Do Not Cook A Young Goat In Its Mother's Milk

Deuteronomy 14:12-22 – But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them. But any winged creature that is clean you may eat. Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

Exodus 23:19 – “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Leviticus 17:11 – For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Genesis 28:20-22 – Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Application:

• ·         The reason for the prohibition “do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” is uncertain, but it may be related to the prohibition against slaughtering a mother animal and its offspring.
• ·         Since life was sacred, blood had to be treated with respect. Eating blood was therefore strictly forbidden.
• ·         “Of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” was a way of acknowledging the Lord as His God and King.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Ceremonially Unclean

Deuteronomy 14:3-18 – Do not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you. The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses. Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales. But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean. You may eat any clean bird. But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

Leviticus 4:11-12 – But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the internal organs and the intestines—that is, all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap.

Application:

• ·         The distinction between clean and unclean was a matter of ritual or religious purity, not a concern for physical cleanliness.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

A People Holy To The Lord

Deuteronomy 13:16-14:2 – You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors—because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes. You are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

John 1:12-13 – Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Romans 8:14 – For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Deuteronomy 7:6 – For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

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.

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

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Application:

• ·         Membership in God’s family is by grace alone—the gift of God. It is never a human achievement; yet the imparting of the gift is dependent on human reception of it.
• ·         God is the Father of all in the sense that He created all and His love and providential care are extended to all. But not all are His children. People become children of God through faith in God’s unique Son, and being led by God’s Spirit is the hallmark of this relationship.
• ·         Holy means separated from all corrupting people or things and consecrated totally to the Lord.
• ·         Israel’s 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.
• ·         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.
• ·         God’s people, both individually and collectively, are to be “set apart” to do His will.
• ·         Participation in the divine blessings is conditioned on obedience added to faith.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Troublemakers

Deuteronomy 13:11-18 – Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again. If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors—because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

1 Samuel 2:12 – Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord.

Isaiah 43:28 – So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.

Genesis 13:14 – The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.

Application:

• ·         In Old Testament usage, to “know” the Lord is not just intellectual or theoretical recognition. It is to enter into fellowship with Him and acknowledge His claims on one’s life.
• ·         Jerusalem suffered destruction at the hands of the Babylonians because of idolatry.
• ·         Lot and Abram are a study in contrasts. The former looked selfishly and coveted; the latter looked as God commanded and was blessed.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Revere

Deuteronomy 13:4-10 – It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you. If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Deuteronomy 6:13 – Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Deuteronomy 29:18 – Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before me.

Application:

• ·         In ancient Israel’s world, when appealed to the gods to affirm and uphold their oaths, they singled out the divine power or powers they most revered. For this reason, to take an oath in the Lord’s name was a key sign of loyalty to and trust in Him and of the rejection of all other gods, even an implicit denial that they amounted to anything or even existed.
• ·         “Root…that produces such bitter poison” was the poison of idolatry, involving the rejection of the Lord.
• ·         No deity, real or imagined, was to rival the one true God in Israel’s heart and life.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Do Not Add...Or Take Away

Deuteronomy 12:32-13:3 – See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it. If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:2,29 – Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you…But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Isaiah 8:20 – Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Genesis 22:1 – Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Application:

• ·         The revelation the Lord gives is sufficient. All of it must be obeyed, and anything that adulterates or contradicts it cannot be tolerated.
• ·         Only by heeding the Lord’s word through Isaiah—reinforced by the “signs and symbols” that Isaiah and his sons represented—would the light dawn for Israel.
• ·         Satan tempts us in order to make us fall; God tests us in order to confirm our faith or prove our commitment.
• ·         To love King Yahweh is to be His loyal and obedient servant. Love for God and neighbor is built on the love that the Lord has for His people and on His identification with them. Such love is to be total, involving one’s whole being.
• ·         “With all your heart and…soul” indicates total involvement and commitment. The phrase is applied not only to how the Lord’s people should seek Him but also to how they should fear Him, live in obedience to Him, love and serve Him, and, after forsaking Him, renew their allegiance and commitment to Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Ensnared

Deuteronomy 12:4,28-31 – You must not worship the Lord your God in their way…Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God. The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Exodus 10:7 – Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”

Leviticus 18:21 – “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Application:

• ·         Human rebellion and disobedience always bring death and destruction in their wake.
• ·         The rituals and accessories of idolatrous worship were not to be used to worship the Lord, the one true God. Everything that does not honor Him must be eliminated from His people’s worship.
• ·         Whatever blatantly violates God’s revealed will desecrates His name because it fails to honor His holiness.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV