Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

The Lord’s children

Mourning, eating, sharing and caring

Bodily disfigurement was standard pagan mourning practice (see Is. 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 16:6; Ezek. 7:18), though it is not explained. Yet God’s children (Deut. 14:1) are ‘holy’ (v. 2) and defined as ‘[belonging] to the Lord’ – essentially they are living within a different environment and partakers of a different arena of life, not just negatively different from the surrounding world but positively so, as a ‘treasured possession’. Paul caught the whole idea here when he counseled not sorrowing as others who have no hope (1 Thes. 4:13).  pantry (vv. 3–21); and handling the family income (vv. 22–29). It is in these everyday, down-to-earth things that the difference of God’s people is to be evident. Great issues are faced in unspectacular situations. 

Bodily disfigurement was standard pagan mourning practice (see Is. 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 16:6; Ezek. 7:18), though it is not explained. Yet God’s children (Deut. 14:1) are ‘holy’ (v. 2) and defined as ‘[belonging] to the Lord’ – essentially they are living within a different environment and partakers of a different arena of life, not just negatively different from the surrounding world but positively so, as a ‘treasured possession’. Paul caught the whole idea here when he counselled not sorrowing as others who have no hope (1 Thes. 4:13). 

The food permissions and restrictions (Deut. 14:3–21; cf. Mark 7:19) are also unexplained. The great old Brethren writer, C.H. Mackintosh, found symbolism where possible and explained chewing the cud as proper inward digestion, and parting or splitting the hoof as leaving the correct footprint – so that the ‘clean’ beasts reflected the believer’s task of digesting and living out divine truth. The explanation is delightful but hard to apply to birds and fish.

Rather, we are firmly cautioned that our lifestyle matters. Deuteronomy has a lovely extension to the tithe laws (Lev. 27:30–33; Num. 18:21–29), making the regular tithe an occasion for a family feast with invited guests (Deut. 14:26–27), and adding the special third-year tithe (v. 28) as a local, social provision for the needy. It all adds up to being different by being your true self.

Reflection

Christians have a distinctive ‘national dress’. As Paul urges in Romans 13:14, ‘clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ’ – ‘Lord’ by obeying, ‘Jesus’ by imitating his lovely life, and ‘Christ’ by resting on his finished work of salvation.