Measures

Deuteronomy 25:8-15 – Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled. If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Isaiah 50:6 – I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

Leviticus 19:35 – “‘Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.

Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Application:

• ·         Mocking and spitting were done to show hatred or to insult or disgrace.
• ·         In a culture with no bureau of weights and measures, cheating in business transactions by falsification of standards was common.
• ·         You must have accurate and honest weights and measures is a commandment with a promise.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Treading Out The Grain

Deuteronomy 24:20-25:7 – When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes. Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”

1 Timothy 5:17-18 – The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Application:

• ·         All elders were to exercise leadership and to teach and preach, and all were to receive honor.
• ·         But those who excelled in leadership were to be counted “worthy of double honor”. This was especially true of those who labored at teaching and preaching.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Fatherless

Deuteronomy 24:17-19 – Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this. When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Proverbs 23:10 – Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.

Ezekiel 22:7 – In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

Ezekiel 47:22 – You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

Zechariah 7:10 – Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

Proverbs 28:27 – Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 – Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.

Application:

• ·         Oppressing the widow and the fatherless is strongly denounced.
• ·         Treating father and mother with contempt is the opposite of what God commands.
• ·         “You are to consider them as native-born Israelites” was a gracious inclusiveness that went beyond the provision.
• ·         Oppression is denounced frequently in the Old Testament.
• ·         Generosity is the path to blessing.
• ·         Do not always play it safe.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Each Will Die For Their Own Sin

Deuteronomy 24:15-16 – Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.

Jeremiah 31:29-30 – “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.

Ezekiel 18:4 – For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die.

Application:

• ·         In the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, many people felt that God’s hand of judgment against them was due not to their own sins but to the sins of their ancestors.
• ·         Although group or collective responsibility is an important concept, Jeremiah and Ezekiel emphasize individual responsibility as both preparation and explanation for the imminent destruction of Jerusalem, which the people might have been tempted to blame on the sins of their ancestors.
• ·         Ezekiel spoke out against a false use the people were making of a doctrine of inherited guilt.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Remember

Deuteronomy 24:6-14 – Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security. If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you. In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt. When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God. Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

Deuteronomy 4:10 – Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Deuteronomy 6:25 – And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

Leviticus 25:36 – Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you.

1 Timothy 5:18 – For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Application:

• ·         The divine call to Israel to remember the Lord’s past redemptive acts—especially how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt—is a common theme in Deuteronomy and is summarized: “Remember the days of old”.
• ·         Righteousness refers to a true, personal relationship with the covenant Lord that manifests itself in the daily lives of God’s people.
• ·         The main idea in not taking interest was that no one should profit in any way from another’s misfortune; rather, the needy should be given assistance.
• ·         The use of “Scripture” for both an Old Testament and a New Testament passage shows that by the time that 1 Timothy was written, portions of the New Testament were considered to be equal in authority to the Old Testament Scriptures.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Divorce

Deuteronomy 23:22-24:5 – But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth. If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain. If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

Mark 10:5 – “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.

Jeremiah 3:1 – “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—would you now return to me?” declares the Lord.

Application:

• ·         Divorce was an accommodation to human weakness and was used to bring order in a society that had disregarded God’s will, but it was not the standard God had originally intended as is clearly indicated. The purpose was not to make divorce acceptable but to reduce the hardship of its consequences.
• ·         Divorce and remarriage on a widespread scale defiles not only the participants but also the land in which they live.
• ·         Marital bliss was held in high regard.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Interest

Deuteronomy 23:19-21 – Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess. If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.

Leviticus 25:36 – Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you.

Nehemiah 5:6 – When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.

Judges 11:35 – When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

Psalm 15:2-5 – The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

Acts 5:3 – Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

Ecclesiastes 5:1,4 – Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong…When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.

Application:

• ·         The main idea in not taking interest was that no one should profit in any way from another’s misfortune; rather, the needy should be given assistance.
• ·         Sometimes it becomes necessary to express righteous indignation against social injustice.
• ·         God will not be used!
• ·         Those who fear the Lord are those who honor God and order their lives in accordance with his will because of their reverence for Him.
• ·         The Holy Spirit is regarded as God Himself present with His people.
• ·         Think about what you ought to say and do.
• ·         In Scripture the fool is not one who cannot learn but one who refuses to learn.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Refuge

Deuteronomy 23:15-17 – If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them. No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.

Psalm 2:12 – Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Exodus 34:15 – “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

Micah 1:7 – All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her temple gifts will be burned with fire; I will destroy all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.”

Application:

• ·         Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
• ·         Partaking of food sacrificed to a pagan deity invites compromise.
• ·         Prostitution is often an Old Testament symbol for idolatry or spiritual unfaithfulness.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Your Camp Must Be Holy

Deuteronomy 23:10-14 – If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp. Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Exodus 3:5 – “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Leviticus 11:44 –  I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground.

Application:

• ·         Your camp must be holy even as the Lord is holy.
• ·         The ground was not holy by nature but was made so by the divine presence. Holiness involves being consecrated to the Lord’s service and thus being separated from the commonplace.
• ·         Holiness is the key theme of Leviticus, ringing like a refrain in various forms throughout the book. The word “holy” appears more often in Leviticus than in any other book of the Bible. Her holiness was to be expressed in every aspect of her life, to the extent that all of life had a certain ceremonial quality. When God’s holiness is spoken of in the Bible, reference is to (1) His incomparably awesome majesty, and (2) His absolute moral virtue.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Lord Your God Loves You

Deuteronomy 23:4-9 – For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live. Do not despise an Edomite, for the Edomites are related to you. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country. The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.

Deuteronomy 4:37-38 – Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Numbers 24:17 – “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth.

Leviticus 15:31 – “‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’”

Application:

• ·         God loves His people. The corollary truth is that His people should love Him.
• ·         Israel’s future Deliverer will be like a star; he will wield a royal scepter and bring victory over the enemies of his people.
• ·         Sin separates all people from a holy God and results in their death unless atonement is made.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Eunuchs

Deuteronomy 22:24-23:3 – If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her. If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed. No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.

Acts 8:34-35 – The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Application:

• ·         Philip may have identified the suffering servant with the Davidic Messiah or with the Son of Man
• ·         The good news is the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Both The Man...And The Woman Must Die

Deuteronomy 22:13-24 – If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you. If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Application:

• ·         The high fine, in addition to the no-divorce rule, was intended to restrain not only a husband’s charges against his wife but also easy divorce.
• ·         People who engage in sexually immoral practices, as well as the other offenses listed, are explicitly excluded from God’s kingdom.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Cloak You Wear

Deuteronomy 22:2-12 – If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it. If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet. A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this. If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life. When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

Numbers 15:41 – I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’”

Application:

• ·         The God-created differences between men and women are not to be disregarded.
• ·         The demands that God made upon His people were grounded in His act of redemption.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Take It Back To Its Owner

Deuteronomy 21:22-22:1 – If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.

Proverbs 27:10 – Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

Application:

• ·         Christ accepted the full punishment of my sins, thus becoming a curse for me.
• ·         The Biblical legislation was intended not only to punish criminal behavior but also to express concern for people and their possessions.
• ·         Do not fail a friend in need; when in need rely on friendship rather than on mere family relationships.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Stubborn And Rebellious...Does Not Obey

Deuteronomy 21:18-23 – If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Jeremiah 5:23 – But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.

Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Mark 14:64 – “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.

Application:

• ·         Though the sea never crosses its divinely appointed boundaries, God’s people have violated the limits He has set for them.
• ·         Honor means (1) prize highly, (2) care for, (3) show respect for, and (4) obey.
• ·         Blasphemy not only involved reviling the name of God but also included any affront to His majesty or authority. Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah and, in fact, to have majesty and authority belonging only to God was therefore regarded by Caiaphas as blasphemy, for which the Mosaic law prescribed death by stoning.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Dishonored

Deuteronomy 21:8-17 – Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord. When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

1 Kings 8:46-49 – “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

Judges 19:24 – Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”

Genesis 25:31 – Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

Application:

• ·         Solomon knew that stubborn disobedience would lead to exile from the promised land.
• ·         The tragedy of the story of Gibeah lies not only in the decadence of Gibeah but also in the callous selfishness of men who would betray defenseless women to be brutally violated for a whole night.
• ·         It was by God’s appointment and care, not Jacob’s wits, that he came into the blessing.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

To Pronounce Blessings

Deuteronomy 21:3-9 – Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Exodus 39:43 – Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

Numbers 6:24-26 – “‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’

Numbers 35:33 – “‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

Application:

• ·         Moses blessed the Israelites for the faithfulness with which the Israelites had donated their gifts, time and talents in building the tabernacle and all its furnishings—faithfulness in service brings divine benediction.
• ·         The Hebrew for peace is shalom—not the absence of war, but a positive state of rightness and well-being. Such peace comes only from the Lord.
• ·         The crime of murder is not only an offense against the sanctity of life but also a pollutant to the Lord’s sacred land.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV