The Auditorium Sunday School Class

June 20^th, 2004

Deuteronomy 14

Commanded to be Different 

Introduction:     Verse 2 describes the reasoning behind separation. We will cover this at the end of today’s lesson. 

I.                     The Children of Israel were forbidden to act like pagans in the treatment of their bodies. 

A.         They were forbidden to cut themselves.   (1) 

1.         This was a pagan ritual when loved ones died.

2.         It was an expression of grief at funerals.

3.         It was a way of gaining the approval of false gods.

B.         Why is it wrong for God’s people to harm themselves as an expression of grief? 

1.         God’s people do not comfort themselves by trying to get the attention of God; God’s people comfort themselves that they continually have the attention of God.

2.         Defiling the body is wrong because of separation from the world (more later in the lesson).
 

II.                   God gave the Children of Israel a special diet, unique from all other nations. 

A.         They were forbidden to eat pigs and hogs and rabbits. 

B.         They were forbidden to eat fish without fins: shellfish, eels, leeches, squid, ect. 

C.         They were forbidden to eat “dirty birds” like bats, vultures, ravens, eagles, owls, and swans.

III.                 There are other details in this chapter worth mentioning: 

A.         They were not to eat an animal or fish that died on its own.   (21) 

B.         They were to tithe of all their increase.   (22) 

C.         In verses 23-29, the Children of Israel are told to enjoy the blessings of God in the Promised Land, but to tithe on those blessings every year.   (28)

IV.                The reasoning behind these laws concerns the subject of Separation. 

A.         They were “a holy people unto the Lord.” This implies a two-fold separation: 

1.         SEPARATED TO GOD – God’s people are dedicated to the Person of God, and all that He commands in His Word.

2.         SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD – Notice “the Lord hath chosen thee TO BE a peculiar people unto Himself.

B.         In other words, God did not choose them because of their own merits or moral living; he chose them TO BECOME holy as a sign that He had chosen them. 

1.         Separation to God is a condition of the heart. 

2.         Separation from the world is to reveal the condition of the heart.