the Lord God speaking before them. Moses tells them not to forget this!

DEUTERONOMY 5:7-10

7 'You shall have no other gods before Me.

8 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

The Lord God is the only God that is to be worshiped. We are not to have, bow down, worship or serve any kind of visible image representative of God or any other deity. God will curse those who worship idols to the third and fourth generation as a lesson for all who see.

If anyone who has done these things, turns away from them, turns their worship completely to God alone, keeps His commandments and loves the Lord God, He will have mercy on them and will forgive their sin.

DEUTERONOMY 5:11

11 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Do not use God's name as a curse or ask God to curse (damn) someone. This is considered blasphemy, a sin that God takes seriously.

DEUTERONOMY 5:12-15

12 'Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.

13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Everyone needs a day of rest every week to stay physically and mentally healthy. This also gives us at least one day each week to set aside as a day to honor God during our sometimes overly busy lives. It doesn't have to be Saturday or Sunday, it can be any day of the week as long as we set it aside as a day of rest.

DEUTERONOMY 5:16

16 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

Respect and honor your parents, including "step" and adoptive parents. If you cannot respect your Earthly parents, how can you respect God the Father? This is the first commandment with a promise attached. If you follow this commandment you will live a long life.

DEUTERONOMY 5:17

17 'You shall not murder.

The Hebrew word for murder is ratsach which means: to dash to pieces; to kill; to murder. This doesn't mean that capital punishment is wrong, it means that you are not to commit murder.

Capital punishment for murder was set down by the Lord when He said;

GENESIS 9:6

6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.

DEUTERONOMY 5:18

18 'You shall not commit adultery.

Don't commit adultery. Jesus later raised the standard for this, when He said.....

MATTHEW 5:27-28

27 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.'

28 "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

DEUTERONOMY 5:19

19 'You shall not steal.

This includes all forms of dishonesty also, such as cheating, scamming, taking advantage of anyone, cheating on taxes or school work, etc.

DEUTERONOMY 5:20

20 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Do not lie or perjure yourself. Do not lie to get yourself out of trouble or to get someone into trouble. Always tell the truth!!!

DEUTERONOMY 5:21

21 'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.'

Don't be envious of what anyone else has, such as material goods, spiritual gifts, physical looks, etc. If you are envious of anything someone else has you are telling God in essence that what He has given you isn't good enough. Remember God only gives us the best and what He knows we can handle.

DEUTERONOMY 5:22-33

22 "These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

23 "So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.

24 "And you said: 'Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.

25 'Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die.

26 'For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27 'You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.'

28 "Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken.

29 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

30 'Go and say to them, "Return to your tents."

31 'But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.'

32 "Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

33 "You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

If they fear the Lord and obey all His commandments and statutes, the Israelites will live a long time in the new land, but if they fall away God will destroy them. They themselves bound themselves to be His people and to follow His ways. Therefore He would be just in punishing them if they fell away because they would have broken their word to Him.

The same is true today. If we seek the Lord and wish to be His children, then we bind ourselves to follow His commandments (the laws of the New Testament). As such, He will adopt us as His children and will be our spiritual Father and will guide us as to how we should live.

By the same token, just as an Earthly father will punish his children when they disobey his commandments, even so will our Heavenly Father punish us when we disobey to remind us of the consequences of sin. Earthly fathers discipline their children for their earthly benefit, but God the Father disciplines us for our eternal benefit.

DEUTERONOMY 6:1-3

1 "Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess,

2 "that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

3 "Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.'

If Israel fears the Lord and obeys all His commandments and statutes, the Israelites will live a long time in the new land, but if they fall away God in turn will destroy them and drive them from the land just as He would the nations whom Israel would conquer.

DEUTERONOMY 6:4-25

4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!

5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 "So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,

11 "houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant when you have eaten and are full

12 "then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

13 "You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.

14 "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you

15 "(for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and He destroy you from the face of the earth.

16 "You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah.

17 "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you.

18 "And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers,

19 "to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.

20 "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?'

21 "then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;

22 'and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household.

23 'Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.

24 'And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.

25 'Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.'

The Jewish people use verse 4 above to try to prove that the Christians worship three Gods, namely the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

The Canaanites had many gods that they worshiped. Usually each city had their own god or gods that they worshiped along with the major pagan gods such as Bel, Molech, Ba'al (Baal), Ashoreth, etc.

However, Israel worshiped only one God and Moses was telling Israel that their God was one God alone, not one god of many. Therefore there is no conflict here, for Jesus and the Holy Spirit are equal with the Father and all three are so closely in union that they are as one.

Moses warns Israel to not forget where they came from, and to be sure that in their later years they teach their children and grandchildren of all that God has done for them.

DEUTERONOMY 7:1-5

1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

2 "and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.

3 "Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

4 "For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

5 "But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

Israel is to destroy everyone and all their idols and altars. There were to be no peace treaties or compromises. Nor were they to intermarry with the Canaanites because they would turn the hearts of Israel away from the Lord to other gods. As we have seen previously, this had happened several times already.

DEUTERONOMY 7:6-11

6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

7 "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;

8 "but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 "Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10 "and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.

11 "Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Notice that Moses points out that God didn't choose the Israelites because they were the greatest, in order to keep their pride from causing them to sin. God chose Abraham because of his faithfulness, even before he was circumcised. Abraham's faithfulness was counted as righteousness by God, many years before he was circumcised. If you are faithful to the Lord, He will take care of you. However, if you are not faithful, He will destroy you!

DEUTERONOMY 7:12-16

12 "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.

13 "And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.

14 "You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

15 "And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

16 "Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

As we have seen, many of the laws set down by God were hygienic laws, in which if Israel followed them, there would be no sickness among them. "Enlightened Europe" didn't discover the benefits of cleanliness and hygienic habits until 3,000 years later!

If Israel followed God's commandments they would multiply and become mightier than the surrounding nations and would be an example to the rest of the world concerning the benefits of worshiping God and serving Him.

DEUTERONOMY 7:17-24

17 "If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'

18 "you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

19 "the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

20 "Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.

21 "You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.

22 "And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

23 "But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.

24 "And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

Israel is not to be afraid of the great stature and power of the inhabitants of Canaan. God Himself would fight with Israel and would guarantee the defeat of all peoples whom Israel was commanded to destroy. God also states that He will not sweep the Canaanites out at once, for if He did, wild beasts (such as lions, leopards and bears) would multiply in the wastelands and be a trouble to Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 7:25-26

25 "You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

26 "Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

This is interesting in that God states that even after burning the wooden idols, Israel is not to covet or take the gold or silver that adorns the idols. This is because the demons to whom the idols were dedicated would follow the silver and gold and become a trouble and snare to Israel.

God considers all graven images to be abominations in His sight, so any image that depicts a person in a religious manner as an object of devotion or worship is an abomination. This includes Catholic crucifixes for they depict Jesus on the cross. This also includes pictures of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, angels, "saints" and the like.

If you have any of these things in your house, get rid of them and ask God for forgiveness for your disobedience to His commandments concerning these things!

DEUTERONOMY 8:1-6

1 "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers.

2 "And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

4 "Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

5 "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.

6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

God will test us and chastise us when we don't do His will, but He always takes care of us. Israel's clothing and sandals didn't wear out in over 40 years of walking and living in the harsh desert and wilderness!!! (Remember, clothing was expensive and most people had only one set to their name) I wish we had that blessing today!

DEUTERONOMY 8:7-10

7 "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills;

8 "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

9 "a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

The Philistines already knew how to smelt and work iron and some of the Canaanites had iron chariots. Copper mines dug by Solomon have also been found, so this proves God's words to be true concerning the Land.

Moses promises that Canaan will be an abundant land, a land which will produce food and water plentifully. He also reminds Israel that they are to bless and thank the Lord who has given this land to them.

DEUTERONOMY 8:11-18

11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today,

12 "lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them;

13 "and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;

14 "when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

15 "who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock;

16 "who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end

17 "then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'

18 "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Moses tells them to remember their roots and where they came from. God took them out of Egypt and cared for their needs, even though they weren't always grateful. He is also telling the Israelites not to get too full of themselves, lest pride be their undoing.

DEUTERONOMY 8:19-20

19 "Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

20 "As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

If Israel turns their back on God, He will drive them out of the land He has given to them, just as He will drive out the Canaanites before them now.

DEUTERONOMY 9:1-6

1 "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven,

2 "a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?'

3 "Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.

4 "Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you.

5 "It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 "Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Moses pointedly tells Israel that they are not possessing the land because of their goodness, but because of the wickedness of the Canaanite nations dwelling there. God will many times use other nations to punish wicked ones (Babylon destroyed Assyria, the Persians destroyed Babylon, the Western Powers destroyed Japan and Germany, etc).

Remember, God had told Abraham concerning the Canaanites;

GENESIS 15:13-16

13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

14 "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

DEUTERONOMY 9:7-29

7 "Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

8 "Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.

9 "When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10 "Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11 "And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

12 "Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.'

13 "Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people.

14 'Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

15 "So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 "And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you.

17 "Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

18 "And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

19 "For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also.

20 "And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

21 "Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

22 "Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.

23 "Likewise, when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice.

24 "You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

25 "Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

26 "Therefore I prayed to the LORD, and said: 'O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 'Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,

28 'lest the land from which You brought us should say, "Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness."

29 'Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.'

Moses reiterates to them how close they came to being destroyed by God for their rebellions against Him, and as a reminder against future rebellions.

DEUTERONOMY 10:1-5

1 "At that time the LORD said to me, 'Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood.

2 'And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.'

3 "So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.

4 "And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the LORD had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me.

5 "Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the LORD commanded me."

Moses reminds them of the second set of stone tablets he placed in the Ark of the Covenant, with commandments written by God Himself.

DEUTERONOMY 10:6-22

6 (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead.

7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water.

8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day.

9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised him.)

10 "As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the LORD also heard me at that time, and the LORD chose not to destroy you.

11 "Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.'

12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13 "and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

14 "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it.

15 "The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

16 "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

17 "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.

18 "He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

19 "Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

20 "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.

21 "He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.

22 "Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

God blessed His chosen people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and Israel's descendants. The Lord only asks for you to walk in His ways and circumcise your heart (follow Him in your heart, not just going through the motions).

DEUTERONOMY 11:1-7

1 "Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.

2 "Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm

3 "His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;

4 "what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day;

5 "what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

6 "and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel

7 "but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did.

Moses is reminding them that they themselves saw the plagues of the Lord that He put on Egypt and how He destroyed the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Remember, only those who were 20 years old and up perished in the wilderness. (Except Joshua & Caleb)

NUMBERS 14:26-35

26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

27 "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.

28 "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:

29 'The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.

30 'Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.

31 'But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.

32 'But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

33 'And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.

34 'According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.

35 'I the LORD have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.'

There were children in the congregation who had seen the miracles of the Lord that were under the age of 20 years who would be witness to what had happened and would pass this information to their children. That is why Moses said he was not speaking to the children who had not seen the miracles of the Lord, but to those who still lived who remembered what had happened.

DEUTERONOMY 11:8-15

8 "Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess,

9 "and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'

10 "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;

11 "but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven,

12 "a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

13 'And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14 'then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

15 'And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.'

This land will be like nothing they have ever seen. In Egypt it didn't rain often and there wasn't always an abundance of water. To water their gardens they would drag their heel in the ground to create furrows for the water from the Nile to run into the gardens (like very small irrigation ditches). Unlike Egypt, God will make plenty of grass for the animals, rain for the crops, animals and people. If they obey the Lord, He will care for them.

Climatologists have determined that the land of Canaan was lush in ancient times with abundant wooded areas and fertile grasslands. But due to mismanagement of the land and neglect (especially after the Roman destruction of Judea in 70 A.D.), the area quickly became wasteland.

Since the Jewish people returned though, the Land is again becoming abundant and fruitful, although it will take many years of hard work to restore it to what it was in ancient times.

DEUTERONOMY 11:16-17

16 "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them,

17 "lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

This is exactly what happened to the Land after the Jewish people were driven from it by the Romans. The climate changed and vast areas became wasteland that were once fertile.

According to the Bible, during the time of the prophet Elijah there was a 3.5 year drought across the land because of the sins of the 10 tribes of the Northen Kingdom of Israel and Ahab, it's king.

DEUTERONOMY 11:18-25

18 "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 "You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

20 "And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

21 "that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

22 "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him

23 "then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

24 "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.

25 "No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

If you obey and follow God, nothing will stand in your way that God can't remove. It's very important to teach our children the Bible and about the Lord, as God will hold the parents responsible for this.

The Jewish people literally place the Word of God on their foreheads and the back of their hands in small wooden boxes called "phylacteries". These phylacteries contain small squares of lamb skin with Scripture written on them, and the Orthodox Jews (and male children going through their "Bar Mitzvah" (coming of age ceremony) wear them during special rituals. Many also have small boxes (called "mazuzahs") attached to their doorposts and gates with Scripture in them, and the Jews are required to put their hand on the box and pray when entering a home.

Jesus never condemned this practice, but He did condemn the hypocrisy of those who wore them. The Jews (especially the Pharisees (Hebrew "Parushim, "pure ones") of His time wore them to show men how holy they were, but Jesus knew their hearts.

MATTHEW 23:1-7

1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,

2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.

3 "Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.

4 "For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 "But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

6 "They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

7 "greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'

Jesus condemned them for following the letter of the Law, rather than the spirit of the Law. The difference? Parts of the Law were to be followed literally, such as the hygienic laws concerning which foods were clean and unclean and the touching of things that were unclean, etc.

Other parts of the Law were symbolic, such as the command to have the Law as "frontlets" between the eyes and binding them on the arm. Moses was telling them to keep the commandments of the Law foremost in their minds and to be as familiar with them as they were with their right hand.

The Pharisees tried to show their holiness before men, demonstrating outwardly that they followed the precepts of the Law, to gain the respect and honor they coveted from the people.

But Jesus roundly condemned them for not following the spirit of the Law when He said;

MATTHEW 23:27-28

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

He also condemned their corrupt teachings when He said;

MATTHEW 23:16-23

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’

17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’

19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.

21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.

22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

DEUTERONOMY 11:26-32

26 "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

27 "the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today;

28 "and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

29 "Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30 "Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?

31 "For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it.

32 "And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

Moses lets them know there will be consequences to their actions. Whether good (if they obey and follow God) or bad (if they rebel and follow other gods).

DEUTERONOMY 12:1-3

1 "These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.

2 "You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

3 "And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.

Israel is to completely destroy any Canaanite place of worship wherever it is found. This was to prevent any demons from having any claim to any part of the land of Canaan.

DEUTERONOMY 12:4-9

4 "You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things.

5 "But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.

6 "There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7 "And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

8 "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes

9 "for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you.

Israel is to worship the Lord God alone, in the place where He chooses, and they are to follow His commandments, and no longer do what was right in their own eyes. They were now responsible to God to follow His commandments that He gave them.

DEUTERONOMY 12:10-14

10 "But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,

11 "then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD.

12 "And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

13 "Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

14 "but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

God will designate where His sacrifices and offerings are to be made, and they are to offer their sacrifices there only, not on top of every hill and high place as did the Canaanites. By having all of Israel sacrifice and hold their feasts at the same location it would put a strong check against any sort of heresy in their worship practices.

DEUTERONOMY 12:15-16

15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.

16 "Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

Meat that is not designated as an offering or sacrifice for the Lord may be eaten in their homes and cities.

DEUTERONOMY 12:17-18

17 "You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand.

18 "But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.

All sacrifices and offerings were to be given to the Lord and eaten in His presence at the location He would choose to place His name. That way they could honor the Lord in their feasts and eating of sacrifices, and give thanks to Him for the abundant blessings He would provide. Again, this would prevent heresy and idolatry from creeping into their worship.

Most of the people were more than likely illiterate, and therefore needed someone to read the Law to them. In all places where they dwelt, there were more than likely few literate people, and only the priests were qualified to instruct the people in the Law.

If the people sacrificed in all the areas where they dwelt and there was no one qualified to teach the Law to them, they would quickly fall away and do what they felt was right and would quickly fall into error. This happens even today when we don't spend enough time reading the Bible. Satan quickly begins drawing us away from God's commandments, and we end up sinning against Him.

DEUTERONOMY 12:19

19 "Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

Even though the Levites don't have a land inheritance, the Israelites are still to remember that they are chosen by God to do His work and serve Him. They are due the respect and honor of their position, and are to be fed from the sacrifices that Israel would make to God.

DEUTERONOMY 12:20-25

20 "When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, 'Let me eat meat,' because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.

21 "If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.

22 "Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them.

23 "Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat.

24 "You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

25 "You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

Eating blood was like eating the life of the animal in the sight of God. We know today that there are many blood-borne diseases, and eating of blood can cause humans to contract disease. Some of these bacteria and viruses can mutate and can cross over from animals to humans (swine flu, bird flu for examples) resulting in new plagues that the human body is not equipped to fight.

DEUTERONOMY 12:26-27

26 "Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses.

27 "And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.

We need to remember that the sacrifices were symbolic and would point to the future sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose blood alone could atone for sin. Therefore He was sacrificed in the place where God chose to put His name, and therefore the symbolic animal sacrifices were to be offered there also.

DEUTERONOMY 12:28-32

28 "Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

29 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,

30 "take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'

31 "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

The Canaanites burned their firstborn sons and daughters to Molech, casting them alive into fire as a sacrifice to the demon god. Archaeologists have been stunned and horrified by the drawings and carvings of some of the religious practices of the Canaanites that have been excavated, and fully understand why God chose to destroy them.

DEUTERONOMY 13:1-5

1 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

2 "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' which you have not known' and let us serve them,'

3 "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 "You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

If anyone prophesies or has a vision that comes to pass and tells the Israelites to turn away from God to worship other gods, he is to be killed! No prophet of God will ever bring honor and glory to anyone except the Lord God.

Unfortunately today people are so spiritually hungry and so desperate to see proof of God's power that they will accept false miracles and signs that clearly are not from God. There have been reported cases of people growling and barking like dogs and even jumping around like frogs and it was proclaimed by preachers and pastors that these people had the Holy Spirit within them!

This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the only sin that will never be forgiven. Anyone who attributes the work of Satan as being the power of God, or who attributes the power of the Holy Spirit as being the work of Satan is guilty of this eternal sin.

As Jesus warned;

MATTHEW 12:31-32

31 "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

32 "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

For those who wish to know more about this issue, please see the study concerning blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in this site

DEUTERONOMY 13:6-11

6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers,

7 "of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth,

8 "you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him;

9 "but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.

10 "And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

11 "So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

Even if a family member or very close friend tries to persuade you to leave God for any other gods, they must be killed to keep their evil from spreading like cancer. While many people abhor capital punishment, God Himself says this is to be used as a method of punishment to keep others from following their wicked ways.

DEUTERONOMY 13:12-18

12 "If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell in, saying,

13 'Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods"' which you have not known

14 "then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you,

15 "you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword.

16 "And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.

17 "So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers,

18 "because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

If a city begins to serve other gods and word comes to you, the entire city and everything in it must be destroyed including its inhabitants and the livestock. Demons are very legalistic, and if anyone is left alive or anything remains that has been dedicated to them, they will demand permission to remain. It is possible for demons to dwell within animals, so they were to be destroyed also.

The city is never to be rebuilt, but is to be left in ruins as a curse and reminder to stay on guard against this evil. And once the city is burnt with everything in it, and its inhabitants and animals destroyed, the area is cleansed of evil and Satan and his demons no longer have a right to remain in the area.

DEUTERONOMY 14:1-2

1 "You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.

2 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

The cutting of the skin and shaving of the front of the head was a common Canaanite mourning practice.

DEUTERONOMY 14:3-8

3 "You shall not eat any detestable thing.

4 "These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

5 "the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

6 "And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals.

7 "Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you.

8 "Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses.

An animal is unclean if doesn't have either a split hoof or doesn't chew the cud. Camels, rock hyrax (coney or rabbit), hares (wild rabbits) and swine (pigs and boars) are all unclean animals. Israel is not to eat or even touch an unclean animal. This includes anything made from these animals, such as clothing, utensils, leather, fur, etc.

DEUTERONOMY 14:9-10

9 "These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales.

10 "And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

Only seafood with fins and scales are clean and can be eaten. The sea life that doesn't have both fins and scales are unclean and can't be eaten or touched. This would protect against things like red tide (a deadly one-celled organism which infects crustaceans, etc. These organisms give the water a reddish hue when they abound).

All crustaceans (clams, oysters, crabs, shrimp, mussels), and fish without scales such as sharks, whales, eels, turtles, octopus, and squid were unclean. This includes anything made from these unclean forms of sea life.

DEUTERONOMY 14:11-20

11 "All clean birds you may eat.

12 "But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard,

13 "the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds;

14 "every raven after its kind;

15 "the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds;

16 "the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl,

17 "the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl,

18 "the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat.

19 "Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

20 "You may eat all clean birds.

The unclean birds are the:

Eagles 

Vultures (Ossifrage) 

Buzzards 

Kites (Night Hawks)

Falcons 

Ravens 

Ostriches 

Owls

Sea Gulls 

Hawk 

Jackdaw 

Vulture

Stork 

Heron 

Hoopoe (Lap wing) 

Bat

Note that all are carrion or scavengers birds. They ate dead animals, mice, mosquitoes and other unclean things. They can carry diseases that they may be immune to, but can sicken or be deadly to humans.

DEUTERONOMY 14:21

21 "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

If the animal isn't slaughtered, the Israelites can't eat it. They can give or sell it to any foreigners living with them or passing through the area.

Don't boil a baby goat in its mothers milk. This is why some Jews, especially Orthodox Jews don't mix dairy products and meat, because they don't know for sure that the dairy product didn't come from a mother goat and the meat from her kid. Boiling a kid in its mother's milk was part of a Canaanite ritual for one of their gods, and the Israelites were not supposed to partake of these things.

Boiling a kid in its mothers's milk refers to the ritual used in the worship of a Canaanite god of Fertility and Prosperity. Worship of this god began about 300 years before the Israelites left Egypt and lasted for about 100 years after the Israelites entered the land of Canaan. The ritual was done on the first day after the first full moon in the spring (the day of Passover). This ritual was only done once a year. This is the time of year when sheep and goats have their young. Goats were very abundant in all villages.

All males of each village who have turned 16 years of age during the previous year participates. Each one would kneel before the altar of this god and pray for him to bless them.

Then the village priest would slaughter a new born kid (baby goat) on the altar of this god. Then he would cut the kid into pieces and boil them in a pot with its mother's milk (because the mother would be full of milk having just given birth and water was scarce). Each male participant was given a piece of this meat to eat, then the priest would take some of the blood off the altar and swipe their foreheads with it.

All the girls who have turned 12 years of age during the past year and all girls over 12 years of age that are not married would line up in a straight line. Each male who had participated in this ritual on that day would walk down the line of girls and choose a wife. The girls had no say in the matter, neither did their families. Then the priest would pray for the god to bless each of the marriages with much prosperity and many children.

Remember the Lord told the Israelites.............

LEVITICUS 18:3

3 'According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.

DEUTERONOMY 12:29-31

29 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,

30 "take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'

31 "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

DEUTERONOMY 14:22-26

22 "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.

23 "And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

24 "But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you,

25 "then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

26 "And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

If your tithe is too much for you or too far for you to take to the place of God's altar, then you may exchange it for money. Take the money to the place God has chosen and buy animals, wine or grain to offer before the Lord in place of your tithe that you sold at home.

DEUTERONOMY 14:27-29

27 "You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

28 "At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates.

29 "And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Every three years the tithe is stored in the cities for the Levites, widows and the fatherless to use. This is part of taking care of the Levites and poor.

DEUTERONOMY 15:1-5

1 "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.

2 "And this is the form of the release: every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.

3 "Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother,

4 "except when there may be no poor among you; for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance

5 "only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today.

Every seven years all debts from one Israelite to another are canceled! This would help the poor to get out of poverty and would ensure that nothing given for collateral would remain with the lender for good. I wish we had such laws today!

This law would also be for the foreigner who worshiped God as did Israel, for they were to be treated as if they were one with Israel. The law would not be for those outside the commonwealth of Israel itself, or those foreigners who dwelt in the Land but did not worship God, for example the Philistines.

DEUTERONOMY 15:6

6 "For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

If Israel would diligently follow God, they would not need to borrow from any foreigner, but would in turn lend to them. As we will see in later books, a number of times unbelieving kings (and even some believing kings) sent large sums of money to foreign rulers to get them to stop attacking Israel or to hire them to attack other nations. In several cases, they even stripped the gold from the Temple for this purpose. If they had followed the admonition above, this would never have happened.

DEUTERONOMY 15:7-11

7 "If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,

8 "but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

9 "Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the LORD against you, and it become sin among you.

10 "You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.

11 "For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.'

God anticipated the hearts of His people, in which if the seventh year was approaching, people would harden their hearts and not give the poor what they needed for their sustenance, knowing that when the seventh year arrived all debts would be forgiven.

God commands that Israel give to their poor brethren, as He is able to replace above and beyond what they give to their poor among them. The poor in turn would bless the giver and God would bless the giver also.

Some consider being poor a curse, but if you think about it, who is more dependant on God for what they need, the rich who can afford what they want, or the poor who rely on God's mercy for their daily bread? Who would bless Him more for providing for them?

DEUTERONOMY 15:12-18

12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

13 "And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;

14 "you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the LORD has blessed you with, you shall give to him.

15 "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.

16 "And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,

17 "then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.

18 "It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

It was a common practice for Israelites to sell themselves to a creditor if they could not repay their debts. In this they could work off the debt and the person to whom they had sold themselves would provide them with food and shelter. The creditor in turn was to treat the person as a hired servant, not as a slave, and when the time of their service was completed the creditor was to release them and freely provide a means of getting started again.

But if the servant wished to remain a servant in the house of the former creditor, he was to be taken before witnesses and express such before them. Then the master would take a leather punch and bore a hole through their ear (probably the earlobe) and they would remain a servant for the rest of their life.

DEUTERONOMY 15:19-23

19 "All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall sanctify to the LORD your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

20 "You and your household shall eat it before the LORD your God year by year in the place which the LORD chooses.

21 "But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

22 "You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer.

23 "Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

If the firstborn animal is perfect, you must bring it before the Lord to offer it and eat of it. If it is not perfect, you eat of it at home.

DEUTERONOMY 16:1-2

1 "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 "Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name.

Passover, a one day feast, is to be observed every year at the same time, in the place of God's choosing. Note that Passover is no longer to be held in their homes.

DEUTERONOMY 16:3-8

3 "You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

4 "And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

5 "You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you;

6 "but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.

7 "And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.

8 "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to be a six day feast, beginning the day after Passover, and is to be celebrated where God chooses to put His name.

DEUTERONOMY 16:9-12

9 "You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.

10 "Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.

11 "You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.

12 "And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

Fifty days after the end of the feast of Unleavened Bread is the day of Pentecost, which is also the start of the Feast of Weeks. When the first barley grain offerings were made.

DEUTERONOMY 16:13-15

13 "You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.

14 "And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.

15 "Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

The fifteenth day of Tishri (mid-September to mid-October) begins the seven day feast in which the Israelites are to build to themselves "booths" and dwell in them, to commemorate the time when they lived in tents when wandering for 40 years.

This feast has 4 main functions:

1) To give thanks for the year's harvest.

2) To offer prayers for rain during the coming year.

3) To mark the end of the High Holy Days.

4) To remind the Israelites of living in tents during the Exodus from Egypt until their coming into the Promised Land.

Today, because it includes the ingathering feast, the booths are decorated with real or handmade fruits.

DEUTERONOMY 16:16-17

16 "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

17 "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.

These feasts were not to be taken casually! Three times each year every man in Israel was to appear before the Lord and keep the appointed Feasts of the Lord. They were required to bring offerings of thanksgiving to the Lord at those times

DEUTERONOMY 16:18-20

18 "You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

19 "You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

20 "You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

It was a common practice for matters of law to be heard and judged at the gates of a city, where all could observe justice in action. The elders and judges of the city would sit in the gates and administer wisdom and justice as needed and the people entering or leaving could be witness and learn from the wisdom of the judges and elders. Many times scholars would sit in the gates and debate subjects such as the tenets of the Law or other matters and the people could watch and listen to the debates.

The perversion of the justice system is the first sign that a nation is no longer serving God, and will be destroyed.

DEUTERONOMY 16:21-22

21 "You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God.

22 "You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

Sacred trees and groves were a symbol of a Canaanite goddess (Asherah) and God is again warning Israel to not follow their idolatrous practices.

DEUTERONOMY 17:1-5

1 "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

2 "If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant,

3 "who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded,

4 "and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,

5 "then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones.

If you are told of anyone worshiping other gods, investigate and if they are guilty they are to be killed. With knowledge comes responsibility, and it is up to the people to ensure that no deviation from God's laws are tolerated.

DEUTERONOMY 17:6-7

6 "Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

7 "The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

There must be at least 2-3 witnesses to testify against someone accused of a capital crime or they are to be set free. If found guilty, the witnesses must be the first to throw stones to kill the guilty party. This would also put the guilt of innocent blood on the head of the accuser(s), if they lied and the stoned person was innocent.

DEUTERONOMY 17:8-11

8 "If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses.

9 "And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.

10 "You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the LORD chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you.

11 "According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.

If the judges are unsure, they can go to the priests to inquire of God. What ever the decision of the priests, the sentence must be carried out by the people exactly according to the priests' judgment.

DEUTERONOMY 17:12-13

12 "Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.

13 "And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Anyone that doesn't follow the laws and statutes taught by the priests is to be put to death. The priest is speaking for the Lord, and is to be obeyed as such.

DEUTERONOMY 17:14-20

14 "When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,'

15 "you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

16 "But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.'

17 "Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.

19 "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,

20 "that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

God knew that Israel would ultimately reject Him as King over them and would seek a visible king to rule over them, just as they sought a visible god to be with them at Mount Sinai, resulting in the golden calf.

The chosen king was required to be from among the nation of Israel and could not be a foreigner.

He was also to:

1) write a copy of the Law exactly according to the original that was held by the priests;

2) read the laws daily and follow them all of the days of his life;

3) Fear the Lord God all of his days and be a just ruler and servant to his people

He was not to:

1) build his own armies or make any alliances with Egypt to get the horses for an army

2) have multiple wives

3) try to get rich for himself

4) put himself above the laws of God

Many people consider Solomon to be one of the greatest kings in history, but as we shall find out later, he violated many of these commandments and was considered by God to be an evil king and his disobedience caused Israel misery for hundreds of years after his death.

Remember, God is not mocked. If you willfully disobey His commandments there will be consequences to follow.

DEUTERONOMY 18:1-2

1 "The priests, the Levites all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and His portion.

2 "Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the LORD is their inheritance, as He said to them.

The Levites are God's servants and are not to inherit any land like the other tribes. They are also to be provided with food from the sacrifices of Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 18:3-5

3 "And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach.

4 "The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.

5 "For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons forever.

Because they didn't have land to grow food or herd animals for themselves, the people of the land were to provide for the Levites. From the sacrifices, they were allowed to have the shoulder, the rump and stomach portions.

DEUTERONOMY 18:6-8

6 "So if a Levite comes from any of your gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the LORD chooses,

7 "then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the LORD.

8 "They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

If a Levite chose to go to serve the Lord at the chosen place of God, he would have to sell his home in the city and all his possessions. Then he would be given an equal portion with the other Levites serving at the same place in addition to the money he received from the sale of all his possessions.

DEUTERONOMY 18:9-14

9 "When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

10 "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

11 "or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

12 "For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.

13 "You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.

14 "For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.

One very sly sin that Satan entices people to do (especially in the Catholic Church) is to pray to departed dead people, such as relatives or Mary and the "saints". This is necromancy, communication with the dead, something God forbids us to do. They cannot hear us or answer us. They are alive to God, but are dead to us. Anyone who does this practices being a medium, a communicator with a "familiar spirit" otherwise known as a demon. The dead will not answer us. However Satan will.

Now that you know if this, you are responsible for this knowledge. If you have done these abominations, repent before the Lord, seek His forgiveness and turn from these practices. He will forgive you, if you seek Him with a sincere and repentant heart.

DEUTERONOMY 18:15-19

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

16 "according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.'

17 "And the LORD said to me: 'What they have spoken is good.

18 'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

19 'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

This prophecy was again the reminder of the promise of God to Mankind through Adam that He would provide a Savior who would put an end to Satan and his works, a Redeemer who would cleanse Man of his sins forever.

This has been the hope of the Jewish people ever since God spoke these words, and the Jews have been awaiting this Messiah for over 3500 years. As time progressed, God would prophesy concerning His Redeemer, telling the Jews what prophecies He would fulfill and the lineage from which He would spring. He even foretold of the town in Judah where He would be born (Bethlehem).

However the Jews have their own ideas of what the Messiah should be, and have rejected the fact that Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies written of Him because He didn't fit their concept of what He should be like.

Even today they cannot agree on what the Messiah should be. Some believe that there will be two Messiahs, one military and one a teacher of the Law. Some rabbis believe that God spoke of a "Messianic age", in which Israel would be restored and peace would abound. Still others believe that recently deceased Rabbi Schneerson was the promised Messiah and await his resurrection.

But they are unified in their rejection of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. The Rabbis through history have been so desperate to discredit Him that the Talmud states that he learned sorcery in Egypt, which is how He performed His miracles. Actually this would be quite hard, as He was approximately two years old when He was taken to Egypt by His parents and was about four years old when he returned.

The Rabbis of the Talmud could not deny that He performed miracles, so they had to come up with a way to discredit His miraculous works.

DEUTERONOMY 18:20-22

20 'But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'

21 "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'

22 "when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

The judgement for anyone that claims to speak for the Lord, but speaks for himself or anyone else is death. Any prophecies he makes must all come to pass, or he is a false prophet.

DEUTERONOMY 19:1-7

1 "When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,

2 "you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

3 "You shall prepare roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, that any manslayer may flee there.

4 "And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past

5 "as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies he shall flee to one of these cities and live;

6 "lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past.

7 "Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall separate three cities for yourself.'

These three cities were called cities of refuge. If anyone accidently killed someone, they could flee to one of these cities and the family and friends of the deceased person couldn't take revenge and kill the person responsible in return.

DEUTERONOMY 19:8-10

8 "Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers,

9 "and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three,

10 "lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

As Israel grew larger (as God had promised, provided they followed God's commandments and laws), they were to add three more cities of refuge, to ensure that the way to the cities of refuge would not be excessively long.

DEUTERONOMY 19:11-13

11 "But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

12 "then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13 "Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

If someone commits murder, and flees to a city of refuge; the elders of the city are to turn him over to the family of the deceased to be killed for his crime of murder. This is capital punishment, sanctioned by God.

DEUTERONOMY 19:14

14 "You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

The boundaries set by God were to remain the same. Nobody could take away your inherited land for any reason, especially by moving boundary markers.

DEUTERONOMY 19:15

15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.

There must be two or three witnesses to prove the guilt of the accused person. The word of one person against another is not sufficient proof of guilt.

DEUTERONOMY 19:16-21

16 "If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

17 "then both men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.

18 "And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother,

19 "then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you.

20 "And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you.

21 "Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

If a witness lied to get someone convicted, and the judges find out he lied, then the sentence that would have been given to the man he lied about, is to be given to the perjurer. We need this law in force today!

DEUTERONOMY 20:1-4

1 "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

2 "So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.

3 "And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them;

4 'for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.'

Before the battles the priests were to remind the people of the might and power of the Lord. Power and might of men is nothing before the Lord as He showed Israel when Pharaoh and his army pursued them into the Red Sea.

DEUTERONOMY 20:5-9

5 "Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: 'What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

6 'Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it.

7 'And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.'

8 "The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, 'What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.'

9 "And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

The officers of the armies will make sure all the men going into battle have all their affairs in order and were ready to fight for the Lord. Any men not ready were to return to their homes and not fight in this battle.

DEUTERONOMY 20:10-11

10 "When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.

11 "And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.

They were to offer a peace treaty to each city they came to, offering to make the people in the cities subject to the Israelites. In return the Israelites wouldn't slaughter everyone in the city. This was only for the cities that were not part of the land for inheritance.

DEUTERONOMY 20:12-15

12 "Now if the city will not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.

13 "And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.

14 "But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies' plunder which the LORD your God gives you.

15 "Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

If the cities turned down the offer of peace, every man in the city was to be killed and the women and children were to become plunder to the Israelites. This was only for the cities that were not part of the land for inheritance.

DEUTERONOMY 20:16-18

16 "But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive,

17 "but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

18 "lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.

The cities in the land of inheritance are to be destroyed completely. All people, animals and plunder are to be destroyed, to stop demonic influences from remaining. If an idol is smashed the demon no longer has legal access to it. Unfortunately, many archaeologists are uncovering smashed idols and piecing them back together and once again the demons have legal access to them.

DEUTERONOMY 20:19-20

19 "When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man's food.

20 "Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siege works against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.

The only trees to use for building battering rams were trees that didn't produce food for the armies outside the city. This way the army didn't have to carry so much food with them and it was fresh.

DEUTERONOMY 21:1-9

1 "If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,

2 "then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities.

3 "And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke.

4 "The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

5 "Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled.

6 "And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

7 "Then they shall answer and say, 'Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.

8 'Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.

9 "So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

If a murder is committed and there are no witnesses, the elders of the nearest city are to make an offering of atonement to cleanse all of Israel from the sin of murder. Remember, God said that the shedding of blood defiles the land, and this would make the elders of the cities diligent to enquire who might have committed the murder.

DEUTERONOMY 21:10-14

10 "When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,

11 "and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife,

12 "then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

13 "She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14 "And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.

You may marry a woman you have taken captive, after she has been cleansed (shaving her head would remove any vermin such as lice). If you are not happy with her, you can set her free but you can't sell her.

DEUTERONOMY 21:15-17

15 "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved,

16 "then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.

17 "But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

The right of the first born son to have a double portion cannot be taken away in favor of another more loved son. This was a law after Israel (Jacob) gave Joseph a double portion because he had been sold into slavery by his jealous older brothers. Reuben, his firstborn had also committed adultery with Jacob’s concubine, showing great disrespect to his father.

DEUTERONOMY 21:18-21

18 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them,

19 "then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.

20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

Rebellion in children was not to be tolerated, because it would bring rebellion in Israel when these children grew up. If they didn't respect and honor their parents, they wouldn't give honor and respect to God, either. A lot of child rebellion would be stopped if this law were in effect today.

DEUTERONOMY 21:22-23

22 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

23 "his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

God approves of capital punishment if the sin calls for it. Note that unlike most other cultures, the body was not to be left overnight but was to be buried the same day. This is also why they had to get Jesus' body off the cross and buried before sundown.

This prophecy that the Messiah will be hung on a tree as a curse for us is fulfilled in..............

GALATIANS 3:13-14

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),

14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

DEUTERONOMY 22:1-4

1 "You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother.

2 "And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it; then you shall restore it to him.

3 "You shall do the same with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment; with any lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise; you must not hide yourself.

4 "You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fall down along the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him lift them up again.

Israelites are to help one another when their neighbor is in distress. This has caused much controversy down through the centuries as the Jews asked "Who is my brother?" Some rabbis say that you may help another Jew but not a Gentile. Others say that you are to help both. Still others say that this does not apply to your enemy or to one who hates you.

Jesus settled this question, when He was asked by a lawyer (in this case, an expert in the Law of Moses), "Who is my neighbor?"

LUKE 10:30-37

30 Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 "Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32 "Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.

33 "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.

34 "So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 "On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'

36 "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"

37 And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Samaritans were despised by the Jews because their ancestors had married foreign women and were therefore considered mongrels and unclean by the Jews. Yet it was the lowly Samaritan who showed mercy to his neighbor, not the Jews.

DEUTERONOMY 22:5

5 "A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God.

This could be confusing today as women wear pants and blue jeans. But there are articles of clothing specifically worn by women (such as dresses, intimate apparel, lingerie, etc) that are not to be worn by men, and vice versa.

DEUTERONOMY 22:6-7

6 "If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;

7 "you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

The young without their mother would die, but if you take the eggs or young to eat or sell, the mother can have more young. God cares for animals as well as people

DEUTERONOMY 22:8

8 "When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.

A parapet on the roof was like a railing to keep you from falling off the roof. Frequently roofs were used to dry the wheat, barley and flax. On hot nights people sometimes slept on their roofs so as to catch any evening breezes that might blow during the night. Without a railing, people could easily fall off the roof through inattention or not being able to see the roof edge at night.

DEUTERONOMY 22:9

9 "You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.

Farmers were to grow only one kind of seed. Grapes, wheat, barley, but only one kind in each plot of land. This kept the seeds from intermixing and caused the trade within the community. If 5 families grew wheat and 5 families grew barley and 5 families grew olive trees and 5 families grew grapes, this would create the need for commerce for the good of the community. The families that grew wheat would need to buy barley, grapes, wine and olive oil; and so on.

DEUTERONOMY 22:10

10 "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

You can plow with 2 oxen or 2 donkeys, but not mixing one of each. One of each would make them unequally yoked, as the ox is stronger, but the donkey is faster.

DEUTERONOMY 22:11

11 "You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.

You aren't to wear blends of clothing materials. All wool, all linen, etc. The reason for this is unknown.

DEUTERONOMY 22:12

12 "You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself.

Tassel in Hebrew is "tzitzit" (tzi tzi), plural form is "tzitziyot" (tzi tzi yot) - specifically made fringes worn on the four corners of a man's tallit (prayer shawl), fulfilling the commandment in Numbers 15:37-41.

NUMBERS 15:37-41

37 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

38 "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.

39 "And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,

40 "and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.

41 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God."

In ancient times, including the 1st century, the tallit was a cloak or robe included in normal everyday male clothing. After clothes stopped being made with "corners" Judaism created the modern tallit (prayer shawl) so that the commandment could still be fulfilled.

DEUTERONOMY 22:13-19

13 "If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her,

14 "and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, 'I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,'

15 "then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

16 "And the young woman's father shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her.

17 'Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, "I found your daughter was not a virgin," and yet these are the evidences of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

18 "Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him;

19 "and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.

If a man falsely accuses his wife of not being a virgin, just to get rid of her; her parents are to bring the bloody cloth proving her virginity before the elders; the man in turn is to be fined 100 shekels of silver (2.5 lbs of silver) and he can never divorce her or treat her as a lesser wife.

DEUTERONOMY 22:20-21

20 "But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman,

21 "then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

If the woman wasn't a virgin, then she is to be stoned to death as a harlot.

DEUTERONOMY 22:22

22 "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.

Adultery is a sin worthy of capital punishment. Note that both were to be killed not just the woman.

DEUTERONOMY 22:23-24

23 "If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,

24 "then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.

If a woman is attacked, it isn't rape if she doesn't cry out for help. If it isn't rape then both are to be killed. And note that a woman who was engaged to a man was considered to be married already.

DEUTERONOMY 22:25-27

25 "But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

26 "But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter.

27 "For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

If a woman cries out for help and nobody hears; if she is raped, then the man when found is to be killed but the woman is cleared because she did cry out for help proving it wasn't consensual.

DEUTERONOMY 22:28-29

28 "If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out,

29 "then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.

If a woman isn't married or promised in marriage, and a man has sex with her, he has to pay 50 shekels (1.25 lbs of silver) to her father (a dowry price), and he must marry her and can never divorce her or treat her with less respect or privilege than as if he had actually willingly married her.

DEUTERONOMY 22:30

30 "A man shall not take his father's wife, nor uncover his father's bed.

Incest is absolutely forbidden! This would show great dishonor to your father.

DEUTERONOMY 23:1

1 "He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the LORD.

Any man that is made a eunuch or had his testicles crushed in an accident or purposefully; cannot enter the tabernacle or Temple of the Lord.

DEUTERONOMY 23:2

2 "One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD.

Bastard children cannot enter the tabernacle or Temple of the Lord. This holds on their descendants to the 10th generation. This was a warning about pre-marital sex and pregnancy out of wed-lock.

DEUTERONOMY 23:3-6

3 "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever,

4 "because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

5 "Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

6 "You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

Ammonites and Moabites cannot enter the tabernacle or Temple of the Lord, forever. This was God's wrath against the people of these countries because they refused to let the Israelites pass through their countries peaceably to get to the Promised Land and they also tried to place a curse on their brethren the Israelites.

King David's great-grandmother (Ruth) was a Moabitess, but as the lineage comes through the fathers line and David's great-grandfather (Boaz) was an Israelite, this law didn't apply to David or his descendants.

DEUTERONOMY 23:7-8

7 "You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land.

8 "The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Esau (Jacobs brother) became the Edomites, this is why God refers to them as the Israelites’ brother. When the Israelites first went to Egypt to escape the famine, they were treated very well. It wasn't until generations later that they became slaves.

DEUTERONOMY 23:9-11

9 "When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing.

10 "If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp.

11 "But it shall be, when evening comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.

Such a person would be unclean until the next day, remembering that their day starts at sunset.

DEUTERONOMY 23:12-14

12 "Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out;

13 "and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse.

14 "For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.

This implement was called a paddle, (Hebrew "yathed" - yaw thade') meaning to pin through or fasten; a peg: nail, paddle, pin, stake. Israelites were to cover their waste when they relieved themselves to prevent disease and uncleanness in their camps.

DEUTERONOMY 23:15-16

15 "You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you.

16 "He may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to him; you shall not oppress him.

A runaway slave from the surrounding areas that came to the Israelites were to be given their freedom and not be returned to their masters or made slaves by the Israelites.

DEUTERONOMY 23:17-18

17 "There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.

18 "You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

A ritual harlot was a temple prostitute, common among the pagan gods and temples. The perverted sons refers to sodomites (homosexuals) for the same temples and gods of the pagan religions. God didn't want the money given to these temples, gods, or people brought into His people because the demons would have the legal right to attach themselves to the money. This would bring an unholy thing into Gods Holy Temple.

DEUTERONOMY 23:19-20

19 "You shall not charge interest to your brother interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.

20 "To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.

Israelites can't charge each other interest, whether in money or a percentage of their crops, etc. But they can charge interest to any foreigner.

DEUTERONOMY 23:21-23

21 "When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.

22 "But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you.

23 "That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.

Anything you promise to God, you must fulfill. If you don't, Satan will have legal access to you and God will judge you also. It is better not to promise anything, than to promise and not fulfill that promise.

DEUTERONOMY 23:24-25

24 "When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container.

25 "When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.

If you are hungry and near a field of grain or grapes, you can eat your fill. But you can't take any of the food with you as it would be stealing.

DEUTERONOMY 24:1-4

1 "When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house,

2 "when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man's wife,

3 "if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife,

4 "then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If a husband divorces a wife for legitimate reasons, and she remarries a second time.....she can never remarry her first husband. It doesn't matter if her second husband divorces her or dies leaving her a widow. God considers this to be an unclean act.

DEUTERONOMY 24:5

5 "When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

For the first year after marriage a man is free from taxation, from doing any business and the draft to allow him to set up his household and have his first child to carry on his family name. I wish we had such a law today!

DEUTERONOMY 24:6

6 "No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one's living in pledge.

Millstones were used for grinding grain for daily bread. Taking such a millstone as collateral could jeopardize the life of the owner and his family, as they would not be able to make their daily bread or earn money grinding grain for someone else.

DEUTERONOMY 24:7

7 "If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall put away the evil from among you.

If this had been a law during Jacob (Israel's) time, all of Joseph's brothers (except Benjamin) would have been put to death. We need this law enacted today, especially for those who kidnap, abuse and murder children.

DEUTERONOMY 24:8-9

8 "Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

9 "Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt!

It was important to follow the laws of leprosy exactly. This was to keep the leprosy from spreading and possibly wiping out the nation of Israel. Even today leprosy is an incurable disease.

DEUTERONOMY 24:10-11

10 "When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.

11 "You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you.

This is to show that he is giving it of his own free will. It would also protect his privacy, and prevent covetousness.

DEUTERONOMY 24:12-13

12 "And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight.

13 "You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.

The clothing given as collateral is to be returned at the end of each day when the item borrowed against the collateral was returned. Remember, clothing was quite expensive in those days, and many people had only one set of clothes to their name.

DEUTERONOMY 24:14-15

14 "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

15 "Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.

Each day at the end of the day everyone was to be paid their wages for the day, no matter who they were.

DEUTERONOMY 24:16

16 "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.

Each person is responsible to God for their own sins.

DEUTERONOMY 24:17-18

17 "You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge.

18 "But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing.

Show justice and mercy to all equally. Do not twist justice either for or against the poor. If a case was to be tried the following day, the judges cannot take the clothing of a widow to ensure that they appear before the court the following day.

DEUTERONOMY 24:19-22

19 "When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 "When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

21 "When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

22 "And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

When harvesting any crops, a remnant must be left to care for the poor. There was to be no "second harvest" to gather what was not ripe at the time of the first harvest. That way the widows who had no income and the poor who didn't have enough to eat could gather what they needed and could bless the owner of the field(s).

DEUTERONOMY 25:1-3

1 "If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

2 "then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows.

3 "Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight.

Note: the sentence is to be carried out in the presence of the judge. The beatings were limited to a maximum of 40 blows. Usually the Jews would stop at 39 blows to make sure they didn't go over 40 blows. More than this amount, and a man could be crippled for life and this would be a humiliating reminder for everyone of his crime.

Such beatings were severe in the first place as usually a flexible wooden rod was used, or in some cases a bundle of such rods. These would split the skin of the back of the person and leave lifelong scars as a reminder to them of their sin(s).

DEUTERONOMY 25:4

4 "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

In ancient times oxen would be used to tread on heads of grain to separate the grain from the chaff. The resulting mixture was then winnowed in that the mixture was tossed into the air when the wind was blowing. The wind would blow the light chaff away while the heavier grain fell back onto the mat.

The ox would get hungry while working and eat some of the grain it was treading. Greedy people wanted to muzzle the ox to keep all the grain possible. God says a worker is worthy of his wages, including animals, showing His mercy to animals as well as Man.

Paul refers to this when he spoke of ministers being paid for their services when preaching the Gospel;

I TIMOTHY 5:17-18

17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages."

And;

I CORINTHIANS 9:9-14

9 For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen God is concerned about?

10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.

11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?

12 If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.

13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?

14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

DEUTERONOMY 25:5-10

5 "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 "And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

7 "But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.'

8 "Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, 'I do not want to take her,'

9 "then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, 'So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.'

10 "And his name shall be called in Israel, 'The house of him who had his sandal removed.'

This was a serious charge in Israel. A family line could be wiped out if a brother died without children and his living brother had only daughters as children. The brother of the deceased was to marry his brother's widow as long as she was still of childbearing age and was to name the firstborn son after his brother, to perpetuate his brother's family line.

If he refused, the widow would spit in his face (making him unclean for the day) and would remove his sandal to show that he was not walking in the ways of the Lord. This would be a shameful charge that would follow him all of his days.

DEUTERONOMY 25:11-12

11 "If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals,

12 "then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.

This could destroy a mans ability to reproduce, a serious situation in Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 25:13-16

13 "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light.

14 "You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.

15 "You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

16 "For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Don't cheat anyone. Have proven honest weights and scales. Some goods (such as fruits and vegetables) were weighed rather than measured, and other goods were measured in length. There could be variations in each, such as a weight stamped as being 8 ounces could be only 6 ounces in weight. Or a measure of a cubit (considered to be the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the fingertips) should be about 18 inches. A false cubit could be less than 18 inches, with the argument that it was indeed the length of the seller's arm if his arm was shorter than 18 inches.

God is saying use weights and measures which have been calibrated and proven against a known good standard of weights and measures.

DEUTERONOMY 25:17-19

17 "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,

18 "how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.

19 "Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

After Israel has settled in their new lands and are strong enough, the Israelites were to destroy all descendants of Amalek (the Amalekites). The Amalekites would not be totally destroyed until King Hezekiah's time.

DEUTERONOMY 26:1-10

1 "And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,

2 "that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.

3 "And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, 'I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.'

4 "Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

5 "And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: 'My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

6 'But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

7 'Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

8 'So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.

9 'He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, "a land flowing with milk and honey";

10 'and now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which you, O LORD, have given me.' Then you shall set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.

All of Israel was to come before the Lord and be a witness to the fact that the Lord had kept His promise in bringing them into the Promised land. They were to reiterate all that the Lord had done for them in bringing them out, that He might be glorified and that they would remember what He had done for them.

Note that it says that Jacob was a Syrian, which bears out the Genesis account of Abraham sending his servants back to his people in the city of Nahor to find a wife for Isaac, and Jacob fleeing there from Esau where he found and married Leah and Rachel.

GENESIS 28:1-5

1 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

2 Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

3 “May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples;

4 And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.”

5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

So the Jewish race were originally Syrian in ancestry before God separated them to be a special and unique people.

DEUTERONOMY 26:11-15

11 "So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

12 "When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year the year of tithing and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,

13 "then you shall say before the LORD your God: 'I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.

14 'I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me.

15 'Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, "a land flowing with milk and honey."'

"....nor given any of it for the dead..." This refers to the pagan practice of bringing food to the grave sites of the dead to appease their spirits.

DEUTERONOMY 26:16-19

16 "This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

17 "Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice.

18 "Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments,

19 "and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken."

A final reminder to thank the Lord for all He has done for them and to remember and keep all of His statutes.

DEUTERONOMY 27:1-10

1 Now Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying: "Keep all the commandments which I command you today.

2 "And it shall be, on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime.

3 "You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, 'a land flowing with milk and honey,' just as the LORD God of your fathers promised you.

4 "Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime.

5 "And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them.

6 "You shall build with whole stones the altar of the LORD your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God.

7 "You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.

8 "And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law."

9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, "Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day you have become the people of the LORD your God.

10 "Therefore you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today."

Lime was created by heating limestone in a furnace or kiln which would drive out the water and leave a white powder. They were to whitewash stones and to write the laws of God on the stones as a memorial and a remembrance of God's laws.

Then they were to go up on Mt. Ebal and build altars of uncut stones (remember if the stones were cut by man they were not to be used to make sacrifice altars for the Lord), then make the sacrifices to the Lord, and follow the Lords commandments and keep the covenant with the Lord.

DEUTERONOMY 27:11-13

11 And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying,

12 "These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin;

13 "and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

Note that the 12 tribes were divided equally, 6 tribes on each mount (The tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim were the tribe of Joseph.)

DEUTERONOMY 27:14-15

14 "And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel:

15 'Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' "And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen!'

Amen means "So be it", or "may it be so" showing that all the people were agreeing to what the Levites were saying. Note that these curses were repeated in the ears of all Israel and the Lord, as a witness against them and their descendants after them. Remember, God had previously said;

EXODUS 20:4

4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

LEVITICUS 26:1

1 'You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.

DEUTERONOMY 4:15-19

15 "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

16 "lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,

17 "the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

18 "the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

19 "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.

Moses had also said;

DEUTERONOMY 4:23-24

23 "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Remember, any image of any religious figure, be it painted, carved, molded, drawn, chiseled, sculpted or any other way of creation is an abomination before the Lord and anyone who possesses such an image or allows it in their presence is accursed!!!!

DEUTERONOMY 27:16

16 'Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

EXODUS 20:12

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

LEVITICUS 20:16

16 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

DEUTERONOMY 27:17

17 'Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

DEUTERONOMY 19:14

14 "You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

DEUTERONOMY 27:18

18 'Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 19:14

14 'You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD.

DEUTERONOMY 27:19

19 'Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 19:15

15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

DEUTERONOMY 27:20

20 'Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's bed.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 20:11

11 The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

DEUTERONOMY 27:21

21 'Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 20:15-16

15 If a man mates with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.

16 If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them.

DEUTERONOMY 27:22

22 'Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 20:17

17 ‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He shall bear his guilt.

DEUTERONOMY 27:23

23 'Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

LEVITICUS 20:14

14 If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you.

DEUTERONOMY 27:24

24 'Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

DEUTERONOMY 19:11-13

11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

DEUTERONOMY 27:25

25 'Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

EXODUS 23:7-8

7 Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked.

8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

DEUTERONOMY 27:26

26 'Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.' "And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'

When the people agreed with all the Levites said they were placing themselves and their children under this commandment. The penalty for breaking any of these commandments was to be placed under these curses from God.

The Rabbis have distilled the Laws of Moses into 613 statutes that must be followed all of the days of one's life if he is to be righteous before God. (Unfortunately many of them are man-made doctrines from the so-called "Oral Law").

Anyone who fails will be accursed according to Moses' words. This creates a serious problem, as no one can ever be perfect enough to follow all of the written laws of Moses without fail all of the days of their life. God planned it this way so that no one can attain salvation through their own works. Remember, all men are sinners before the Lord, and none are righteous in His sight. Therefore He set up these commandments to show what was needed to be righteous in His sight.

DEUTERONOMY 28:1-3

1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

2 "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:

3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

When the people agreed with all the Levites said, they were placing themselves and their children under these commandments. Note that Moses spoke of the terrible things that would happen to Israel if they disobeyed, before he spoke of the blessings. This would put all of Israel in a serious, somber mood, causing them to reflect on the curses of disobedience.

Then Moses gives them hope and the promise of future happiness for obedience. These are the blessings from God they would receive if they obeyed these commandments.

DEUTERONOMY 28:4-5

4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Israel will prosper and have an abundance of all harvests and herds. No woman will be barren!!

DEUTERONOMY 28:6

6 "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

God will bless the people in everything that they do; as long as they obey His commandments.

DEUTERONOMY 28:7

7 "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

God will go before Israel and make them invincible in any battle they encounter

DEUTERONOMY 28:8

8 "The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

God will care for you and abundantly bless you and the land He has given you.

DEUTERONOMY 28:9-13

9 "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.

10 "Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.

11 "And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

12 "The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

13 "And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.

IF Israel will obey His commandments, God will richly bless them. Other nations will turn to them for help, but they will never need help from them because God will delight to care for Israel, Himself. If enemies rise against Israel, Israel will defeat or destroy them so that the other nations will be afraid of their power and might.

DEUTERONOMY 28:14-15

14 "So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

Just as light has darkness as it's counterpart, so do blessings have a counterpart, namely curses.

The following are the frightful curses that will befall Israel if they disobey God and depart from His statutes and commandments. And if you look at Israel's history both in the Bible and in recorded history, it can be seen that just as God kept His promises of blessings for obedience, He kept His promises of curses for their disobedience.

DEUTERONOMY 28:16-20

16 "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

17 "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

19 "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 "The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

God will take away everything He has given to Israel. Everyone and everything will suffer for this, people, animals, the very Land will suffer.

DEUTERONOMY 28:21-22

21 "The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.

22 "The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.

The Lord will bring horrifying diseases upon Israel, as well as drought, mildew (mold and rot) and the sword. Remember, they didn't have modern medicines like we have today! "Consumption" is an old word for our modern day word "cancer".

DEUTERONOMY 28:23-24

23 "And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron.

24 "The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The heavens would be like a hot bronze bowl and the land would be parched until it was as hard as iron. Their flocks would die of hunger and thirst, as would they.

DEUTERONOMY 28:25-26

25 "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 "Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away.

God will not protect Israel from their enemies but will actively fight against the people of Israel if they are disobedient. Many would die even though they fled in fear as their enemies had once fled before them and their God. And as history has shown, especially in the Biblical book of Judges, this is exactly what happened when Israel turned from God.

DEUTERONOMY 28:27-29

27 "The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

28 "The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.

29 "And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

God will strike Israel with diseases as He as He did with Egypt. They will be defeated in their heart and know only oppression, confusion and constant fear.

DEUTERONOMY 28:30-36

30 "You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.

31 "Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.

32 "Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand.

33 "A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

34 "So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.

35 "The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 "The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods wood and stone.

God will cast them out of the Land and will allow them to be taken captive into unknown lands in chains. There they will learn to serve gods of wood and stone to their destruction.

DEUTERONOMY 28:37

37 "And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.

History is rife with stories of persecution and wholesale slaughter of the Jews since the Romans destroyed Judea in 70 A.D. Wherever they have tried to settle and assimilate into the surrounding nations, savage persecution has arisen to drive them out and kill them. They have been blamed for virtually any calamity that has befallen the nations wherein they dwelt, just as God promised in the verse above.

DEUTERONOMY 28:38-42

38 "You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.

39 "You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

40 "You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.

41 "You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

42 "Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

God will allow the fruits of their land and cattle to increase but only for the blight to strike them, or for insects or their enemies to take and eat. Their sons and daughters would be taken captive, never to be seen again by their parents.

DEUTERONOMY 28:43-44

43 "The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

44 "He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

Israel would become servants to those who were their present servants. They would be destitute and would seek financial assistance from the surrounding nations and would be at the mercy of their enemies. Read the book of Judges and you can see the fulfillment of these curses.

DEUTERONOMY 28:45-57

45 "Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

46 "And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

47 "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything,

48 "therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 "The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,

50 "a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.

51 "And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.

52 "They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.

53 "You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you.

54 "The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind,

55 "so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

56 "The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter,

57 "her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

This happened just as Moses described, for there were several sieges in which this occurred.

The Syrian assault......

2 KINGS 6:24-29

24 And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.

26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"

27 And he said, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?"

28 Then the king said to her, "What is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'

29 "So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son."

The Babylonian assault...

LAMENTATIONS 4:4-11

4 The tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them.

5 Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets; those who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps.

6 The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, with no hand to help her!

7 Her Nazirites were brighter than snow and whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, like sapphire in their appearance.

8 Now their appearance is blacker than soot; they go unrecognized in the streets; their skin clings to their bones, it has become as dry as wood. 

9 Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger; for these pine away, stricken for lack of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured its foundations.

DEUTERONOMY 28:58-62

58 "If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,

59 "then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues great and prolonged plagues and serious and prolonged sicknesses.

60 "Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

61 "Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed.

62 "You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

This wraps up in one statement all of the horrors that the Lord will bring on Israel if they disobey Him. He brings to mind the graphic plagues which the Lord brought upon Egypt, stating that as the Lord did to Egypt, so would He do to Israel.

Note though that Moses doesn't say that God would destroy Israel completely. He would leave a remnant who would pass down the tales of destruction and the fulfillment of God's curses to the following generations so that they would fear and obey.

DEUTERONOMY 28:63-68

63 "And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

64 "Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.

65 "And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.

66 "Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.

67 "In the morning you shall say, 'Oh, that it were evening!' And at evening you shall say, 'Oh, that it were morning!' because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.

68 "And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, 'You shall never see it again.' And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

This is the great dispersion of the Jews when the Roman Empire destroyed Judea. The Jews were sold as slaves in every country known to the world of the empire at that time, including Egypt.

The Jewish people have been persecuted, slaughtered and driven from nation to nation from 70 A.D. until the nation of Israel was restored in 1948, fulfilling God's wrath against them. But God has always left a remnant, even during WWII when 6,000,000 Jews were brutally slaughtered by the Nazis.

DEUTERONOMY 29:1

1 These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

Note that this covenant is in addition to the last covenant (more commandments) at Mount Sinai.

DEUTERONOMY 29:2-4

2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land

3 "the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.

4 "Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.

God has done signs and wonders for Israel to see, but Israel still has a hardened heart.

DEUTERONOMY 29:5-6

5 "And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.

6 "You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

Their clothing and sandals didn't wear out, even though they walked and lived in the harsh desert for 40 years!!! God didn't allow them to plant or reap, showing that He would care for them as He promised, providing them food and water as needed.

DEUTERONOMY 29:7-8

7 "And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them.

8 "We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh.

Moses reminds them of their first battle for their inheritance. God went before them and they won, as promised.

DEUTERONOMY 29:9-29

9 "Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

10 "All of you stand today before the LORD your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel,

11 "your little ones and your wives, also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water

12 "that you may enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today,

13 "that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

14 "I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone,

15 "but with him who stands here with us today before the LORD our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today

16 (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by,

17 and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them wood and stone and silver and gold);

18 "so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;

19 "and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart' as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

20 "The LORD would not spare him; for then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the LORD would blot out his name from under heaven.

21 "And the LORD would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law,

22 "so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it:

23 'The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.'

24 "All nations would say, 'Why has the LORD done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?'

25 "Then people would say: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt;

26 'for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.

27 'Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.

28 'And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'

29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

When God tells us to obey Him, He means it. He will keep His word and He never forgets!!! There are always consequences to every choice we make. In this case God is reminding Israel of the consequences to them and their future generations if they disobey and turn from Him. Other nations would see the destruction He brought upon the people and the Land and would understand the reasons for God's wrath upon Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 30:1-20

1 "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you,

2 "and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,

3 "that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.

4 "If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.

5 "Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

6 "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

7 "Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.

8 "And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments which I command you today.

9 "The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers,

10 "if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.

12 "It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

13 "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

14 "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,

16 "in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.

17 "But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them,

18 "I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess.

19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Moses sums up both the blessings of serving God and keeping His commandments, and the frightful consequences of turning from Him. Israel has sworn that they and their descendants will follow Him, and He in turn has adopted them as His people forever.

DEUTERONOMY 31:1-6

1 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

2 And he said to them: "I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, 'You shall not cross over this Jordan.'

3 "The LORD your God Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the LORD has said.

4 "And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them.

5 "The LORD will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you.

6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

Moses tells the Israelites that he can't cross the Jordan river with them, but God will go with them. He encourages them to obey the Lord and not fear their enemies they will encounter and fight against to receive their inheritance. Note that Moses is 120 years old, and still of sharp mind and vigorous body.

DEUTERONOMY 31:7-8

7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.

8 "And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

Moses lets the people know that Joshua has been chosen by the Lord to lead the people into the promised land. He encourages Joshua to follow the Lord and He will enable Israel to inherit the land.

DEUTERONOMY 31:9-13

9 So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 And Moses commanded them, saying: "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles,

11 "when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 "Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,

13 "and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess."

Every 7 years at the Feast of Booths, the entire law was to be read for all Israel to hear. This includes all men, women, and children in Israel; including foreigners. This prevented anyone from the using the excuse of "I didn't know..." And if parents weren't following the laws, their children would know it.

DEUTERONOMY 31:14-23

14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that I may inaugurate him." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting.

15 Now the LORD appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle.

16 And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

17 "Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'

18 "And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

19 "Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.

20 "When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.

21 "Then it shall be, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness; for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which I swore to give them."

22 Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.

23 Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you."

God prophesied to Moses that even after the blessings He promised Israel, they would soon turn from Him and serve other gods. Moses taught the Lord's song to all of Israel as a reminder and witness before the Lord. Then God inaugurated Joshua as the leader of the nation of Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 31:24-30

24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished,

25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying:

26 "Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you;

27 "for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death?

28 "Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

29 "For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands."

30 Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:

Moses' disgust and frustration are evident in his words here. He has borne Israel's rebellions and whining for over 40 years, and God is telling him that they will become worse after his death.

Note what he said in verse 29 and think of the Holocaust of WWII. Truly as he prophesied, terrible evil befell the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis (and still does today at the hands of the Arabs) because of their disobedience.

DEUTERONOMY 32:1-44

1 "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.

3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God.

4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.

5 "They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation.

6 Do you thus deal with the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?

7 "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you:

8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

9 For the LORD's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

10 "He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.

11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings,

12 So the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.

13 "He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock;

14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.

15 "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger.

17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear.

18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.

19 "And when the LORD saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

20 And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith.

21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

22 For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23 'I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them.

24 They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

25 The sword shall destroy outside; there shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

26 I would have said, "I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,"

27 Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, "Our hand is high; and it is not the LORD who has done all this."'

28 "For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them.

29 Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

30 How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had surrendered them?

31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.

33 Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

34 'Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures?

35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.'

36 "For the LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone, and there is no one remaining, bond or free.

37 He will say: 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge?

38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge.

39 'Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.

40 For I raise My hand to heaven, And say, "As I live forever,

41 If I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me.

42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy."'

43 "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people."

44 So Moses came with Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

This is the song of witness that the Lord gave to Moses for the Israelites to learn and teach their children.

DEUTERONOMY 32:45-52

45 Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

46 and he said to them: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law.

47 "For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess."

48 Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying:

49 "Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession;

50 "and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;

51 "because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel.

52 "Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel."

Moses reminds the Israelites to obey the Lord. God tells Moses it's time for him to prepare to die, and reminds Moses why He won't let him cross into the promised land. But He will let Moses at least see the land from the top of the mount before he dies.

DEUTERONOMY 33:1-5

1 Now this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

2 And he said: "The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand came a fiery law for them.

3 Yes, He loves the people; all His saints are in Your hand; they sit down at Your feet; everyone receives Your words.

4 Moses commanded a law for us, a heritage of the congregation of Jacob.

5 And He was King in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

This is Moses' final blessing on Israel. "Jeshurun" is the symbolic surname given to the nation of Israel. It means "blessed" and is used in representing Israel as a nation of just or upright men. This was used to remind Israel of its calling to serve and obey the Lord, and as a reminder of the penalty for turning away from the Lord.

DEUTERONOMY 33:6

6 "Let Reuben live, and not die, nor let his men be few."

Reuben became a large tribe, but he never excelled at anything. They were surrounded by the Moabites and Ammonites and were constantly under attack.

While they held their own, they never excelled, in accordance with Jacob's (Israel's) blessing:

GENESIS 49:3-4

3 "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it, he went up to my couch.

DEUTERONOMY 33:7

7 And this he said of Judah: "Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, And bring him to his people; let his hands be sufficient for him, and may You be a help against his enemies."

Judah was a conqueror in war and was self-sufficient in everything they did, as long as they stayed true to the Lord. Judah was also the largest of all the tribes and provided the line of kings to come from David to Zedekiah to Jesus Christ.

The kings from Rehoboam to Zedekiah were the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah (along with Benjamin) after the northern 10 tribes of Israel split from Judah and Benjamin. The kings of the southern kingdom of Judah were the only legitimate kings ordained by God.

Saul the Benjamite was chosen by the people, not the Lord. The idolatrous kings of the northern kingdom of Israel (except Jeroboam I, the first king, appointed by the Lord) were self-appointed. All of the kings of the northern kingdom were rebellious against the Lord.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing on Judah:

GENESIS 49:8-12

8 "Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's children shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him?

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

11 Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.

12 His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

DEUTERONOMY 33:8-11

8 And of Levi he said: "Let Your Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one, whom You tested at Massah, and with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah,

9 Who says of his father and mother, 'I have not seen them'; nor did he acknowledge his brothers, or know his own children; for they have observed Your word and kept Your covenant.

10 They shall teach Jacob Your judgments, and Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You, and a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.

11 Bless his substance, LORD, and accept the work of his hands; strike the loins of those who rise against him, and of those who hate him, that they rise not again."

The Levites had the spiritual and physical leadership of the people until the time of the judges and kings. Levi was scattered over all the promised land, but given no land inheritance.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Levi:

GENESIS 49:5-7

5 "Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.

6 Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 33:12

12 Of Benjamin he said: "The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by Him, Who shelters him all the day long; and he shall dwell between His shoulders."

Benjamin was completely surrounded by 6 of the other tribes. They could dwell in complete safety from foreign invaders and attacks. They would be strong, but vicious. Note: They were famous for their swordsmen and that they were left handed stone slingers. King Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Benjamin:

GENESIS 49:27

27 "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil."

DEUTERONOMY 33:13-17

13 And of Joseph he said: "Blessed of the LORD is his land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath,

14 With the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months,

15 With the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills,

16 With the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come 'on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.'

17 His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox; together with them He shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

Because of the double blessing by Jacob, Joseph had a double portion in the promised land. Both the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh would prosper greatly, but Ephraim would be greater than Manasseh. Half of the tribe of Manasseh settled in the area that had belonged to the Amorites.

When the tribes split into Judah and Israel, God always referred to the 10 northern tribes (Israel) as Ephraim not Israel. Even though Ephraim was smaller than Manasseh it was Ephraim that received the greater recognition from the Lord.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Joseph:

GENESIS 48:15-20

15 And he blessed Joseph, and said: "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

16 The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

17 Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

18 And Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

19 But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."

20 So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel will bless, saying, 'May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!'" And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

GENESIS 49:22-26

22 "Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall.

23 The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him.

24 But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

25 By the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

DEUTERONOMY 33:18-19

18 And of Zebulun he said: "Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar in your tents!

19 They shall call the peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall partake of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hidden in the sand."

Both tribes would make their living by the sea and prosper. Zebulun joined with Asher to become sailors and seamen.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Zebulun:

GENESIS 48:13

13 "Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall adjoin Sidon.

(Sidon was in Lebanon to the north of Israel)

Jacob's blessing on Issachar;

GENESIS 48:14-15

14 "Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between two burdens;

15 He saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; he bowed his shoulder to bear a burden, and became a band of slaves.

DEUTERONOMY 33:20-21

20 And of Gad he said: "Blessed is he who enlarges Gad; he dwells as a lion, and tears the arm and the crown of his head.

21 He provided the first part for himself, because a lawgiver's portion was reserved there. He came with the heads of the people; he administered the justice of the LORD, and His judgments with Israel."

The land where Moses recited the law to the Israelites was the inheritance of Gad, just before they crossed into Canaan. They were fierce warriors, constantly fighting the Ammonites to defend their land.

Tiglath-Pileser III (Assyrian king that destroyed part of Israel) took the 2 1/2 tribes into captivity, but a remnant of each of the tribes eventually returned. (I Chronicles 5:26). The tribes he captured were: Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh. Note: these were the only tribes to settle east of the Jordan river and not actually IN the Promised Land.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Gad:

GENESIS 48:19

19 "Gad, a troop shall tramp upon him, but he shall triumph at last.

DEUTERONOMY 33:22

22 And of Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's whelp; he shall leap from Bashan."

Dan couldn't hold its original land given to them and eventually moved north to a small section of Israel in north-eastern Manasseh and Naphtali. There they fell into idolatry and began the golden calf worship in northern Israel that caused most of Israel to fall into idol worship.

The tribe of Dan eventually disappeared, no one knows exactly what happened to them, the Scriptures are silent regarding this.

Dan's battles against Israel's enemies were most visible in the exploits of Samson who was from the tribe of Dan (Judges, chapter 13). Samson was also a Judge in Israel.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Dan:

GENESIS 48:16-18

16 "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward.

18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD!

(Note: The tribe of Dan came across a peaceful people in their search for land to inherit. They ambushed and destroyed all of the people they found there and took the land, fulfilling Jacob's prophecy of Dan's striking like a serpent hidden in the brush.

DEUTERONOMY 33:23

23 And of Naphtali he said: "O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the west and the south."

He will be a psalm writer and counselor. They lived in northern central Israel.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Naphtali:

GENESIS 48:21

21 "Naphtali is a deer let loose; he uses beautiful words.

DEUTERONOMY 33:24-25

24 And of Asher he said: "Asher is most blessed of sons; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.

25 Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; as your days, so shall your strength be.

Asher would be a bread basket for Israel, and would be a very strong and powerful tribe.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Asher:

GENESIS 48:20

20 "Bread from Asher shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties.

DEUTERONOMY 33:26-29

26 "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds.

27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, 'Destroy!'

28 Then Israel shall dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and new wine; his heavens shall also drop dew.

29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places."

Moses reminds Israel that God will greatly bless them as long as they follow Him. Note that Moses didn't bless the tribe of Simeon. Simeon was absorbed by the tribe of Judah so he came to nothing as Jacob prophesied.

Jacob's (Israel's) blessing upon Simeon:

GENESIS 49:5-7

5 "Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.

6 Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 34:1-4

1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan,

2 all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,

3 the South, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

4 Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there."

God shows Moses the Promised Land and reminds him that he will not cross over, as he swore that none of that generation would pass over except Joshua and Caleb.

DEUTERONOMY 34:5-8

5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.

7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.

8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended.

Moses died at 120 years old. He died because the time to enter the new land had come and his death was the finishing of the curse placed on the generation in the wilderness for their rebellion against God (except Joshua and Caleb).

His health had not deteriorated because he needed to lead Israel until the time to enter the land. Moses also had the sight and strength of a young man, even at 120 years old. Moses died on the mount, but the Lord Himself buried Moses in a valley somewhere in Moab. He did this so the people wouldn't make a high place of worship.

DEUTERONOMY 34:9-12

9 Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

10 But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

11 in all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land,

12 and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Joshua was the next leader of Israel appointed by God. But no leader of the Jewish peoples, including Joshua, would ever have the closeness with the Lord that Moses had enjoyed. Neither would anyone perform the signs and wonders of the Lord as Moses did until the coming of Jesus Christ.

Questions? Comments? E-mail: watchmen_777@yahoo.com

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