Steve Webb 0:00 Just having fun Steve Webb 0:03 from Rainy Southern California, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, podcasting since 2004. My name is Steve Webb and I'm your OG Godcaster. It's the law Monday and Our reading today is Deuteronomy 16 through 90, 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 love you and we thank you again for our time together, we pray again that you would teach us that you would touch our hearts and that you would give us something that we can use today. I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Okay, are you ready? Let's begin. Steve Webb 0:44 Deuteronomy chapter 16. celebrate the Passover feast of the Lord your God of the month of a bib. In that month he brought you out of Egypt at night. sacrifice an animal from your flock or herd. It is the Passover sacrifice in honor of the Lord your God. Sacrifice it at this special place the Lord will choose. He will put His name there. 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. 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. You must not sacrifice the Passover animal in any town the Lord your God is giving you sacrifice it only in this 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. cook it and eat it. Do it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning returned to your tents. 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. Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to cut your grain in the field. 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. 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. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Be careful to obey the rules I'm giving you. Gather the grain from your threshing floors. Take the fresh wine from your wine presses, then celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days. 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 for seven days. celebrate the feast in honor of the Lord your God. Do what at the place he will choose. The Lord will bless you when you gather all of your crops. He will bless you in everything you do, and you will be full of joy. All of 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. Each of you must bring a gift. Do it in keeping with the way the Lord your God has blessed you 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. 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 and follow only what is right. If you do you will live you will take over the land the Lord your God is giving you 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. Don't set up a sacred stone to honor another God. The Lord your God hates ash ripples in Sacred Stones. Steve Webb 4:36 Deuteronomy chapter 17 You must not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep with a defect or any serious flaw for that is detestable to the Lord your God. If a man or woman among you and 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 and his gone to worship other gods Going down to the sun, moon, or all the stars in the sky, which I have forbidden. 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, you must bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing and stone them to death, the one condemned to die is to be executed on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one has to be executed on the testimony of a single witness. The witness's hands are to be the first in putting them to death. and after that the hands of all the people, you must purge the evil from you. 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 your 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, you must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the Lord chooses, be careful to do exactly as they instruct you. You must abide by the instruction they give you. and the verdict they announced to you do not turn to the right or the left from the decision they declare to you, 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, then all the people will hear about it, be afraid and no longer behave arrogantly. When you enter the land, the Lord your God is giving you take possession of it live in it in say, I will set a king over me like all the nations around me, 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 are one who was not of your people. 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. 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. When he is seated on his royal throne, he has to write a copy of his instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It has to remain with him and he has to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord has God to observe all the words of this instruction and to do these statutes, then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, he will not turn from this command to the right or to the left, and he and his sons will continue ruling many years over Israel. Steve Webb 7:38 Deuteronomy chapter 18. 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. They shall have no inheritance among their countrymen, the Lord is their inheritance as he promised them. Now this shall be the priests do 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. You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first sharing of your sheep. For the Lord your God has chosen him that his sons from all your tribes to stand in serve in the name of the Lord forever. 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, then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites, who stand there before the Lord. They shall eat equal portions except what they receive from the sale of their father's estates. When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you, anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire. One who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls upon the dead. 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. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 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. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God and horrible 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. The Lord said to me, they have spoken well, 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. 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. 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, you may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? 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. Steve Webb 10:31 Deuteronomy chapter 19. 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, you must divide the land that the Lord your God is giving you divide it into three parts and choose the city in the middle of each part that can be a place of safety, you must also build good roads to the cities, then whoever kills another person may run to the closest city of safety. 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. Here's an example. A man goes into the forest with another person to cut wood, the man swings his axe to cut down a tree, but the head of the axe separates from the handle. The axe head hits the other person and kills him. The man who swung the axe may then run to one of these three cities and be safe. 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. That is why I commanded you to choose three special cities, the Lord your God promised your father’s that he would make your land larger, he will give you all the land that he promised to give to your ancestors. 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, 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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, a witness might try to hurt another person by lying and saying that this person did wrong. 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. When the judges carefully asked their questions, they might find that the witness lied against the other person. If the witnesses tell lies, 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. Other people will hear about this and be afraid and people will not do evil things like that. Again. Don't feel sorry about punishing someone who does wrong. If a life has 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. Steve Webb 14:14 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 Weegee 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 612 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 head. Only 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. Okay, so no more checkin' your horoscope. You have any thoughts or questions, let me know, send a Boostagram or call the Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an email. All that information is at the end of the show. Tomorrow will be history Tuesday, and our reading will be Ezra six through 10. Steve Webb 15:44 Today's associate producer is Timothy LaFontaine, who came in with his monthly $20 donation. Thank you so much, Timothy. God bless you Steve Webb 15:53 lifespringmedia.com/support Steve Webb 16:00 So on yesterday's show, I said that hurricane Hilary was on the way well, it's now been downgraded to a tropical storm. Tropical Storm Hilary. The rain began falling sometime at my house here in Riverside in the early morning hours. But it was far from torrential, just more like a steady light rain. It stopped raining mid morning. But as I'm recording this at about two o'clock in the afternoon, it's raining again. But again, just a light rain. It's more than a drizzle but not not heavy by any stretch of the imagination. and according to the weather app on my phone, it's supposed to rain all day long. Now, Bryan Duncan sent a text this morning, I told you yesterday I was supposed to pick him up at Palm Springs airport. and he said that his flight into the airport is expected to land at about 830 Tonight, which is about three hours later than was scheduled originally course a 30 is several hours away. So it could still change. Palm Springs is expected to receive more rain than here in Riverside. So we'll see there, I think they're supposed to get up to five inches of rain. One last thing, if you heard yesterday show and listen to all the way to the end, you heard this. Steve Webb 17:10 and thank you, beloved, for inviting me to be a part of your day, Lord willing if hurricane Hillary doesn't... Steve Webb 17:25 So actually, that was initially an accidental mistake on my part. I uploaded the show at about 9:55pm. and as I was listening back to my copy the show published as scheduled at 10 o'clock. and then I heard the error at about 1005 As I was listening and finishing up shownotes and stuff. and when I heard the mistake, I thought about re uploading a corrected version, then I just sort of chuckled and I thought well, the timing of that drop out is funny, so I'll leave it. There's so it was just sort of a serendipitous joke. I wish it was planned. and I'm not that funny. Anyway, I just ran with it once it happened. Steve Webb 18:09 So here's how to reach me call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511. If you've got a prayer request or a praise report, go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. There's an easy to fill out form there. and as I've said many times, if you want to remain anonymous, there is a place you can tell me that on that form. If you've got a comment or if you've got a question, you can go to comment.lifespringmedia.com or you can send an email to me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com steve@lifespringmedia.com and of course I love to get those booster grams Steve Webb 18:48 thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider, today's show artist Jason Paschall and SR Brittaney and SR Brittaney. Just send out a newsletter. Did you get it? If not, go to news dot Lifespringmedia.com and sign up. Thanks to John train for helping to make this episode possible today and thank you, beloved, for inviting me to join you today. I'll see you tomorrow and until then, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. By Announcer 19:17 the Lifespring! One Year Bible is solely supported by your value for value donations of time, talent or treasure. Transcribed by https://otter.ai