Read Deuteronomy
1. Being "green" is something that is "politically correct" so many of us Christians rebel against it just for that reason. Lets read some Bible passages and see if we can come up with a Christian view on ecology.
Read these passages about animals
Deut. 22:4,6-7
Deut 25:4
Deut 14:21
Deut. 7:22
Prov. 12:10
Summarize what God is saying about animals in these verses:
Now lets look at the land. Start from the very beginning by reading the following verses.
Gen. 1:11-12, 31- 2:2
Gen. 2:15
Gen. 9:13
What do you learn about the land in these passages?
Lev 18:25-28
Lev. 25:4
Num. 35:34
Deut 24:4
Lev.26:34,35
What do you learn about the land from these passages?
Ps. 65:9-13
Ps. 96:12-13
Luke 19:40
Deut. 11:11-15
Deut. 20:19,20
Mark 4:41
Rom. 8:19-21
What do you learn about the land from these passages?
2. God introduces another concept that is mentioned over and over in Deuteronomy. This is the concept of remembering and passing it on to the next generation.
Lets look at remembering - read the following passages and tell either what they were to remember and or how they were to remember;
Deut. 1:29-33
Deut. 4:32-38
Deut. 3:21,22
Deut 7:17-19
Deut. 20:1
Deut. 26:1-11
Deut. 27:1-8
Deut. 29:2-7, 16-18
Deut. 31:4
Josh. 4:1-7
1Sam. 7:10-13
Now look at some verses and tell how and why they were to pass it on to the next generation;
Deut. 6:6-9
Deut. 11:1-7 & 18-20
Deut.31:12,13
Watch this video and tell how it relates to the next set of verses.
Deut. 31:19-22, 32:1-46
Ex. 12:24-27
3. Remember the concept of moral laws (transgressions that were sins and required sacrifices), ritual laws (when "life" went out from the body they needed to be ceremonially cleansed) , and national laws (requirements in order to be different from all other nations) that we introduced in a previous lesson. Look at the following verses and tell which category it falls under;
Deut 5:7-21
Deut 14:1-21
Deut 22:6-12
Deut 23:9-14
Deut 23:19-20
Deut 27:15-26
Notice the roadkill law and the law on charging interest. Both of these (national laws) are laws for the children of God but not laws to be demanded in dealing with unbelievers. I know this is deep, but try to come up with some ways this principle might be applicable to us today.
4. In Deut. 16 there are listed 3 feasts that required "pilgrimiges". Look at the 3 new testament passages and tell what feast was being observed
John 7
Acts 2
John 18
Which feast will we be observing in the millenial kingdom according to Zech. 14:16-19?
5. Another concept that keeps appearing in Deuteronomy is the concept of testing. Look at the following verses and answer the question below;
Deut 8:1-5
Deut 13:1-3
2Chron. 32:31
2Cor. 1:8,9
Judges 3:1-4
Jer. 35
1Pet. 1:6,7
John 6:5-7
Give 4 reasons why God tests people
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
6. Read Deut 20:5-9. In 5 to 7 there are 3 reasons given to get out of going to war. What are they?
Verse 8 may give the underlying reason for these excuses. What is it?
Why is it dangerous to let him go to war?
Now read the parable of the banquet in Luke 14:16-24. What were the 3 excuses given to the master?
Now read Luke 14:25-27 and 31-33. How does this passage in Luke relate to the one in Deuteronomy?
Notes to teachers/students
Deuteronomy means "second law". In effect what is happening is Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is- through his personality (notice how many times he blames them for the fact that he can't go in) reviewing everything they need to know before they go into the promised land and he dies. One of the reasons we know is it is inspired is because God is outside of time and therefore prophecies (Deut.18:15, 21:23) are commonplace and laws are given for the future. (laws concerning kings, divorce, the poor, rebellion - all of which are commanded against but God is basically saying "you are going to do it anyway so here is how to deal with it when it happens")
He gives lots of practical ways of remembering the miraculous things God did for them to show His power and His love, so when times get tough they could look back on His faithfulness in the past and trust. Moses remembers how close they were to entering the promised land and because of unbelief couldn't enter and doesn't want this to happen to this new generation of Israelites. He remembers how easily they went to worship other gods and how easily the opposite sex swayed them. He doesn't want this to happen again. Moses gives practical ways to pass them on to their children, who didn't see many of the miracles, and we see Godly parenting is a full time job, from rising to sleeping, and not to be left to the "church" to train your kids spiritually. The other application to us is, how are we remembering God's acts in our lives? Do you journal? Some people have treasure chests that they keep rememberances in. I've heard of rock gardens where people paint on rocks God's miracles in your life. How about keeping track for a year and every thanksgiving go around the room and share. Are you singing with your kids? Teach them Christian songs. We would make up scripture memory songs and our kids memorized complete books of the Bible this way.
In Deuteronomy we are introduced to the concept of testing. God tests us to see what is in our hearts. Are we only happy and praisers of the Lord when everything is going well? Are we relying on ourselves to meet our needs? Will we stand firm in the midst of peer pressure or temptation? God, who knows the future, knows how we will respond so the testing really isn't for His benefit but more for ours - to see where our faith lies and how strong it is. When we pass, just like in school, we get to move up to the next level of growth/testing.
Christians rarely talk about it because it is such a politically correct topic, but we as Christians need to be concerned about the environment. Granted, it is for completely different motives(the Earth isn't my mother and animals aren't my ancestors nor do I anticipate the Earth having to be here for another million years). The motives can be boiled down to two; 1) The earth is God's masterpiece. He didn't rest on the 7th day because He was tired but because He was utterly satisfied with His creation. Creation declares His majesty and we should be curators of this museum. 2) We are stewards of it. Adams job was to work the garden and care for it. We should guard against it's destruction. When the flood destroyed everything, God actually made a covenant with the Earth (Gen 9:13) that He wouldn't destroy it again.3) It obeys God better than we do. We should be on God's side in this. Because of these reasons we see God commanding the people to treat anomals with respect (they still could eat them, though). We see God commanding them to not randomly destroy creation when they go in and raze cities. God commands them to give the land a rest every 7 years. Someday He will freecreation from its bondage and we should have God's heart in that.
As we look at more moral, ritual, and national laws, Deuteronomy adds a few national laws (laws to make the Israelites different from the rest of the world) One of these is sanitation. Just think, if the world had followed the Bible's advice, how many typhoid, cholera, etc deaths could have been prevented.An interesting law is the "roadkill law". It appears they couldn't eat it but they could sell it to unbelievers. The same was true of interest - they couldn't charge interest but they could to non-jews. Obviously we need to see what all of scripture says, but I see this as a principle where we, in non-sinful areas that are matters of choice to be different from the world (food, drink, clothing, music, entertainment, etc.) are able to deal/sell/work in these areas to unbelievers who don't have the same standards.
Lastly, I see the whole restrictions on going to war as concessions rather than restrictions. To me, Moses is basically saying, "If you are afraid to risk your life because you are missing out on your wife, your home, your possessions, by all means - stay home. I don't want your fear spreading among the rest of the troops." In the same way, Jesus in Luke gives a parable of a feast where people stay away for mainly the same reasons as in Deuteronomy. He goes on to say that before you go into a battle you should count the cost. If you value anything more than Him, don't join up. The Christian life is a battle, not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities, and Jesus says that we must give our lives fully or we can't follow Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment