Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 20, 22 GWT, Ch. 21 NLV

Podcast Introduction

It’s the Law Monday, and we’ll read Deuteronomy 20-22. I’m calling this episode “Gender Identity and Scripture.“

Summary

Sometimes, I discuss topics that might be uncomfortable, but I believe it’s important to explore them. In Deuteronomy 22:5, the Bible talks about men and women not wearing each other’s clothes. This rule aims to maintain clear distinctions between the sexes. It’s not about restricting people’s choices, but about following God’s intended design.

I need to emphasize that I don’t hold biases against anyone. My goal is to understand God’s intentions through Scripture. Gender dysphoria, where someone feels they’re in the wrong body, is a result of our imperfect world. Changing one’s gender surgically is not the best solution.

God’s laws are meant to guide us, not restrict us from joy. The enemy, Satan, perverts God’s creations. Blurring gender lines isn’t new; it’s even discussed in Deuteronomy 22.

The good news is that forgiveness is available. God wants people to turn from their sins and be saved. Repentance means changing our ways and agreeing that God’s path is better.

Living without sin is impossible on our own, but Jesus offers a way to restore our relationship with God. He’s both God and human, and through Him, we can find salvation.

Remember, God loves you, and now is the time to embrace His grace.

Listen to the episode for more!

Link Mentioned in this Episode

GotQuestions.org

Support

This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising equals censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and donate here: SUPPORT.

The Team

Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Denise: Transcript Correction
Michael Haner: Podcasting 2.0 Chapters
Lifespring Family Berean, Brother Scott Snider: Show Art
Jason Paschall: Show Art
Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Brittaney: Newsletter Publisher

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Transcript not yet corrected.

Steve Webb 0:00
God created only two sexes.

Steve Webb 0:03
This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. My name is Steve Webb and I’m your OG Godcaster. It’s the law Monday and we’ll read Deuteronomy 20 through 22. The website is Lifespringmedia.com. and contact information will be at the end of the show. Before we read, let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for our time together, we love you and we pray God that you would touch our hearts today and that you would teach us we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, are you ready? How about we get started.

Steve Webb 0:40
Deuteronomy chapter 20. When you go to war against your enemies, you may see horses, chariots and armies larger than yours. Don’t be afraid of them because the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt will be with you. Before the battle starts, a priest must come and speak to the troops, he should tell them. Listen, Israel, today you’re going into battle against your enemies. Don’t lose your courage. Don’t be afraid or alarmed or tremble because of them. The Lord your God is going with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and give you victory. The officers should tell the troops if you have built a new house but not dedicated it, you may go home. Otherwise you might die in battle, and someone else will dedicate it. If you have planted a vineyard and not enjoyed the grapes, you may go home. Otherwise you might die in battle, and someone else will enjoy the grapes. If you’re engaged to a woman but have not married her, you may go home. Otherwise you might die in battle and someone else will merrier. The officers should also tell the troops. If you are afraid or have lost your courage you may go home, then you won’t ruin the morale of the other Israelites. When the officers finished speaking to the troops, they should appoint commanders to lead them. When you approach a city to attack it, offer its people a peaceful way to surrender. If they accepted and open their gates to you, then all the people there will be made to do forced labor and serve you. If they won’t accept your offer of peace but declare war on you set up a blockade around the city. When the Lord your God hands the city over to you kill every man in that city with your swords. But take the women and children, the cattle and everything else in the city, including all its goods as your loot. You may enjoy your enemy’s goods that the Lord your God has given you. This is what you must do to all the cities that are far away, which don’t belong to the nations nearby. However, you must not spare anyone’s life in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is giving you is your property. You must claim the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, parasites, Hivites and Jebusites for the Lord and completely destroy them as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to do all the disgusting things they do for their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God. This is what you must do whenever you blockade a city for a long time in order to capture it in war. Don’t harm any of its fruit trees with an axe. You can eat the fruit, never cut those trees down because the trees of the field are not people you have come to blockade. You may destroy trees that you know are not fruit trees. You may cut them down and use them in blockades until you capture the city.

Steve Webb 3:26
Deuteronomy chapter 21. If a person has been killed and is found lying in a field and the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own and it is not known who killed him. Then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man. The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled the plow. The leaders of that city will bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water which has not been plowed or planted. They will break the cow’s neck there in this valley. Then the religious leaders the sons of Levi will come near for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bring good in the name of the Lord, every question about what is right and every fight will be decided upon by them. All the leaders of that city nearest to the dead man will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. Then they will say our hands if not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it. Oh Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have set free. Do not put the guilt of killing a man who did no wrong on your people Israel and they will be forgiven for the guilt of the man’s death. So you must take away the guilt of taking the life of a good man by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. When you go to battle against those who hate you and the Lord your God gives them to you and you make them go with you. and you see a beautiful woman and have a desire for her as a wife. Bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails. She will change the clothes she wore when you took her away and stay in your house, she will have sorrow for her father and mother for one month. After that, you may go into her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. If you are not pleased with her, you should let her go wherever she wants, and do not sell her for money, or act as if she were a servant, because you have put her to shame. If a man has two wives, one loved and the other not loved, and both the loved and the one not loved, have born him sons. and if the firstborn son belongs to the wife who is not loved, on the day when that man divides what he has for his sons, he cannot make the firstborn of his loved wife, the firstborn before the son of the wife, who is not loved who is the firstborn, he must respect the firstborn, the son of the wife who is not loved by giving him twice the share of all he has. He is the beginning of his strength, and the right of the firstborn belongs to him. If a man has a strong willed son who goes against him and does not obey his father or mother, and when they punish him, he will not even listen to them. Then his father and mother will take hold of him and bring him to the leaders of his city at the gate of his city. They will say to the leaders of his city, this son of ours is strong willed and goes against us. He will not obey us. He eats and drinks too much, then all the men of his city will kill him with stones. You must get rid of the sin from among you, all Israel will hear about it and be afraid. If a man has sinned and should be put to death, and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body must not hang all night on the tree, you should be sure to bury him on the same day. For he who hangs is cursed by God. So do not make your land unclean which the Lord your God is giving you

Steve Webb 6:47
Deuteronomy chapter 22. If you see another Israelites ox or sheep out where it doesn’t belong, don’t pretend that you don’t see it. Make sure you take it back. If the owner doesn’t live near you where you don’t know who owns it, take the animal home with you. Keep it until the owner comes looking for it, then give it back. Do the same if you find a donkey, some clothes or anything else that another Israelite may have lost. Don’t pretend that you don’t know what to do. If you see another Israelites donkey or ox lying on the ground, don’t pretend that you don’t see it. Make sure you help him get back on his feet. A woman must never wear anything men would wear and a man must never wear women’s clothes. Whoever does this is disgusting to the Lord your God. Whenever you’re traveling and find a nest containing chicks or eggs, this is what you must do. If the mother bird is sitting on the nest, never take her with the chicks. You may take the chicks, but make sure you let the mother go, then things will go well for you and you will live a long time. Whenever you build a new house, put a railing around the edge of the roof, then you won’t be responsible for a death at your home. If someone falls off the roof. Never plant anything between the rows of your vineyard. Otherwise, you will have to give everything that grows there to the holy place. This includes the crop the planet and the grapes from the vineyard. Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. Never wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together. Make tassels on the four corners of the shawl you wear over your clothes. A man might marry a woman sleep with her and decide he doesn’t like her. Then he might make up charges against her and ruin her reputation by saying I married this woman but when I slept with her, I found out she wasn’t a virgin. The girl’s father and mother must go to the city gate where the leaders of the city are and submit the evidence that their daughter was a virgin. The girl’s father will tell the leaders I gave my daughter in marriage to this man but he doesn’t like her. Now he’s made up charges against her. He says he found out that my daughter wasn’t a virgin. But here’s the evidence. Then the girl’s parents must spread out the cloth in front of the leaders of the city. The leaders of that city must take the man and punish him. They will find him two and a quarter pounds of silver and give it to the girl’s father. The husband ruin the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will continue to be his wife and he can never divorce her as long as he lives. But if the charge is true, and no evidence that the girl was a virgin can be found. They must take the girl to the entrance of her father’s house. The men of her city must stone her to death because she has committed such a godless act in Israel. She had sex before marriage while she was still living in her father’s house. You must get rid of this evil. If a man is caught having sexual intercourse with a married woman, both that man and the woman must die you must get rid of this evil in Israel. This is what you must do when a man has sexual intercourse with a virgin who is engaged to another man. If this happens in his city, take them to the gate of the city and stone them to death. The girl must die because she was in a city and didn’t scream for help. The man must die because he had sex with another man’s wife, you must get rid of this evil. But if a man rapes an engaged girl out in the country, then only the man must die. Don’t do anything to the girl. She has not committed a sin for which she deserves to die. This is like the case of someone who attacks and murders another person. The man found the girl out in the country, she may have screamed for help, but no one was there to rescue her. This is what you must do when a man rapes a virgin who isn’t engaged. When the crime is discovered. The man who had sexual intercourse with her must give the girl’s father one and a quarter pounds of silver, and she will become his wife. Since he raped her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. A man must never marry his father’s wife because this would disgrace his father.

Steve Webb 10:58
I’m going to talk about Deuteronomy 22 today. Have you ever heard the phrase fools rush in where angels fear to tread? Well, I don’t think I’m a fool. But if I am, so be it. Every so often, current events and or cultural conditions can’t help but influence my commentary on the day’s reading. This is obviously not a political or a new show. and I do dislike participating in political speech on the show. and as a matter of fact, I don’t think that really what I’m about to say is political, because I’m only going to talk about what the Word of God says. But some might want to put a political label on the show today, whatever. What I’m about to talk about needs to be addressed, especially with what’s going on in our current culture. Genesis 127 says, so God created humans in his image, in the image of God, He created them, He created them male and female, in Genesis 131 says, and God saw everything that He had made, and that it was very good. and then Deuteronomy 22 Five says, A woman must never wear anything men would wear and a man must never wear women’s clothes. Whoever does this is disgusting to the Lord your God. Okay, now listen, I am not a transphobic I do not hate people of either sex if they disagree with me or scripture. and I’m certainly not afraid of them. Because you know, that’s what phobia means, right? Phobia means and irrational fear of something. The reason I’m talking about this today, my motivation in everything I say on this show is to explain the scriptures in such a way that the true nature of God is revealed. I believe that when he’s properly understood, people’s hearts will be changed and eternal lives will be saved. Failing that, my hope is that there will at least be some sort of understanding and maybe even less antipathy. When these scriptures were written, it was common for men and women to wear clothes that were similar. Both sexes wore long robes, but with distinctive styles that differentiated between the sexes. Deuteronomy 22, five was a command not to blur the lines between the sexes, or to purposely dress in the manner of the opposite sex. You see, as Genesis 127 says, God created only two sexes, male and female. There’s not a spectrum. It’s one or the other. Now, before you say, but Steve, some people are born with the organs of both or with the wrong organs. Well, those are two different things, of course, so let’s talk about it. First, we live in a world that is suffering the effects of sin. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, all of creation has been under a curse. Romans 822 says, All creation groans. Beloved, every living thing on the planet is less than God intended it to be. Humans were not meant to die. Humans were not meant to be born with any kind of defects. There was not supposed to be any disease. Every system on the planet is not what God intended. The weather is not the way God intended it to be. earthquakes were not supposed to be something that we worried about. Everything is broken. Sin ruined everything, including how we think about ourselves and each other. Now concerning being born with both male and female organs, birth defects do happen. and when a baby is born with a defect, any defect, it’s not because God made it happen. It’s because of the condition of the world. Yes, God allows bad things to happen, but he is not the cause of bad things happening. Couldn’t he just step in and stop bad things from happening? You ask? Well, sometimes he does, but other times he doesn’t. God is sovereign, which means that he does what he does, and he answers only to himself, but no, this his way is perfect. Deuteronomy 32 Four says he is the rock his works are perfect, and all His ways are just a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he? Beloved One day, everyone who has ever been born will see that and acknowledge that. Now the issue of someone being born with the wrong organs? Well, first we need to understand that God does not make mistakes. As we’ve already seen, there are two sexes, male and female. God does not create a male body and then put a female into that body or vice versa. There is a mental condition called Gender Dysphoria where a person feels as if they were born in the wrong body. Gender Dysphoria is another result of being in a fallen sin infested world. But gender reassignment surgery is not the answer. All that does is make the situation worse. and in the vast majority of cases in time, the person does change their mind, they realize that they made a mistake, and they will love it. I do not have time here to delve deeply into this discussion, but I will have a link in the show notes page at Lifespringmedia.com slash s 13 e 3312. A very good article at got questions.org If you’d like to do further reading, now, God says that it is wrong to dress in the manner of the opposite sex. Why? Well, because for one thing it is rebellion against his will. If he created you as a male, he wants you to be a male. If he created you a female he wants you to be a female. God truly does love you understand that he has a marvelous plan for your life, he wants the very best for you. To reject that plan is really cutting off your nose to spite your face. As I’ve said many times on the show God’s laws are not given to take our fun away. God is not a cosmic killjoy. He is a loving Father who knows what is best for us. But there is an enemy. He is called Lucifer, Satan, the devil, the god of this world and many other names. Another one is the father of lies. His mission from the very beginning of the creation has been to pervert God’s creation, and to keep people from having a relationship with God. He takes what is beautiful, and he perverts it. What we’re seeing in our culture today with a blurring of sexual boundaries and distinctions is nothing new, as is evident by the fact that God talks about it all the way back in Deuteronomy 22. people today think that they’re being progressive by advancing this agenda. They’re not progressive. They’re puppets of Satan himself. The good news is that their sin can be forgiven. God said in Ezekiel 1823, do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked declares the Sovereign Lord, rather Am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? and second Peter three nine tells us, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Repentance is turning away from going in an entirely new direction. It’s agreeing with God that I have sinned, that I want to begin living as he wants me to, that I acknowledge that his way is better than my way. But listen, I can’t do it on my own. It’s impossible for me to live a perfect life. Only one man has ever done that. and his name is Jesus. But Jesus is more than a man. He is also God. He’s fully God and fully human. and he is the only way that I or anyone else can have a restored relationship with God. John 316, through 21 says this, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Beloved, God loves you and He loves you enough to give you free will. You have to decide the time is now. If you have not yet accepted the free gift of salvation that Jesus is offering to you today. You can do it now. You might not have tomorrow. The Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I were reminded just a couple of years ago how quickly our lives could be snuffed out with absolutely no warning. We were involved in a hidden run traffic accident. and believe me, there was no time to think about what was happening. We were driving along a street that we’ve been on literally 1000s of times before. Little more than just two miles from our home when all of a sudden there was a terrible crashing sound of metal against metal in our car shook and I had to wrestle the steering wheel to keep control. LeeAnn’s screamed, and I watched the car that had sideswiped us accelerate down the road in front of us. Praise the Lord, we were not hurt. But we could have been, instead of rear ending our car, he just sideswiped it. The point is, you never know how or when your life will be over. If you have not yet will you right now make the decision to follow Jesus. If you want to have a changed life that changed eternity, let me lead you in a prayer where you will tell God that you want to turn from your sin and that you want to follow Jesus? Will you pray with me? Now once I publish this podcast, I don’t know who will hear it. I don’t know where it’ll be heard or when it will be heard. I still have episodes from nearly 20 years ago at Lifespringmedia.com. and I have no idea how many episodes are on hard drives all over the world. So whether you’re hearing this on the day that I publish, or days, weeks or months or years later, this invitation is for you to hear it right now, as you’re listening to my voice. Decide now that this is the day to have your eternity changed. Pray with me, William. Dear God, I come to you now confessing my sins. I know that I have not lived the way I should. and I ask you to forgive me now. Thank you for sending your son Jesus, to take my sins upon himself. Jesus, I’m asking you to be my Lord and my savior now. Show me how I should live. Teach me, help me to follow you. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Lord, I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer welcomed to the family, you might have felt like a weight was lifted from you, you might have felt some strong emotion. Or maybe you felt nothing. Whatever you felt, that’s okay. Our relationship with God is not based on emotions. Our relationship with God is based on his promise. God promised that anyone who accepts Jesus will be saved. If you accepted Jesus just now you are saved because God promised it. and he always keeps his promise. Now, if you did just pray that prayer with me, I would like to send you a special edition of the New Testament called the new believers Bible. It’s free, there’s no charge. All you have to do is send me a quick email with your name and address so I can mail it to you at my expense. This New Testament has hundreds and hundreds of notes in it by Pastor Greg Laurie of harvest Christian Fellowship, written with new believers in mind. They’re meant to help you get a good start in your walk with God. and when I get your email, I am not going to put you on a list and I’m not going to send you any spam. I would just like to send this new testament to you and I’d like to pray for you. and if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer. My email address is Steve at Lifespringmedia.com. God bless you and welcome to the family of God. Not to mention the Lifespring family.

Steve Webb 23:35
Well, this was kind of a big one today. But what we need to keep in mind is that sin is sin. Any Sin separates us from God but because of his love for us, he made a way for us to be forgiven and to come into fellowship with Him praise his name. If you have thoughts or questions about what I’ve said today, please let me hear from you. Send a Boostagram or call the Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an email contact information will be at the end of the show. Tomorrow will be history Tuesday and we’ll read Nehemiah chapters one through four.

Announcer 24:12
Boost

Steve Webb 24:14
Lifespring Berean, Brother Sean sent a 13,329 sat show number Boostagram and said what a week we were all very impressed by the flooded freeway video. Glad you made it home safely. Well, thank you, Shawn. Yeah, that was a crazy day to be on the freeway for sure. God bless you, Shawn and my best to the family and fountain user number 2558. Send a 500 said Boostagram and said thank you. Well, you’re welcome to 558 Thank you, God bless you. and from the pod verse app. 1000 SATs came in from I don’t know from anonymous, not a Boostagram but a boost of 1000 SATs. Thank you anonymous. God bless you. You know you can support the show with boosts and streaming SATs to sending these little messages directly to me is kind of fun. I know I like to send Boostagram to my favorite podcasters. All you need is a modern podcast app like fountain pod verse or a host of others that you can find over it podcastapps.com. Now, why would you want to support the Lifespring!? One Year Bible? Well, maybe because you agree that it’s important to have a place where messages like you heard today can be heard. Advertisers wouldn’t touch a show like this. Or they’d say, you can’t say that will pull our ads from your show. You see, they want to control the content. Now, that will never happen here. I’m not interested in their money. So I’m free to present God’s Word with no compromise. You can partner with me by making a value for value donation of time, talent or treasure. Decide what you think the show is worth. Pray about it. Ask the Lord if He wants you to support the Lifespring! One Year Bible, ask him how much you should send and then go to

Jingle 25:52
Lifespringmedia.com/support

Steve Webb 25:58
Let me hear from you. Here’s how you can contact me. Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511 Four if you’ve got a prayer request or a praise, go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com and you’ll find a form there that’s easy to fill out. and if you’d like to remain anonymous, just let me know on that form. If you have a comment or a question, go to comment dot Lifespringmedia.com or send an email to me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com or send one of those boostagrams

Steve Webb 26:36
thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider, Jason Paschall and sister Brittaney for their generous donations of time and talent. and Sister Brittaney just sent out the latest newsletter today. show art is by Jason Paschall. Thank you, Jason, and thank you for inviting me to be a part of your day until tomorrow. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye

Announcer 26:57
the Lifespring! One Year Bible is solely supported by your value for value donations of time, talent or treasure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai