Deuteronomy 16:1-22
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
2 Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.
3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
4 And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.
5 Thou mayest not sacrificea the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
7 And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.
8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.
9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tributeb of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:
11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.
13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy cornc and thy wine:
14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.
15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the wordsd of the righteous.
20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image;e which the LORD thy God hateth.
In chapter sixteen we now deal with the various feasts that they were to observe when they came into the land. We have rehearsed these as we went through earlier in the book of Exodus and all. You're to keep the feast of the Passover in the first month, the month of April, and no leaven bread and those things of the Passover. Then you may not keep the Passover in any of the cities of the land but the city that God appointed for his place of worship. In other words they had to come to Jerusalem. They couldn't just keep it in any of the cities they wanted to. Then they were to keep the feast of Pentecost, the seven weeks after Passover and then the next day, the fiftieth day, they were to keep the feast of Pentecost, the ingathering and then the feast of Tabernacles in the tenth month.
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast (Deuteronomy 16:11),
Again the commandment to rejoice and in verse fifteen, the very end
Therefore thou shalt surely rejoice (Deuteronomy 16:15).
God doesn't want any long-faced griping service. God wants you to serve him with a rejoicing. God wants you give with a rejoicing. Paul said, "God loves a hilarious giver"(2 Corinthians 9:7). Now, that is why your giving should never be by pressure, it should never be by constraint. Your giving to God should always be a freewill giving with a rejoicing heart. Whatever you give to God of time, service, whatever; you should always give it with a rejoicing heart. If you can't give it with a rejoicing heart then don't give it. It's better that you not give at all than to give and gripe about it. God can't stand griping. It really upsets Him and I can understand that. I've been around people who have offered things to me and I thought they were genuinely offering them to me so when I took them then I heard them griping. Well man I took it back just as quick as I could and said, "Hey, I don't need this. You keep it." I don't want anything given to me that people gripe about.
We were back in Toledo, Ohio my brother and I holding a meeting back there. And the pastor of the church had us over for dinner and you know, I'm a milk drinker I just really love to drink milk. And so he'd fill my glass and I'd drink it because I enjoy drinking milk. And after I had drunk the second glass, he said, "Looks like we're not gonna have any milk for our baby". Oh man, did I feel terrible. I didn't want to take milk out of his baby's mouth. And I really felt bad that I had drunk the milk and so I went out and bought a couple half gallons of milk and took it over to his house and said, "Here, give the milk to your baby". But I can't stand people griping over what they give.
Now if you don't want me to drink milk in your house, don't pour it in my glass because you pour it in my glass, I'm gonna drink it and if you offer me another glass I'm gonna take it and drink it. So if you can't do it with a free, liberal heart then please don't do it. It curdles in my stomach when they start griping about my drinking it.
But God is much the same way. He can't stand people griping over what they've given to Him. That's why he constantly emphasizes the free will, the free choice, as you determine in your own heart and give hilariously. God loves the hilarious, the cheerful giver. And that's the way God wants you to give to Him. And so rejoicing, rejoicing, rejoicing in the sacrifices, in the worship, in the giving to God. He wants you to be a happy people, a rejoicing people. Let's not disappoint Him.
Now, three times a year every male was to appear before the Lord in a place that God would appoint. So later on when Jerusalem became the city that God appointed, three times every year every adult Jewish male was required to come to Jerusalem for these three feast days: Passover, Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles. They were required to be there in that assembly before God.
And don't appear before the LORD empty: Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he has given thee (Deuteronomy 16:16-17).
Now, when you get into the land you're supposed to appoint judges in every city and in the gates of the city was to be the place of judgment. And you were to bring your matters before the judges who sat in the gates of the city and they would judge over the land.
And to those judges he commanded that they were not receive any bribes,
for it can blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous (Deuteronomy 16:19).
Now God in the sixteenth chapter here closed the exhortations declaring,
Neither shalt thou set up any image; which the LORD thy God hates (Deuteronomy 16:22).
God hates images. Now, I don't think God has changed. If he hated images then, he no doubt hates images now. And God declared, "You're not to set up any image; which I hate". An image is always a sign of a deteriorating spiritual life, for the image is intended to be a reminder. Whenever you need a reminder it indicates that you have lost something vital of that awareness and conscienceness of God, rather than having that awareness and conscienceness.
As Paul, "In Him we live, we move, we have our being and be aware of God's presence with me"(Acts 17:28). I've lost that awareness, that conscienceness so what do I do? I start carving out an image, so that every time I see the image I'll be reminded of God. So the image always speaks of a degraded or deteriorated spiritual state. It testifies to my loss of the conscienceness of the presence of God with me at all times and all places. God hates images. I think that it is tragic that in so many of the great churches and cathedrals they have images within them, inasmuch as God hates them. And I'll leave you with that.
Shall we stand.
May the Lord be with you and bless you and keep you. May He bring you into a fresh awareness of His presence and may you experience a fresh work of God within your lives. That you might walk before Him this week in the path of righteousness pleasing unto Him. May God help you in those areas of your life where you experienced failures in your past, and may you experience God's power and God's strength helping you to overcome. That you will not be overcome with evil but you will overcome evil with good through His spirit working you. May you come into a deeper relationship of love; love before God and love for each other. And especially, may God give you a heart of praise and rejoicing so that your life might be pleasing to Him as you rejoice in the Lord always. God bless and God keep you. "