Ok...Before you open your bible and depending on what version you are reading, here's an early warning. Chapter 23 can be a bit shocking in the beginning. How do I know this? Because as I turned to this chapter and began to read, it was a shock to me. My first response was, oh my, how does this pertain to me, to us and Lord help me.
So I composed myself and broke out my commentary on Deuteronomy and began to look into the cultural context and what this represents. And what I found shifted everything.
At first glance, it feels like another list of exclusions. Like a chapter about who's out. Who doesn't belong and who can’t come in. But when you slow down and really look at it, it's not about rejection it's really about protection.How often do we misunderstand what God is trying to do because we don't understand the way he works...
The cultural context of the day helps us to understand, but it also helps us see that even though it no longer applies to us in such a literal way, it does in a spiritual sense. And something else that really helped me, when it talks about not entering the assembly of the Lord, it wasn't necessarily meaning people were completely cut off or cast out altogether. In this context, it very likely had to do with who could step into positions of leadership and influence among the people. They weren't being completely discommunicated they just weren't immediately placed into leadership right after coming out of pagan worship, broken systems, or sin.
That makes sense right. If I had just come out of a long broken marriage and was still processing and healing, would you want me to counsel you? Would it be wise for me to teach a class on how to have a Godly marriage? I don't think so. But could God, through healing and deliverance equip me to do so some day, absolutely! But not just yet. (Just an example, my marriage is good 😀)
You see God wasn't just building a people, He was establishing order, identity, and spiritual health. There's a process to healing.
There's a process to growth. There's a process to being entrusted with influence. And God, in His wisdom, wasn't skipping that. He had just brought His people out of Egypt, out of bondage, out of everything they had known, they're getting ready to take a city full of things that could and would corrupt them and now He's telling them, "I'm not just bringing you out, I'm building you up."
And that takes time. It takes refining process. It takes unlearning things that have been apart of you for a long time.It takes being set apart.
This is still how God works. Not through lists like this anymore but through the process. Through seasons where He's healing you, shaping you, undoing things in you before He places you in positions that carry weight. Not everything you're called to are you ready to carry immediately. And that's not rejection,
That's protection, for you as well as others. Because how many times does God bring us out of something, only for us to try and carry pieces of it into where He's taking us?
Our old mindsets, habits, ways of thinking. We need to understand that it may have been a part of our survival, but it's not meant to be a part of our Promise. Even the part about keeping the camp clean points to something deeper. God says He walks among them. Not, he visits or shows up occasionally. He dwells there.
And if His presence is in the camp then the camp matters. Which made me stop and ask myself, If God is walking in my “camp” in my life, my home, my thoughts, what am I allowing to stay that doesn’t belong there? What have I made room for that He's asking me to clear out? This chapter may not apply to us in the same literal way, but spiritually...It might hit even closer. Now we are the dwelling place.
And God is still saying..."Be careful what you allow in what I inhabit."
âš“ Anchor Scripture
Deuteronomy 23:14 (NLT)
"For the Lord your God moves about in your camp... your camp must be holy."
At the end of the day, God doesn't just lead you into the Promise, He teaches you how to live there. And sometimes that starts with letting go, and being willing to grow before stepping into what He's called you to carry.
Love Pastor Mandy
Ark of Hope Ministry
Daily reading Deuteronomy 23
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