Deuteronomy Chapter 17, Part 1: Only the Best for God; and Purge Evil from Our Midst
Deuteronomy 17:1-7 – Gems and Thoughts from the Passage
This passage, the first 7 verses of Deuteronomy chapter 17, and in fact down to verse 13, is not even given a heading title by the publisher of my bible. Let’s look at the first two.
In verse 1, the Israelites were told that when it came to sacrificing animals to God, nothing but the best would do. No animals with any blemishes were permitted. Simple lesson for us – when we give to God or to others because we love God, do we give the best. Our church had a food drive these last two weeks and recommended some items we could bring in. When my wife and I went shopping, admittedly these items were not ones that we buy at this stage of our lives. But in picking each one, we didn’t go for the cheapest – we went for the best of the choices before us. In participating in this food drive for those less fortunate than ourselves, we were giving to God. And He should always get the best.
Verses 2 to 5 require the Israelites to take action upon hearing that someone has done evil “in the sight of the Lord” by “worshipping other gods”. People like that “in your midst” are to be dealt with. In those days, the requirement was that they be stoned to death. But not before the matter was thoroughly investigated and actually found to be true. In fact, two witnesses were required to find someone guilty (vs. 6). Of course, today, no one can go out and stone someone else. But the point here is that God does not want us to tolerate sin, certainly idolatry, in our midst. For us that may be our family, our church, etc. We need to ask ourselves how much we are tolerating today that God would not want us to tolerate?
This is a big issue for many Christians today and for many families. As younger generations are moving away from God, are older generations having to be more tolerant of things that would fall under these few verses? A few words of caution here.
First, make sure that what you find intolerable is indeed a sin against God and not just something you do not like, or something you would never think of doing. Second, never lose sight of the importance of loving the sinner unquestionably while you may detest the sin. Third, make sure you are being led by the Holy Spirit in your actions in these matters, and not by your emotions or preferences for personal or other reasons.
Remember the whole point of verses 2 to 7 is to “purge the evil from (our) midst”. It is not necessarily to do away with the transgressor. This is a place where one can use James Dobson’s “tough love” philosophy. “Friend, son, daughter, spouse, I love you and I always will. I don’t want to lose you, but you realize that I cannot, nor will I, condone your behavior.”
Life is so complicated these days. Increased sin has crept in to all our lives. We face it all the time. A teenager got carried away on their cellphone and forgot they had an on-line class until well into the class. They got on it and simply said, “Sorry for being late; I was having trouble with my wi-fi.” That was a blatant lie. When challenged, they responded, “My teacher wouldn’t have accepted anything less.” The fact remains they didn’t have to lie. “Sorry for being late” may well have sufficed. Any adult aware of the situation would want that “evil” (the sin of lying) purged for their midst. But today, those lies of convenience aren’t even considered as lies. Life is indeed complicated these days.
May God give us all grace and wisdom to stand up, in His way, to the evil in our midst.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
Your opening paragraph reminds me of an incident from my childhood that corresponds. It was “White Gift Sunday” on which we were encouraged to bring canned goods wrapped in white tissue paper and deposit them in a large barrel at the front of the church to be distributed to the less fortunate. We boys hated vegetable soup so we took the opportunity to get several cans of it out of the pantry to take to church and thus remove them from our supply. Mom figured out immediately what we were up to and replaced them with cream of chicken soup, our favorite then proceeded to give us a lecture on our poor attitude. Why would we want to give the poor something less than what we wanted for ourselves ? In a round about way that relates to giving our best to God. Matt.25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”
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