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Deuteronomy Chapter 17 "Civil
Law, Judges Duties [2-13]." This
Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location Deuteronomy 17:1 "Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evil favourness: for that is an abomination unto the Lord thy God." Our sacrifice unto the Lord is our love and devotion to God. If you set something and give it a priority over the living God, it has become an idol to you. You then worship it, more than God. There is all sorts of ideas today as to what the "mark of the beast" is. It is not what is on your forehead, but what is "in" your forehead that seals you one way or another. It is what is in your mind that determines what you think and worship. God is completely fair and they can put markings from one end of your body to the other, yet that doesn't determine what and who you worship. If your inner self is true to our Father you would be pure in the eyes of God. It is what is in your mind that matters and God knows what is in there. God is the only one that judges you in those things that really matter. Grove worship does go on today, as people meet in their rituals, secret places and hideaways, only we are not to participate in any part of it. Be careful in your own life that you don't allow a love of any kind to take priority over the love that you have for your heavenly Father. Your soul is created in such a fashion that you can love God with your whole being, and still have a wonderful love for your mate, your family and those that need love that we are to give in our Christian life. However we are to love the people around us less than we love the almighty God, or we will lose many of God's blessings. So in this verse, we know that blood ritual is completely done away with when Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross. However there is no way that we can see what this verse represents unless we understand this original type. Love is hard to explain, but in loving Christ, God is saying; "Don't you bring to My altar anything that has a blemish on it." Don't try to love the Lord with a love that isn't whole and perfect. This should give us a guide as to what you send to the Father to show your love to Him. Is your love and gift to Him of the very best, the first of the flock, of the wage, of your labor, or is some left over second, the money that is left after the bills have been paid and all your earthly desires have been satisfied. What you give to the Lord and how you give it shows your love to the Father. It shows how you trust Him to provide for your needs and the direction and things that you hold to be important in your life. Perfect love is honest with the Father, and has no strings attached. You love Him because He gave His life for you. In Moses day when the sacrifices were the blood of animals, the bulls and sheep that were sacrificed to God had to be the best of the herd, the superior of the flock. God would accept nothing but the finest that you had, and He expected it. It was the way that they showed their love of the Father. Today there is no more animal sacrifice, but God still expects the very best that you have, and that even goes for your substance. In as much as God has told us through His Son, "I don't want your sacrifices, I want your love, and don't let it be blemished." Hebrews 10:8 "Above when He said, "Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein;" which are offered by the law;" Hebrews 10:9 "Then said He, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second." Hebrews 10:10 "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Jesus Christ came to fulfill every word of the law, and in His death and resurrection He fulfilled every promise of the law and the prophecies of the Old Testament dealing with animal sacrifice. He fulfilled those things dealing with blood sacrifice which was the things of the "first", so that the "second" could be fulfilled in the blood of Christ. This is why God expect the quality of your love to be the very best that you have to offer. Deuteronomy 17:2 "If there be found among you within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing His covenant," This refers to the covenant that God made with Abraham and also Moses through the commandments. It is referring to the breaking of the commandments and the other statutes. Deuteronomy 17:3 "And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;" "Other gods" are like that business deal, the new car, or those rites over there in that grove. The idol that makes you to busy for anything else, is the idol that is the worst. God placed the sun, moon and stars in the heaven to give us light and signs. They are part of God's creation, and we are to worship the creator and not His creation. Those things are signs for our planting crops, and giving us the seasons and times of the year. There is nothing wrong in studying and knowing the signs of the heavens. However we are to place nothing else before the Lord. Revelation 4:11 "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The "hosts of heaven" are the angles, created souls just like the created stars in the heavens. We are to worship the creator, and not any part of God's creation. Deuteronomy 17:4 "And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:" If somebody tells us that someone is breaking the commandments and laws that God has established through Abraham and Moses; before you act on that information, check it out to see if it is true. Deuteronomy 17:5 "Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die." We have been given the punishment for violating the commandments of God, but there is no qualification given yet. Deuteronomy 17:6 "At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death." In the first place, the act must be worth of death, and than that act must be backed up by two or three witnesses. If there is only one person bearing witness, than it becomes one man's word against another. You don't put a person to death with only one witness, but it requires at least two, but three is far better. We will get specific with murder, and the act where a life is taken in a later chapter. But this is dealing with a different thing here. The act of murder is treated differently than all over violations of the law. For murder is the taking the life of a child of God, and has interrupted that life of the soul, the rights and freedoms to choose whether that person would will love God, or Satan. By putting an end to their innocent flesh life, you have taken that right away from him in God's plan, and sent that soul to the Father ahead of time. When this happens, the Father demands that the soul that did the murder be sent to him immediately also. When a murderer lies in wait to take the life of another, what should take priority in our minds is not the sparing of the life of the murderer, but the violent act of taking the live of that innocent child or person that had the right to live. To carry out the punishment on a murderer is to do the righteous act of what our Father requires. He is in heaven waiting for that murderer's, soul for the real trial to take place. Murder has become a everyday occurrence in the news today, and it will continue to be so because man is not carrying out God's instruction on this matter. People think that they can murder and get away with it. Deuteronomy 17:7 "The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you." God does not want the murderer of a child running around lose, and most people don't either. Those that call themselves Christians and do not support instructions that God has given in His Word are liars. If you claim to be a Christian and you don't understand your Father's rules concerning His laws, then you are in a spiritual slumber, and you simply don't have the capability to understand. God expects discipline, for in discipline there is love. If a man commits murder to someone, get him off the earth, and the Father will treat him rightly and justly, and he will not be killing anyone else. The reason for all this,; "So thou shalt put the evil away from among you." When that murderer is gone, he can't hurt anyone else. Deuteronomy 17:8 "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose;" "Plea and plea" is matters to where there are differences of opinion between the people to where there has been a damage. "Stroke and stroke" is when there are two people fighting and beating up on each other. "The controversy within thy gates" are argument between people and their neighbors. God is telling us through His law that He will set aside a judgment gate in the community to where these matters can be worked out. This is a place where all sides can present their side of the conflict. Deuteronomy 17:9 "And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:" God requires that a scholar in God's law, such as the Levitical priest, or an appointed judge that is well versed in the law, be the one to settle these disputes. Remember from Deuteronomy 16:18 and 19 that these judges were to be fair and not a respecter of person. He was not to take bribes and be of the tribe, or community of the people that he is judging. We had a long list of Judges over our people before we even had kings. There were both men and women judges. All of the tribes had Levitical priests with them, and there was an allotment according to their population. The Levitical priests served as the hierarchy within the tribes. This carries right over into the Millennium age when the Priests, the Zadok shall do the judging. You will go to them for matters of dispute. What this verse is discussing is not in matters of sin but in conflict and misunderstanding cause through ignorance and accident. In a tribal or local situation it can be very easy for the priest or judge to know the individual well enough to be family, and this is why the judge is not to be from that tribe. Sometimes this closeness of the judge to the persons involved could get in the way of a fair decision and cloud his judgment. This would require another judge to step in to rule on the matter. When any judge has accepted a bribe, or allowed his personal feeling to enter into a decision, then you have a calamity and not a ruling on the matter. This is why even in Moses day, a higher court was in existence. So you see the courts of our land today are patterned after the laws of God, and the order established through Moses. We have many good judges today, however from time to time it is obvious that there are others that simply have turned their backs to God's law. Those things and rulings that are fair and just always follow God's law. Those that would twist the truth to get a false judgment, are of the devil. Deuteronomy 17:10 "And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:" When the judge is honest and his judgment is fair and according to the law of God, then that sentence must be observe and carried out. Deuteronomy 17:11 "According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left." "Which they shall teach thee" is not that they are going to make a decision, but they are going to instruct the people as to why they made that decision. They will show how they came to their conclusion, for the sake of taking it to a higher court when the judgment is wrong. Of course those deceisions must go along with what God's Word has to say, or it is wrong. However when the judgment is according to the law, than the sentence must be carried out. We are not to be sorry for the person receiving their punishment. The judge is not to make the punishment harder or softer than the crime warrants, to the right or to the left but exactly as the law states. Deuteronomy 17:12 "And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel." The "man that will do presumptuously" is a person that takes the law into his own hands. He simply doesn't care what the judge or priest has to say, for he thinks he knows better than the judge or the minister and he will execute a judgment that the law did not require. God is telling us through this verse, that if you are going to take a life because the one you thought killed your loved one is getting away free, than you are the one that God requires to die. That type of thinking just is not to go one amongst God's people. It is what mobs and lynchings are derived from. If you think that you can stir up a mob to take action outside the law, God is saying that you are a murderer. Your judgment is the same as for the murderer. Deuteronomy 17:13 "And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously." This is the reason that you put a person to death for the violation of any of the laws that requires death. "And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously." If people know that they will be judged as a murderer for acting "presumptuously", for stirring up a mob into action or taking the law into their own hands, and you put that person to death for that riotous act, it will not happen again in that community. Law of the land must take priority, and God demands discipline and order amongst His people. Today the traditions of men have entered into the law, and those traditions are trying to change the laws of God by setting precedent [precedence]. "Precedent" is caused when a court decision that is made, sets an example to be followed in similar cases arising thereafter. From this action comes "plea-bargaining", which is the process by which the prosecutor and the defense attorney bargain for dismissal of some charge in exchange for a plea of guilty to another lesser charge. This is what you would call, "turning to the right hand, or to the left hand". When some old judge made a ruling many years ago he decides a case in a certain way. It could have been very unfair according to God's law or that which is right. Yet, this decision sets the precedence for all the cases that follow after it. Therefore the decisions from that day forth are not just, and according to God's law. Man's tradition set the course and not God's law and commandments. The thing that sets the standard for being just or unjust under precedence, and plea-bargaining are man's morals and traditions. When a judge takes a bribe, or makes a judgment based on his feeling and not the law perfectly established by God's law, than a false precedent is set. This is where the problems come from that are within our judicial system today. Many of those precedents are in error, but only God's law is absolute and completely fair. Deuteronomy 17:14 "When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, 'I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;' " This verse switches us from criminal law that pertains to a person, to civil law that is directed to a nation. Notice that Moses is saying here that it is the people that shall ask God to set a king over them. God did not order that a king be placed over His people, but He knew the nature of the people of Israel when they would be living along side other nations, and seeing the power of their kings. Most people simply cannot accept having a King that is in a different dimension than they are in, such as our Heavenly Father. They like to see their king face to face and relate personally with the one that has rule over them and leads them. God wanted to be king over us, but in His place, He sent His only Begotten Son. When Jesus walked here on earth, the people refused to accept Jesus as their king, for they were already under the rule of Rome, and the traditions of their Kenite religious leaders. When we consider the migrations of our peoples out of the land of the middle east, through the Caucasus mountains, and on to the places where we not exist. The old house of Israel is comprised of many nations today, and they are all identified as Christians nations. Our Constitution is taken from this Word of God when our nation was founded. Though we do not have a king over us, our constitution governs the laws of our land and our people. In many other nations that came from the old "house of Israel", those tribes were or are governed by a king or queen. So Moses is telling the people that if you must have a king, than this is the qualification of that king. Deuteronomy 17:15 "Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among the brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." We are reminded of this in Romans 13:1, 2 whereby Paul states that no power comes to power unless God ordained it to be. Romans 13:1 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Romans 13:2 "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." God is demanding that if you so choose to place a king over you, you will not place a foreigner over you. Your king will be of your own people, meaning that He will be a Christian. Deuteronomy 17:16 "But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, 'Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.' " To "cause the people to return to Egypt", means that they will not go into bondage for any reason. You can go into bondage through over taxation. What this is saying is that we should never place someone into office for money or personal gain. His primary interest is to lead the people in a godly manner. Foremost in His mind is to be the defender of the faith of that nation. Deuteronomy 17:17 "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold." The person that rules over you should not have his mind turned to the thoughts of women, or the making of money. The man's priorities are where his mind is, and if he is chasing women, his mind is not on the affairs of a nation. If his mind is on making money for his own personal estate, it surely is not on the well being of his subjects, in the case of a king, or citizens when a republic or democracy is involved. The purpose of the king is for improving the conditions for the people. Deuteronomy 17:18 "And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:" Moses is saying that before any king takes the throne of any nation, he had better learn the laws of God. The king, the ruler or the nation will not have God's blessings if the laws of God are not foremost in that nation. A nation must have discipline and order within it, and when perversion works it's way into its leadership and defense, that nation will have many problems. That which is an abomination to the Lord will bring the curses of God upon that nation. This is why it is very important that the king or leader of a nation to have God's laws before it, and in their minds. Deuteronomy 17:19 "And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them:" The leader is expected to learn the laws and statutes of God laws so that he will do them all the days of His life. Even though it seems that much of the law is being replaced by perversion, this is why, like never before Christians must know those instructions and take a stand where ever they are being violated. We must call attention to those that would pervert it, and use our vote when one should be replaced that is using their office to violate God's laws and commandments. We have the freedoms to make the stand in our nation today, the freedom of speech, and so on, and it is up to us to use them. Deuteronomy 17:20 "That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: To the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." The ten tribes have indeed been blessed since they went north over the Caucasus mountains. These people have been named after that event as "Caucasians", and they have developed into many nations. We have the blessings that we have because our heavenly Father gave them to us. The time that we fall out of His grace and mercy will be because of the stupidity of the politicians and leaders in defiance of God's laws, and then the curses of God will come upon us. Though taxation is robbery from the people when it is excessive, but taxation will not be the reason for God's blessing to be stripped away. It will be because of the abominations like Sodomy, and many other perversion that are entering into our nation that God says He hates. Those perversions will be causes for our nation to become cursed. What do we do about it? We pray about it, then use the freedoms that we have. Before we leave national law, note that the instructions to the king are the same given to the judge, and the Levitical priest. "Do not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left hand." The reason, of course, is to prolong his days in his kingdom, and of his children who will take the rule when he is gone.
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