Deuteronomy 17:1 Bible Study | Episode 907

April 1, 2025 

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 17:1  Bible Study | Episode #907

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy chapter 17,

and we're gonna move really fast. I'm gonna cover one verse today,

and you go, well, why one verse? Well, it's only one verse as far as the subject matter. Actually, Deuteronomy chapter 7 has four or five subject matters. Actually, the last two,

the fourth and the fifth, are very similar to each other and probably ought to be done together. But this subject matter, even though in this chapter it is the smallest, it seems to be a major issue.

And when I say it seems to be a major issue,

as you're studying through scripture, you're going to find out that it is a major issue. It's a problem. It's something that is spoken about regularly throughout the Old Testament as a problem.

Whenever God is dealing with his people and he is mentioning the issues that he has with them, this one comes up almost all the time.

It is one of his main issues. In fact, the book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament. So we go from. It is actually the last writing of the Old Testament.

We go from Deuteronomy 17 to Malachi.

And in Malachi, the first chapter this issue's brought up, God brings it up so well. You go, well, we don't do sacrifices anymore, so it doesn't really matter.

Yes, it does. And we do sacrifices.

That's one of the things that we oftentimes as New Testament Christians don't realize. We actually are involved in sacrifices. In fact,

you're offering yourself as a living sacrifice. And we speak of that regularly in our church on Sunday morning, especially when we come to the altar for the first time. And when we take up our offering, we understand that our lives are sacrifices to God.

How we live and who we are is a living sacrifice to Him. So when the Old Testament is talking about sacrifices. There's lots of pictures about that. It's pictures of worship.

It's pictures of who God is. It's pictures of how we are to live there.

All types of biblical illusions that take us from the Old Testament to the New Testament, so that we can see in a story form, especially in the Old Testament, in a.

See in a story form, a truth, an eternal truth that is amplified, is carried out, is perfected in Jesus Christ. And one of these is this, that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.

And that in the New Testament we do not have to make a sacrifice for our sin anymore. Our sacrifice is a sacrifice of love and relationship with God. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices because of our great love and affection for who God is and what God has done for us.

And so our sacrifice is important.

Jesus sacrifice is preeminent. Our sacrifice is beautiful. Jesus sacrifice is the most wonderful event in human history.

Our sacrifice is relational. Jesus's sacrifice is relational on steroids.

It is the ability for God to have relationship with humanity in totality through his finished work. Our sacrifice is our ability to walk in the fullness of our relationship with God,

in its fullness and in its completeness and in. In its abundance. And so when we're reading this, it's important that we see that obviously the heart of man turns away from this or,

well, abominates it, I guess is the best way to say it.

We cause our sacrifice to be an abomination.

And how do we do that? Well, because we give God best, less than the best. We give him less than the best. And that's what chapter 17, verse 1, says.

You shall not remember, that's a legal terminology. You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God, a bull or a sheep which has any blemish. Notice that's anything that is not right about.

Might be blindness, it might be lameness, it might be deafness. It might be. It might be that it has a skin rash or skin disease, any imperfection. It might be that it's malformed,

anything about it. He said, you shall not offer that sacrifice to the Lord. And notice he has pulled out of all the sacrifices that are available to them.

He's pulled out the bull and the sheep. The bull representing the flesh of humanity.

It's sacrificing our flesh. And the sheep representing us as children of God.

It represents us in our relationship with God as his sheep, the sheep of his pasture. Both of those have beautiful pictures to them. The sacrificing of our flesh and the sacrificing of the spotless lamb, he says,

you're not gonna offer that with a defect, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.

That means it's detestable to God. God cannot handle that. God will not accept that.

And you go, well, how do we jump that chasm? Well, question is, when you're offering your life, are you offering God defective flesh in the sense that you're not allowing God to change you.

You're not walking in the spirit, not desiring, not feeding the desires of the sinful nature.

You are,

you're living out those desires and not walking by the spirit, walking in the flesh. Are you doing that? Well, then your living sacrifice is,

you know, with blemish. It's blemished, he said, you know, as his, as his sheep, the sheep of his pasture. Are you continually walking in communion with him? Are you walking in relationship with him?

Are you walking in closeness with him?

If you are,

then you are the sheep of his pasture. But if you're totally continually wandering away, continually chasing after your own will in your own ways, if you're doing that, well, then you're offering a blemished sacrifice.

You go all the way over to Malachi, chapter one and verse six. He says, as a son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am to the father, where's my honor?

And if I'm a master, where's my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts. This is the last book of the Old Testament. I mean, it's going on from can to cake, from beginning to end,

where he says, says the Lord of hosts to the priest who despise my name. And you go, well, that's the priest. Well, you're a priest, remember that. We're a kingdom of priests.

You have access to God. You have access to the holy of holies. That makes you a high priest. Makes you the top notch priest. You're not. You're not the high priest.

That's Jesus. But we're coairs with him, so we have the same access that he has. He says to you, priests who despise my name. Yet you say, in what way have we despised your name?

Notice he's saying you are despising me.

Despised, despicable, we're treating God as if he's despicable. And then they ask a question, in what way are we making you despicable? And says you offer to file food on my altar.

What?

Isn't that what we saw in verse 1 of Deuteronomy?

Blemished, defective food, defiled.

He says, yeah, they're doing it now. In what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible. And when you offer a blind. He says, the table.

God says by saying the table of the Lord is contemptible. What, what makes it contemptible? It's despised. We. We don't want to offer a good sacrifice. He says, and when you offer a blind, the blind is a sacrifice.

Is that not evil or detestable?

That's what God said. He says, and when you offer a lame and sick, is it not evil?

Offer it then to your governor, meaning give it to somebody else of importance. You are not going to do that. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts.

But now entreat God's favor, meaning seek after God's favorite. Search after it, that he may be gracious to us.

While this is being done by your hands, will he accept your favorability? No, he's saying, seek after God's favor. And what is that? Well, offer a good sacrifice. All right.

Take that to the New Testament. How do I seek after God's favor? Well, I offer myself as a complete sacrifice to him.

I offer myself as a full and complete sacrifice to him. Who is it there among you who should shut the doors so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain?

What he's saying is you'd be better off not going to church,

not having the church doors open. He's saying you'd be better off shutting the temple doors,

shutting them and not allowing anybody in if you're going to offer detestable sacrifice. Now that is a strong statement.

God's saying, you know, you would be better off not. Not doing anything than offering a detestable sacrifice.

That means God takes us pretty strongly that, that we as believers who know that we. You know, God's not talking to the ignorant here.

He's not talking to the people who don't understand what's going on. I mean, that, that God. God deals with them in that he gives them light and gives them understanding.

He's talking to the believers here. He's talking to us. Us who are. Who are. Who are his. His leaders. Those who.

Who have had the light of his revelation, those who know truth. He said, you know, when you offer yourself, are you offering the best of yourself?

Are you giving God the, The. The little morsels of. Of. Of food? Are you just giving him. Giving him what nobody else wants?

He says, for from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, my name shall Be great among the Gentiles in every place shall be offered to My name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

Notice he's telling them that he's going to have a great name, and he. He's going to be worshiped all over the world. And you know he is. He is. Today he's worshiped all over the world, and his name is great.

And so why would you offer an offering to God? He's not just some regional God, some God of just one little nation. He's the God of the world. And he's saying, why would you offer me anything other than the best?

He says, God, my name's going to be great among the nations. He says, but you profane it in what you say that the table of the Lord is defiled, and its fruit, its food is contemptible.

You also say, oh, what a weariness. And you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts. Like, do we got to do this again?

H and you bring the stolen, the lame and the sick. Thus you bring an offering.

Should I accept this from your hand? Says the Lord.

He says, but cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices the Lord. What is blemished?

For I'm a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations.

I think it's interesting.

First chapter of the last book of the Bible deals with this issue and God's making sure they understand it as they go into the promised land for the first time.

That's a problem. It's an issue. And it's something that's really personal for a believer.

I really believe this. I believe this is a personal walk with God. Do you bring God's do you bring God your best?

Do you bring him your best?

Do you bring him your heart, your full heart when you come?

Do you bring him a sacrifice of praise? Are you willing to worship him in fullness?

Are you willing to give him the best of who you are?

And as we, you know, as we go through life,

we realize that, you know,

that's where true life is found. He is great among the nations. His name will be great,

and he's ours. So why wouldn't we worship Him?

Why wouldn't we seek him out?

He's victorious in all that he does, and he's victorious over sin and death. And so we should be. Also,

we should offer him our best.

Good start to the Monday thinking about God and what we all.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.