Deuteronomy 23:15-24 Bible Study | Episode 931

May 5, 2025

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

Deuteronomy 23:15-24  Bible Study | Episode #931

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 23.

We're dealing with verse 15 through 25.

It's another kind of list of laws.

And by the way, as we're going through these lists, I don't know if you're noticing or not.

It's more and more intriguing, especially as I prepare to teach this. I've obviously read this many times, but never taught through the book of Deuteronomy.

Really never taught through any of the books other than Genesis in the Pentateuch and taught through Joshua. So I've talked through Genesis and Joshua, but the four books in the middle,

not really, not really taught through em. Now Exodus, I've spent a lot of time in and maybe taught a lot that is in the book of Exodus,

but really not taught through these. Read through them. And oftentimes when you read through the law you don't realize what some of the really important things that are going on here and things that really speak not only to our culture but they speak to our times and seasons and they revealed to us that maybe some of the things that are being said out in the world about the Bible,

about the Old Testament, about, about the law are untrue. The law is, is not, is not a, a old fashioned group of rules that, that have no place in the, in the modern world.

In fact, as we read through them you begin to see that, that many of the things that we, we focus on and we, we believe to be of great importance are found right here.

And many of the values that we think are values of love and values of hope are found here also. It says, you shall not give back to his master, the slave who has escaped from his master.

To you what I thought the Bible endorsed slavery. Not only does the Bible not under the Bible in every possible way knowing that the whole culture of the world is slavery.

By the way, at this time, every place in the world is involved in slavery. There's slaves in every city, every town, every likely, every village around the world. There's slaves everywhere.

There are slaves of different colors. And oftentimes when we think of slavery in the United States, all we think about is North American,

the North American slave trade. That, that, that's. That's not even a close to an understanding of the international.

International slavery. And how many slaves.

How many slaves were being held around the world and, and by the way, how many slaves that were being held around the world that weren't. That weren't people of color?

A lot of Caucasian Europeans were being held in slavery in Africa at the same time that we were shipping slaves here. And God. God in every way, when. When he speaks about slavery, he speaks in such a way as to undermine its true economic effect and to.

And to teach believers that this is really not one of those things that God favors at all. And he says that here,

if you have a slave that is escaped from his master, he may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses, within one of your gates, where it seems best to him, you shall not oppress him.

But he said, don't give him back to his master and then give him the freedom to live in. In your country where he wants to live.

Wow. That's. That's. That doesn't seem like that. In fact, that seems like. That seems like some. Some law that would be made by the north during the civil war. In fact, it was.

It came the laws from the north that involved not re. Re emancipate, re patriot and slaves to the southern states. They came from this right here. Why? Because. Because he got said, listen, if a slave escapes his master, you don't send him back to that country.

You don't send him people. You allow him to live among you. Why? Because he's going to become like you, and he's going to come to know God and he's going to begin to be a worshiper of God.

And then you've got someone in your country that is, as you are, a brother to you. And so that was all wrong. Next. Next verse, it says, verse 17. There shall be no ritual harlot or daughters of Israel or perverted one, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.

What is that talking about? Well,

it's talking about temple prostitution. It's talking about the worship that went on in the pagan temples that involved prostitutes, involved female prostitutes, and then it involved Male prostitutes with other males.

And that's what it's talking about. Or pervert the sons of Israel. There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.

It's talking about, it's talking about we're not going to have temple prostitution. There's not going to be prostitution that's linked to a worship of a pagan God. That shall not be.

There shall be no that. Those are very key legal terms. There shall be no meaning, none of that. And, and, and, and Bible is, is against that too. Yes, prostitution of any type but, but also against prostitution of, for the purpose of worship.

And that went on all around the world. All around the world. The, the, the, this practice was taking place it, and when I say all around the world, everywhere around the world, 3500 years ago this was going on.

You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or a price of a dog to the house of the Lord. Meaning don't, don't, don't be, don't be bringing money that is tainted by this type of stuff.

Don't bring it before God. Don't sell your dog and bring it as a offering to God,

which I think is interesting, or any vowed offering. For both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

That's not how we're going to fund and finance the kingdom of God is through these type of activities. Interesting. You didn't realize that, did you? You didn't realize that God was.

Well, he, He, He, He. He's handling things 3,500 years ago. And these, all these laws are so antithetical to the world that they were given to. So against the, the cultures that that existed and the kingdoms that existed in the empires that existed.

He said, you shall not charge interest to your brother. Uhoh. What?

No charge in interest to you brother. Interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest to a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest.

What he's saying is if you're going to give money to somebody as far as trade and international trade with other countries. And by the way they did that Israel was one of the main trade routes through the world.

It's, it was the linking spot between Asia, Europe and, and Africa.

He says, you know, you've got to, you've got to. When you're, when you're, when you're trading, don't, don't be charging interest to fellow believers. Don't do that. You can charge interest to,

to those you're doing business with, commerce with, that are trading throughout the world. You can do that, but you can't charge interest to your brother. And he says that, that if you do that, that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess.

Notice he says in verse 21, when you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it.

So when we make a vow to God, we need to act on it.

This thing's just logical, but it's important for the Lord your God will surely require it from you and it would be a sin to you. What he's saying is, is that if you make a vow to God, get busy doing it.

How many times do we do that on Sunday morning? How many people come in and do something on Sunday morning as far as dealing with God? And then they leave and expect God to fulfill his end but then not fulfill theirs?

He says, he says God will surely require of you notice why, but if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be a sin to you, meaning don't make vows to God that you're not intending to keep.

If you don't make a vow to God, it's not going to be sin. God doesn't require you to make vows to him. He doesn't require that of you. And so if you're making a vow to God, you better keep it.

He said, that which is gone from your lips, you shall keep and perform for your voluntarily made vow to the Lord your God,

what you have promised with your mouth. He's saying you've got to make sure that you, you keep your vows to God if you're going to make them, you don't, you didn't have to.

It's but given voluntarily. God does not require these vows.

But if you make them, you got to keep them.

All these things are very logical. All these things are very scriptural. I mean, they, they just make perfect sense. They, they, they, they're practical, they're, they're, they're modern. They, they, they make sense in the world.

You know, we don't want to have, we don't want to give slavery slaves back to their slave masters. We don't want to have temple prostitution. We don't want to charge interest to our, to, to our other believers.

We don't want to make a vow to God, not keep it. Especially when God doesn't require the vow at all. And then he says, when you come into Your neighbor's vineyard.

You may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you not shall not put in any into your container. And when you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain.

And this is, you know, this is the typical people who come to your house to, to, to have a, at a party or, or to have a feast, have a, you know, big meal, big meal, big get together, big hoopty, do as we would say in the South.

They come for a big hoopty doo and they didn't really bring anything and they ate their field and then they want to, you know, they want to get a box to go.

Well,

he says don't do that, don't do that. But if they offer it to you that's fine. But don't just make your box. Don't, don't just. You can eat all the grapes you want but, but don't take a bag full home with you without, without being offered.

Don't, don't,

don't. Don't take a big old loaf of bread, you know that home baked bread. Don't take a big old loaf of at home because it's a little extra after the party.

Wow.

As you read that it makes really good sense, doesn't it? You know those people? You, you, you, you know them. Some of them are your family members. You know, Uncle Versie does that.

Don't, don't, don't, don't do that. That's not good.

What a hilarious end to this Bible study.

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.