Deuteronomy

Obedience vs. Abomination

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 42-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 042

Dictation Name: RR187W42

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts and assurance of faith. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for the blessings of the week past. We thank Thee that whatever the world may be Thou art on the throne. It is Thy will that shall be done, that if the wicked prosper it is that they be destroyed. Teach us therefore to look unto Thee, to wait on Thee, and to know that man shall not prevail but Thou in Thy kingdom shall rule over all things. Bless us in faithfulness to Thee and confidence in Thy word. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Deuteronomy 12:20-32 and our subject is Obedience vs. Abomination. Obedience vs. Abomination, Deuteronomy 12: 20-32.

“When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

21 If the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

22 Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.

23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.

24 Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.

25 Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

26 Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord shall choose:

27 And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the Lord thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.

28 Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.

29 When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;

30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

31 Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

32 What thing so ever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

It is routinely assumed that verses twenty through twenty eight simply repeat the preceding section, but this is a mistake. Verses twenty through twenty eight precede verses twenty nine to thirty two and Deuteronomy 13:1-18, laws against assimilating the cults of Canaan into the worship of their covenant God. So this is to prevent them from going astray, from following after the paganism of Canaan. These substantially dietary rules from twenty to twenty eight precede the laws in the next chapter banning synchronism and apostasy. Now the dietary rules are not hard commandments, we know that they are important for health. Studies nowadays have shown this to be the case. If men cannot obey God in the small things they will not be ready to obey Him in the great things of life. During the forty years in the wilderness the nation was thoroughly centralized. During most of that time once the sanctuary was erected the tribes or clans were stationed around it so that an unusual closeness existed one with another. On top of that all were under the eyes of Moses for forty years as a result. So that sins were more readily detected. Decentralization once they entered the Promised Land would make for greater freedom but also provided more opportunities for sinning without priestly detection. They would be living scattered all over Canaan, they would be farmers or cattle men or sheep men, they would not see their neighbors that often, there would not be anyone looking over their shoulder to see what they did, each Levite would have a considerable territory as his province for teaching, so that the decentralization would be radical. They could do as they pleased and it would not be easy to detect them.

In the days of centralization all clean farm animals were taken to the sanctuary to be slaughtered there, after all it was in the center of the encampment. As a result, they were properly bled and butchered and what they ate was detectable by everybody. With decentralization it would be easy to violate the ban on the eating of blood and fats and of organs which were to be avoided. There was now an unconditional permission to eat clean meat without taking it first to the altar there to be slaughtered. The people were now on their own, they were to govern themselves by God’s law. Their contacts with other men and with central authorities were now very limited. With these rules we begin to understand a basic aspect of the Book of Deuteronomy. It tells the covenant families that their covenant life would be a decentralized one and the families must function as a working everyday unit of law. This is to be their normal life, a decentralized one with the family as the basic institution of law. But of course people have never been able to abide by that. They have always wanted to control others and hence centralization over and over again throughout history follows the breakup of civilization with the attendant decentralization. The people are reminded again that blood means life and they must treat life with respect. Even when taking a life legally for food the blood must be treated with respect. When it is taken apart from the sanctuary it must be poured upon the earth and covered over. The earth is the Lords and all things wherein and nothing can be used apart from His rules and commandments. No hardship is imposed by the law and this makes disobedience and contempt for it all the more serious. Animals fit for sacrifice may now be eaten apart from the sanctuary when the purpose is not sacrificial and also clean non-sacrificial animals. There is apparently some awareness of the meaning of the prohibition of blood eating among pagan peoples because all over the world when they practice it they do it as a means of gaining life, of gaining strength and therefore in some cultures the strong man who has been captured will be eaten and his blood made the drink of the men.

At present in Africa blood drinking has become a means whereby AIDs is being rapidly spread. In verse twenty five happiness, well-being and favor from God go together with the prohibitions against blood as food. Very clearly, God regards it as a serious matter. Again in verses twenty seven and twenty eight matter is stressed. There is a correlation between obedience here and doing that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. It is very curious that J. A. Thompson who sees no application here of any rule for Christians could still write and I quote:

“Obedience to God’s commands in these matters is the principle prerequisite of blessing. The comment is that it well go well with Israel and her descendants when she does what is good and right in the sight of Yahweh.” Unquote.

It is baffling to see an able scholar write so clearly and yet without seeing any current application, without seeing that God does not change. Verses twenty nine through thirty two follow these laws and are a warning. They had already been ordered in verses two and three of this chapter to destroy the fertility cults, their symbols and shrines and sacred areas of Canaanite and other pagan forms of worship. They were to clear the land of all traces of these pornographic cults and to avoid the mental and social influences of them. In verse thirty Israel is warned specifically against establishing any kind of continuity with pagan practices under the illusion that the land required it. They should not say ‘how did these nations serve their gods, even so will I do likewise’. After all, Canaanites had produced a very impressive civilization and these people impressed by them would say maybe we ought to do what they did. There had to be a radical break. God cannot be worshipped in any way not specified by him. In all essential matters his law is determinative. Therefore what things soever I command you to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish it. This is a constant theme of the bible, in fact the Bible concludes with a similar statement in Revelation. God speaks and He says you cannot add to my word, you cannot diminish a word from it.

But men seem to do so. This requirement moreover cannot be trivialized as some would do. We are not required to have on the clothing of Biblical times when we worship the Lord nor must we abolish electric lights in favor of candles because they did not have electricity there. Too much of the churches time has been given over to disputes over like trivialities and it is not over yet. Fools and knaves try to gain a pretense of holiness by haggling over trifles as though their consciences are more sensitive and holy. At the same time they forget about the essentials. We are told in Proverbs ‘answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him’. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his fool. A church without authority regularly becomes plagued with fools. The term used in verse thirty one is abomination. This is a rarely used word today and its use is essentially biblical but even the churches avoid its use usually. It means in the Hebrew something disgusting in a moral sense. It is often applied to idols and idolatry. The English word abomination is used to translate four Hebrew words which are used for human sacrifices, obscene sexual sins and false weights and measures because these warp and pervert the life of commerce. In every religious case an abomination is something offensive to God because it is a serious violation of His fundamental order. There is another interesting use of the word abomination, the Hebrews and other aliens who were repulsive to the Egyptians who would not eat with them because they would have nothing to do with men who were sheep ranchers. All and all the word abomination covered things repulsive and detestable. We have one kind of abomination specified in verse thirty one: ‘for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods’. Human sacrifice of children. But we must say certainly the current practice of abortion and the harvesting of body parts for a variety of medical and commercial uses is an abomination.

The sacrifice of children in antiquity was limited usually to emergency occasions whereas abortion now occurs in the millions annually. It is an abomination. The sacrifice of children is noted as occurring the reigns by the way of Ahab and Manasseh, it was abolished by Josiah, it reappeared before the captivity. It was not a primitive practice as scholars call it nowadays; it did not take place in the early days of Israel. It was a thousand years almost before it became common place. It came in with the advanced Hebrew civilization even as abortion on a mass scale has now. Our whole modern perspective is warped because we think civilization progresses. But practices, whether of human sacrifice or of abortion are not a product of primitivism but of sin. As we have seen, Moses here speaks of the soon to come radical decentralization of Hebrew life. It has been common in history for men to see the solution to societal problems in centralization and centralized controls. Certainly that’s the answer now, Washington is our savior, supposedly. But the result is tyranny! This does not mean that decentralization gives an answer. It has a potential for good but it can also lead to tyranny. The stress on Levites which preceded this section is related to it. If they are taught by the Levites and if they harken unto their voice they can have a godly and a happy society. They must not forsake the Levites for the abominations of the Canaanites. Gods Levites had to be honored and their teachings obeyed. Their source of unity could not be in centralization but in God the Lord. The Levite therefore appears in a central position in this chapter and throughout Deuteronomy. He is the instructor of Israel; he is God’s clerisy, His scholar, whereby the people from children on through adults are instructed in the word of God. The loss of a clerisy is a deadly blow to a society. Our problem today is that we are under the rule of a false clerisy, the humanistic intellectuals and scholars. It is high time for Christianity to revive the work of the Levites. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy word and for Thy kingdom. We thank Thee that our future rests not in the hands of men but in Thy hands. We thank Thee that Thy justice is swift and total, that in good time Thou wilt avenge Thy saints. Thou wilt deal with the workers of iniquity. Give us grace therefore day by day to serve Thee as we ought, to obey Thee, to rejoice in Thee and to know that Thou art God and beside Thee there is none other. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now on our lesson?

[Question] Dr. Rushdoony would you say that in verses twenty nine and thirty two he’s talking about not being ensnared to follow them, on taking on pagan practices and so on and so forth. In our particular culture we are almost, well we actually are, forced into doing some of those kind of things, for instance, accepting federal reserve notes for discharge of debt. So on and so forth, could you comment on that please?

[Rushdoony] Yes, our whole monetary system is ungodly, false weights and measures which is an abomination. So there is one great abomination that we practice. And God is very emphatic about false weights and measures and the primary reference is to money. Then homosexuality is clearly and emphatically an abomination. But we are increasingly ruled in the courts and in administration and Congress by homosexuals, again an abomination. So we are very clearly asking for judgment. Any other questions, yes?

[Question] I would think that verse thirty one, sending ones children to secular humanistic controlled public schools would also qualify…

[Rushdoony] It definitely would. Now, the normal practice was not human sacrifice; that was in times of emergency. So it was comparatively rare. However, what was always done was that when a child was born, a male child in particular, the parents would take him to a state center where there would be an image of the king or of the gods or some battle standard in a few cases and there would be a grazer with a few coals burning and the child would be passed over that to indicate this child is given to the state. It belongs to the state. And of course we’re moving towards that now, every child at a certain age must get a social security number, must belong to the state.

[Question] It’s a perversion of baptism.

[Rushdoony] Yes, what was required in Molech worship most of all was a perversion of baptism. Before baptism came about there was circumcision but any rate the same idea, it was a pagan form of baptism. It was saying that the child is the property of the state. And this is a premise now of educators and this is why there is a venomous hostility against Christian education and Christian educators. Obliteration is the strategy that is underway. First it was by court trials and the court trials are virtually ended then next it was by legislation which has not always worked, now it is by smearing them so that even church people will withdraw from them because of the tremendous outpouring of slander and this is taking place in various places right now. Any other questions or comments?

We shall be continuing next week with a chapter that deals with inducements to apostasy. What Moses is going to tell them is something that is valid for every time because as long as the enemy is around he is going to try to destroy the people of God so that the idea that a victory can be won and then there is peace is absurd. In a world that is sinful there is a continuing battle so we shall be dealing with that in the succeeding weeks. Let us..yes?

[Question] You probably commented on this but I didn’t catch it. On the clean and the unclean animals, eating them, was that a subdivision of clean animals or what…?

[Rushdoony] The clean animals were of two classes if I understand your question. Those that were farm reared like sheep, cattle, and other animals. The other clean animals were like deer and gazelle which you hunted. Those were good for eating but they could not be used as sacrifices because when you went to the Lord your work had to go in your offering. So you had to take a kid, a lamb, a calf, something like that which represented your work. So while a deer was good food, a thoroughly approved again and again, gazelle and other related animals, they could not be offerings because your work could not go into them.

[Question] He called them unclean in that sense?

[Rushdoony] No it was not unclean in any sense…

[Question] Okay…[becomes unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No, let’s see that verse, thirty two, that refers to the persons eating them.

[Question] Oh, okay.

[Rushdoony] They could be ceremonially unclean for a variety of reasons but they could eat. Yes?

[Question] I’m still a little confused, there is basically no such thing as an unclean [becomes unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] They are still unclean according to scripture.

[Question] Okay now I don’t know if that’s my question or not but what is an…I’m confused. [Laughter]

[Rushdoony] God specifies certain animals as clean. These are animals which are grass eating. The others are unclean and God calls them an abomination and we know from various studies which don’t get much publicity that they are not good for your health, that they are mildly toxic and have an accumulated impact on the human body. Most notably, in our culture the unclean animals that are eaten are pork and shellfish. And God calls them an abomination and he says we are not to eat them. Yes?

[Question] I read something on pork a long time ago, it’s supposed to have two hundred diseases and if you eat it consistently for twenty thirty years you run a high risk of having high blood pressure.

[Rushdoony] There are a number of problems that they do create, there are medical studies, somebody sent me one recently on the effect of pork on the human body but they don’t get any publicity because there is a powerful lobby against publicizing such research and they don’t get financing so a scholar in the field of medical research has to conduct it on his own. Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee for the plainness and precision of Thy word. Give us grace to hear, to obey and to grow as Thou wilts have us to grow. Teach us oh Lord to delight in obedience to Thee. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.