28: Purity in Various Areas (#7 no adultery) (Deut 23:1 – 18)

The commands in this chapter could also be related to the command, ‘do not commit adultery,’ which asks for purity in their lives.

πŸ‘‰ Read Deuteronomy 23:1 - 18

Why does God forbid the Ammonites and the Moabites to enter the assembly of the Lord?

 

Why do they need to keep their camp (here, the camp is for a battle) pure?

 

What should they do for an escaped slave?

 

Why does God not accept offerings of sacred prostitutes?

 

Answers

“The 'assembly' (qahal) refers here to the formal gathering of the Lord's people as a community at festival occasions and other times of public worship and not to the nation of Israel as such.” – Eugene Merrill.

God apparently excluded eunuchs from public worship (verse 1).


They had hired Balaam to curse Israel.

The reason for the ban was that they had tried to harm the nation of Israel.

See the reasons why the Lord prohibits those groups of people. They all did against the nation Israel. Becoming a eunuch is refusing to generate offspring, which is against God’s plan to enlarge the nation of Israel. Illegitimate birth includes the birth of an Israelite and Canaanite couple.

God shows favor to the Egyptians, for, in Egypt, Jacob’s family has become a nation. Egypt worked as a seedbed of the nation Israel.

 

God resides in the camp.

 

Let him or her live in your village

They should let the slaves also find peace in the promised land.

 

They are abhorrent to the Lord.

Temple prostitutes worked at the pagan temples and lived by the offerings of pagan worshipers. The Lord doesn’t accept their offering, of course.

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