January 24, 2014 - Friday

Start Time: 4:53 A.M.

End Time: 6:05 A.M.

Title: Exclusion from the Assembly

Scripture: Deuteronomy 23:1 – 25

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→ No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.   No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim^[c] to pronounce a curse on you. However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.  Do not despise an Edomite, for the Edomites are related to you. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country. ⁸ The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

NOTES:

Ø God turns the enemy’s curse into a blessing in our lives!  How many times have the devil planned to ruin our lives – it is his nature to destroy us yet time and time again, we survive!  To this day, we are breathing and alive because God has continually not only protected us but turned the devil’s curses upon us into blessings in our lives.  If we looked back and see the things that happened in our lives, there are many things we can think of that are worse circumstances of our lives at that moment but now, we can see it as a blessing in disguise!  God does that!  He ensures that all things work together for our good!  That’s how good our God is to us!  Amazing!

Ø God does not allow the enemy to enter the place where we are and even be near us!  We are the temple of God and clearly this passage says that anyone who is not of God’s, the enemies, or anyone that is not in accordance to God’s will are forbidden to enter the assembly of the Lord.  Since we are the temple of the Lord, the Lord assembles in us so the devil cannot take hold of us.  The same way when we gather with other believers, when we gather with them the Lord is with us, which therefore forbids the enemy to enter.  Note, it is not that the devil is afraid (which HE IS afraid of God), and it is not also because the devil doesn’t want to enter in the assembly of the Lord but it is because God forbids him to do so.  Forbids means STOP, PROHIBIT, PREVENT, BAN, HINDER… so whenever we come to meet with the Lord, the Lord PREVENTS the devil to enter in and destruct us!  What a great and wonderful God we have!  He ensures that we are not distracted or destroyed or ruined, not even the tip of our hairs or skin, this is how great our God is!  So why not spend most of your time in God’s presence where we know the devil cannot touch us?

→ When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure. If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal (night-time) emission (release/production/discharge/secretion), he is to go outside the camp and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.  Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

NOTES:

Ø God is a Holy God and He moves around us to protect us and deliver us from our enemies!  God took it as His role to protect and deliver us from our enemies yet He is holy and requires nothing unclean in His presence or else, the unclean will turn up dead!  So our Lord God ensures that we remain pure and clean in His presence and whenever we need to bring out anything within us out, (note that nothing that comes out of us is clean!) God made a way to ensure that we do not contaminate or defile our place or others. 

Ø God sets a place of refuge outside our camp to relieve ourselves of anything unclean!  Clearly God is a God who knows our needs and who knows us inside and out.  He knows our need to relieve ourselves of what is inside of us and so He sets a place outside camp where we can get it all out so when we get back to Him, we do not bring anything unclean with us and contaminate others.  Everything negative or anything that is not of God’s must be thrown outside His assembly.  It is important that when we meet with God, we have Jesus in our hearts because only Jesus’ purity can allow us to stay in God’s presence!  Today, God made sure we have Jesus so we can forever stay with Him!  Thank You Lord!

→ If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.  No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both. Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess. If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth. If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. ²⁵ If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.

NOTES:

Ø God wants us to treat our fellow brothers and sisters in as much as the same way God treats us!  We are to protect those slaves who seek refuge from their master and give them a place to stay.  We are not to allow ourselves or our brothers and sisters be a temple of sin (prostitution).  We are not to charge our fellow brothers and sisters, interests the way we charged foreigners so that the Lord our God will bless us in everything we put our hand to.  We are to be a man of our words and do as we say we would.  We can eat and share our neighbors produces (grapes, kernels, etc) but we are not to bring any of it out of their house as if it is our own.

Ø God wants us to revere Him and give Him what He deserves from us!  We are not to present offerings that are gained thru sinful acts (earnings from prostitution) as the Lord detest or hate them.  Sin money is still sin money and is not worthy to be offered to God as an offering.  It is like offering a defiled or blemished offering to the Lord.  WE are to do or pay our vows to God and not delay it. 

Application / Realization:

Ø God is holy and we are to keep ourselves pure by allowing Jesus to rule our hearts, mind, body and soul.  We are to rid ourselves of anything unclean and not defile God’s temple or assembly.  The great thing about God is that He knows we need to do this, so HE prepared a place for us outside His camp to relieve ourselves of anything and everything unclean so when Jesus comes and takes over, we are pure in His sight.

Ø God wants us treating others the way we want to be treated but more importantly, He wants us to treat Him the reverence He deserves as our Lord God. 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, almighty God and savior, wonderful Father and marvelous Lord, thank You for You are a God who keeps our enemies far from us!  A God who protects and delivers us from the enemy, ensuring that we are kept pure and clean before You.  Lord thank You that in Your presence, the enemy cannot touch us!  Thank You because You make it Your responsibility to keep our enemies far from us, when we are in Your presence.  Help me Lord to spend all my time with You that the enemy can never get a hold of me.  Lord Thank You for giving Jesus and for allowing Him to take control of me and dwell in me that I may be worthy to be in Your presence at all times.  Thank You Lord for giving Yourself for me.  Lord help me to treat others the way You want me to do so.  I want to be a good example and to bring Jesus to them thru my actions and treatment of them.  Holy Spirit, help me to always remember Your love, grace and favor and help me to pass that on to others.  Lord create in me a heart that reveres You and knows You as the King and Lord of all at all times.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!