Deuteronomy 16: Celebrate WITH the Lord

The word Deuteronomy is not only one of the hardest books of the Bible to spell, it is also has a meaning most people don’t know. It means “Second law.” That is the focus on this book. Deuteronomy is the last sermons Moses will preach to this young nation who is about to enter the Promised Land.

What are his final words of motivation? Trust and Obey. It’s the only way to keep the freedom God has given them.

What about you? What will you pass on to the next generation? Let’s read Deuteronomy as the final sermon of a man who saw the miracles of God. His final words are to trust God completely and obey God completely. It’s the way of continued freedom.

Outline

1. Prologue (1:1-5)
2. Moses’ First Speech: Historical Prologue (1:6-4:43)
3. Moses’ Second Speech: General Covenant Stipulations 4:44-11:32)
4. Moses’ Second Speech: Specific Covenant Stipulations (12:1-26:19)
5. Moses’ Third Speech: Blessings and Curses (27:1-28:68)
6. Moses’ Third Speech: Final Exhortation (29:1-30:20)
7. Succession of Leadership (31:1-34:12)

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death… choose life. You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NLT

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Purpose of the Podcast
• 1:11 Today’s Focus: Deuteronomy 16
• 1:57 Community Announcements and Listener Question
• 2:59 Setting the Scene: Moses and the Second Law
• 4:08 Festivals as Relationship with God
• 5:15 Passover Details and Christian Connection
• 7:00 Feast of Weeks: Gratitude and Inclusion
• 8:07 Festival of Shelters and Joyful Remembrance
• 9:06 Appear Before God and Bring an Offering
• 9:28 Justice, Integrity, and Exclusive Worship
• 10:16 Prayer and Final Exhortation to Choose Life

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Deuteronomy chapter 16. And if I could give this one a title, it would just simply be celebrate with the Lord. One of the things I love about God, especially when it's in the Old Testament, is it would be so easy for God to have given the covenant at Mount Sinai and then said, Go ahead. Just go do the thing, right? But that was never God's intention. All the way back in Genesis chapter three, the Bible says that God wanted to have relationship with us. And so even in this context, he is constantly looking for ways to be in relationship with us. And we're going to see that today as Moses lays down the idea of the festivals, the feasts, the celebration seasons to go and celebrate with the Lord. And so we're going to get into that just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure if you're watching this on the YouTubes, you are like, sharing, and subscribing on the podcast. Leave us a five-star review. If you think that we are less than five-star, just ignore everything I just said and uh have a blessed day. But if you wouldn't mind, leave us a five-star review. It really does help us. And then also go to our Facebook group and let me know today's Bible breakdown discussion. Let me know. The question of the day today is what is the best celebration you've ever been part of? I would love to know what that looks like. I have never been to a multiple-day celebration, but some of these would last up to seven days. I got a feeling I get tired of celebrating after such a while, but hey, who knows, right? So I'd love to know what that is. And especially if you can have one where you've actually experienced a multiple-day one that honor the Lord, okay? Let's dive into this today in this idea. Remember, Deuteronomy means second law. The greatest leader to ever live outside of Jesus himself is about to die. He's not going to be able to go into the promised land. But Moses is cheering on this young generation. He's so excited to see. And so Deuteronomy is a collection of his sermons where just before he dies, and I just have this mental picture of he is staring out across on the other side of the Jordan River and he sees the promised land. And I can almost see him as he's preaching. He's looking out and he's wanting to say, you go here and you go here. And like he just wants to go so bad. But since he can't go himself, he can send them on ahead for everything they're going to need. And so he lays down the covenant of God's law, the Ten Commandments. And then on top of that, he talks about faithfulness. And on top of that, he starts talking about what it looks like to do the with God life in the promised land. And he's going to continue that today. Because as we saw in the book of Leviticus, there was all these different festivals that were intended to worship God and to spend time around the presence of God. And oh, by the way, you don't have to work on that day. I mean, it is amazing to think that God wants us to take time off. He wants us to rest so that we can also have time of work. And that's what this chapter is all about is Moses is revisiting a part of the book of Leviticus to make sure they realize that when you get into the promised land, don't forget about the one that promised it to you. Don't forget about, you know, the old phrase used to be dance with the one that brung you, right? Once you get to the dance, remember the one who got you there and make sure you're celebrating together. What a wonderful lesson already for all of us. That when God blesses us, let's not forget where the blessing came from. Amen? All right. Well, if you have Deuteronomy chapter 16 read, you got it open and ready to go. We're going to act like we're in the book of Leviticus. We're going to read about some Passovers and some festivals. Let's do this together. And let's see how many words I can trip up. Here we go. Verse one. In honor of the Lord your God, celebrate the Passover each year in early spring around the month of Abib. For that was the month in which the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Your Passover sacrifice may be either the flock or the herd, but it must be sacrificed to the Lord your God at the designated place of worship, the place he chooses for his name to be honored. Eat it with bread made without yeast, for seven days, the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread, the bread of suffering, so that as long as you live, you will remember the day you departed from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in any house throughout the land for those seven days. When you sacrifice the Passover lamb on the evening of the first day, do not let any of the meat remain until the next morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover in any just any of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you. You must offer it only at the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored. Sacrifice it there in the evening as the sun goes down on the anniversary of your Exodus from Egypt. Roast the lamb and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses. Then you may go back to your tents the next morning. For the next six days you may not eat any bread made with yeast. On the seventh day, proclaim another holy day in honor of the Lord your God, and no work may be done on that day. Now, did you know that's why we do unleavened bread at Passover? Now, for most of you who have uh just a Christian worldview background, you you're like, well, Pastor, I don't celebrate Passover. But that's when we celebrate Easter. Because what we know is that the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples before he was arrested, that was during the Passover celebration. That's why, if you've ever been in church and they we've had communion together, you know, you have most of the time you have like the little little plastic things you pull back and you got that little wafer that tastes like absolutely nothing. I mean, it's just it is it is just a very thin, supposed-to-be piece of bread. I'm quite certain it's not made of actual bread. It's some form of plastic, but it's supposed to be bread. But the reason why it's so flat is it has no yeast in it. And the reason why it has no yeast in it is because when you make bread, you put you know yeast into it, and yeast makes the bread rise, but it takes time. Well, when the nation of Israel was getting ready to leave Egypt, they were told to go and to go now. Like it was not pretty. Get out of here. So they did not have time for the bread to rise, they had to eat it without any yeast in it, because they were in a hurry. Well, now they do it as a commemoration of why they were in a hurry. It reminds them of when we left Egypt, we left in a hurry. So that's the reason why they do it. And so Jesus is eating unleavened bread, which is considered pure bread, the night that he is having the first communion with his disciples, and that is why now, when we have the little wafer, that's why it's flat. There's no yeast in it, because it represents the time of Passover. So just a little piece of information there. Here we go. Verse 9. Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest. Then celebrate the feast of harvest to honor the Lord your God. Give him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him. And this is a time to celebrate before the Lord your God at the designated place of worship that he choose, he will choose for his name to be honored. Celebrate with your sons and your daughters, your male and your female servants, the Levites from your towns, the foreigners, the orphans, and widows who live among you. Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, so be careful to obey all these decrees. So once again, God is saying, When you harvest, which means another year your family is going to be taken care of, celebrate. And what I love is it also says in verse 11, notice how it says, Don't ignore the foreigners, don't ignore the orphans, and don't ignore the widows. These are all three people that don't have families. And so he's saying, when you celebrate, let them be part of your family for this. I love that God doesn't leave anybody out. All right, verse 13. You must observe the festival of shelters. Depending on your translation, it may say booths, B-O-O-T-H-S, tense, for seven days at the end of the harvest season. After the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed, this festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and your daughters, your male and your female servants, the Levites, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows from your towns. For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the Lord your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a great time of joy for all. Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals. Festival of the unleavened bread, that's Passover, the festival of harvest, and then the festival of shelters. Each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses. That eventually, by the way, will be Jerusalem. And so they all have to go at least three times a year, Jerusalem. Families don't necessarily have to go. Place he chooses, but he must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him. All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God. So God's like, I want to see you at least three times a year. I want to be with you three times a year. All right. And then verse 18, we finish up. Appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes and all the towns the Lord your God is giving you. You must judge the people fairly. You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly. Let true justice prevail, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You must never set up a wooden ashera pole beside the altar you build for the Lord your God, and never set up sacred pillars for worship, for the Lord your God hates them. And so he finishes it off with saying, And by the way, when you are dealing with one another, be fair and never put any other God beside God. So once again, Moses is setting up the idea to dance with the one that brung you. When you get into the promised land, make sure you celebrate with the Lord, make sure you honor one another, and don't ever try to set up another God beside Yahweh. He is God supreme. All right, let's pray together and we'll be done for today. Father, thank you so much for your goodness, your mercy, your kindness. Thank you, God, that not only do you bless us, not only do you bring us into your goodness, but you also want to go with us along the way. You're interested in relationship. And I pray that every day we'll understand that more and more. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Don't forget, God's word says Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. Today I have given you the choice between life and death. Choose life. You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. My prayer is today you will choose life. I'll see you tomorrow for Deuteronomy chapter 17.