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Deuteronomy 19-21
Antidote to Anxiety,
and Parenting
Psalm 30:1-7 Exalting, Praising, and Thanking God
1.“I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.2.Yahweh my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.3.Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.4.Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.5.For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.6.As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved."7.You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.”Observations
30:1-3.“Extol” comes from a Hebrew word that means to lift up. David lifts up God's name/reputation because God lifted him up out of a bad situation.
30:4.
Praise usually focuses on the character of God, who He is. Thanksgiving is usually giving thanks (duh!) for how God has manifested His character in action on our behalf. Who He is leads to what He does. The better we know God, the better we can trust Him.
30:5-7.
God might discipline temporarily, but only to bless us more, for a lifetime.
Application
Call to God for help, then praise Him to others.
Prayer
God, I praise You for being the God who hears and helps and heals His holy ones. Thank you for showing me Your favor and giving me joy that lasts. Amen.
Proverbs 8:12-13 Virtues and Vices
12."I, wisdom, dwell with prudence. I possess knowledge and discretion.13.The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.”Observations
8:12.Wisdom and prudence/shrewdness are roommates, and we can get to know them, along with two other virtues: knowledge and discretion by studying Proverbs (1:4 for teaching shrewdness to the inexperienced/naive, knowledge and discretion to the young)
8:13.
Once we get God's perspective on life from verse 12, we embrace what God does want and eschew what He doesn't want, developing a fear of God. A concern for God's desires leads us to hate evil, elaborated upon by naming four vices: pride, arrogance, evil works and perverse words.
Application
Our study of God's word must impact our values, identity, works and words.
Prayer
Lord, help me learn Your ways, so I may love what You love, and hate what You hate. Amen.
Deuteronomy 19-21 Antidote to Anxiety, and Parenting
The content of these three chapters flow loosely from the fifth commandment to not murder.
Deuteronomy 19 Cities and Courts
1.When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you...2.you shall set apart three cities...4.This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn`t hate him in time past...8.If Yahweh your God enlarge your border, as He has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers;9.if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in His ways; then you shall add three cities more, besides these three:10.that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land...11.But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;12.then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.13.Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.14.You shall not remove your neighbor`s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess.15.One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin...at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.16.If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,17.then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges18.and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;19.then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.20.Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more such evil in the midst of you.21.Your eyes shall not pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.Deuteronomy 20 Antidote To Anxiety
1.When you go to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people greater than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.2.It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,3.and shall tell them, "Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don`t let your heart faint; don`t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be you scared of them;4.for Yahweh your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save/deliver you."5.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.What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.7.What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her."8.The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, "What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother`s heart melt as his heart."9.It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.10.When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.11.It shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.12.If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:13.and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:14.but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.15.Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.16.But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;17.but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you;18.that they not teach you to do according to all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.19.When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?20.Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.
Observations
20:1.An antidote to anxiety is to recognize that the God who is with us is the God who has been with us, and done and promised great things for us. Therefore one could trust His loyal love in the future, especially when carrying out His commands.
20:3-4.
Emotional control is an act of the will, based upon truth addressed to the mind. Make sure you know how that works. The people were commanded to not have a perfectly legitimate emotional response to a potentially terrifying situation, because they knew who God is, what He'd done, and what He'd promised. The presence of the Supernatural changes the game, making naturally legitimate responses illegitimate.
20:5-8.
Note the first three exemptions. The fourth would appear illegitimate in light of the first four verses, but it appears that God is gracious to the timid, so as not to corrupt the braver (Dt 1:28). In Judges 7:3 two thirds of the army left when given this choice. God doesn't need our help to achieve victory, but those who strive and win, get greater blessings.
20:10-15.
God instructs the Israelites to first offer peace to the more distant nations.
20:17.
The nations listed here are those that God raised up the seed of Abraham to specifically judge for their iniquity (Gen 15). The war was “justified” and commanded by God, and both preceded and superseded the commandment to not murder (which was not a ban on all killing).
Application
Try explaining to someone else the “antidote to anxiety” principles from the observations on the first four verses. Listen to the sermon on Caleb if you have difficulty.
Prayer
Mighty God, thanks for being with me, fighting for me, and delivering me; may I never fear to do what You have commanded. Amen.
Deuteronomy 21 Dead Bodies, Domestic Issues, and Delinquents
1.If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn`t known who has struck him3.the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer, which has not drawn in the yoke;4.and bring the heifer to a valley with running water, and shall break the heifer`s neck there in the valley.5.The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be (decided).6.All the elders of that city shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;7.and they shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.8.Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don`t allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Israel." The blood shall be forgiven them.9.So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.10.When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,11.and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire towards her, and would take her to you as wife;12.then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;13.and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.14.It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
15.If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have both borne him children; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated;16.then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:17.but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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.
18.If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them;19.then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;20.and they shall tell the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard."21.All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.22.If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;23.his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
Observations
21:1-9.Since God sees everything, even a mysterious murder can bring guilt and consequent judgment upon the land, so the sin needed a sacrifice for forgiveness.
21:10-17.
God is concerned about the justice for the powerless, be it a captive (rape prohibited) or an unloved child (inheritance safeguarded). In Deut 25 polygamy is mandated in the case of levirate marriage of a brother's childless widow, although Gen 2:24 is considered the ideal of two becoming one. The penalty for having four wives is four mothers-in-law :)
21:18-21.
Kids a problem? No kids; no problem. This passage provides a triple incentive: first for the parents to discipline their kids (key to self-worth and confidence – see The Magic Lamp of Self-Esteem); second for the child to obey (stones do hurt the bones); third for the community to remove evil behavior from their midst. This might seem harsh to those who don't value holiness and obeying God. A self-centered escapist, lacking self-discipline and seeking only self-indulgence, does little to fulfill God's purpose for them being on earth. They will contribute nothing to others except grief and misery. So why should they continue to consume societal resources? If not obeying God, who gives them life, does one really have a purpose for living? The stoning is not applicable in most societies today, but the principle is.
Application
The most relevant application to most reading this is to make sure you are a Biblical parent. For those without kids, and/or who didn't have perfect parents, see the section on re-parenting yourself in the resources listed under Digging Deeper.
Prayer
Holy God Whose name I praise, may I demonstrate holiness in my family life, by following Your instructions with all my heart and soul. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God delivers on His promises to bless or curse, depending upon our behavior (and belief); He makes allowances for our frailty, but not our rebellion. He cares about justice for the powerless. Since He is the Author and Sustainer of life, He will justly destroy those who devalue His gift of life by failing to use it for His purposes.
Us in a nutshell: God always requires us to guide our behavior by His revelation. Just like we have trained ourselves to respond emotionally one way, we can train ourselves to respond differently. It's a matter of perspective and values. If we fail to live according to His purposes, we fail to have a purpose for living.
Where to go for more
Truthbase.net has lots of Biblical Parenting resources
Caleb A Whole-Hearted Believer
Perfection and Perfectionism (Re-parenting Guide is in the Q&A at the end of the sermon and on the bottom of outline)