Deuteronomy Chapter 23 Discussion Page 2

God is holy. He doesn 't accept rewards of the children of men. He abhors unrighteousness and the wages of it. He forbids prostitution and will never receive offerings from cash obtained from the sinfulness of man. He who sells a dog must also like a prostitute never give offerings from money gained from such businesses. These two businesses are alike in the sight of the LORD.

One should realize that the word "dog " is an idiom, it refers to the position assumed. 23 18 is saying that prostitutes, whether they be male or female, will not be allowed to make a Vow offering. A vow is a promise or a contract. The Priests, for a fee, were guaranteeing contracts.

The second word in verse 2 is not meant to be understood as it is in the modern language one born out of wedlock. The word in the Hebrew language is a Mamzer, check Strong s Concordance 4464 and is also called a mongrel, which is someone that s half of the one of the tribes of Israel and half of a heathen nation, which classified them as hybrids. The reason why hybrids couldn t serve in any leadership capacity in the congregation for ten generations is because it took that long for that tribe s contaminated bloodline to return to its original state of purity.

To further comment on verse 2...Since the law of forgiveness that became effective after Christ 's resurrection...Those who are allowed to serve Almighty God is "whomsoever will " !!!

It is very important to understand the economy that is how life was lived versus the ideal of how life was to be lived of any given culture and people The Jews were too live under God s economy This was in stark contrast to what they had seen in Egypt and the natural bend of humans to live No one is condemned to Hell before they are born but to prevent a nation from having a number of children born fatherless this statute was put into place to convince the male and female to not engage is sex and produce a child that will be subject to this statute

This is a very harsh rule, but what ever God commands must be GOOD, by definition. If He commanded me to kill all my neighbors, I would have to do it. If He commanded my neighbors to kill me and my family, I would gladly present myself and my family to them and smile with joy whilst they cut off our heads or stone us, what ever seems appropriate to our loving, but just God.

Shalom - Salam - Peace to all.
Strange that we are so concerned with an English translation of God's Word to mankind, don't you think?
After all, in the original this had nothing to do with what our Lord intended for us to reflect on, don't you think?
Just asking . . ?

God is practical.
To think he shared our humanity and all the expressions of human nature and at the same time in human form to contain the fulness of the GODHEAD is something we fail to acknowledge. Who can take this in? Christ the LORD

We all agree that God's words doesn't come back to him void but when it does not suit us we make excuses. We have as many wars now as back then, the time will come when we all must accept the truth

Thank you. For your explanation but could you explain it further. Is it considerably like. Interest? Thank you.

Nate, in verse 2, in my opinion, it does not mean a ** is going to hell, it means he, as it says, unto his 10th generation can not be part of the congregation of the Lord which would be the assembly of persons met for the worship of God.

Well put Joshua D!

I have to respectfully disagree with Elathi's comments. If anyone is a simpler people living in a simpler time it's us in today's age. One thing we often forget is that when this was written they didn't have a complete Word of God. They didn't have a Savior in Jesus. They only had the hope of both. If you read the Old Testament there were more wars, and no official law. These books acted as a law for Israel, and one has to consider that much of what is written was not God's will, but what was needed at the time. Take divorcement, which is spoken of in Deuteronomy, but Jesus himself said that it was written only because of the hardness of their own hearts, and was never God's will. It's not to say that God's Word isn't true, just that he gives some things to show us that our way is not the best. It was not God's will for Israel to have a King, nor was Saul his chosen man, yet he allowed Israel to have what they wanted to prove a point, that God's way is always best. We should always look to Jesus' teachings to be the final say.

Now while some punishments may seem harsh to us today, we should look at how "simple" and selfish we can be as people. In our society murderers get off free because of technicalties, rapists and child molesters are given minimal jail time and treated like victims themselves because they say they had rough childhoods, people sit at home and collect welfare and disability often for no reason. We have every luxury in life that Israel never had. We have a complete Word of God at our fingertips, we have the knowledge of and payment of Jesus', yet you read the lengths Israel went to to please and worship God. They detail of the tabernacle, the sacrifices they had to make, and yet we're the ones with all the convenience and I know very few people who give to or obey God as much as even some of the simplest servants in these times.

I'm tempted to think it'd cause more harm than good to try forcing the Word upon people by posting it on schoolboards.

The penalties for things seem harsh because they are harsh. They're artificial (as far as I can tell) rules for a simpler people in a much simpler time.

The Bible is indeed full of common sense, but try to properly sort through it. Sometimes it contradicts itself.

Please forgive me, though. I only came to look up a specific verse, but I saw this comment and there were insinuations my admittedly naive understanding disagreed with.

The Bible is full of common sense and Deuteronomy 23 covers just about everything including personal cleanliness, camp hygiene and not being greedy with what does not belong to you.Somethings may seem a bit harsh to the modern reader but society seems to have lost its' way and chapter 23 should be posted on all school notice boards.