Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / July 23 - Deuteronomy 23

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July 23 - Deuteronomy 23 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here. It's Wednesday, it's the 23rd of
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  July, and I'm so delighted that you have tapped on play, invited
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  me into whatever your day looks like, whether you are by your
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  lonesome, whether you are with your loved one, whether you're
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  with your family, whether you are with some friends, wherever
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  you are listening. So good to have your company as
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  you and I are going to keep on reading through God's word on
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  today, which is the most extreme day of the year.
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  That's right. This is the day that
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  statistically gets the hottest in the summer of the Northern
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  hemisphere and the coldest in the winter of the Southern
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  hemisphere, and it's a little over a month behind the
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  solstice. Well, because our oceans are
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  particularly good at holding a temperature, so it takes takes
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  them about a month to catch up with the fact that we are
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  warming up or cooling down, depending on where you are.
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  So here we are at the day of extremes, and this is a day that
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  we continue with these extremes of not committing adultery.
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  And then toward the latter half of this reading, this chapter,
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  we are going to move into Do Not Steal where it will begin,
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  looking at the dignity of people and their possessions.
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  And so this is this continuation of Moses unpacking God's law for
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  what it's going to look like for the Israelite people as they
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  leave their time in the wilderness and enter into the
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  promised land. What it treats that we get to
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  hear this word of instruction, this order, this setting up of
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  the way things will be for the society, and listen to God's
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  themes as they ring through the ages right here to your life and
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  to mine. So let's do just that as we
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  continue reading together. Deuteronomy chapter 23.
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  If a man's testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may
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  not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.
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  If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his
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  descendants for 10 generations may be admitted to the assembly
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  of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite or any of
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  their descendants for 10 generations may be admitted to
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  the assembly of the Lord. These nations did not welcome
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  you with food and water when you came out of Egypt.
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  Instead, they hide Balaam son of Beor from Pathor in distant Aram
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  Naharam to curse you. But the Lord your God refused to
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  listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse
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  into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you as long as
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  you live. You must never promote the
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  welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.
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  Do not detest the Edomites or the Egyptians because the
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  Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among
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  the Egyptians. The third generation of Edomites
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  and Egyptians may enter the assembly of the Lord.
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  When you go to war against your enemies, be sure to stay away
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  from anything that is impure. Any man who becomes ceremonially
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  defiled because of a nocturnal omission must leave the camp and
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  stay away all day. Toward evening he must bathe
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  himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.
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  You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can
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  go to relieve yourself. Each of you must have a spade as
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  part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself,
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  dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement.
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  The camp must be holy, for the Lord your God moves around in
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  your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies.
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  He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn
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  away from you. If the slaves should escape from
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  their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them
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  over to their masters. Let them live among you in any
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  town they choose, and do not oppress them.
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  No Israelite where the man or woman may become a temple
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  prostitute. If you are bringing an offering
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  to fulfil a vow, you must not bring to the House of the Lord
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  your God any offering from the earnings of a prostitute,
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  whether a man or a woman, for both are detestable to the Lord
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  your God. Do not charge interest on the
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  loans you make to a fellow Israelite, whether you loan
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  money or food or anything else. You may charge interest to
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  foreigners, but you may not charge interest to Israelites so
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  that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you do in the
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  land you are about to enter and occupy.
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  When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in
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  fulfilling whatever you promised him, for the Lord your God
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  demands that you promptly fulfil all your vows, or you will be
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  guilty of sin. However, it is not a sin to
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  refrain from making a vow. But once you have voluntarily
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  made a vow, be careful to fulfil your promise to the Lord your
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  God. When you enter your neighbour's
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  vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not
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  carry any away in a basket. And when you enter your
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  neighbour's field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain
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  with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.
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  Jesus, thank you that you are not an aloof, distant, far away
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  and uninterested God. Here you wade deep into the
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  stuff of our lives, the shameful places, the practical places,
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  the celebratory places. Thank you that you have this
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  keen interest in US and the ups and downs and the middle
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  mundanities of our lives. Thank you that when you come to
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  save us and transform us and to draw us into your family, that
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  is not just a ceremonial change, but it changes our very being.
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  We become your children and we are members of your family, and
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  that calls us to a different way of being.
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  Jesus, I pray that your transformational work in US
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  continues and that your Spirit grows in US to make us daily
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  more and more like the people you made us to be, so that in
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  this world and by our lives we can shine Your presence, your
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  light, and your love and a different way of being.
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  And thank you that you first showed us this different way of
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  being with your generosity and your love and your selflessness.
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  You are good to us and we love you.
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  We pray all of this in your name, Jesus, Amen.