A People Unto Themselves

Introduction

The people of the northern Kingdom of Israel considered themselves unaccountable to Yehovah. They no longer praised God for His protection and provision, but sang songs to themselves for what they accomplished-victory in battle, excess of provisions, and magnificent homes. These people of Israel abhorred the reminders from righteous people to take care of the poor-widows, orphans, and foreigners. They physically cast them from their sight and refused to hear God’s righteous laws. Though Amos’ last sermon called them to let God’s righteousness flow over and cleanse them, then flow through them to others, the rich and the leaders of the Israelites refused to return to God and follow Him. They refused to be a holy people of the LORD.

As in Amos’ earlier sermons, so the sermon of Amos 5:18-27 proclaimed God’s judgment upon the Israelites of the northern kingdom. God told them they asked for the “day of the Lord” to come. They did not realize they were His enemies, too. He would judge them along with their enemies. God’s justice would come as a flood to remove the detritus from Israel, punish them for their rebellion and iniquities, and cleanse them from unrighteousness. They would remember Who the LORD is and has been in their history and return to a right relationship with Him.

In Amos 6, Amos preached his final proclamation of prophecy to the Israelites listing their sins. With verse seven, he declared God’s judgment upon them. With the last half of the chapter, Amos told the Israelites of God’s hate of their sins, His judgment, the result of His judgment, and reiterated the peoples’ sins. Finally, with verse fourteen, God proclaimed how His judgment would come upon the Israelites. With this brief reminder of earlier sermons and a preview of chapter six, let’s now study what God said through Amos in chapter six.

Woe to the People

As with Amos 5:18, Amos began this last sermon against the nation of Israel with a lament. He lamented Israel’s complacency to follow the LORD’s laws. Amos said in verse one,

“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, the distinguished men of the foremost of nations, to whom the house of Israel comes.” [NASB]

Bible writers used the word “woe” to state grief over the dead. See 1 Kings 13:30 and Jeremiah 22:18 and 34:5. Amos lamented the sinfulness of Israel, her coming judgment, the loss of life, the loss of God’s hand of protection against them, and their loss of freedom. In this statement of woe, he referred again to the rich people of Israel. Amos proclaimed woe over those who were at ease. Isaiah 32:9-11 expressed woe toward the women at ease. Luke 6:24 expressed woe for the rich stating their only comfort would be what they had then because their day of judgment would come.

These people were at ease and felt secure because they felt no one could defeat the God who established them. They forgot, though, that this same God covenanted with them promising blessings for their covenant faithfulness and curses for covenant unfaithfulness. These Israelites chose to remember and live only by the positive side of the covenant-God would be their God and would bless them. They were at ease in Zion expecting God to provide for them and fight their battles always. The rich Israelites did not recognize their sin and realize they should not be at ease because they deserved God’s wrath. Amos expressed woe to these Israelites who rested in ease thinking the God of Zion would always defend them and let no harm come to them.

Along with the Israelites being at ease because their God would protect them, they felt confidence in their ability to protect the site of their capital city. It was on a high hill surrounded by mountains. They considered themselves unconquerable. The Israelites of Samaria could see their enemy coming before they arrived. These Israelites trusted in their military preparedness to see them through crises. Amos expressed woe for the Israelites because they had confidence in their own might and logistical strategy and did not recall the LORD had kept them safe throughout their history. Yehovah could remove His protective hand and they would be as vulnerable as any other city/nation of the world. The Israelites felt secure, but they were careless, at ease. They did not keep covenant faithfulness with God. The way to salvation in battle and of the soul comes from the LORD and they were unfaithful to Him.

The men to whom Amos proclaimed woe in this verse were the distinguished men of Israel to whom Israel went for justice, advice, and aid. They were the ones who rose above the crowd in their oppression, corruption, and business dealings. These rich men controlled the courts and businesses. Everyone had to go to them for help, yet they helped no one who was not a beneficial connection. These rich men of Israel were the real power structure of society, not Yehovah. These wealthy, upper class people of Israel were the biggest offenders in that society. Amos did not preach against wealth or a classless society. He condemned the abuse and oppression of the poor by the rich. The rich had made themselves god of their city and nation.

Rhetorical Questions

With verse two, it seems Amos provided the rhetorical argument the rich Israelites would give to anyone who proposed Israel was lesser than other nations. Amos said in verse two,

“Go over to Calneh and look, and go from there to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than yours?” [NASB]

Calneh was probably the city of Calno in Aram near Carchemish. Hamath was a city in Aram, too. These had large territories. Hamath had been part of Israel under Solomon’s and Jeroboam’s reigns. Sargon II of Assyria captured these two places after Amos’ time in 721 BC. Uzziah captured Gath before Amos prophesied. With this rhetorical question from Amos, he showed their arrogance about their greatness and military prowess. The Israelites, per Amos’ rhetorical speaking for them, challenged Amos’ prophecies of God’s judgment on them. Still, Amos rebutted them with his prophecy of their judgment from God.

As Amos continued pronouncing his sermon of woe on the Israelites with verse three, he asked another rhetorical question, this time for the LORD. He said in verse three,

“Do you put off the day of calamity, and would you bring near the seat of violence?” [NASB]

Amos challenged the rich of Israel. He provided them with a question that would have an obviously ridiculous answer if they continued with their arrogance and answered in the affirmative. Amos asked the rich if they could drive away the day of calamity because they assumed greater power than the LORD. God is the bringer of the day of calamity, the day of the LORD. “Did the Israelites consider themselves greater than God?” Amos asked. That is how they acted by disobeying God’s laws and being unfaithful to their covenant with Him. They put themselves as greater than Yehovah. The rich Israelites lived for the moment and did not to consider the day of reckoning would come soon. Their arrogance placed themselves above God and caused them to procrastinate in doing what they knew was right. They cared not what consequences would come.

Amos continued with this question.  He asked the rich Israelites if they would bring near the seat of violence. This has two ramifications. Would the rich Israelites continue to do violence against the righteous and poor of their kingdom? Would they, by continuing this way of life, teach it to their children so they stored up violence now and for the future? Amos made this same statement in Amos 3:10. The other side of Amos’ question is would the rich Israelites continue to disobey God’s laws and thus cause God’s judgment to come upon them. Would they bring God’s wrath upon themselves now because they kept living sinfully? By not repenting, the rich Israelites were not putting off the day of calamity, but with their violence would bring near God’s judgment seat. It would not go away.

Who were these people whom God judged?

With verses four through six, Amos reiterated who the people were whom God charged and judged. He described who these were by what they did. Amos said in verses four through six,

⁴ “Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, ⁵ who improvise to the sound of the harp and like David have composed songs for themselves, ⁶ who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with the finest oils, yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” [NASB]

Amos first described the offenders of Israel by how and what they ate. He said they reclined on their beds of ivory. These beds, built of wood, contained inlaid ivory. The rich Israelites did not sleep on the packed dirt floor like the poor of society. They sprawled on their couches. These couches were like chaise lounges upon which they overhung and laid freely in luxury. Amos spoke of these couches earlier in Amos 3:12 when he spoke of the remnant of Israel being like the corner of a bed or the cover of a couch. The rich Israelites knew Amos spoke about them.

Upon these beds and couches, the rich ate the best of meats. They ate the most tender portions, the young lambs and calves. These animals suckled on their mothers. The calves came from the barn stalls and ate grain. Their meat came not from muscle, but was tender from grain feeding and milk. The rich Israelites ate the best food available, but the poor ate little, the meager bits gleaned from the fields after the harvesters. These rich Israelites thought they had no cares and no hurry.

The rich of Israel created songs for their revelry, just as David created songs. A dichotomy existed that David wrote his songs to and about Yehovah, whereas they wrote songs to please their own ears while they ate lavishly and cared not for the people of their country. Isaiah 5:12 says, “Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine, but they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, nor do they consider the works of His hands.” [NASB] The people whom God judged sang to themselves, not about God nor giving Him praise. They took the glory for themselves for what they had and did not give glory to God.

With verse six, Amos stated again the rich of Israel indulged in wine. Besides this, they drank the wine from sacrificial bowls, bowls used to catch the blood of sacrificial animals. The blood they offered to their gods, Amos re-imagined the wine they offered themselves as if they were gods. They had put themselves above Yehovah. These rich Israelites made themselves and their desires idols. Besides this, Amos said they anointed themselves with the best oils. Only the rich could afford olive oil and they wasted it on their own bodies instead of it being used to give and prepare food for their Israelite brethren. Remember, too, God used oil for His servants-priests and prophets-to anoint His leaders over the Israelites. Here, the Israelites anointing themselves alluded again to their usurping God’s place in their lives and making themselves their own gods and priests. As priests, their should have had hearts attuned to God and to His desire for the people-their needs, poverty, and sins-but their hearts only reflected their personal desires. The rich Israelites did not grieve over the ruin of Joseph, the northern kingdom of Israel.

The Judgment 

Amos described upon whom God charged and judged most in Israel. With verse seven, he expounded on what would happen by God because of their rebellion against Him and His laws. Amos said in verse seven,

“Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.” [NASB]

The word “therefore” shows reference to the earlier statements. It refers to the rich Israelites sins. Because they oppressed the poor and corrupted justice in Israel, God would judge them and make it happen. God, through Amos, told the Israelites they would go into exile. Their mountains would not protect them. Their enemy would remove the rich Israelites from their wealth, lavish houses, grain-fed calves, abundant wine, and finest oils. Besides this, God said the rich Israelites would lead their nation into exile. These wealthy Israelites, just as they led the people of Israel into oppressing the poor and casting aside righteousness, would lead their people into judgment. They would be the first to go into judgment and exile. The revelry and lavish living would pass away as God passed through them allowing their enemies to overtake them. God would not pass over the Israelites this time.

·         What do you do that tells people you are better than them? Drive a flashy car? Live in a grand house? Take extravagant vacations? Flash your credit cards?

·         Do you boast to others about what you have done, who you know, and what you have?

·         Do you allow the Lord to be God of your life? Or, do you use everything you have and get for what you want without asking God why He gave it to you?

·         Do you allow God’s pricks to your conscience to lead you to share what He gave you with people in need? Do you give whatever God says knowing He will give everything you will need?

·         Do you give glory to God for providing what another person needs by your giving and thank Him for asking you to be part of His plan for helping other people?

God’s Declaration

His hate and abhorrence of their sins

The first half of this sermon described God and Amos’ lament for the people of the northern kingdom. It ended with the LORD’s judgment of their sins, especially the sins of the rich Israelites. With this second half of the chapter, God made declarations to the people about His hate and abhorrence of their sins, the extent and devastation of His judgment, and about how His judgment would occur.

In verse eight, Amos said,

“The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the LORD God of hosts has declared: ‘I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, and I detest his citadels; therefore, I will deliver up the city and all it contains.’” [NASB]

Again, Amos used multiple names of God. Here he said Adonay, a title of reverence meaning the Lord of men, Yehovah, the existing One, the I AM, swore by Himself. This LORD God of hosts is Yehovah ‘Elohiym, the ruler and judge, and the God of the armies of heaven and earth. GOD swore by the most certain thing in existence, Himself. He said He absolutely loathes the arrogance of Jacob. The word “loathes” comes from the Hebrew word ta’ab, which means to abhor or have an intense dislike or disgust. Abhorring is the physical action that comes from hating something or someone intensely. The LORD loathed the arrogance of Jacob and would act because of it. God abhorred the high places of the Israelites in Leviticus 26:30 and destroyed those places. He spurned the Israelites in Deuteronomy 32:19. In Amos, He loathed the arrogance of Jacob. The arrogance of the rich Israelites showed their assumption they were their own providers and a law to themselves while forgetting their covenant with the LORD. God stated He, too, detested the citadels of Israel. The word “detest” comes from the Hebrew word sane’ which means to hate as an enemy. Amos 3:10-11 explains why God hated the citadels of the Israelites. He hated them because they hoarded violence and devastation in their citadels. The citadels, the strongholds, were symbols of the Israelites’ self-confidence, violence, and robbery. With the last of verse eight, the LORD said He would deliver up the city and everything in it. The LORD swore on His name meaning His judgment would certainly occur and it would be complete, nothing inside the fortifications would remain. God would deliver everything to the enemies of the Israelites-people, homes, furnishings, produce, vineyards, animals, and land. It certainly would happen. God’s delivering the northern kingdom to their enemies was His hate in action, His abhorrence of their arrogance. The Israelites earlier ignored God’s prophets and charges. They could not ignore God’s hate and abhorrence when His judgment came upon them.

Result of God’s Judgment

Amos reminded the Israelites the devastation God’s judgment would bring to their land. Just as he said in Amos 5:3, he reiterated in verse nine. Only one tenth of the people would remain in Israel. Consider what Amos said in verses nine and ten,

⁹ “And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die. Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, ‘Is anyone else with you?’ and that one will say, ‘No one.’ ¹⁰ Then he will answer, ‘Keep quiet. For the name of the LORD is not to be mentioned.’” [NASB]

We must recognize the word “left” in verse nine comes from the Hebrew word yather and means left behind, or remain. This means the dead in the house were Israelites left after their enemy took captives into exile. Of these ten left behind, their kinsman, who had the duty to bury his dead, would carry their bodies out of the house. We recognize another person was alive in the house with the kinsman. It could have been a survivor or a person helping the kinsman. Most likely it was a survivor of whatever killed the other people of the house.

Theologians conjecture the people of the house died of pestilence, plague, or starvation. With the first two, the need for burning the bodies is obvious, to prevent further contamination of the village, town, or city. Death by starvation did not require burning of bodies. We should understand burning of corpses was unusual for the Israelites. Their belief required burial of bodies so the deceased could walk with his or her ancestors in heaven. They believed this was impossible if people burned their relatives’ bones. Recall Israelite men went to their enemy’s walled city of Beth-shan to take the bodies of Saul and his sons for burial in their family tomb (1 Samuel 31:12). Because of the Israelite’s understanding of burials, most theologians agree the deaths of the people in the house were not natural. They came by plague or pestilence.

A curious statement arises in the last part of verse ten of the one man telling the other to keep quiet. No consensus among theologians is available to explain this statement. What is most important is the people collecting the bodies recognized the judgment came from God’s hand.

In verse eleven, Amos continued to describe vast destruction caused by God removing His hands of protection from the Israelites. He spoke earlier of exile. Amos said here in verse eleven,

“For behold, the LORD is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.” [NASB]

The word “behold” calls our attention to an unusual event that will happen. The destruction at the hand of God would not affect just their citadels like those of the pagan nations surrounding them. Amos said it would cause the utter destruction of their homes, too. The LORD’s judgment would affect both great and small, rich and poor, and leader and led. Great houses with hand-hewn stone would be in pieces like pebbles. The small homes made of mud would crumble into fragments like broken water pitchers. This would occur because of God’s judgment on the people of Israel. Either the judgment would come by natural causes like an earthquake or by an invading army and its war machines. Both could cause this devastation. These things would happen because God commanded it. God’s hands protected the Israelites before, but the time of their judgment would reveal His hand of protection no longer rested upon them. As the people listened, God led the Israelites to know how their destruction would come.

Rhetorical Questions

Amos used rhetoric well to gain the attention of the rich leaders of Israel. He appealed to their educated side and showed them their foolishness. Amos stated in verse twelve,

“Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.” [NASB]

The obvious answer to the first question is, “No.” Of course horses cannot run on rocks. It could cause injury to the horse. As to the second question, it would seem the answer is yes. Yet, scholars consider these two questions are parallel and both should have negative answers. Because of that, they insert the word “there” into the question so it reads, “Or does one plow there with oxen?” Still a Hebrew scholar interpreted the plural ending on “oxen” as yam meaning “the sea.” From this, the question would read, “Does one plow with oxen the sea?” With either question, a negative answer resulted. Just as absurd as these questions were to the Israelites, so was their conduct. The rich and powerful Israelites turned justice into poison and the fruits of righteousness into wormwood because of their unfaithfulness to their covenant relationship with Yehovah. Amos spoke of this in Amos 5:7, & 11-12. Justice and righteousness should have brought rejoicing, but instead the Israelites experienced the bitterness of sorrow and despair. Amos sought any means to make sure the people of the northern kingdom understood God’s charge against them and the judgment He certainly would bring against them.

Amos continued to bring God’s charge against the rich Israelites in verse thirteen. With a statement and question he showed the folly of their thinking. Amos said in verse thirteen,

“You who rejoice in Lodebar, and say, ‘Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?’” [NASB]

Let’s understand what Amos meant by this. The rhetorical thought continued in verse twelve. Amos called the men who acted with such folly as to run their horses on rock, the same as those who rejoice in Lodebar or capture Karnaim. The word “Lodebar” means a thing of nothing. Amos said the rich Israelites rejoiced in nothing. Their confidence was in minute and fragile things like spider’s webs, as Job 8:14-15 said. Those things would not last and would fall apart quickly. Why trust in them? The rich Israelites would be like the rich man of Luke 12:19-20 who put his trust in his full grain silos not knowing he would die that night. Besides this, Amos said the rich Israelites put their confidence in their own strength. He poked at them by saying they were boastful about taking Karnaim. Karnaim was a horn of black eye makeup. The rich Israelites put their confidence in frivolous things, things that would not stand up to testing. They boasted in providing themselves the finest wines, handmade furniture, and stone-hewn homes. These would not last. Only one thing lasts forever, the LORD God, the One who certainly would bring His judgment against them.

The rich Israelites did not give God the glory for their provision or protection. They refused justice to the people and oppressed people poorer and less powerful than them. These rich Israelites did not give God the glory for what they had, nor mete out justice or give to the poor of their land. They broke covenant faithfulness with the LORD and now would receive from His covenant faithfulness their just reward, His curses as Deuteronomy 28 denoted.

The Judgment Clarified

With explicit words, Amos clarified for the Israelites what God’s judgment meant for them. He said in verse fourteen,

“‘For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,’ declares the LORD God of hosts, ‘And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.’” [NASB]

In verse seven, Amos told the Israelites of God’s judgment using the word “therefore.” With verse fourteen, Amos said “behold.” He finished explaining their sins. Now, their attention and ours must focus on the unusual and supernatural thing that will happen from God’s hand. In verse eleven the people did not know by what means God would make their homes into rubble, by earthquake or man. With verse fourteen, they heard their destruction would come by men. The Israelites would recognize this never-before occurrence would come because the almighty and faithful LORD removed His protection from them. God would raise up a nation against the Israelites. He would cause them to become powerful and carry out His judgment. In Jeremiah 5:15, this nation is one God brought against them, a strong and ancient nation whose language the Israelites did not know. In other years God made the people of Israel a nation, provided for them, and protected them from this nation. Now God would allow this ancient nation to defeat and subdue them. Notice in this verse, Amos stated Yehovah ‘Elohiym of hosts declared this affliction upon the Israelites. The existing One who is Ruler and Judge declared the judgment for their sins. This Judge said none would escape His judgment. The enemy would afflict the Israelites from their northernmost border at Hamath to the southernmost border at the brook of the Arabah (the north end of the Dead Sea). God would bring His judgment upon each person of the northern kingdom. No one would escape, neither rich nor poor.

·         What do you hold closer than God? Will it survive forever? Is it greater than God?

·         Are you plowing the sea with oxen and running horses on rocks? Is there something you do that you consider important that is really nothing/foolishness when compared to eternity and almighty God?

·         Over what do you claim victory? Does that small victory mean you are great enough to withstand the judgment God will bring your way?

Recap

Amos spent four chapters explaining the sins of Israel to its people. He exhorted them to repent of their sins and then he lamented God’s judgment of them. With chapter six, the Israelites, especially the rich Israelites, could not doubt their sinfulness. They could know the certain judgment of Yehovah ‘Elohiym upon them. The charges brought against Israel mostly related to the rich and the leaders of Israel. With chapter six, most of the charges applied to the rich. Within wealthy Israel, the rich and leaders oppressed the poor and corrupted justice for personal gain. They sought to benefit personal interests at the detriment of other Israelites, their brethren. These rich Israelites chose to make themselves and their own desires their gods and ignored the hunger and desperation of the lower classes. For this, God said He would send an ancient and more powerful nation against them. He would withdraw His hand of protection from them. The Israelites of the northern kingdom would fall, go into exile, and lose everything they counted on for daily life. The rich Israelites who led in business and government in their land would lead the exile and be the first to receive the LORD’s judgment. Their enemy would take away or destroy the things they counted on in their home land.

Relevance and Conclusion

God is almighty. He protects and provides for His children. Sometimes, as the loving Father, He must punish His children so they will change the way they live and return to a right relationship with Him. Before the Messiah’s birth, crucifixion, death, and resurrection, the people of God lived in relationship with God through the old covenant. A covenant relationship existed between the people of Israel and God. Because of human sinfulness, the Israelites often broke their covenant with Yehovah. God outlined for the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land a covenant to which they agreed to live. With this covenant, they received blessings from Him for faithfulness and with their unfaithfulness, they received curses through Him.

For the people of Israel, though they rebelled against Yehovah repeatedly, He did not remove His hand of protection from them. With Israel’s division into two kingdoms and the idol worship Jeroboam I instituted, the people who God consecrated as a people unto Himself (Deuteronomy 7:6) became a people unto themselves. They were no longer holy, but worshiped themselves and their desires. In God’s timing, as Amos prophesied and as history showed, the Assyrians defeated the Israelites of the northern kingdom and took them into captivity. They left a remnant to scratch out an existence in the barren land. The Israelites had no hope of eternal salvation only repeated cleansings for sins through the sacrifice of animals on the altar.

Today, with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, people can receive eternal salvation from their sins from God. No longer is a sacrifice needed daily for sins like the people of Israel performed according to the old covenant. Once a person confesses with his or her mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in his or her heart God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9), he or she will receive saving from his or her sins and the judgment for those sins-eternal separation from God. With Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, each person has hope for salvation. Jesus Christ brought the new covenant with God, an eternal and greater covenant. The old covenant brought mankind to God. The new covenant brought salvation from God.

Today, each person has a choice. He or she can continue to live his or her life as if he or she is a god to him or herself. This person can consider he or she provided his or her own income and their daily needs. Alternatively, that person can recognize God is the provider of every good thing including salvation. He is the One and only God and that person is not a god. Each person must choose if he or she will believe and accept Jesus’ gift of salvation. Without accepting this gift from God, you will receive the condemnation that sin brings-separation from our loving God. You will not be part of the LORD’s holy people, chosen to be a people for His own possession. Without Jesus, sin’s stain will mark you forever as unholy and unable to enter God’s presence.

What will you choose?

Choose to be–

 “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10 [NASB])

Freedom A Devotion

Isaiah 61:1-3, Luke 4:18:19, & Galatians 5:1& 21

Isaiah, the fore-teller and fore-runner of Christ, in the Spirit of the LORD told the Israelites the LORD gave him good news to preach. The good news he told them about included healing for the brokenhearted, freedom for captives, release from darkness, comfort for those who mourned, and a day of vengeance by God. When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He read Isaiah’s prophecy in the temple and said, “Today, this scriptures is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The freedom Isaiah spoke about and Jesus gave with His death and resurrection is precious. For the Israelites in captivity, it gave them hope that God had not forgotten them though they had sinned and fallen very far away from Him. God still called them His chosen people. He would not allow their sin and captors to take them away into permanent captivity. Jesus came to proclaim the same. He came to give freedom from sin and the death penalty that is attached to sin. Jesus stood before the men in the temple and proclaimed He is God’s way to salvation.

In Galatians 5, Paul encouraged the Galatians to keep standing firm and strong in the strength of Jesus Christ. His power to overcome sin and death is the power available to all God’s children to defeat the sin that Satan puts in our way to make us stumble or lose hope. Paul reminded the Galatian Christians Jesus gave them freedom from the slavery sin had them in. He said, “Do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection removed the power of sin – to ensnare and trap us into believing we have no hope and leads us to death. His power over sin and death gives each of us the same power if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. We Christians each day have the opportunity to choose to follow Jesus and live the life He offers or to follow the desires of our flesh. The first brings hope, love, and power. The latter brings darkness, stumbling, and entanglement. With Jesus there is freedom from sin, which entangles and draws a person into darkness and despair.

We have a choice –

Freedom in Christ Jesus, which brings hope and life

or

Slavery to Sin, which brings death and despair.

You have a choice.

Choose Freedom.

Rightness and Purity Before God Deuteronomy 21

Introduction

     The last few chapters of Deuteronomy we have studied appear to be comprised of small laws from God when compared to the grandness of the Ten Commandments. Last week Moses taught them what God commanded them to do when fighting Canaanite and non-Canaanite nations – what to do with captives, when to offer peace, and which trees to cut down. This week as we read Deuteronomy 21 we read primarily of laws about family, but it includes what do to with dead bodies, too. The opening and closing statutes about what to do with bodies highlights and sandwiches the theme of the whole chapter – how to be right and by that, pure before God.

The writing structure of this chapter is semi-chiastic; the beginning and end of the chapter are similar and sandwich the middle topics. In this chapter, the beginning and end statutes relate how to be pure before God and not accursed by Him. The middle three sections of the chapter give statutes on how the purity is lived out daily regarding family situations. With this brief introduction, let us now jump into our study.

Doing Right in the Eyes of the LORD

Theme.

     Moses used a common Deuteronomic technique when writing this chapter. He used if…then statements. This method is effective when dealing with matters of law and judgment. Upon first reading of the first nine verses of the chapter, the first reaction is why is a teaching about a slain person put into this chapter dealing with family issues. Upon reading the whole chapter, we realize the theme of the chapter is within the first section of the chapter, verses one to nine. Verse 9 says, “So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.” Doing what is right in God’s eyes is what makes a person or nation righteous and pure. This denotes a person or nation as obedient children of God. As we read the other four sections of this chapter, we must keep this theme in mind. God was teaching the Israelites through Moses by saying that keeping His laws and statutes would keep them pure. By this, they would be His children.

If…Then.

Verses 1-9 teach about how to respond to finding a slain person in the open country. Verses 1-2  say,

If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess and it is not known who struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one.

This passage states the murderer is unknown. It seems the slain person may be unknown, too, since they are not going to the slain person’s town/city. What is second most important in this passage is that God’s statute about this concerns social and religious areas of life. The judges would want to determine who killed the person so they could give judgment. God’s main concern is keeping the land/nation pure. For this reason, God wants to determine which town/city is closest to the slain person so they can re-establish the purity and innocence of the land/nation.

Cleansing.

To understand why finding a dead person in the nation is significant to God, we must realize that killing a person, shedding blood, makes a person and, by association, the nation guilty of murder. God holds life sacred. He created humankind and said it was good. He chooses to have relationship with people because He loves them. God provided a way for people to return to a relationship with Him – in the Old Testament through religious laws and in the New Testament through Jesus Christ. In the Ten Commandments, He said, “You shall not kill.” These show God holds human life sacred. With this consideration, killing a person is rebellion against God. Hence, when a slain body is found, blood guilt attaches to the person who committed it and the nation in which the guilty person lives. So a right relationship with God must be restored for the people/nation.

God taught in this chapter the way the people of Israel were to cleanse themselves from bloodguiltiness and become right and pure in God’s eyes. Moses recorded it in Numbers 35:33-34 when he taught,

You shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel. [NASB]

Because God was the God and ruler of Israel (remember, Israel was a theocracy) and lived among them, the land/nation must not be polluted with blood, the sin and guilt of murder, for God to continue to live amidst them. For God to live among the people again, cleansing to remove their sin and guilt must occur.

The elders of the nearest town/city to the slain person must take an “unworked heifer” to an “unworked field” that has running water and break its neck there (vs. 3-4). They offered an unblemished cow as a substitute for their sin (by association) penalty. Notice God’s command told the elders to break the cow’s neck, not cut the it’s throat. Blood of the slain person spilled on the ground now a pure life must be offered without blood to atone for and cleanse the land/nation.

One of things to notice is that the water to which Moses commanded them to take the cow had to be running water. In Hebrew this running water is a perpetual, ever-flowing stream. The Bible writers and people since that time often compared God’s love and mercy to a cleansing flood or tide. Floods and tides are ever-flowing. They wipe away what was there before like the blood of sacrifices – animals in the Old Testament and Jesus’ in the New Testament – wash away the sins of people.

When the elders broke the neck of the heifer, the priests (kohen – priest and chief ruler), whom God chose to serve Him and bless the people in His name, came to settle the judicial matter of the murder (vs. 5). They administered God’s applicable law and His justice for the people involved and the nation. Each party was absolved of their sin and resultant bloodguiltiness. After God’s law, God purified them once again. As the spokesmen of God, what they said was law and when done, provided God’s blessing on the people. God’s law told the elders of the nearest city to “wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley” (vs. 6). While doing this, the elders proclaimed their innocence, asked for forgiveness of the people by the LORD, and asked God to remove the blood guilt from them (vs. 7-8). This enacted the washing of the blood of the slain from their hands and the guilt from their hearts and minds. It signified God’s washing of the bloodguilt and sin from them. This gave them God’s blessing and God would live among them again.

As stated earlier, the most important part of the whole chapter is the thematic sentence in verse nine. It says when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD you will remove your guilt of innocent blood, bloodguiltiness, from yourself and your midst (land/nation). Deuteronomy 19:10-13 speaks of blood guilt of the innocent when it says, “You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.” God wants His people and land to be innocent from crimes such as murder. He told the Israelites in chapter nineteen to remove the bloodguilt from them by putting to death the premeditated murderer. In this chapter, when the murderer is unknown, God provided a way to remove bloodguilt through substitute sacrifice. This became a prelude to the substitute sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, on the cross for the sins of humankind.

Domestic Relations

God required His people, the Israelites, to be pure and righteous. They did this by obeying His laws, statutes, and judgments as Moses taught them. As the leader and God of Israel, He lived among them. For God to stay in their presence, the Israelites had to be pure/sinless. The next three lessons in this chapter deal with following God’s laws in family matters. They use the Deuteronomic writing style of “if…then” for teaching the Israelites.

Captive Woman.

Beautiful, Non-Canaanite.

Verses 10-14 address the desire of a soldier to marry a captive woman. It teaches how he was to treat her after her first month’s stay in her room at his home should he or she not wants to marry. Remember, God allowed the Israelite soldiers to take captive from battle just women and children who were not Canaanites, not men. He told the Israelites to destroy every Canaanite as His judgment against them.

When an Israelite soldier captured a beautiful, non-Canaanite woman and desired her, he could make her his wife. This is not as crude as people in the past portrayed it. The English word “desire” used in verse eleven is the Hebrew word chashaq. It means to love, be attached to, or long for. After battles, soldiers of many centuries took the spoils of war and often that meant taking the virginity of women. Moses told them if the man truly loved the woman he desired, he would be honorable and generous toward her and not treat her as a prostitute. God provided a way for the soldier to stay pure physically (no rape) and spiritually (marrying a woman of the same faith) with this law.

Requirements Before Marriage.

Verses 12-13 tell us what the soldier and captive woman must do. The soldier was to take her to his home. After that, she must shave her head, trim her nails, remove her clothes of captivity, stay in his home, and mourn her father and mother a full month. After this month God allowed the soldier to marry the woman.

When an Israelite man prepared to marry an Israelite woman, the father of the man would meet with the father of the woman and make a marriage match. Gifts would be exchanged from the father of the bride to the father of the groom, from the groom to the bride, and from the father of the bride to his daughter. For the next year, the bride-to-be would spend time preparing herself for her wedding. These preparations included pampering her skin with special baths, oils, scents, and body art including on her fingers and hands. It included, too, the mental preparation of leaving her birth home to become part of another family, which could include mourning. After the groom prepared a marriage room for he and her to live in for the first week of their marriage, he would steal away one night to the bride’s home and the wedding would begin.

The month’s delay of marrying a captive woman included these preparations, but it also included her decision about following Yahweh or not. Each of the actions God required her to do had a three-fold purpose – to mourn her loss, to decide if she would renounce idolatry and follow Yahweh, and to make herself less appealing to the soldier. The latter would help him determine if he really loved and wanted to marry her. When she shaved her head, she did it in mourning for her loss  - of her home, family, and country. The cleansing ritual is found in Leviticus 14:8-9 and Numbers 6:9, too. If she was to follow Yahweh, she must cleanse herself from following false gods and idols. The word “trim” in verse twelve comes from the Hebrew word ‘asah and means to deal with. She was to ignore her nails during the month of waiting, not cut, color, or beautify them in any way. When Moses said she was to remove her clothes of captivity, that meant she was not to wear the clothes in which the soldier found her beautiful, but to put them off and wear something less appealing to the eye. Each of these things are what people did in mourning. She did them, too, to recant following her gods and idols and to humble and purify herself before Yahweh. Added to this, wearing ugly clothes, shaving her head, and not beautifying her nails could make her unattractive to the soldier. If after a month the captive woman still attracted the heart of the soldier and she followed Yahweh God, then the soldier could go into her room and marry her (“go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife” vs. 13d).

Rights of the Captive.

We must remember God gave laws regarding taking care of aliens/foreigners, orphans, widows, and the poor in Deuteronomy 14:22-15:22. His law about aliens in Israel did not change when someone was an unwilling captive foreigner in Israel. Verse 14 explains God’s care for each person and tells the rights the captive woman had if the soldier did not marry her.

Verse 14 says, “It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes, but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not mistreat her, because you have humbled her.” If after the month the man no longer desired and loved her, God said he must free her. He could not keep or sell her as a slave. God told the soldiers they must not mistreat their captive women. The word “mistreat” comes from the Hebrew word ‘amar and means to treat tyrannically or treat as a slave.

People try to understand why God gave the laws and statutes He did. Sometimes they are ration-able/reason-able and sometimes not. God gave this law because He cared about the women and how the Israelites would treat them if they chose not to marry them. The soldiers humbled the captive women by defeating their country and taking them captive. By intending to marry her, the woman would have lost status with the people of her country. Added to this, her reputation would be lost because the people who knew of her captivity with the soldier may have thought she already slept with him. Finally, her prospects for the future dimmed when she did not marry the soldier. Her life would be very hard if she was someone’s slave. God cares about each person. Paul reiterated God’s perception of everyone as equal in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither slave nor free, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.”

Firstborn Inheritance.

Notice this section of the chapter uses the “if…then” Deuteronomic style as the first two did. In this section, God dealt with the right of inheritance. God gave no law about inheritance before this statute. Issues of inheritance arose before this such as in the life of Jacob and Esau. The secondary point of this section is the rights of children of an unloved wife. Overall, God gave this law to provide social order. If a father did not follow it, his disobedience to the law affected his spiritual life, as well as that of his family, and, in the end, Israel.

The law, in verses fifteen through seventeen, said the firstborn son of a father, whether of a loved or unloved wife, must receive a double portion of everything the father has. The right of the firstborn son to receive this was due to this son being the beginning of the man’s family, his strength. Because of this, the firstborn son must receive the father’s authority to lead the family when the father is no longer able.

The issue of multiple wives is not as complex as it would appear. God did not give the Israelites permission to have more than one wife. Jesus’ teaching on marriage in Matthew 19:3-6 recalls the Genesis creation account (Gen. 1:27 and 2:24) saying the two shall become one flesh, not more than two. Further, the tenth commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,” (Exodus 20:12) presupposing one wife. Paul forbade church elders to be the husband of more than one wife. Remember, in the Bible, polygamy started with Cain, the murderer, not Seth the one from whose line Noah, Moses, David, and Jesus (Genesis 5) descended. Added to this, God forbade the kings of Israel to be polygamous (Deuteronomy 17:17). Hence God did not approve of it, but tolerated it. Under Mosaic law in Exodus 21:10, the LORD said, “If he takes another wife for himself…” God did not encourage polygamy. Knowing the hearts of men, though, He felt it necessary to guard the birthright of the firstborn son even if the mother of this son was unloved. God instituted this law for the firstborn son to protect children, just as He instituted the law for the captive woman in the earlier section to protect captives. Both groups of people had low status during this time.

Stubborn and Rebellious Son.

     This law is one of the hard sayings of God. Once again, the issue was being right in the eyes of God, as stated in verse nine. By being right with God - following/obeying God - the people were pure and God could live among them. In this section about domestic relations, a very difficult situation arises, a stubborn and rebellious child. I am sure parents of every generation either heard about or had this type of child.

Moses taught the Israelites to teach their children Yahweh’s laws when they rise up, lay down, go out, and come in (Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19). He taught with the fifth commandment that children were to obey their parents. This is the first commandment that carried a promise with it – to have a prolonged life. With a promise, a curse is implied, the same curse the Israelites received from God if they did not keep (shamar – hear, listen, and obey) His laws. Moses taught, too, what to do about a person who goes astray from God’s laws and statutes – the local Levites or the priests would offer judgment on the situation. God intended His laws to apply to people of every age in Israel, even children.

When the teaching and the discipline of the parents was inadequate to keep a child from being disobedient so he or she became stubborn and rebellious, God provided the statute to deal with this recalcitrant child. Moses used an “if…then” statement again to show this was a law and a person always had two choices – obey or disobey – with two resultant outcomes – promise or curse. In verses 18-19, Moses said,

If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. [NASB]

First off, the word “stubborn” is the Hebrew word carar and means to rebel or have a dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or mind about something even if a good reason is given to do so. The stubborn child spoken of in this passage dug his feet in the ground and became immovable by force or reason. The word “rebellious” in the Hebrew is marah and means contentious and resisting authority or control. This child is one who will do what he wants to do when he wants to do it without considering the consequences to himself or other people.

The parents of this child, according to verse eighteen, disciplined and chastised him, but the child chose to disobey. The parents were the source of first training and disciplining. God gave the parents the charge to raise children in the knowledge of Him and His laws. Yet, as in society like adults choose to disobey God, children choose to disobey their parents without shame and repeatedly in the face of chastisement and discipline. Just as the elders and Levites of a town/city and the priests of the temple heard crimes and administered justice to adults based on the laws of God, sometimes these same leaders had to administer justice to recalcitrant children. A deep-seated rebellion existed in this child, one of continuing hatred. God commanded the elders handle this rebellion and hatred. He required the elders judge this stubborn and rebellious child, but not as the parents dealt with the minor infractions of defiance. By being so rebellious, the child broke the fifth commandment. Disobedience to parents is disobedience to God. When a child was this disobedient and rebellious, the parents needed a higher level of authority to help their rebellious and stubborn child. God provided that higher level of authority, wisdom, and judgment. God intended His laws to provide a peaceful society along with righteousness and purity for the people.

Verse 20 tells of the recourse the parents had for such a child. Together, mother and father could bring the child before the elders of the town/city. Notice the unity of the parents. If just one parent brought the child, the elders could have seen it as a spat or difference of opinion between the child and parent. When two parents brought the child in a united effort before the elders, the wise elders saw a definite recalcitrant child stood before them. This corresponds to earlier chapters (Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15) where more than one witness was necessary to bring a person before the judges and priests. The witnesses (parents) must tell the elders why they brought their son to them – stubbornness, rebelliousness, disobedience, gluttony, and drunkenness. These things would tear a family and nation apart. Remember, the fifth commandment came with a promise and curse. The elders, since they lived in the same town as the child and parents, saw for themselves the difficulty these parents had in raising their child. As God’s appointed leaders, they must determine the situation with the child to determine God’s requirement for the child -  to either discipline and bring the child back into obedience or administer the curse due disobedience - death. Because the sin was continuous and deep-seated and might cause harm to the family or others in the community, God provided punishment be delivered. God designed the punishment to protect the family, society, and nation by purging evil. The punishment provided a deterrent to future rebellion, too.

The punishment, as declared by God for such an evil person, was death by stoning (vs. 21). The leaders of Israel issued a judgment of stoning for people who followed other gods (Leviticus 20:2; Deuteronomy 13:11), followed a medium or spiritist (Leviticus 20:27), purposely killed another person (Leviticus 17:17-23), or who cursed and blasphemed God (Leviticus 24:14-16). In stoning such a person, Moses told them they removed the evil (ra’ – bad, malignant, vicious) from among them. Stoning the evil person supported the authority of God, the elders of Israel, and the parents. God showed strict punishment when he allowed the northern and southern kingdoms to be conquered because of Israel’s unfaithfulness. This punishment for the stubborn and rebellious child was for the same type of thing – to remove evil before it harms other people or becomes a cancer that spreads in the nation. The other part of this statute commanded the elders enforce this judgment and begin the stoning. Added to this, God commanded they send a notice throughout the nation explaining what occurred and the judgment declared to frighten others from being disobedient to their parents, leaders, and God.

Death: The Curse and Purity

Just as God commanded the stoning of a person to remove evil and restore purity, He sought to keep or re-establish Israel’s purity when a person died (vs. 1-9) or they received death and hanging as a judgment (vs. 22-23). The last two verses of this chapter deal with death once again, but with a small difference and a new teaching.

The Curse of Hanging on a Tree.

God commanded Moses to teach the Israelites about a criminal hanged to death for his or her crimes. He said in verses 22-23,

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance. [NASB]

In these two verses, God established the basis for the curse of the cross. People over the years have tried to understand why God would curse death by hanging on wood, timber, or a tree. The most popular position considers both the first sin and Christ’s death. In the first sin, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil. God judged them. He declared they were no longer free from death, but would suffer from that curse. From this, people have reckoned trees are cursed by God, too. In addition, they reason that since Christ died on a cross made of wood, God once again cursed trees. These explanations are reasonable. The greatest reason, though, that God cursed hanging on a tree is that God said so.

Cleanliness Laws.

What does a tree being cursed by God have to do with removing a corpse before sunset? Why does God tell the Israelites to remove the corpse from the tree on the day they hanged the person? He said it was so the land would not be defiled. To understand this, we must go back to the cleanliness laws of the Old Testament. If a person touched or was near a dead person, that person was ritually unclean until they performed purification rites over a seven day period (Numbers 19:11-14). If a person did not purify him or herself before entering God’s presence in the tabernacle or temple, the tabernacle/temple became defiled, God could not be among them, and that person was cut off from Israel. The corpse was unclean and God cursed the tree, but why was it important to remove the body from the tree before the day ended?

Curse on the Nation.

     The priests’ administered God’s judgment on the people for their disobedience. When the judgment was death, people around the dead body became defiled. The tree with a body hanging on it was accursed by God. By leaving the dead body hanging on the tree overnight, an abuse of the body occurred. Judgment was fully meted out when they person suffered and died. No further justice could be administered since the person was dead. With the body continuing to hang on the tree, judgment continued, which was unnecessary, and it cursed the land in which the tree stood. So removing the body began the cleansing process and removed the curse from the land/nation. Remember from the first section of this chapter, killing a person carried with it bloodguiltiness even if mandated by God’s command and justice. The Israelites would want to remove the blood guilt from themselves and their nation sooner rather than later. God wanted them not to defile the land He gave them (vs. 23d).

Recap

Through these five sections of chapter twenty one we read of God’s laws and His concern for the purity of Israel. He wanted to ensure the purity of His people so He could be amidst them. God is pure and cannot be in the presence of sin. To provide social and moral standards, God gave His commands, laws, and statutes to the Israelites to obey. These same commands, laws, and statutes He intended to keep the people right - sinless and pure. For the parts of life that people thought were small, God showed He cared. He gave statutes for the people to follow in every part of life to help weed out evil from the people, such as the law about the rebellious son. He provided the laws about captive women and the rights of the firstborn’s inheritance to keep one’s affections from leading them into trouble. Overall, God’s commands are to keep people pure so they could stay in a relationship with Him.

Relevance

What does this mean for us now? Primarily, we need to realize the great necessity of being in a relationship with God. God created humankind to be in a love relationship with Him. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul said, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Besides this, John said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Relationship with God is very important to God and should be important to each of us. Not only does it give unending love, but peace, joy, and hope. This is why the purity of people is so important to God.

If the whole chapter deals with being right in God’s eyes and being pure so we can be in His presence, what do the middle three sections have to do with this? First, God gave the commands and when you obey them, you are right in His eyes. That means you are pure and can be in His presence. Remember God cannot be in the presence of sin, so doing what is right in God’s eyes made the Israelites pure and able to be with God. As to each section, God cares for each person even if he or she is a captive, foreigner, a child, an unloved spouse, or a disobedient child. He used these people as instances of the people most overlooked in society. Since God cared enough to make a statute about and for them, He cares enough to love everyone. He tried to ingrain this in the Israelites’ minds.

They, like many of us today, look down on people still. We read in the Bible many times where people did not take care of the captives, foreigners, children, unloved ones, and the impure. When Jesus lived on earth, many people looked at Him and treated Him badly. They made Him a captive. People treated Him as a disobedient and unloved person. Jesus did things they disagreed with and said were unlawful. These people made Him a captive and mistreated Him.

Jesus knew how it felt to be treated as the lowest in the world. He came into the world to reconcile everyone to God. The Israelites did not keep God’s laws and continually rebelled against Him. He knew they would sin, just as Adam and Eve did. Sin is now a part of human nature because of Adam and Eve’s sin. God never intended His laws to save the Israelites from their sins. He gave His laws to lead them to Him. God’s plan always was to bring eternal reconciliation to Him through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “He did not come into the world abolish the law, but to fulfill it,” (Matthew 5:17). This means He came to make it complete and perfect so that there is a new and better way to be reconciled with God.

Jesus’ forgiveness and redemption is not just for Jews. Paul to the Ephesians and later readers about God’s love. In Ephesians 1:5, he said, “He [God] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” God loves each of us. He loved us before He formed us. His love brought us adoption into His family through His Son, Jesus Christ. The writer of Romans said in verse 16-17, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirits that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Paul reiterated what Old Testament writers wrote and told the Israelites (2 Samuel 7:14, 1 Chronicles 17:13, Isaiah 43:6) so that each believer in Jesus Christ would hear and know for themselves they are children of God. He said in 2 Corinthians 6:18, “And I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.”

Conclusion

We must each decide for ourselves today who God is for us. We must decide who Jesus is for us. Have we chosen to exercise our free-will and disobey God - be rebellious, and stubborn? Or have we chosen to accept the love God wants to give us? A theocracy no longer exists. Each person must decide for him or herself who or what will be god for them. God chose us from before He formed us in our mother’s womb to be loved by Him. He made a way for each person to return to Him through the mercy He gave when His Son, Jesus Christ, hanged and died on the wooden cross. By this cursed method of death and with Jesus’ sinless life, God offered the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for each of our sins. People of the first century mistreated Jesus, and hated and beat Him. When He did nothing to deserve the curse of death, the sin penalty of death, people killed Him. Jesus chose to die so you and I would not have to die the penalty for our sins. To receive this great love and be reconciled with God, our Creator and Father, confess your sins/wrongdoings to Him and profess Jesus is the Son of God and Lord/Master of your life. God will forgive you for each of your past and future sins. You can live with Him forever – on earth and in heaven.

Each person must make this decision for him or herself.

What will you decide?