Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today is Monday. We’ll read Deuteronomy 16-19.  I’m calling today’s episode “You Consulted A What?”  

Comments on Deuteronomy 18

One thing that comes through very clearly in this chapter of Deuteronomy is that dabbling in the occult is something that God will hates. That means playing with horoscopes, Tarot cards, numerology, Ouiji boards, or trying to contact the dead through seances or anything else. Some people consider this type of thing “just having fun”. But when you read this chapter of Deuteronomy, you see that God does not see it that way. 

There is a world that we do not see. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 that “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Beloved, the enemy of our souls and his demons really are out to destroy us. There is a spiritual battle, and the occult is one method they use to gain footholds in people’s lives. So the further you can stay away from these things, the better. 

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 16 NIRV; Ch. 17 HCSB; Ch. 18 NASB; Ch. 19 ERV

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Transcript

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STEVE WEBB – 0:00
Just having fun.

INTRO S12E327 – 0:09
This is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California. Podcasting since 2004, I’m your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. This is the daily show where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. How’s your day going? Today’s Monday and we’re going to read Deuteronomy 16 through 19. I’m calling today’s episode, “You Consulted A What?” The show notes page for today’s episode is at lifespringmedia.com/s12e327. And my email address is st***@*************ia.com. Let’s get started.

DEUTERONOMY 16 (NIRV) – 0:41
Deuteronomy, chapter 16. (1) Celebrate the Passover Feast of the Lord your God in the month of Aviv. In that month he brought you out of Egypt at night. (2) Sacrifice an animal from your flock or herd. It is the Passover sacrifice in honor of the Lord your God. Sacrifice it at the special place the Lord will choose. He will put his Name there. (3) Don’t eat the animal along with bread that is made with yeast. Instead, for seven days eat bread that is made without yeast. It’s the bread that reminds you of how much you suffered. Remember that you left Egypt in a hurry. Remember it all the days of your life. Don’t forget the day you left Egypt. (4) Don’t keep any yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Don’t let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day be left over until the next morning.

(5) You must not sacrifice the Passover animal in any town the Lord your God is giving you. (6) Sacrifice it only in the special place he will choose for his Name. Sacrifice it there in the evening when the sun goes down. Do it on the same day every year. Be sure it’s the day you left Egypt. (7) Cook it and eat it. Do it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. (8) For six days eat bread that is made without yeast. On the seventh day come together for a service in honor of the Lord your God. Don’t do any work.

(9) Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to cut your grain in the field. (10) Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks in honor of the Lord your God. Give anything you choose to give as an offering. Do it in keeping with the blessings the Lord has given you. (11) Be filled with joy in the sight of the Lord your God. Be joyful at the special place he will choose for his Name. You, your children, and your male and female servants should be joyful. So should the Levites who are living in your towns. So should the outsiders and widows who are living among you. And so should the children whose fathers have died. (12) Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Be careful to obey the rules I’m giving you.

(13) Gather the grain from your threshing floors. Take the fresh wine from your winepresses. Then celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days. (14) Be filled with joy at your feast. You, your children, and your male and female servants should be joyful. So should the Levites, the outsiders, and the widows who are living in your towns. And so should the children whose fathers have died. (15) For seven days celebrate the feast in honor of the Lord your God. Do it at the place he will choose. The Lord will bless you when you gather all of your crops. He’ll bless you in everything you do. And you will be full of joy. (16) All your men must appear in front of the Lord your God at the holy tent. They must go to the place he will choose. They must do it three times a year. They must go there to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths. No man should appear in front of the Lord without bringing something with him. (17) Each of you must bring a gift. Do it in keeping with the way the Lord your God has blessed you.

(18) Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes. Do it in every town the Lord your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly. (19) Do what is right. Treat everyone the same. Don’t take money from people who want special favors. It makes those who are wise close their eyes to the truth. It twists the words of those who do what is right. (20) Follow only what is right. If you do, you will live. You will take over the land the Lord your God is giving you.

(21) Don’t set up a wooden pole that is used to worship the goddess Asherah. Don’t set it up beside the altar you build to worship the Lord your God. (22) Don’t set up a sacred stone to honor another god. The Lord your God hates Asherah poles and sacred stones.

DEUTERONOMY 17 (HCSB) – 4:33
Deuteronomy, chapter 17. (1) “You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a defect or any serious flaw, for that is detestable to the Lord your God.

(2) “If a man or woman among you in one of your towns that the Lord your God will give you is discovered doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God and violating His covenant (3) and has gone to worship other gods by bowing down to the sun, moon, or all the stars in the sky — which I have forbidden — (4) and if you are told or hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable thing has happened in Israel, (5) you must bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing and stone them to death. (6) The one condemned to die is to be executed on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one is to be executed on the testimony of a single witness. (7) The witnesses’ hands are to be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from you.

(8) “If a case is too difficult for you — concerning bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults — cases disputed at your gates, you must go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. (9) You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Ask, and they will give you a verdict in the case. (10) You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do exactly as they instruct you. (11) You must abide by the instruction they give you and the verdict they announce to you. Do not turn to the right or the left from the decision they declare to you. (12) The person who acts arrogantly, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there serving the Lord your God or to the judge, must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. (13) Then all the people will hear about it, be afraid, and no longer behave arrogantly.

(14) “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’ (15) you are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you, or one who is not of your people. (16) However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ (17) He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. (18) When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. (19) It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to observe all the words of this instruction, and to do these statutes. (20) Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, he will not turn from this command to the right or the left, and he and his sons will continue ruling many years over Israel.

DEUTERONOMY 18 (NASB) – 7:35
Deuteronomy, chapter 18. (1) “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His portion. (2) They shall have no inheritance among their countrymen; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.

(3) “Now this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. (4) You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep. (5) For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever.

(6) “Now if a Levite comes from any of your towns throughout Israel where he resides, and comes whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, (7) then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. (8) They shall eat equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

(9) “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. (10) There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, (11) or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls upon the dead. (12) For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. (13) You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. (14) For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

(15) “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. (16) This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ (17) The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. (18) I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (19) It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. (20) But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ (21) You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ (22) When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

DEUTERONOMY 19 (ERV) – 10:28
Deuteronomy, chapter 19. (1) “The Lord your God is giving you land that belongs to other nations. The Lord your God will destroy those nations. You will live where these people lived. You will take their cities and their houses. When that happens, (2-3) you must divide the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Divide it into three parts and choose a city in the middle of each part that can be a place of safety. You must also build good roads to these cities. Then whoever kills another person may run to the closest city of safety.

(4) “This is the rule for someone who kills another person and runs to one of these three cities for safety: It must be someone who killed another person accidentally, not out of hatred. (5) Here is an example: A man goes into the forest with another person to cut wood. The man swings his ax to cut down a tree, but the head of the ax separates from the handle. The ax head hits the other person and kills him. The man who swung the ax may then run to one of these three cities and be safe. (6) But if the city is too far away, he might not be able to run there fast enough. A close relative of the person he killed might run after him and catch him before he reaches the city. The relative might kill the man in anger, even though he did not deserve to die because he did not mean to harm anyone. (7) That is why I commanded you to choose three special cities.

(8) “The Lord your God promised your fathers that he would make your land larger. He will give you all the land that he promised to give to your ancestors. (9) He will do this if you completely obey his commands that I give you today—if you love the Lord your God and always live the way he wants. Then, when he gives you more land, you should choose three more cities for safety. They should be added to the first three cities. (10) Then innocent people will not be killed in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And you will not be guilty for any such deaths.

(11) “But suppose there is a man who hates his neighbor. That man might hide and wait to kill the person he hates. If he kills that person and runs to one of these cities of safety, (12) the elders in his hometown must send someone to get him and take him away from the city of safety. These leaders must hand him over to the close relative. He is a murderer and he must die. (13) Don’t feel sorry for him. He is guilty of killing an innocent person, and you must remove that guilt from Israel. Then everything will go well with you.

(14) “You must not move the stones that mark your neighbor’s property. People put them there in the past to mark each person’s property. These stones mark the land that the Lord your God gave you.

(15) “If someone is accused of doing something against the law, one witness is not enough to prove that the person is guilty. There must be two or three witnesses to prove that the person really did wrong.

(16) “A witness might try to hurt another person by lying and saying that this person did wrong. (17) If that happens, both of them must go to the Lord’s special house and be judged by the priests and judges who are on duty at that time. (18) When the judges carefully ask their questions, they might find that the witness lied against the other person. If the witnesses tell lies, (19) you must punish them with the same punishment the other person would have received. In this way you will remove this evil from your group. (20) Other people will hear about this and be afraid, and people will not do evil things like that again.

(21) “Don’t feel sorry about punishing someone who does wrong. If a life is taken, a life must be paid for it. The rule is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot—the punishment must equal the crime.

COMMENTS – 14:11
Well one thing that’s very clear in chapter 18 of Deuteronomy is that messing around with the occult is something that God hates. That means consulting horoscopes, tarot cards, numerology, Ouija boards or trying to contact the dead through seances or anything else. Some people consider this as just harmless diversion, just having fun. But when you read this chapter of Deuteronomy, you see that God doesn’t see it that way at all.

You see, Beloved, there is a world that we don’t see. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 that quote, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places,” unquote. Beloved, The enemy of our souls and his demons really are out to destroy us. There is a spiritual battle and the occult is one method they use to gain footholds in people’s lives. So the further you stay away from these things, the better.

What do you think? You think I’m right? You think I’m wrong? You think it’s just fun? Let me know, lifespringmedia.com/s12e327. Tomorrow is History Tuesday and we’re going to finish the book of Ezra. We’ll read chapters 6 through 10.

Boost.

BRYAN DUNCAN’S NEW PODCAST – 15:54
I mentioned to you the other day that I was helping a friend of mine get his own podcast started. Do you remember that? Well, we still have some work to do in terms of some back-office type stuff, but I can now announce that Brian Duncan’s podcast called Nutshell Sermons is now available on your favorite podcast app or at nutshellsermons.com. He’s already got several episodes available and most of them are less than two minutes long. The tagline of the show is “Insights from your friend on the back row”. It’s not a music show. As he puts it, it’s spiritual insights in two minutes and includes nutshell sermons, personal opinions, sarcastic humor and prayers you won’t hear in church. I guarantee that. So for some pithy comments from a very creative mind, check out Nutshell Sermons and as they say, hit that subscribe or follow button. And by the way if you want to check out his Twitter he’s @lunaticfriend2, that’s numeral 2, @lunaticfriend2.

BRYAN DUNCAN SINGS – 16:51
…only for good. I know it’s gonna take some time to see. I know how you gotta freely turn to me. I know the space that I’m creating. I know the time that I will spend waiting. And I am the One who loves your every day. I’m the One who lets you throw your heart away. I’m making plans that aren’t fading. And I’m choosing you, and not trading. And I know the plans, the plans that I have for you are only for good. Only for good. Only for good. And I bring you hope…

CLOSING PRAYER – 17:51
Let’s pray, shall we? Our heavenly Father, you are the Alpha and Omega, the creator of all that is. Our desire, Lord is to follow you and you alone. We love you and we worship you with all of our heart, soul and mind. There is no other. Hallelujah. We praise you. Hold us close Lord and help us to hear the Holy Spirit as He teaches us. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.

OUTRO S12E327 – 18:23
Comment on the show at lifespringmedia.com/s12e327. Or send me an email at st***@*************ia.com. Thanks to the team: Kirsty, Sean of San Pedro and Denise, and thanks to the Lifespring family members who are streaming sats and boosting. You know who you are. And I appreciate you. God bless you. Thanks for letting me join you today. If you’d like to support the show, I would very much appreciate it. Go to lifespringmedia.com/support.

Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb.

Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Corrected by Denise