MORE ON THE LAW -- Festivals, Judgement and Idolatry.

MORE ON THE LAW -- Festivals, Judgement and Idolatry.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20

“Appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes in all the towns the lord your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly.

You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly.

Let true justice prevail, so you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

In this chapter three major instructions are expounded, 

* The celebration of festivals

* Justice

* Idolatry

As we have studied in a recent devotional, celebrations/festivals are done to keep us in remembrance of what they Lord has done and ofcourse to honour Him.

Deuteronomy 16:1,3

“In honor of the Lord your God, celebrate the Passover each year in the early spring, in the month of Abib, for that was the month in which the lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt.

For example the passover is remembrance of salvation from the captivity in Egypt, no leavened bread can be eaten during this period.

Another is the festival of harvest, to celebrate the Lord's blessings in making them harvest good produce at the harvest season.

Deuteronomy 16:9-10

“Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest.

Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest to honor the lord your God. Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him.

The third from this chapter is the celebration of shelters.

One thing about these celebrations is that:

Deuteronomy 16:16

“Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him.

You do come to appear before the Lord without a gift for Him.

Do these festivals relate to us believers today?

Where you or your ancestors in captivity in Egypt?

What do we celebrate today?

Communion!

We remember the sacrifice of Christ, His body and His blood that brought us out of the captivity of sin and death. Jesus initiated it before His death and the disciples continued it.

Luke records that Christ says that we should keep doing it in remembrance of Him.

Luke 22:19

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

Paul expounded on this and gave stern warning to those who do it amiss!

1 Corinthians 11:23-29

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread

and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.”

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.

For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.

We do have other celebrations like Easter, Christmas etc, they are not the topic for today. How many of them are scriptural, or are they pagan worship?

The next is the issue of judgment.

It is painful that supposed believers(Christians) are found in positions of authority to take judgment and they fall short. This should not be. What God expects is still what He expects, we must be just.

It begins from our homes, as parents, children, siblings, elders or younger ones, are we just in our ways. As a family, are we fair to one another? It is the failure we have in our small groups starting from the families that manifest in the larger society.

Finally is idolatry.

Deuteronomy 16:21-22

“You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the Lord your God.

And never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the Lord your God hates them.

This is the emphasis of the second commandments, the one the Lord wrote with His own hands.

Exodus 20:4-5

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.

This is one of the major reasons for the failure of the people of Israel, the desire for idols, something physical that they can use as a form of belief. This is why they made the golden calf.

The same problem we have as Christians here, the use of elementals, beads, rosary, water, pictures or carvings of angels, dead saints etc. These are all forms of Idolatry. 

Christ explained to the Samaritan woman that they idolization of the physical temple and high places (mountain) was not what the Heavenly Father accepted as worship.

Listen very well to these rebuke from Paul by the Spirit:

Romans 1:21-23,25

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

You see people carrying pictures of actors referring to it as Jesus, also carvings of a typical Jew being referred to as Jesus or some prophet. Do we talk about pictures and carvings of Mary. What of those of dead saints etc. Do we also mention pictures and carvings of angels and other heavenly beings?

All these are idolatry and scriptures warns very clearly that we do not do these things.

Some will say but we had these carvings in the Jewish temple and even on the ark of the covenant? Hmmm.

Furthermore, what of those that idolize humans as Paul stated in the verse we looked at in Romans chapter one, no matter whatever that human's title is, it is also a form of Idolatry.

It is simple, whatever replaces God in your life is Idolatry.

The disciples had to ask the religious leaders who were persecuting them:

Acts 4:18-20

So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?

We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

Glory to God, may we never be trapped in any form of Idolatry.

Help us Lord to focus on You and remove all these weights of perversion that has been heaped on believers from false doctrines , ignorance and carnality.

Help us Good Lord.

PRAYER

Dear Father, You said in Christ Jesus that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light, that is what I have taken on myself, help me Dear Father to live and walk to Your praise and glory. I will not err Lord, You are my helper. Glory to Your name Lord forevermore.

He calls us blessed.

Love

@the watcher.