Deuteronomy 7:10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Aren't we suppose to love those who hate us?
Exodus 21:17 Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Do you think this is a bit extreme?
Exodus 19:12-13 Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.”
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
I have to admit when I stared the blog I did not expect to make it through January without running out of scriptures to post. Boy was I wrong.
Deuteronomy 23:3-4 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
I'm sure they had to have done a lot more than what this verse mentions in order to have an almost lifetime ban from being a part of the congregation.
Deuteronomy 23:2 One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
In other words, if a child is born illegitimately, they are excluded from being a part of the congregation. Not only that but also all their descendants for 10 generations.
I do wonder who kept track of this data.
Deuteronomy 23:10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
This must make for some very interesting conversations "outside the camp."
Numbers 1:51 Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Other translations say "stranger" or "layman" or "outsider." However, it does seem as if it applies to anyone who is not a Levite.
Deuteronomy 6:13-15 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Is jealousy an attribute we can attribute to God?
Micah 2:1-3 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the LORD: “ Behold, against this family I am devising evil, from which you cannot save yourselves; Nor shall you walk proudly, for it will be a time of evil.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
We have to remember that God sets the rules and those rules set for man does not necessarily apply to him. This passage proves just this point. It is "woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil." However, at the same time, God was "devising evil" against them as a response.
Numbers 19:1-10 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: "This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.
While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and offal. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer.
After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.
"A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
The Bible has many of these strange rituals. Why does an omnipotent, omniscient, infinite God need these types of rituals to interact with his creation?
Leviticus 24:19-20 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
This is one of the laws Jesus modified. Can you imagine being in charge of enforcing this law?
Exodus 35:1-3 Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day."
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Why does it seem like "death" is always the punishment from a loving God?
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Ok. Put yourself in this girls shoes. She's raped. Now her father gets 50 shekels of silver and she has to marry her rapist. Does this sound like a good deal for this victim?
Deuteronomy 22:23-24 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Isn't this a classic case of further victimizing a victim?
Exodus 34:19-20 “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
1. Why does a firstborn donkey need redeeming with a lamb?
Exodus 30:17-21 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.
Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; When they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the LORD. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they will not die; and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations."
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
.... so that they will not die.
Exodus 21:7-11 And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
If you're this young lady, here's your fate:
1) You are sold by your father as a slave
2) If you do not please your master, you must be redeemed
3) You cannot be sold to foreigners
4) If you're selected to marry your master's son, you become a daughter
5) If your husband then marries another you cannot be deprived of your marital rights
6) However, if you are deprived of these, you must go free
Two opportunies for freedom. Not bad.
Exodus 15:26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
This is a favorite verse of the Pentecostal/Charismatic community. It's used to preach the value of listening to the word, paying attention to the word and obeying the word as it pertains to receiving one's healing. "I am the Lord who heals you" is a much used quote.
However, did you notice the threat? In other words, if you do not do as God wants, he will send diseases on you as he brought on the Egyptians. Is it God who sends diseases on people?
Genesis 17:14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Wouldn't this be the parent's issue for not having the child circumcised? Why is the child going to be abandoned and cut off from his family?
Numbers 5:11-31 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure- then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt.
" 'The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the LORD. Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, "If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping with a man other than your husband"- here the priest is to put the woman under this curse of the oath-"may the LORD cause your people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh wastes away."
" 'Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it."
" 'The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water will enter her and cause bitter suffering. The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause bitter suffering; her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away, and she will become accursed among her people. If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
" 'This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and defiles herself while married to her husband, or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and is to apply this entire law to her. The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.' "
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
Huh?
