Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. We used church candy for our new church plant the Garden, and the response blew me and my team away. At our new church plant the Garden, we ran simple invite ads through none other than church candy. And hundreds of people responded. Seriously. People who had never even heard of us, who had never met me or heard me preach. They saw an ad on Facebook or Instagram. They showed up to a launch party or launch team training. Some of them have joined our team. Here's the best part. A good amount of them have started giving and tithing, which means the ads have paid for themselves. Our church plant is growing, and it's because we chose the right partner. We didn't have to figure out marketing strategies or spend hours tinkering with ad settings. Church candy handled it all and it worked. You might not be planting a church, but if you're a pastor who wants to see more new faces on Sunday. And by the way, I've never met a pastor who doesn't want to see more new faces on Sunday. It's time to check them out. How about you go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a discovery call, Let their team show you what's possible when the right people hear about your church family. Welcome to day 1:30. We are in Deuteronomy chapter 15 to 18. If you have not done the reading, stop the video. Stop the audio. Go do the reading. If you have done the reading, then let's jump into our context clues. Our context clues today are actually the exact same as our context clues from yesterday. The Context is the Ten Commandments. Okay. Deuteronomy 5:1 22 are going to provide the backdrop for this expansion of those 10 Commandments. So in our reading today, we're actually. I know that the plan is Deuteronomy chapter 15:18, but actually we need to pick up at chapter 14, verse 22. Okay. So I'll kind of give you an outline of like, where we're going today. Deuteronomy, chapter 14, verse 22, all the way to Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 17 are all an expansion on the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment of the ten commandments. Okay? That fourth commandment is the commandment concerning the Sabbath. So let's go ahead and read that commandment. Okay? In Deuteronomy, chapter 5, it says this. Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work. Neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and fe servants may rest as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. All right, that's a large chunk. That's a big paragraph dedicated to the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment is a big, big, big deal. And what we're now gonna see in Deuteronomy 14:22 all the way to Deuteronomy 16:17 is an expansion, is, hey, what does it mean to observe the Sabbath? I know that the ten Commandments are telling me to observe the Sabbath, but what does that actually mean? The context clue. Okay, so let's get into our context clue. The context clue For Deuteronomy, chapter 14, verse 22 to Deuteronomy 16:17 is Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 12 to 15. Okay? The context for what we have here in the middle of Deuteronomy is found back in the beginning of Deuteronomy. All right? We think about the Sabbath. The thing that is required in order to actually observe the Sabbath is trust, is that I'm not dependent upon what I can get done. I'm not dependent upon my own resources. But I realize that God has given me six days to work. But then there is a portion of my time that is holy as unto the Lord. Okay? It's holy and it should be given to God. So when the Bible tells me to practice Sabbath, what else do I need to do in order to keep that same principle? The Sabbath should be teaching me that I shouldn't have 100% of my time. No, man. A seventh of my time belongs to the Lord. And if I manage all my time and I keep all my time, then I could easily become a workaholic. And most people are workaholics because money is an idol for them. So I spend all my time working because I'm trying to accumulate, I'm trying to attain, I'm trying to hoard. I'm trying to keep. But if I'm dependent on God, then that means I will not work for a day. That means I'll take a rest. And that means I'm not defined by the amount of money that I make or the job that I have. I'm not defined by my vocation or my profession. But I'm entering into rest and acknowledging that a percentage or a portion of my time belongs to God. So when we get into Deuteronomy 14:22, here's what it's gonna say. Be sure to set aside a tenth of all your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil in the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God, at the place he will choose as a dwelling place for his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. What? Wait a second. God is expanding the law about the Sabbath command found here in Deuteronomy chapter 5. And he's saying that the way to also obey the Sabbath is to tithe. Because I should be treating my money the same way I treat my time in the same way that my time doesn't all belong to me, my money doesn't all belong to me in the same way that I trust that, you know what? I wish I'd got more work done, but I'm not going to trespass and work on the Sabbath because it belongs to God. I'm saying, you know, I wish I had more money, but I'm not gonna trespass and go beyond the 90% and dig into the 10%, because that belongs to God. That tithing is a form of Sabbath. Also, tithing is a form of Sabbath because in order to practice the Sabbath, I have to depend not on what I can produce, but on the supernatural power of God to multiply what I can produce. And with tithing, I'm not dependent upon the money that I can produce or the money that I have. But I'm believing in the supernatural provision of God to multiply that which my hands have produced, actually, the Sabbath. How I interact with time and how I interact with money are incredibly interconnected. This is so wise on God's part that God would say, yep, I know you're going to observe the Sabbath, but let's actually tease that out a little bit. Let's expand that. Let's actually. When the rubber meets the road, if you have a heart to observe the Sabbath, then that same heart to observe the Sabbath will extend to how you manage Your finances. Okay, next it's gonna say this in chapter 15, at the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. Oh wait, that's how I also practice Sabbath. Yeah. If you're going to take every seven days and not work on one of those days, then every seven years you gotta cancel debts. So debt cancellation is a form of Sabbath. Verse 4 of chapter 15. There need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance. He will richly bless you if only you fully obey. Therefore, if I believe that God's been radically generous to me and has given my body the energy to work and has given my mind the sharpness to solve problems and to create, then I should actually cancel loans. If I'm a creditor, I shall cancel loans that they've. That that fellow Israelites has made to me. And I should do that every seven years. That's. So see what Deuteronomy chapter 14 and 15 and 16 are saying. What good is it if you practice the Sabbath every six days? But you don't do this. If you're going to do this, you may as well do this. Because this is another way, an additional way. This is additional layers of expression on how to practice the Sabbath. What's the next one? It's going to be about freeing servants. If any of your people is verse 12. Hebrew men or women sell themselves to you and serve you for six years. In the seventh year, you must let them go free. Okay, so if you're gonna have a six day rhythm where you work for six days and break for one day, work for six days, break for one day. If you're gonna have a six day work rhythm and a one day rest, so that's a seven day complete rhythm. Then you should also have a six year rhythm. And on the seventh year, you let people go free. So your annual rhythms should follow your weekly rhythms, because this is how you keep the sabbath, then chapter 16, we're going to get into festivals. We're going to get into Passover, festival of weeks, festival of tabernacles. And so this is all the way to chapter 16, verse 17. Okay, now why would the festivals fall under Sabbath? Well, because the festivals are extended, extended Sabbaths. Okay. It's like a vacation. And when I'm away celebrating the Passover, or some of these festivals are weeks, some of these are just a day. If I'm celebrating the festival of tabernacles, it's going to take time to get to Jerusalem. It's going to Take time to come back home. That's time that I'm not working. That's also I've got to offer sacrifices at the festival. So these are expensive. So God is saying, do not be stingy. Do not be tight fisted with your time or your money. And there's a relationship between your time and your money. Instead of spending all your time making money, I want you to come to Jerusalem and spend your time dancing before the Lord and celebrating before the Lord. And I want you to bring animals and I want you to sacrifice those animals. God, but those animals cost money and I'm already not working. Ah, don't worry about the money or the. Or the work that you're missing out on. No, don't make your employees work during Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, man. There's a lot of vacations in a year. Yep. Because you're not a workaholic. And accumulating things is not your identity. I want you to work hard. I want you to work hard for the six days that you have been allotted to work. I want you to work hard outside of the festivals. But every Sabbath and for all the festivals, you put an end to work and you come to Jerusalem and you worship the Lord. Okay? If you add up the animal sacrifices and the time off work, these festivals are simply expensive. There's no way around it. For the people of Israel to actually practice these festivals is not cheap. And what do they require? They require trust and dependence. They require trust in Yahweh, Dependence on Yahweh. All right, now at chapter 16, verse 18, we are going to shift, okay? We're going to go from the fourth commandment as the thing being expounded upon to the fifth commandment as the thing being expounded upon. So what's the fifth commandment? We're going to go back over to Deuteronomy 5:16. Our fifth commandment out of the ten commandments is this. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live long, and then it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Okay, so honor your father and your mother. All right? So you've got to honor your father and your mother. What are your mother and your father? They are authority figures. That's who they are. They're supposed to be authority figures in your life. And the way that you honor your parents, I don't know if anybody else grew up with a parent like this. My father used to always say, hey, I've got to make sure before you leave my house that you know how to respect authority. The way that you respect me as your dad is going to be the way that you respect your basketball coach and your football coach and a police officer. So I'm training you on how to respond to authority and respect authority, because it's a life skill that you're going to need when you're not at my house. So when you're at school. The reason that my father would discipline me if I disrespected my teachers is because my teachers at school are an extension of my dad's authority in my life. So honor your parents. But of course, like the previous four commandments, if all I do is honor my mother and my father, I haven't actually kept the law. I haven't kept the heart of the law. So now we get to Deuteronomy, chapter 16. And what does Moses say? He says this, verse 18 of chapter 16. Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God has given you, and they shall judge the people fairly. What's a judge? A judge is someone that I'm supposed to honor because they're an authority figure. So the reason I'm supposed to honor my mother and my father as authority figures is because I've got to honor judges. This is practice. I'm practicing something domestically that I'm going to need when I'm outside of the home. Judges are an extension of parental authority for the nation of Israel. What's the next one? Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the Lord your God. And do not erect a sacred stone for these the Lord your God hates. Okay, that's interesting. How did we go from judges to Asherah poles? What in the world is going on? Well, here's what Yahweh is saying. I want judges to have authority over the land in the same way that parents have authority over their children. But I do not want Asherah poles to have any authority. Idols and graven images and false deities are not to be given any authority. So actually, these are very connected, because what Yahweh is saying is, yep, Judges are supposed to have authority. Idols definitely not give them no authority. The authority that you would give to a parent, give that same authority to a judge. But the authority that you would give to a parent, do not give that to Asherah. Why? Because Yahweh is your father, and if you practice idolatry, you are dishonoring your heavenly parent. That is why this law in verse 21 and 22 of chapter 16 is an expansion of the fifth commandment, honor your mother and your father. Also, if my mother and my father worshiped Yahweh, then the way to honor my mother and father is to worship the gods of my parents. I'm not going to worship the gods of the Canaanites. I'm going to worship the God of my parents. This is why Yahweh is continuously saying to the people, hey, I'm the God of your ancestors. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph and Jacob. I'm not just some random God. I am your great, great, great, great, great great great grandfather's God. And your great great grandfather's God and your grandfather's God. Like I'm the God of your ancestors. Now, for people living in a super individualistic society, that may not mean a lot to us, but that is super impactful. Do not worship the God of these new Canaanites. You don't know them. Worship the God of your parents. The way to honor your parents is to worship the God of your parents. Okay, three, the next law. Oh, we gotta skip. We gotta Skip. Okay, verse 14 of chapter 17. We're gonna get the king. So if I'm gonna honor my parents, I should also honor the king. Cause he has authority. The next person I need to honor are the Levites. And we're gonna get that in chapter 18. And then I should honor the prophets. Now, each of these are gonna be given checks and balances. Number one, I'm supposed to honor the king. And the king is supposed to have authority. But the king is not supposed to put his faith and his trust in horses and chariots, essentially military power. Two, I'm supposed to honor the Levites. I'm supposed to respect their authority. But they can't take bribes, they can't take money in order to forgive me or absolve me of my sin. And then last, I'm supposed to honor the prophets. But I can't want the prophets to do occult things. So verse nine of chapter 18 is going to say, when you enter the land, your God, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifice their son or daughter of the fire, who practice divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, casts spells, or is a medium or a spiritist, consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. Because of these same detestable Practices. The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless. The nations will dispossess. Listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me. That's Moses. A prophet like me. From among you. Okay, so prophecy, this is. I've had it explain this a lot. And this gets into our timeless truth for the day. Our first timeless truth is that a lot of people want spirit, but they don't want the Holy Spirit. Okay, There's a lot of people who are hungry for spiritual stuff, but they don't want the set apart spirit, the sacred spirit, the Holy Spirit. And God is making a delineation between occult power and his power, demonic power and his power. Don't go to sorcerers, omens, witchcraft, spells, mediums, spiritists, necromancers. No, don't do any of that. I want you to rely on prophets, prophetic power. That's good. I remember when TikTok blew up in 2020, there's this girl who was on there was like, why do people, you know, you know, have all this negative stuff to say about witches? I mean, speaking in tongues is the same thing and prophecy is the same thing. And I want to be like, you are so ignorant. No, it is not the same thing. What you are doing is drawing on demonic power that you are getting from Satan. And we are experiencing spiritual power within the bounds of what God has said is allowable. That's like somebody saying, I'm a polygamist and you're a monogamist. We both having sex. It's like, yeah, I'm having sex within the boundaries that God has said is okay. You are having sex, but you're having sex outside of the boundaries of which God is saying is okay. Spiritual power is not the problem. God is making a clear delineation between spiritual power that is occult and spiritual power that is holy or set apart or sacred or sanctified for his people, family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in Context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. So judges are to be honored in a place of authority. Astropoles are not to be honored in a place of authority because that is dishonoring my parents. Kings are to be honored in a place of authority. Levites are to be honored in a place of authority. Prophets are to be honored in a place of authority. But each of those last three kings, prophets, and priests are given parameters that if I'm a king, I can't depend on military might. If I'm a Levite, I can't depend on bribes from people. The Catholic Church got into this when it sold indulgences in order to get people out of Purgatory. That's very much so, what Deuteronomy is saying. Priests shouldn't do that. You shouldn't be absolving people's sins in return for money. And then if I'm gonna be a prophet, then I'm held to a completely different standard, and I can't lead God's people away. This is how I honor my mother and my father. So again, I don't just look at the Ten Commandments and go, all right, I'm honoring my parents. No. God says, if you think it's that simple, you got another thing coming. In order to honor your parents, you actually need to honor judges, the king, the Levites, the prophets. And you definitely can't have astropulse. All right. Our timeless truth for the day is twofold. Number one, there's a lot of people today who want spirit, but not Holy Spirit. You need to make sure that the spiritual power you're seeking is actually the Holy Spirit's power. And then last, I mean, the common theme all the way from chapter 14, verse 22 all the way to the end is dependence on Yahweh. I should not be relying on money or slaves or employees that I work like crazy, or sorcery or animals or chariots. Everything about these two sections of laws tell me to be dependent on Yahweh and Yahweh alone and not to be reliant on military power, not to be reliant on money, not to be reliant on my work, not to be reliant on my employees, but to be reliant on everything that God is able to do. All right, that was day 1:30 tomorrow. We got day 131. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. If you're not, come on, let's get two days. You can do this. I'll see you tomorrow right here for day 131. So proud of y' all. Love y' all. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.