(Deuteronomy)
THE LEVITES’ INHERITANCE
All the tribes of Israel received land as their inheritance. These lands
not only served as a place to live in, but also as a source of sustenance
whenever they worked on it. However, one of the tribes did not receive land as
their inheritance…
(Deut. 18:1-2) The Levitical
priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with
Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their
inheritance. (2) They shall have no inheritance among their brothers;
the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
The special role that the Levites would fulfill
had already been mentioned in chapter 10…
(Deut. 10:8-9) At that time
the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry 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 or
inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance, as
the LORD your God said to him.
If they had no land to provide for themselves,
what would the Levites live off of? The Lord gave them a special provision:
they would get the tithe and the first fruits of the production of the other
tribes of Israel, aside from the food that came from the sacrifices and the
animal and grain offerings.
(Deut. 18:3-5) And this shall
be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether
an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks
and the stomach. (4) The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of
your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. (5) For
the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and
minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time.
Also in the book of Numbers it speaks about this
special portion for the Levites…
(Num. 18:20-21) And
the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land,
neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your
inheritance among the people of Israel. (21) To the Levites I have given every
tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do,
their service in the tent of meeting
Paul referred to the portion of the ministers of
God in the Temple, and explained that their service was equivalent to the believing
ministers of his time.
(1 Corinthians 9:13-14) Do
you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food
from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial
offerings? (14) In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who
proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Most of the Levites didn’t live in Jerusalem, but
in the 48 Levitical cities which
were all over the land of Israel (Num. 35:7-8). These were inhabited cities
with common lands surrounding them for their food harvests. In those cities,
the Levites served the local people as judges and teachers of the Law (Heb.
Torah); but their main job was to serve God in the Temple of Jerusalem.
(Deut. 18:6-7) And if a Levite
comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come
when he desires—to the place that the LORD will choose, (7) and
ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow
Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD
Although the Levites didn’t receive any land
inheritance, they kept the best portion: to serve the Lord. The service of the
Levites in the Temple was split among 24 groups, and each one would serve for two
weeks per year (1 Chronicles 24:4-18). In Jerusalem they would get a place to
stay and food when they arrived to serve God (Deut. 18:8).
YOU SHALL
NOT IMITATE THE ABOMINATIONS
When the Israelites would enter the Promised Land,
they would not find a deserted land, but an inhabited land. Over and over
again, the Torah warns them to clean the land of all idolatry and of all the
abominations of the people who lived there before them.
(Deut. 18:9-12) When
you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you
shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. (10)
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as
an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or
interprets omens, or a sorcerer (11) or a charmer or a medium or a
necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, (12) for whoever does these
things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations
the LORD your God is driving them out before you.
The definitions of these abominations are the
following:
- Burning his son or daughter: this practice was associated with the worship of the pagan god Moloch, who demanded the sacrifice of a son or daughter.
- Divination: is looking to know the future through magic or other mediums that have nothing to do with science or reason.
- Fortune telling or Interpreting Omens: predicts evil or misfortunes.
- Sorcery: a divination that is not based on science or reason, but on magic.
- Charms: magical and evil powers that are used to dominate the will of a person or to control the course of the events.
- Necromancy (or magic): an occult science that pretends to produce surprising effects with the help of secret forces of nature.
a. “White magic”: the use of natural mediums that seem supernatural
b. “Black magic”: making extraordinary things with the help of a demon
- Inquiring of the dead: divination of the future though invoking the spirit of the dead.
The Canaanite nations used to practice those abominations,
but the Torah clearly warns Israel not to imitate these evil traditions.
(Deut. 18:14) for these
nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to
diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do
this.
PERFECT
In contrast with the pagan traditions of the other
nations, the Bible says that Israel is called to be “perfect”…
(Deut. 18:13, CEB) Instead,
you must be perfect before the LORD your God.
What does it mean to “be perfect”?
It obviously does not mean to “have no defects”,
because no human being is perfect. Instead, it means to have integrity and to
be straight. The word that is translated as “perfect” in Hebrew is: Tamiym,
which can also be translated as: complete (or whole), straight, truthful, and
sincere.
A person of
integrity is one that acts with righteousness. He makes an effort at all times
to do things as God commands; and in case he makes a mistake, he rectifies his
mistake. This is someone who would be considered “perfect” or with integrity in
the Biblical concept (Heb. Tamiym).
The call to “be perfect”, or blameless, goes back
to Abraham…
(Genesis 17:1) You shall be blameless
before the LORD your God
In the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus also calls us to
be perfect…
(Matthew 5:48) You therefore
must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Being perfect is related to imitating God.
(Luke 6:40) A disciple is
not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his
teacher.
Being perfect has to be the goal of the believers
(2 Cor. 7:1), and it is a process that last a whole lifetime. Paul is an
example of that…
(Philippians 3:12-15) Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (13) Brothers, I do
not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (15)
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think
otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Every believer must aim at being perfect. Each one
has to give the best of them, and the Lord will do the rest (Col. 1:28-29).
The opposite of looking to be perfect would be to be
“double-minded”, and this is something James talks about:
(James 1:8) he is a
double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
A “double-minded” person is sometimes good, and
other times acts wrongly without repenting. This person will usually judge
others harshly, but is forgiving when looking at his own life. The double-mind
is a matter of the heart that is reflected in the actions. That is why James
says:
(James 4:8) Draw near to
God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify
your hearts, you double-minded.
The Bible mentions the concept of integrity (“to
be perfect”; Heb. Tamim) comparing it to the abominations that the other nations commit.
God calls his people Israel to be different, set apart… to be holy as God is
holy (Lev. 20:23-27).
A PROPHET AMONG YOU
In contrast with the
magical arts, the Bible presents the image of the prophet…
Some might have the
temptation of looking at the “prophet” as the Biblical version of the magician
or the sorcerer, but nothing could be further from the truth. While magicians
look to manipulate the present and the future at their own will, the biblical
prophet leads us to submit to the will of God.
The Biblical prophet
is simply a voice that God uses to reveal His will. Many can identify the
prophet with the concept of “predicting the future”, but that is not the
essence of his purpose. In reality, the prophet is someone who speaks what God
wants to say to His people, whether it be about the future, the present, or
even related to the past. Prophet in Hebrew is: Navi, which comes
from the verb Navah which means: to speak by inspiration (or to
prophesy).
Now let’s see what
the Bible says in regard to the prophet in Devarim 18…
(Deut. 18:15-18) The LORD your God will
raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to
him you shall listen— (16) just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on
the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the
LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ (17) And the LORD
said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. (18) I will raise up for
them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in
his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
The prophet is an
intermediary between God and His people. What he speaks is what God told him,
and that is why we need to pay attention to what the prophet says.
(Deut. 18:19) And whoever will not
listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of
him.
The people must obey
the prophet. But, does this apply to every prophet? While the prophet speaks in
the name of God, we do have to listen to his words; but the Bible also warns us
to be careful with the false prophets…
FALSE PROPHETS
The Bible defines the
“false prophet” as someone who speaks something that God has not told him. And
the consequence to such a fault is very serious…
(Deut. 18:20) But the prophet who
presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or
who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
The punishment
is severe because the danger is very serious, since it could mislead the people
of God. However, it is difficult to distinguish between who is a false prophet
and who is a real one. The Torah teaches us a way to determine that…
(Deut.
18:21-22) And if you say in your heart, ‘How
may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— (22) when a
prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass
or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the
prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
I WILL
RAISE A PROPHET
The description of the prophet of God in this
chapter has a hidden messianic message.
(Deut. 18:15) The LORD your
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it
is to him you shall listen…
Giving testimony of Jesus as the Messiah, Peter
pointed out that He is the prophet that had been promised in Devarim…
(Acts 3:22-23) Moses said,
‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You
shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. (23) And it shall be that
every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the
people.’
Jesus Christ (in Hebrew, Yeshua HaMashiach) is the sent prophet, who speaks what God the
Father has spoken, and to Him we must obey.
(John 12:49-50) For
I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself
given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. (50) And I know that
his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has
told me.
More posts on the book of Deuteronomy: Devarim
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