The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/deuteronomy/13.htm

In Chapter 13, Moses covers the punishment for apostates, or for those who commit apostasy. Merriam-Webster defines apostasy as “an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith”.

The Bible was written for Christians, so for those who refuse to follow Jesus or His Father (“If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”) or to obey God’s rules is an apostate. A person can be an apostate, or an entire church or denomination can be apostate. If your church does not follow the rules of the Bible or have fallen to tolerance for sin, they have become apostate.

Specifically, this chapter addresses those who seek or worship other gods, or who refuse to follow God and obey His rules, or if anyone allows friend or family to draw them away from God is considered to be committing apostasy.

And it states the punishment for apostasy is death.

Does that show you how much God hates sin? God is sending the children of Israel into the promised land to push out or eradicate the pagans, the evil ones, those who worship other gods, build idols, and sacrifice children (and I can only guess the sacrifice of children breaks God’s heart).

And it isn’t just the fact these people commit these atrocities, it’s the fact that that behavior can spread rapidly. The children of Israel having even been in the promised land yet (except for the 12 scouts God instructed Moses to send in), and they already started playing hanky-panky with the women of Edom and Moab.

God is desperately trying to save the world. He gave everyone a warning before the Great Flood, and only 8 people out of the hundreds of thousands of people heeded that warning and repented of their sins. And God promised He would never do that again, so now He is trying to save the world through the actions of the Israelites.

In Chapter 14, Moses gives warning about improper grieving. I assume it could still happen today, but apparently back then, those who were mourning the loss of a loved one or friend might cut themselves or shave their forehead in their grief, and God warned not to do this. In current times, that can obviously be updated to include anything you do to hurt your own body in your grief, including abusing alcohol or drugs.

Then once again they review the clean and unclean food God allows us to consume, and many churches today say that is no longer valid. If that was a rule for only the Jews, why do Muslim’s observe the same rule? And the problem with eating unclean foods is that those listed are mostly scavengers.

One of my favorite movies, before I became a Christian, was Pulp Fiction. And there is a scene in which they discuss eating pork. Withstanding the profanity and violence that is in not only that movie, but most of everything that comes out of Hollywood, the scene is enlightening.

Travolta: “What some bacon?”
Jackson: “Naw man, I don’t eat pork”.
Travolta: “What? Are you Jewish?”
Jackson: “No, I ain’t Jewish, I just don’t dig on swine, that’s all.”
Travolta: “Why not?”
Jackson: “Pigs a filthy animal. I don’t eat filthy animals.”
Travolta: “Yeah, but bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good.”
Jackson: “Well, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie but I’ll never know because I won’t eat the filthy (expletive). Pigs eat and root in (expletive – their own feces). That’s a filthy animal. I don’t eat anything that doesn’t have sense enough to disregard it’s own feces.”
And the dialog continues.

And that is pretty much the reason God does not want us to eat swine…and while it was just a movie script, Quenton Tarantino, through Samuel L. Jackson, hit the nail on the head.

And pretty much all of the unclean meats are the same. Any fish without scales, like catfish, lobster, crab, and shrimp are bottom feeders, eating anything they can, including feces. And it’s pretty much a health rule, for those who claim the rule was just for the Israelites, did God want only them to be healthy and not care about us?

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox about unclean foods.

Finally, the chapter ends with commands concerning tithing. Even many church goers do not tithe, and they forget that their tithe is what pays their pastor. Their pastor works hard for them, not just giving sermons, but most give personal advice and counseling as well. Are they not deserving pay in return?

As always, I invite your comments. There is no reason why we cannot have a civil discussion about scripture, even if we have different views.

God bless you.