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Deuteronomy 20-21
Skip Heitzig

Deuteronomy 20 (NKJV™)
1 "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
2 "So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people.
3 "And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them;
4 'for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.'
5 "Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying: 'What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
6 'Also what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it.
7 'And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.'
8 "The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, 'What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.'
9 "And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10 "When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.
11 "And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.
12 "Now if the city will not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
13 "And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.
14 "But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies' plunder which the LORD your God gives you.
15 "Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 "But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive,
17 "but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you,
18 "lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.
19 "When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man's food.
20 "Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
Deuteronomy 21 (NKJV™)
1 "If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
2 "then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities.
3 "And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke.
4 "The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.
5 "Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled.
6 "And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
7 "Then they shall answer and say, 'Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it.
8 'Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.
9 "So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
10 "When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,
11 "and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife,
12 "then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
13 "She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
14 "And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
15 "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved,
16 "then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn.
17 "But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
18 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them,
19 "then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.
20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'
21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
22 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23 "his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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05 Deuteronomy - 1996

The book of Deuteronomy is the giving of the Mosaic Law to a new generation of Israelites at the end of their wanderings. Skip Heitzig tells the story of God's continuing grace to His people.

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Tonight we're in Deuteronomy, chapter 20 and 21, as we make our way through the Bible. The book of Deuteronomy is one of the most quoted books by Jesus Christ. In fact, it was thought he quoted more out of Deuteronomy, which is a summation of the law, than any other book. We get the first glimpse of this when he is being tempted by the Devil. The Devil comes to him and Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." That's right out of the book of Deuteronomy. When he discusses the greatest commandment to "love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, all of your strength," that comes from the book of Deuteronomy.

Paul quotes this book ten times. The author of Acts, Luke, and the author of Hebrews, whoever that might be, Paul or Apollos or somebody else, also quotes Deuteronomy. It's such a great quotable book because it sums up the great portions of law, and thus, the heart of God. So tonight we come to Deuteronomy, chapter 20 and 21, which really deals with the sanctity of human life, that's the overall, overarching principle in it. Sometimes I'm asked, "Why do you go through the Old Testament?" Usually that's asked by people who just like to snack on a few psalms and a few portions of the gospel in a daily reading. It is our heritage, and not only is it our heritage, the Old Testament pointed to the New Testament.

When you read the New Testament, you wonder what these quotes are all about, what these things are talk---"that it might be fulfilled," and all these promises. You want to read the original promises to see what is being fulfilled. Besides that, there's tremendous example. I learn well by example. I like to ask people who have done something that I want to do, who have done it before me, how they did it. I want to get their advice. When we first came to this state and this city Albuquerque to plant a church, I didn't know what to do. I never bought the book How to Start a Church. I didn't know how to do it. And I was asked, "What is your agenda? What is your five-year plan?"

And I thought, "Oh, I don't even have a five-minute plan, yet alone a five-year plan." [laughter] You know, if you know me well, you know that's still true. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have an agenda. You say, "Well, what's next on the agenda?" I said, "Well, we'll have a Monday night prayer meeting to find out what we do next. I don't know what to do next." And when I got into a bind, in a crunch, I would call friends or I would call my Pastor Chuck Smith and say, "What do I do now?" I want to learn from example. Well, we have tremendous examples in the Old Testament. And Paul writes to the Corinthians, "All of these things happened to them," and he speaks about the children of Israel during this era of history.

"All of this things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come." So I'd like to read all the mistakes they make, because I don't want to make those mistakes. And I want to find out about all the victories they made so I can emulate the way that they walked with God and trusted God. So we have tremendous examples in this Book. As I said, chapter 20 and 21 and actually beginning back in chapter 19, verse 1, speaks about the sanctity of life in the law. Remember back in chapter 19 cities of refuge were given in case of an accidental murder?

Somebody might flee to one of these cities, they might be hosted and protected in that city until a fair trial could come, so that nobody could avenge that person's blood. Life was protected. Then also in verse 15 of chapter 19, witness had to be produced. There had to be two or three and it had to be a fair trial. Now we get to principles governing warfare. And what I love about it is God is so practical. God is not just high and lofty in the heavens, he gives instruction to virtually every area that the children of Israel needed. "How do you get an army? How do you go to war? What would the principles be that God would ordain as we get into this land of Canaan? We're supposed to inhabit it. We're supposed to take it over."

So God gives them, in verse 1 on down through part of this chapter, how to conscript an army, how to fight. Now, right off the bat, some people have a problem with this. "Wait a minute---God? love? mercy? war? fighting? Don't we have a little contradiction here?" Now we've already discussed in Deuteronomy the supposed contradiction between "thou shalt not kill" and capital punishment. We've already gone through that in a couple of different instances. Capital punishment was commanded by God as a requirement, and it even preceded the Mosaic covenant, the law of Moses, back in Genesis, chapter 9. It was required, "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood must be shed." That was even before the law of Moses.

That was something put into the very fabric of human society from the beginning. And it was never seen as murder, it was seen as righteously administered judicial execution. And so we've covered that. But now we get to the issue of war, and God just sort of gives to Moses, and Moses gives to the children of Israel, how they're to select an army, how they're to march into a town, and what the procedure is when they go out to battle. But we have a problem, or some people have a problem. I personally don't have that problem. But the problem could be stated this way: "How can you talk about war as the follower of the Prince of Peace?

"If that's what Jesus Christ is, the Prince of Peace, then how could any Christian at all condone or be involved in wartime activity?" Some even go so far as the police department, law enforcement, carrying a gun, carrying a badge that would protect society or stop a criminal. Some people have a real problem with that because of the pacifist position. Well, we've discussed already in our study on Sunday mornings that after the tribulation there's coming a time called the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. At that time they will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; and nations will not lift up their swords against nations [or their weapons] neither will they learn to make war anymore."

I can't wait till that time, because, frankly, I hate war. I hate what war does to a nation. I hate to see any kind of bloodshed. At the same time I realize the kind of world we live in, and that peace often needs to be an enforced peace. Now think for a moment before we get about international, think about absolute pacifism on a personal level. If you were a total pacifist, that means if somebody attacks your mother or your wife or your daughter, you just have to stand around and say---"Well, whatever. You know, I'll just turn the other cheek for them and then I'll offer myself up." You say, "No. If I truly love my wife, my mother, my daughter, love demands that I intervene because of a sinful act to protect that innocent victim.

"I'm not protecting myself, I'm protecting that innocent victim." Take that example and that is also true internationally. We live in a fallen society, a fallen world. Even Martin Luther said, "There can be no peace without armament." It's called the "just war tradition." Augustine espoused to it. Thomas Aquinas espoused to it. The idea is that we live in a fallen world, and until the millennium, we have to trust God but keep our powder dry. There needs to be, in many cases, an enforced peace. In the Scripture Abraham hired an army and used his own army to go out and get his nephew Lot who was being held as a captive in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Joshua was commanded by God to cross over the Jordan and take over the cities through warfare. David was also a man of war, though he was a man of excessive bloodshed. We see warfare through the Scriptures. Then we get to the New Testament. It's interesting, John the Baptist talks to Roman soldiers, and the soldiers in hearing the message of John, the message of repentance, they say, "Okay, John, what does that mean practically to us? What should we do?" And John says, "Well, don't abuse your authority and be content with your wages." That's all John the Baptist tells them. He didn't say, "Go AWOL, man."

Then Jesus comes up to a Roman centurion, a man of war, a man of the battlefield, a man who kept "enforced peace," and Jesus paid him one of the highest compliments anyone could ever get paid. He said, "I have not seen faith like this even in all of Israel." Then we get to the book of Hebrews, the chapter of faith. "By faith . . ." there's a list of great saints, but then it says, "By faith they subdued kingdoms and by faith they waged war." I believe in the just war tradition. There are some people who don't, that's fine. I want you to turn for a moment to Romans 13. As you're turning there, let's bring up the counterpoint to what I've just said.

Somebody will say, "Yeah, but wait a minute, Skip, Jesus did say, 'Resist not an evil person.' So if somebody smacks you on one cheek, you turn the other cheek. You don't resist an evil person." Yes, he did say that, however, what Jesus meant on the personal level is different than what he meant in a societal level. You can't take personal vengeance. You can't say, "Somebody slugged me. You know what? I'm gonna go slug him back." I know you feel like that. We've all felt like that sometimes. It would feel good to slug that guy. But don't resist an evil person on the personal level. On the personal level it's the law of love.

But in society God has set it up differently so that the state can take care of evildoers, not on a personal level. It would be pandemonium. It would be anarchy. With that in mind, we turn to Romans 13 where Paul says, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities." Now keep in mind he's write that when Caesar Nero occupies the throne, the hater of Christians, and the Roman government that greatly despised Christianity. He says, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Wow! That's tough for some of us to swallow.

"Those that are in control are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same," notice this, "for he is God's minister"---those in the government with this kind of authority are---"God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid," notice this, "for he does not bear the sword in vain; he's is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."

Then I think of Paul the apostle who stood before the Roman tribunal at Caesarea, and he said, "Listen, guys, I'm a man of the law. I practice what I preach. If I am guilty of the death penalty, kill me. I believe in it. If I deserve it, kill me. But these guys are drumming up false accusations. They can't prove it because I'm not guilty of it. But if you can find these accusation are true, kill me." So he stood up for it. All right, with that in mind. "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and you see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you"---there will be times when you're outnumbered. There will be times when it looks impossible, it looks like this battle in unconquerable, unsurmountable.

"So it shall be, when you are on the verge of a battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.' " What I love about this is that the clergy was involved in warfare. These are like the ancient chaplains in the service. It's the verge of a battle, and what's the problem in a battle? What's the greatest problem? Fear.

Bring the priest in, bring a spiritual leader who can come in and quell the fear of the crowd, inspire them to faith: "This is God's battle. Trust the Lord. Love him." Fear and faith are mutually exclusive. The antidote for fear is faith. If you're filled with fear, you have no faith. If you're filled with faith, it drives out fear. Jesus to the disciples, when the boat was going back---"We're going to drown!" they said. "O you of little faith, why are you afraid?" To the ruler of the synagogue whose daughter was pronounced dead, Jesus turned to him and said, "Do not be afraid; only believe." "Don't be afraid; only believe." So the priest would come in, the chaplains, and inspire them to faith.

Now, that's the role of the chaplain today, and that's the role of spiritual leadership today. That's the role of a pastor today. We face battles throughout the week, that's one of the needs that we have for fellowship. We should fellowship often. We get together. Some of you may be facing a battle this week and you know it. You think, "I just wish Monday wouldn't come. I know what's going to happen tomorrow. I know this mess at work that I have to face." And so we come into the house of God and we're reminded of God's promise. As we sing songs of worship, we're reminded of his attributes. Our spirits, they get lifted. We hear the instruction from Scripture. We're taught.

We're grounded. We're prepared. We're ready for the battle, inspired by faith. "Then the officers shall speak to the people." Now what you find in the next few verses are exemptions. This is really cool. You know, today we have court-martials. They court-martial people before the battle instead of after the battle. Now, if somebody's afraid after a battle or somebody runs away and goes AWOL, they'll be court-martialed. So, what Israel would do, because there wasn't a court-martial system, is take care of the problems before, so that you would have what's left over people qualified, devoted to God, full of faith, ready to go at it. It was actually done in compassion.

How do you conscript an army? Well, you need the priests, first of all, to inspire faith, but now you need commanders who cannot only control the army, but can weed out those who shouldn't be there. And there's four exemptions that we see to going out to fight. "The officers will speak to the people, saying: 'What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it?' " the Hebrew word chanak, who has not used his house. " 'Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.' " It would be frustrating, wouldn't it? You just bought the house, you just pounded in the last nail, you're all ready to move in with your family, and you get the draft notice in the mail.

You gotta show up tomorrow morning at six in the morning. You gotta go to war. And so God was merciful. The guy just got a house. He just built it. He hasn't dedicated or lived in it, hasn't used it, and that would be a distraction. He'd be out in the battlefield going, "Man, what a drag. I just got this new house and I never---new carpet." [laughter] Of course, in those days---"I just got this new tent, three-bedroom tent, two-camel garage, [laughter] I can't even live in it." They would be distracted. But God said, "Hey, it's a new house, let him hang out. Let him stay in it."

Second exemption: verse 6, " 'And what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it.' " It was an agrarian society. Most people lived off the land and it was typical to have vineyards. If you go with us to Israel, and you drive through the land, you see a land of hills and valleys, Deuteronomy 11 tells us. And you see terraced hillsides, and especially down in the Judeans south in the area of Bethlehem, the area of Hebron, and even south, southern Judah over by Jerusalem. You see lots of terraced vineyards. People would have a plot of land. They would start a business by planting grapes.

How frustrating it would be to start a business, just getting it off the ground. You plant the vine and then, again, the draft notice comes in the mail. Now, according to Leviticus, I think it might be chapter 19, this could mean up to a five-year exemption, because it takes a while before you get fruit out of a vineyard. And sometimes it's up to the fifth year until you really get the grapes. So the guy has a vineyard, you know, he's got a good case to stay home. So let him stay. Let him go enjoy it. Let him eat his grapes. " 'And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman [engaged] and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.' "

Again, it would be frustrating to have the wedding set, notice comes in the mail: "We got a war." We will find out in Deuteronomy 24 that if you were engaged, that you had a year exemption. So you had a lot less than if you had a vineyard. So, if you had a wife and a vineyard and a house, [laughter] you're doing all right when it comes to the wartime. But can you see woven into the fabric of these commands for war, the whole purpose for war, the purpose was to ensure a stable life so that they could have vineyards, so that they could have homes, so they could have family life together. It was to protect that. And even in the midst of war that was being protected.

"Then the officer shall speak further to the people," there's yet another exemption, "and say, 'What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted?' " You know, "All right, we got all these people, some who have homes, you guys have vineyards, and these guys are married; how many of you are chicken?" [laughter] Now, you know, a lot of guys would be really reluctant to raise their hand in the midst of all their war buddies out there. They've got the uniform on, and they go, "Eh, I don't want to fight." The first three exemptions were based on compassion. This exemption is based now solely on morale, I think. Besides---it is compassionate, certainly, but really morale---fear is infectious.

The worst thing you could have on a battle scene is people who are in there who will say, "I can't . . ." They break at the moment of attack. They're filled with fear. They freeze. They will inspire others to be afraid. If they turn around, they'll inspire others to do it. So get those people who are afraid far away from the camp. Don't even let them in the battle. "So how many of you guys are chicken?" If they raise their hand, they can go home. " 'Let them go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.' " This happened, didn't it, in the Scriptures with Gideon? And as the Israelites fought the Midianites, it's a cool story. It's a great story.

Gideon himself was a chicken. He was a wimp at first, but God inspired his faith, and God chose him to lead an army. That's what's great about God. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. Right off the bat, you know, this guy's got his tail between his legs, because you always thresh wheat on a threshing floor which is on the top of a hill. Why on the top of a hill? Because the winds blow and carry the chaff away. A winepress is always dug at the bottom, low, in a ravine between the hills. And the reason he was threshing down there---there's no wind. He throws it up, you know, he just hopes it's a really gusty day, because it's a lot harder. The winepress is low.

But the reason is because he didn't want the enemies to see him. If you're on a hill, you're vulnerable, people can see you all around. If you're, you know, couched in a valley, nobody will see you. So he's threshing wheat in a winepress, scared already. An angel of God comes to him and says, "How you doing, you mighty man of valor?" [laughter] I think that was an inside joke. I don't think the angel was serious. It's kind of tongue-in-cheek: "Hey, you're really brave, Gideon. [laughter] And guess what? You're going to lead an army." Now, we know that he wasn't too excited about this because he had to give God two fleeces. I mean, you would think an angel of God would be enough to motivate you.

If you had an apparition of an angelic being, you'd go, "Yes, sir, this is real," but he didn't. He gave a fleece, and even though God miraculously showed up, he said, "Uh, let me try that again," but in reverse. If you've heard the story, you know it very well. The battle scene was this: the children of Israel, 32,000 of them, were camped at mount Gilboa, at the base of it by the spring of Harod. If you ever come to Israel with us, we'll take you to the foot of Mount Gilboa and reenact this at the very spring that is still in existence today, flows right out of the rocks. Right across the valley was another hill, the hill of Moreh, where a huge number of Midianites were encamped.

They were already outnumbered, the children of Israel were, but by this time Gideon was ready to go. The day of the battle came. God has the audacity to come to Gideon and give him the worse news you could ever have as an army of an already outnumbered army. He says, "Gideon, the people that you have are too many." "Uh, excuse me, Lord? You mean too few, right? It's a slip of the tongue, right? We're already outnumbered." "No. If you win by 32,000 people, you know what's going to happen? You're going to say, 'We're such a good army. We're so awesome. Only 32,000 of us whipped 137,000 Midianites. You know, we're just great fighting men.'

"And you'll keep the glory and keep it for yourself. So you've got too many. So what you need to do is follow the prescription that I gave here and ask the people who are fearful and afraid to go home." That's biblical. So Gideon gets up and says, "All right, here goes. How many of you here are fearful and afraid? You can go home." Twenty-two thousand did, [laughter] 22,000. You see, they had enough smarts in the flesh to realize, "We're outnumbered. This is a suicide mission." So now Gideon has got 10,000 men. He's going, "Oh my goodness! This is really, really bad." And then God comes to him again and says, "Gideon, you still have too many people.

"Ten thousand people, though it's very few, again, you're going to get so prideful if you win this battle. I want to make sure that you realize I am fighting the battle for you. So you have to separate the people again. Go down to the spring of Harod, go down to the stream, and command the guys to just have a drink of water. And watch the people who drink. Those that get on all fours and put their mouth down all the way to the river, get rid of them. The guys who get down and crouch and pick up the water in their hands and lap it like a dog would, those are the ones that you want." Three hundred men drank like this. The reason they were chosen, again, it sort of follows this: they were ready.

They were not afraid. They were getting a drink. They were satisfying a physical need, but in that position bringing the water up to their mouth, they could look around and see who is coming. Getting down on all fours, they were completely vulnerable and not watching, so get rid of them. You don't want them. So now he has 300 men and you know the story: God miraculously routed the Midianites with just a few hundred people, undistracted, holy devoted, trusting in God. A miracle that I must say has been repeated many times up and through 1967 and 1973 in the wars of Israel and her neighbors, Six-Day War. There's so many great stories that are very, very similar to that out on the Golan Heights.

So, they were filtered out. "And it shall be," verse 9, "when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people." So after the troops are psychologically and spiritually ready, now let's have commanders and lead the people. "When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. And it shall be if they accept your offer of peace and are open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and shall serve you." So God's rule of attack: "Don't just go wipe them out, make a deal first, offer terms." This is called a vassal treaty.

It's where the king and his army stands out and says, "You've got choices, city. You can surrender to us and be our slaves and you'll live. Or you can not surrender and we will take you by force and we'll wipe you out and then we will take your city, your families, your children, your wives, plunder." But instead of doing that, as was so common with the ancient tribes, God said, "No. First you come in and offer peace. If you can take it over peacefully, that's great. That would with the highest. That would be the ultimate. Don't just attack, offer them terms." The New Testament, Romans 12 says, "As much as is possible, dwell at peace with all men." That's God's highest intention.

Now he said, "As much as is possible," God recognizes that sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes you do your hardest to be at with peace with somebody, to reconcile, and then there's a human will. For there to be peace, both parties have to make peace, both parties have to agree. You can't have reconciliation with one person. A husband and wife who have problems in their marriage, they can't go into a counseling session and have one wanting reconciliation, the other not wanting, and expect there to be that. And so you make the offer. Let there be peace, if so, there will be tribute. Notice what God says here, "Those who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you."

Now, what land were they going into? The land of Canaan. Noah gave an interesting prophecy to his grandson who was Canaan, whose descendants occupied the land of Canaan, after he had been sort of setup and drunk and he woke up and Canaan's father had uncovered Noah's nakedness. So Noah said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." And here we see this prophecy, in part, fulfilled. "Now if the city," verse 12, "will not make peace with you, but would make war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.

"But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all of its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies plunder which the Lord your God gives you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, utterly destroy them: the Hittite"---which is a group from Anatolia, Turkey, modern Turkey, who migrated down into the Fertile Crescent. "And to the Amorite"---now these are hill dwellers, the Amorites.

They lived up in the caves of the mountains and we first read about them in ancient text about 3000 BC. That's when "the Amorite"---and they also migrated. They are dwelling in the land of Canaan. "And the Canaanite"---it is the generic term for people groups that are not mentioned in categories. "And the Perizzite"---these are tent dwellers, nomads. They travel from place to place, sort of like the modern Bedouin. "And the Hivite"---these are groups that lived way up north, northern Israel and Lebanon, and they were a threat when Joshua came into the land. "The Jebusite"---the Jebusites dwelt in the hill country of Jebus, which is ancient Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, before it was called Jerusalem, was called the city of Jebus. And it was the place that was called Salem when Melchizedek lived there. When it was the patriarchal time, it was called Jebus, because the Jebusites took it over as their stronghold. Then David took it over and it became the capital city, the city of Jerusalem. Now why should they do all this? Verse 18, "Lest they teach you to do according to all of their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." The Canaanite peoples were absolutely degenerate. You may want to do an independent study of life in Canaan and find out what they did.

We've already discussed some of it. Many of them killed their babies. As soon as they were born they offered them to Molech. Or they will put babies in jars, suffocating them, and bury the jar in the foundation stone of the new house, dedicating the house to their god---despicable acts, most degrading acts, some of the most degrading acts of all history. God didn't want the children of Israel to learn that. The big problem was not the killing of babies, but was the worship system in the Canaanite pantheon. The Canaanites worshiped many gods. The chief god was El, E-L, a Semitic term for god, singular. It became also the Hebrew term. Later on Baal, B-A-A-L, was the primary god and his cohort was Ashtoreth.

Baal and Ashtoreth (Astarte) are given several different titles and were worshiped sexually. They were worshiped---and that would be so appealing, of course, to the people as they get into the land. They think, "Hey, you know, this is an interesting church." [laughter] There would be temples set up. There would be the joining of priests and priestess or god and goddess as they called it. And what this basically means is that since fertility was governed by Baal or EL, Ashtoreth, Astarte, these different names, since it was governed by these principle deities and you wanted fertility---that was something you really wanted. You wanted to have lots of kids.

You wanted your cattle to have lots of other little cows, and sheep have lots of sheep, and your land produce lots of crops---you'd have to ask these deities to do it. How would you do it? By sexual immorality. There would be temples and there would be priestesses of these temples. And if you were a guy you would join yourself to a priestess. At the point of sexual intercourse they believed that a sympathetic action took place where you became god and goddess and the worship of these deities. In some case there were male priest of temples and women would come in and do the same, and they would be praying to these false gods during this sexual act.

So God says, "You know, it's a despicable nation." God had given them 400 and some-odd years to change since the time of Abraham and they didn't, so they're just to be wiped out. Now verse 19, "When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man's food." Notice God isn't saying, "Listen, the trees have feelings, and they're just as important as people." [laughter] God is not a little bleeding heart here trying to save a tree. The idea is the trees were put on earth for you, to serve you.

Man is God's principle creation and a tree---the idea that trees have equal rights with people is an atheistic concept. It is a pantheistic concept. It's the idea that "I am god, you are god, the trees are god. We're all a part of mother earth." No, you're not. You are the principal creation to tend and take care of God's creation, but it's God's earth and God put these things on the earth for your food. Now, God doesn't say, "Don't cut down all trees." Well, I should read it and then comment on it. "Only the trees," verse 20, "which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued."

So you find out what kind of a tree it is. If it's a fruit-yielding tree, you don't use it. If it's a tree that doesn't bear forth food, cut it down and use it for your own good, build siegeworks. Or we might say, build homes, use it for what you need. But this is a commandment not to kill trees that give food. Now, it was an ancient custom when you attack a city to destroy every tree around it, cut it down, because the people then would be diminished in their food supply and they would be utterly humiliated. It would be a long time for them to build up and they would be subjugated longer to you once you took over that city.

For instance, when the Romans came against Jerusalem, we know that they destroyed---Josephus said they destroyed all the trees around Jerusalem. Every year we go to the garden of Gethsemane and you see these old olive trees. I mean, they're ancient. Not that you would ever use an olive tree for anything. The wood isn't all that good. It's very brittle, but they make little statutes out of it. But the point is there's these old olive trees that have been there a long, long time. And I'll listen to tour guides, sometimes---ours is on the ball, he would never share this. But I'll hear some say, "Now, these are olive trees, and look how old they are."

And they're old, they're hundreds of years old, perhaps eighteen or nineteen hundred years old. But they'll say, "These trees are thousands of years old and these very trees were in the time of Jesus." And people go, "Gasp! Wow! Maybe he touched this tree." You know, they get real sentimental. The point being, Josephus says all of the trees when the Romans came in, and even before when they subjugated the territory before Jesus was even born, they cut down the trees around Jerusalem. So the trees may be nineteen hundred years old, but they're not that old from the time of Christ. So what God said is, "When you attack a nation, don't do what they do. Don't debilitate the land."

Whenever you cut down vegetation you have, especially in an area with lots of hills and valleys, you have a horrible vulnerability of the land. When it rains, you just trash it out. If you were to look at Israel before the early and mid-1990s, if you look at pictures of Galilee, of Gilead, of Mount Carmel, Judea, and you compare it with pictures of today, it'll blow your mind. The people that occupied it before the Jews came in, in 1947 and 1948, denuded the land, trashed the land. It was filled with malaria, swamps in the north; it was hard, rocky, and sandy in the south. Because though at one time it was filled with trees, the people didn't replenish the land, they just tore down all of the vegetation.

But if you go to Israel today, you'll see these rolling forests, beautiful forest of trees. And what's interesting about these forests is they were all planted by hand. The Jews came in and had a massive reafforestation campaign. Every citizen was required to plant certain trees. And they paid for the seedlings and they plant the tree. And they planted the kind of hardy pines that didn't require much water. But you give a forest of several hundred thousand, millions of trees time to grow, and forty to fifty years later now you look and you see these full-grown forests. What they've done is they've changed the climate of Israel. They've doubled the rainfall annually.

Because in putting trees and what that does to the atmosphere and the releasing of oxygen will eventually bring in the clouds. The humidity will rise. The clouds with come in and you'll increase the rainfall. So they have actually changed the climate of their country by planting trees that don't require much water to grow, but eventually when the water comes, they will grow even further. It's a good technique. Maybe we could convince our state government that we're a part of Israel and plant such trees. Oh, anyway, let's go on. [laughter] Save those trees. Don't cut down the fruit trees.

Now, chapter 21, "If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and they shall measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

"Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. They shall answer and say, 'Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.

"So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord." Again, the sanctity of human life is the overarching principle in this chapter. And it could be that somebody is walking outside of a city in a valley sometime, and out in the country they find a guy dead. It obviously shows signs of foul play, he's been murdered, but nobody is around. Nobody witnessed the murder. You just have corpus, you have the body. What do you do? Nobody confesses. Nobody knows who's done it. The city closest is held responsible. Not that the city closest did it, not that they are responsible, they are held responsible to provide atonement.

They measure the distance and will find out the closest city. The elders of the city, the priests---again, the jurisdiction is by spiritual leadership. They were involved in the cases, the law cases. "Bring them in." And it was this ritual: you take a heifer's neck and you break it because it's a murder. And the breaking of the neck is the demonstration of "this act of murder must be punished by a capital---it's a capital offense, and it demands capital punishment." But vicariously or in the place of killing a human, since we don't know who did it, instead of taking vengeance on somebody who's done it, you kill the heifer. The neck is broken.

And then it says, "The elders," verse 6, "shall wash their hands over the heifer," symbolic of being innocent. Pilate did this at the crucifixion of Christ. He washed his hands symbolic of "I'm clean of this act." They were doing that. The priests were saying, "We are clean of this act. We're innocent of this act." And they would pray and ask God, " 'Provide atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided." I like this practice because of the lesson it teaches, I think, us. You know, so often we in America are gifted at finding out what's wrong with our country.

There's a lot of things wrong with it. I understand why---it's a sinful world. I've traveled to a lot of countries, though, and I've seen a lot worse. But, nonetheless, we complain, "Look at this in the newspaper. And what's this country coming to?" And we complain about it, but when have you ever stopped to pray and ask forgiveness? You say, "But I didn't do it." Oh, come on, you haven't added to the sin of this country? Were you always saved and always serving God? I'll readily confess I've added to the iniquity of our nation greatly. I was once a heathen. I was once unsaved. God had mercy on me, but before that time I added to the level of iniquity in this country.

So it would not be wrong for me to say, "Forgive us, Lord. Forgive our iniquity. Provide atonement for our nation. We're sorry. We repent. We confess that sin. Please, forgive our nation. Heal our land." Daniel did this. It's interesting, when he prayed in Daniel, chapter 9, though Daniel in the Bible is one of the only people nothing bad is ever written about---He was flawless. He was a man of integrity from youth all the way to old age. Yet, thirteen times in his prayer he confesses the sin and he says "we," "us," "our." He makes reference to himself, "I'm part of it. I've added to the sin of this nation. Forgive us, O Lord." Nehemiah did the same thing. He heard about Jerusalem.

The walls were broken down, the gates burned with fire, and he wept. And he asked God to forgive the sins of his people, himself included. "We have created iniquity," so they prayed and asked God for forgiveness. I think it's a sign of maturity when you do this. I think that you can tell a mature Christian by the fact the closer they get to God, they realize their own sinfulness. You hear a person say, "You know, I'm a real spiritual kind of"---and they act---they're arrogant. They haven't had contact with God lately, if ever. Paul the apostle who spread the gospel around the known world in the first century said, "Now here's a faithful saying"---now this is like to be an epitaph.

"Here's a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I'm the chief. I'm the worst. I'm number one on the list." Instead of saying, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, you know, all of you guys, not me." He included himself in that batch and I think it's a sign of maturity. "Blessed are those who mourn." Verse 10, "When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman." You know, again God is very practical. He knows how the guy's going to think. This army has just taken over a city, plundered it, wiped out the other army.

They've got the women. They've got money to spare. "You see among the captives a beautiful woman, you desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails." That would be a test even for a guy's love when he sees her bald and then you think ehhh? You gotta really love this gal. [laughter] "She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; after that you may go in and be her husband, and she shall be your wife." Let me explain this practice: ancient armies would come in and never do this. This is, again, wonderful about God.

He's so merciful and he's considering the dignity of a woman. Ancient armies would come in and the law of the ancient armies was when you take over a nation, you can do whatever you want with them. That woman is your slave. There's an unchallenged rule. You are the victor. She is your property. You could do whatever you want to her. God says you can't. If you want her, it's only by marriage. If you want that beautiful woman, I mean you're Israeli and you haven't seen a woman and you haven't been a part of the betrothal program, the arrangement of marriage that was so common in that day. Or maybe you have and you really haven't sealed the deal yet and so you're out and you see a gal, "Now, she is cute."

Okay, if you want her, she has to be your wife. The way that she could become your wife is, first of all, you have to honor the fact that she had a mom and a dad and they have probably been wiped out in the war. Give her a month. By Jewish law that was the required time of mourning. And then elements of mourning are included: the shaving of head, the trimming of the nails, the changing of the clothes. Give her time to settle those perturbed feelings. "Then after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. It shall be that, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free." You can't just make her your slave, and you can't be the victor in that sense.

"But you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her." So, preserving the woman's dignity. I think there's---without stretching it---a lesson here. Marriage was sacred to God. You couldn't just go out and sleep with a woman. You couldn't just say, "Hey, I conquered, I'm going to go try out a few gals before I get married." It had to be a commitment. It had to be a commitment of marriage. If you brought her in and before the marriage during that month you said, "Nah, I don't want to do this." You have to let her go and preserve the dignity. But marriage was sacred. It was serious. You approach with a seriousness. It's a lifetime commitment.

As we said, in ancient times most marriages were arranged. Today there's the dating process. But let me just remind you who are single of the seriousness of the covenant of marriage. It's awesome but it's not to be taken lightly. Be sure, be sure. I meet couples all the time---"I'm sure. I'm so sure I've got to get married tomorrow." I don't think you're sure. Love is patient. So whether you're in a country where they're still arranged marriages, or you date, however you get together, make sure that person is from the Lord. It says, according to the Bible, of Adam and Eve, "And the Lord brought the woman to the man."

Make sure that God brings the woman to you, young men, and brings the man to you, young lady, or older man, older lady. Whatever the case, just make sure that it's from the Lord. Verse 15, "If a man has two wives"---you go, "Uh-oh, right there we have a problem." [laughter] "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, who is truly the firstborn.

"But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength," his power to procreate, "and the right of the firstborn is his." Now, it says "If a man." It was never God's ideal nor intention to have polygamy in his nation among his people. It existed before God made his covenant with Abraham and before God had made his covenant with Moses. It was very widespread in that part of the world. And, frankly, it's still widespread in many parts of the world today. It's always the dilemma of the missionary: "What do I do when the gospel comes into a family where there's four, five, six wives and one man?"

It's an interesting set of circumstances. "If a man has two wives," this is not condoning polygamy, this is simply warning people of the problem of polygamy. The problem would be you have a wife who's loved and a wife who's not loved and you'd say, "You know, I love this gal and her kids, so even though this guy was born first, I don't love her as much as I love this wife, I'm going to give firstborn status to this firstborn son." God is recognizing that polygamy creates a problem. It was never God's intention. Back in the book of Genesis, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and join unto his wife"; not wives, it's singular, "wife," a man and a woman.

"For this reason a man shall leave and cleave." That's God's design. The prophets never condone it. In fact, the prophets speak of a singularity in marriage, as do the New Testament authors. So was there ever a problem with this? Remember Jacob? Who did he love? Rachel. But the wife that was given him first was Leah, and she was wasn't all that cute. That's what the Bible says. It says, you know, she was very plain, but Rachel, she was a knockout. And that's the one he fell in love with, but Laban her father did a switcheroony the night of the marriage. Instead of saying---he said, "You can have my daughter Rachel," but he gave Leah. He woke up in the morning and he goes, "Oh, my goodness! [laughter]

"I didn't want to marry you." "Well, you're stuck now." So he married Rachel seven years later. The Bible says that when God saw that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, God opened the womb of Leah. God is always for the underdog. He has such compassion. He didn't want there to be this favored status. That's why polygamy is wrong. Verse 18, "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them"---and the idea here is that he's rebellious not only against his father but against, obviously, God who has given the commandment, "Honor your father and your mother."

"Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' And the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil person from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." Now, we don't have real records of this happening. You know, this would be quite an incentive. [laughter] Remember it says, "Honor your father and your mother that you may live long." [laughter] This is the idea behind it: that you may have long life, that your days may be established.

The idea is not a kid who mouths off; the idea is a perpetuity of behavior, uncontrolled rebellion against parents, against authority, against God. It's so out of control that the parent doesn't take the law into his own hands, but takes it to the elders of the city, brings it to the judicial system, and it is dealt with in a public manner and there is the stoning. Now, Deuteronomy 6 tells us that's why parents should teach their children and instruct them and press these things on their minds and hearts while they're young. Teach them while they're young. So many parents don't teach them while they're young and then all of a sudden they're rebellious.

And they think thoughts like, "You know, I'm going to have to come to church, get my kids involved in your church." I have parents all the time, they mess up their marriages, they mess up their lives, the kids are affected, and they go, "You know, my kid's a little rebellious, I guess I'm going to have to get him into church." Yeah, well, what about you? Why don't you set an example here? Why don't you start young? And if you haven't started young, why don't you go to your kids and say, "I repent from my behavior. Will you forgive me? Let's start all over again"? I think parents should lay the example and teach their children and then a lot of these problems wouldn't happen.

But notice it's the same penalty here, this rebellion, as blasphemy, the same penalty is given. "Honor your parents." Of course, when you don't teach your children from a young age and you sort of let them do whatever they want in the name of love: "I don't want to say no to them, I love them." If you love them you would say no. If you're lazy and you hate those kids, just let them do whatever they want. That is not love. "Well, I don't want to spank them. I love them too much." Really? "Well, yeah, when I spank him he doesn't like me."

It's not what he thinks about you when he is five after a spanking, it's what he thinks of you when he's eighteen, when he's grown up and he evaluates your parenting skills over time, what parameters you set, what loving discipline, and what involvement. If you don't do that to a child, if you don't start young and set the parameters and enforce the parameters, that child will start rebelling against other forms of authority. He'll mock teachers. He'll mock policemen. He'll rebel against every form of authority and be a danger to society because he didn't have the love at home. Now, really---well, let's go to verse 22 and we will backtrack.

"If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, you shall hang him on a tree." This is not death by hanging, they didn't do that. It was death by stoning and afterward the person would be hung up on a tree as an advertisement. That's the idea: this is what happens, don't do what this guy did. So somebody who would be hanging on a tree would be accursed because of the sin committed. "His body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God."

Now this is in Galatians 3, what Paul picks up on and says, "Cursed is everyone who hung on a tree." Jesus Christ died outside the city. He hung on a cross or on a tree. Just like in the Old Testament somebody was accursed, Jesus was accursed because he took the curse of our sins upon him, and he draws the parallel in the example. The rebellious son, let's close with that. Let's end with those thoughts. We have here the law of the prodigal son. What a difference, is it not, to the New Testament parable of the prodigal son? Can you imagine, with this as a background, the Jewish listener as they would hear Jesus tell this story?

"A man had two sons and the younger son wanted to rebel and he said, 'Dad, give me my money now.' " And so he split on him and he got drunk and had wild women and partied and lost all the money. And then he came to himself after he was eating pig food and he said, "You know, this is stupid." This is obviously paraphrased. [laughter] "I'm going to go back to dad and I'm going to tell him, 'Dad, I was a jerk. I repent of my sins. I've sinned before God, before heaven, and before you. Please, take me back.' " And as he comes back to the father's house and everybody's listening to Jesus, they probably think, "This is where the dad stones him. It's in the law. He's rebelled. He has openly rebelled.

"The Father is surely going to kill him. This is going to be a good story." [laughter] Can you imagine the shock when he said, "And when his father saw him a great distance off, he ran and embraced his son and stripped him of the old clothes and put on new garments and kissed him and set a ring on his hand and commanded a feast. And said, 'Rejoice with me, the son that is lost is found. He's back! He was dead, but he's alive.' " And they get a little bit mad. "They should have killed him." And then Jesus would weave into the story, "Yeah, but then there was this older brother who had these thoughts, 'You know, you should get rid of him.' " The law of forgiveness, that's the New Testament prodigal son.

Now, the young man had to say, "I have sinned." It was not arbitrary forgiveness. And today God does not forgive in a blanket sense. There's no arbitrary forgiveness. God doesn't look at the world and just say, "All right, I just forgive you." No. God can only forgive through the blood of his Son. And a person must realize "I have sinned and there's a penalty to be paid, and I receive Christ as the penalty for my sins." Those are three hard words for people to say: "It's my fault." "I have sinned." I meet couples all the time---"She has sinned," or "He has sinned," instead of saying, "I have sinned." But with that confession comes the embracing, the forgiveness, the reinstating.

When Abraham Lincoln, after the Civil War, was asked what he was going to do with those rebellious Southerners that had lost and now came back into the United States, he said, "I'll treat them as if they had never left." And God would say to you tonight if you have left his fold, if you have wandered from him, if you've sown your wild oats, but you're ready now to say, "I have sinned," he would say, "I'll treat you like you were always mine, you never left. I'll rejoice with you. I'll command all the angels in heaven to rejoice." But you have to admit, "I have sinned," and ask for forgiveness.

Additional Messages in this Series

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12/22/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:1-33
Deuteronomy 1:1-33
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12/29/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
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1/5/1997
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Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
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1/12/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:1-15
Deuteronomy 5:1-15
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2/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
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2/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
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2/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 9-10
Deuteronomy 9-10
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3/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 11-12:13
Deuteronomy 11-12:13
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3/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 13-14
Deuteronomy 13-14
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3/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
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4/6/1997
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Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
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4/14/1997
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Deuteronomy 18-20
Deuteronomy 18-20
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5/4/1997
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Deuteronomy 22-23
Deuteronomy 22-23
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5/25/1997
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Deuteronomy 24-25
Deuteronomy 24-25
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6/8/1997
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Deuteronomy 26-27:3
Deuteronomy 26-27:3
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6/11/1997
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Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
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6/18/1997
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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
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6/26/1997
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Deuteronomy 29-30:8
Deuteronomy 29-30:8
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7/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
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7/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
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7/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
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There are 21 additional messages in this series.
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