Here’s how the study works: Read the chapters mentioned in the heading during the week and share any words, thoughts, verses that stood out to you. Having a week for several chapters creates the opportunity to revisit them and make additional comments as you feel inclined as well as make comments on other people’s insights.
16:14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.
God wants his people, all his people, to be joyful and celebrate, to express their gratitude.
16:14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.
God wants his people, all his people, to be joyful and celebrate, to express their gratitude.
17:14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses.
God actually never wanted Israel to have a king, since he was their king – nevertheless he allowed them to have a king and stipulated it had to be a king of his choice.
Note the three things the king wasn’t to do: “must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself” (v. 16); “must not take many wives” (v. 17); and “must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (v. 17).
17:14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses.
God actually never wanted Israel to have a king, since he was their king – nevertheless he allowed them to have a king and stipulated it had to be a king of his choice.
Note the three things the king wasn’t to do: “must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself” (v. 16); “must not take many wives” (v. 17); and “must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (v. 17).
18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
Ultimately this was Jesus but God also raised up other prophets before Jesus. Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15); Aaron (Exodus 7:1); Miriam (Exodus 15:20); Abraham (Genesis 20:7) etc. However, Jesus was the one most like Moses.
God has always wanted to communicate with his people and still speaks with his people today.
18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
Ultimately this was Jesus but God also raised up other prophets before Jesus. Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15); Aaron (Exodus 7:1); Miriam (Exodus 15:20); Abraham (Genesis 20:7) etc. However, Jesus was the one most like Moses.
God has always wanted to communicate with his people and still speaks with his people today.
19:8-9 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities.
There is no record of these extra three cities of refuge being designated probably because the Israelites never occupied the land in its full extent as promised to Abraham because they did not “love the Lord” and “walk always in obedience to him.”
God has more to give us yet we don’t receive it because we don’t fully trust God.
19:8-9 If the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he promised on oath to your ancestors, and gives you the whole land he promised them, because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities.
There is no record of these extra three cities of refuge being designated probably because the Israelites never occupied the land in its full extent as promised to Abraham because they did not “love the Lord” and “walk always in obedience to him.”
God has more to give us yet we don’t receive it because we don’t fully trust God.
20:5-7 The officers shall say to the army:
“Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it? Let him go home . . .
Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home . . .
Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home . . . ”
(From Constable’s Commentary) “Mixed with the demand for compulsory military service then, was a leaven of compassion that made possible to all men the enjoyment of that which constitutes life in its fullest—home, sustenance and family love” Besides which, “Israel did not need a large army since God would fight for her.”
20:5-7 The officers shall say to the army:
“Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it? Let him go home . . .
Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home . . .
Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home . . . ”
(From Constable’s Commentary) “Mixed with the demand for compulsory military service then, was a leaven of compassion that made possible to all men the enjoyment of that which constitutes life in its fullest—home, sustenance and family love” Besides which, “Israel did not need a large army since God would fight for her.”