Deuteronomy 17-26 Recap | OT Ep 24

This episode covers scenarios of all sorts from Ch 17-26. The hosts explore how these ancient laws relate to modern faith and the overarching narrative of redemption through Jesus Christ. They emphasize the significance of understanding these laws in the context of God's character and His promises to His people.

Reading Plan - Old Testament in One Year
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Transcript

Hey everyone,

My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

Welcome back, friends. Today's recap will cover Deuteronomy, Chapter 17, all the way to 26. Following the general stipulations Moses laid out through Chapter 11, the commands and laws then start to become more specific to certain situations. The order of the stipulations from Chapters 12 through 26, which is where we will end today, you seem to see an intentional pattern following the order of the Ten Commandments.

Moses continues to emphasize that Israel is supposed to be holy, set apart from any other nation. You'll see a phrase a good bit in this section, to purge the evil from your midst. Failure to do so jeopardizes the entire nation who will corporately bear the guilt for their failure to judge justly according to the punishment God laid out. In the new covenant, we carry on the purging of evil from among us, not by stoning.

but by the patient application of discipleship and church discipline. In all of these circumstances, we not only see God's perfect righteous justice on display, but we also see His goodness and mercy within these laws to draw everyone to Him. With that in mind, we'll pick up today in chapter 17.

Chapter 17 opens with what seems to be the final thought of Chapter 16. Chapter 16 ends by telling the people that they shall not worship how the people in the land worship. And Chapter 17 opens by reminding them that they may not sacrifice an ox or sheep that has any sort of spot or blemish because God considers that an abomination when thinking about a sacrificial offering.

This is an important thing to realize when thinking about Christ dying for us on the cross. There are actually people out there who think that Jesus may have sinned or in fact did sin. But when you harmonize the scriptures, if that were true, then he could not be our Savior. Jesus came and lived a spotless, sinless life so that he could be a sacrifice without spot or blemish for you if you would call on his name for salvation.

If you think about it, without these books like Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, we wouldn't truly understand what Christ did for us. We wouldn't have the depth of knowledge required to get why everything that happened in the Gospels happened exactly how it had to for us to be saved.

I for one am so thankful for God's revelation from beginning to end.

Moving forward, verses 2-7 discuss what is to happen if someone has broken the law in such a way that it demands the death penalty. God, via Moses, builds inner protection for the accused person in that there must be two to three witnesses for this sort of punishment and the witnesses must throw the first stone when they are to be stoned to death.

This would certainly keep a lot of things in check. Doing things this way limits the possibilities of someone just hating another person and accusing them of something. There must be enough witnesses and if they were caught in a lie, those witnesses I mean, falsely accuse the victim in the situation, they would open themselves up to the same fate.

Then verses 8-13 have to do with the decisions made by the judges and the priests. In this section, God gives direction to the people that they are to take serious legal matters such as assault or homicide to the judges or priests in the towns that they live among.

judge and the priest are to come to a decision on how best to handle the situation according to the law of God. The people are then bound to the decision made by that judge and priest, and God actually says the man who does not follow that decision, or as verse 12 says, acts presumptuously, is to be put to death. Remember, disobeying the law of the Lord is disobeying the Lord Himself.

verses 14 through 20 finish out the chapter by discussing the laws for Israel's kings.

This is super interesting because in reality Israel never needed a king since God ruled over them. But later in the Old Testament we see where the people go to Samuel and ultimately demand a king, quote, like the other nations. God being all-knowing went ahead and laid some groundwork for that day, even using the same language in verse 14. I'm quoting verse 14 here. He says, like all the nations that are around me, end quote.

Verse 15 explicitly tells the people that the only person who they can appoint to be king over their nation is a fellow Israelite. They are not allowed to set up a king from another nation. Verses 16 and 17 tell the people that the king should not be seeking to acquire many wives for himself because it would turn his heart away from God. And it also warns them of a king being greedy when it comes to silver and gold and also trying to gain military power.

All these things would wind up being the pitfall for King Solomon later in the Scriptures.

And then verses 18 and 20 show that the king is supposed to copy all the book of the law down himself, so that he'll have to read it and keep the law. And if he were to do that, everything would go well for him.

Our King, Jesus, is the Word of God in flesh, as John chapter 1 tells us. He didn't have to copy the law down, since He is the Law of Moses. He reigns in righteousness and goodness and is faithful to His people even now.

As we get into chapter 18, the first eight verses are a reminder to the people that the Levites, by God's decree, spend their days in the service of ministry

do not have normal jobs and have limited fields and herds. Moses is again letting the people know that since the Levites do this for them, they are to give a portion of their offering to the Levites in order that the Levites are sustained.

verses 9 through 14 list in very concise fashion some of the most wicked practices of the people of the land of Canaan and forcibly remind the people of Israel that they are not to do those things as God has called them.

So some of those things are 1. Burning their children as an offering 2. Seeking advice from anyone who practices divination 3. They consulted omens and fortunes

They also went and consulted mediums or necromancers or people who did sorcery.

There are a list of reasons God outlaws these things, but let me give you three.

So the first and most obvious reason would be that God views children as a gift to parents. and verse 3 says, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. So therefore, sacrificing children for any reason will be considered murder.

Second, seeking the advice of omens or divination is looking to guidance from another source other than the source of life itself, the Lord.

And lastly, having anything to do with necromancy or mediums is a celebration in some ways of death. God is not the author of death, but as I said a moment ago, the author of life. If you think about these things, they all go against what God desires for His creation, which is life. Remember that we have an adversary, the devil, who will do what he can to offer you a substitute for God who cannot be replaced. Don't fall for it.

Verse 15 through the end of the chapter is Moses foretelling a prophet that God would raise up for the people.

Notice that oftentimes God tells you the thing not to do and it is followed up with a thing that you should do.

This is a concept called law and gospel.

Mark Luther, the father of the Reformation, remarked that the Scriptures speak two words to us all the time, one of law and one of gospel. So in the last section, the law was given, do not follow sorcerers, necromancers, don't sacrifice your children. But now gospel, meaning good news, is given.

is an old man when he's saying all of this. And the good news of another prophet like himself would have been welcome.

Only this time, he's not referring to just any prophet, but one who would speak to God face to face like he did. One who would bear the very word of God, because that prophet would be the word of God.

Moses is not referring to one who would deliver the people out of the bondage of physical slavery, but slavery to sin and death.

Moses, as the one who instituted what we would call the Old Covenant, is pointing to the one who would institute the New Covenant. Of course, I, like Moses, am referring to Jesus. Friend, listen, if it seems at this point Ashley and I are trying too hard, remember we didn't write the book. God has labored hard to show you and anyone with eyes to see that it is and always has been about Jesus and what he would do to rescue us.

from the bondage of sin and restore our God the Father.

Moving into chapter 19, Moses revisits the concept of the cities of refuge. Now remember back in Deuteronomy chapter four, Moses set apart cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan.

Here, he is telling them that they must set apart three more cities west of the Jordan once God gives them the land, provided that they are careful to keep all which Moses commanded them by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways. The concept of the cities of refuge is such an amazing part of scripture that prior to this study, admittedly, I never paid much attention to. I really expound on this in episode 21.

because the first time that this is introduced is in Numbers chapter 35. But I'm gonna recap the recap for those that might have missed that episode.

We talked about a theological term called substitutionary atonement, which is something dying in the place of someone else that deserved to die.

We have seen this over and over again with animals, but in the discussion about cities of refuge, we see not an animal, but the high priest takes on that role.

Remember, the manslayer, not a murderer.

but an accidental taking of life, that manslayer had to remain in the city of refuge until the high priest died. Because the high priest's death is to serve as full satisfaction on behalf of all who took refuge under him. If the high priest, who was a sinful man, if his death can free the manslayer from his confinement, how much more can our great high priest's death free us from our bondage to sin?

The New Testament scripture we referenced was Hebrews 6, verses 18-19, and they say, We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.

Again, we are not trying too hard. I would argue that we truly aren't trying hard enough. Jesus, our great high priest, died once for all to serve as full satisfaction on behalf of those who would take refuge in him.

Picking up in verse 14, we have a little blurb about property boundaries. Remember how specific God has been about dividing the land by the size of the tribe. And we've had different scenarios where God had laid out ways for land to always remain or be restored to the tribe that originally inherited it. So moving a landmark that was set would have been equivalent to theft of another tribe's inheritance.

To finish out this chapter, Moses reminds them again that the Lord has laid out a system to prevent false or malicious accusations.

So as Austin mentioned earlier, if this were to happen, both parties would come before the Lord with the priest and the current judges in office. They would have a trial, hear out both sides, and if the accuser was found to be malicious, you shall do to him as he meant to do to his brother. And this is to purge the evil from your midst.

That concept is followed with a very commonly misused verse.

It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

To touch briefly on what we've said before, this is a very limiting concept by God. In other words, the punishment should befit the crime and not go beyond what was done to you. For example, I can't have you killed just because you broke my fence.

This eye for an eye concept was far from the principle of barbaric reparation that leads to one side striking another, then the other side striking back, and on and on. God's principle ensures the punishment is restrained to the one localized event carried out by the state that had God given authority and not by an individual person.

We've discussed chapters in the past on this podcast that are hard for modern people to reconcile. And chapter 20 is certainly one of those chapters. God gives some really intense parameters for how Israel was to go about the business of warfare in the land.

As a really helpful aside here, God does give Israel different marching orders for cities that were going to overtake that are in the promised land and for those who are outside of the promised land. Those cities outside of the promised land were to be offered peace before any war or battle started.

If those cities agreed to terms, then the Israelites would go in and quote, take the city and the inhabitants of the city would work for the Israelites.

If the city would not yield, then during the battle and after the Israelites conquered it, the only ones who would be killed would be the men of the city.

The cities of the promised land are different matter altogether. Israel was to offer no quarter, no offer of peace. God, through Israel, was going to judge the land for the wicked, awful, and terrible things that the people of the land had done to fellow image bearers of God, namely their own children. When Israel made war on these cities, they were instructed to leave nothing alive.

This terrifies us if we're being honest. It unnerves us. But here again is the law.

The law isn't bad, remember? We have said that it isn't law bad, gospel good. Really, it's law good, we're bad, and gospel is good news for us.

This sort of destruction is how God deals with sin. He utterly destroys it and all remnants of it when he moves towards it in judgment. Jesus died so that when God moves to judge this world, as He will one day, there will be an offer of peace with God.

John Piper wrote a poem that I think accurately captures the concept of those of us that are safe in Christ not only escape the wrath of God that is due this world, but bask in the love of God.

It reads, watch the sinner sing, spared the burning flood only by the blood. See him on the shore, went to this ocean store. From your God above, thimble full of love.

Chapter 21 starts off like a true crime episode.

Moses addresses the process for an unsolved murder.

Just because the perpetrator is unknown, the blood was still shed, and that death has to be atoned for with bloodshed.

The next section, starting in verse 10, simultaneously ends the discussion in the category of You Shall Not Murder and introduces the section on You Shall Not Commit Adultery.

This brief section speaks to conquests of cities far away in relation to marriage.

So during this conquest, if you see a woman and want her to be your wife, you should bring her home and she should shave her head and pair her nails, which just means to cut them and file them in a normal fashion. These were no doubt a symbol of her departure from her former life and religious practices. And you see that she's given an opportunity to change clothes, time to grieve,

And then after those things have occurred, you can consummate the marriage or you can let her go where she wants, but you cannot sell her or treat her as a slave.

Verse 15 starts the next section regarding a man having two wives And how to address the inheritance. Now this law presupposes the practice of polygamy, but does not condone or recommend it. It protects the community by setting a standard of civil behavior. Just like it doesn't condone murder, but it does address it, the same goes for polygamy.

for the ethical idea for marriage as God created it, please see Genesis chapter two.

We have seen this two-wife concept already with Jacob, haven't we? He was deceived by Laban and married Leah, who is the sister of Rachel. Rachel was the one he really wanted. So in a case like that, just because the firstborn came from the one whom you don't love, that firstborn still has a birthright to a double portion of inheritance.

Next, a rebellious son is addressed. This is a son who has been talked to and disciplined and still is being a drunkard and a glutton and will not obey his parents. Then that person, after the city has determined his guilt, should be stoned. Again, the punishment should befit the crime.

That rebellious son broke the fifth commandment, dishonoring his father and mother.

The wages of any sin is death. Therefore, death is the equal punishment.

Now these last two verses here pack some weight. They read, if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. Let's fast forward to Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Chapter 3, verses 10 through 14.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written,

Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Friends, without Jesus, we are cursed in our sin under the law. We cannot abide by it. But Jesus hung on a tree and became a curse for us so that His righteousness, His rightful inheritance as the firstborn, is poured out on us.

I mean, this gospel glimpse wasn't even mine. Paul did this one. I just copy pasted, okay?

Diving into chapter 22,

addresses how they were to help protect their neighbor's property.

It says not only to not take the property for yourself, but we must not ignore when something is awry either. They are to love their neighbor as their self.

Verse five is pretty obvious that it's addressing women dressing as men and men dressing as women. The thing I want to point out here is that remember every physical law addresses a heart issue, right? So this is not condemning you wearing your husband's t-shirt to bed, but dressing and looking the part of a man in society when you are in fact created by God to be a woman and vice versa. But more than that,

Not only were these types of practices addressed and condemned by God, but these practices were seen in conjunction with pagan temple prostitution.

And what has God said this entire time? You are a set apart people. You are my people and you won't act like they do nor worship me as they worship their gods. I think the creator of the universe gets to dictate how he is worshiped, don't you?

Verses 9-11 continue to address the set apart nature of Israel. We talked about this way back in Leviticus chapter 19 when it's first brought up. I'll say it again.

It's not about the cattle, the seed, or the clothing. It's the call to ceremonial set-apartness, ceremonial holiness.

These things aren't to mix because you are not to mix with the ways of the world. Israel, everything in your life is to be set apart. So why can we wear blended fabrics now and not be sinful? Because the holiness of Israel was completed in the coming of the Messiah. Our set apartness comes not from our lineage, but by our spiritual adoption into the family of God.

Gentiles grafted into the holiness only by the blood.

versus 13 through 30 deal with laws on proper moral sexual conduct. You'll see that each of these scenarios starts with, if this happens, then do this.

In the very first example, we have yet another scenario meant to protect women and deter men from making false allegations and pursuing an easy divorce. If a sin has occurred, it must be purged from the nation as we've already discussed. In the next example, we see your textbook definition of adultery and both parties are at fault.

Then we get to verse 23, and it addresses a situation where there is a betrothed virgin. Now, betrothal was much more binding than our modern day engagement. Betrothed couples couldn't just break up, they would have to file for divorce.

We even see more evidence for that in the next verse as she's called the wife.

Now again, we see behavior that is addressed in the law that is not encouraged.

These scenarios imply that these are forcible acts against these women, which is wrong and nowhere in this book is it ever condoned.

But you also have to get your head out of a 21st century American culture and put yourself into an ancient Near Eastern culture.

The Israelite society, thanks to God's law, was one of the few societies that actually had laws protecting women and let them inherit property and such. So here we have a case of a lady who is betrothed being abused. And because she's in the city, she could cry for help. But if she's in the country, there's typically no one around to help her.

So in either case, if she cries for help, the man will die. If she doesn't, it seems like she didn't try to stop it, in which case they are both responsible.

Verse 28 addresses a woman who is not betrothed and taken advantage of. The law says the man should pay the father the bride price and legally take her as his sit well with us on the surface, does it? But as usual, the Lord is setting boundaries here. This setup was indeed to protect the woman.

who is now very unlikely to be married because she's been violated.

she likely could have physically still stayed in her father's house and been protected. But this also puts the responsibility on the man to financially provide for her the rest of her life and bounds him by the law we just read. So he is immediately an adulterer in pretty much any other scenario he finds himself in because he is now a married man.

Verse 30 ends with a scenario excluding a man from taking his father's wife so that he does not uncover his father's nakedness, which was an idiom for bringing dishonor to the family.

This scenario is probably given to cover those cases of polygamy in which he would have had an opportunity to lay with one of his father's wives.

who was someone other than his mother.

Chapter 23 starts by addressing the forthcoming assembly of the people in worship to the Lord in the Promised Land, and specifically who should not enter into that assembly.

We see several different scenarios here, but one thing I want to point out is that they were not to a poor, an Edomite, or an Egyptian, and that the children born to those people in the third generation may enter the assembly. This shows that the possibility of foreigners becoming worshipping Israelites was much more about faith and much less about race.

We continue down into verses 9 through 14, and they discuss Israel's army when they are at camp against an enemy. Now remember that God was the one going before them and doing the fighting. So this encampment, this gathering was such that God was present.

Because of that, the ceremonial laws of cleanliness applied.

In verse 15, the laws seem to shift to protecting people's things or property. But verse 17 cracks me up because God says, none of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. God knows we are not the brightest and we as humans will absolutely take something God says and either twist it to what we want, take away from it or add to it. So

He is abundantly clear here, none of the daughters and none of the sons, just in case you were thinking of swapping that up. Again, this was a Canaanite pagan fertility ritual that they would come to know as a very common practice in the land.

Verses 19 through 25 end out this chapter. God addresses some things to protect the poor. Most of the time, a loan was an act of complete desperation, often caused by crop failure. So cruelly high interest rates made the situation that much worse. It also allows provisions for the poor to enter a vineyard and field and eat enough to be full, but not take more than they need.

And that would be theft, and that is what these laws address.

Within that section in verses 21 through 23, we see that vows were completely voluntary, but once made, they were binding and it was sinful to break. Overall, God shows that wealth in the land comes from obedience to God, not from selfish economics.

The first four verses of chapter 24 are a good example of case law. The following is an excerpt from my ESV study Bible because I don't think I could sum it up any better while also providing context.

The law forbids the first husband taking back the wife he found no favor with after she has subsequently divorced or widowed.

By charging his wife with some indecency, the first husband acquired her dowry, which was her father's marriage present to her, when he divorced her.

Remarrying, she is given a second dowry. This example implies that when her second marriage ended, she was able to keep her second dowry. The first husband is forbidden to remarry her to acquire her second dowry. This law protects the woman from exploitation from her first husband.

Again and again, you study the background and think through the issues, God's primary concern when it comes to marriage is to protect the bride. In the New Testament, Paul makes it clear, this practice is over.

various miscellaneous laws that are really insightful to God's character. For brevity's sake, I'm going to focus on what may seem like a very obscure statement. Let me read the verses to you.

So picking up in verse 10, the Bible says, when you make your neighbor alone of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge.

You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge.

If you're like me, the first time I read this, I thought to myself, what does it mean to sleep in his pledge? God was forbidding someone from taking a poor man's tunic, which would often double as his blanket. So you see that in verse 13. Verse 13 says, you shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

To show what God thinks of those that abuse this law and thus abuse the poor in Israel, let me read you something from the prophet Amos written about 700 years after this. In the book of Amos, chapter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says,

I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted.

They lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge.

God always thinks ahead in these laws that are given. If one doesn't make sense to you when you read it, take a little time and use your study Bible or a trusted, faithful resource and read about it. In every instance, you're going to find some context or other scriptures that it comports to.

Chapter 25 opens with more case law about someone being found guilty.

Fairness is demanded, and in verse 2, that the punishment must befit the crime. Verses 5 through 10 talk about a lever at marriage.

We'll get much heavier into this when we talk about the Book of Ruth, because that is the only book where we actually see this carried out.

Let me give you a few brief notes about this practice.

A lever at marriage is one where a man who is married dies and his wife is then to marry the man's brother. That brother is then to raise up children in his brother's name so that his brother's name would be perpetuated in Israel.

Later on in Ruth, we get a little better glimpse into how this works with inheritance as well.

This, by the way, is the only case in which polygamy is allowed in God's law.

Remember, the focus of the covenant with Abraham was to bring about the Messiah so God is trying to protect every family lineage. The law, yet again, is set up to protect the widow.

If the brother will take her, then she has protection and income with which she can live.

But their brother-in-law has to agree to this proposal. If he does not, there's a form of practice where let's just say he is publicly shamed. Please go read this section.

But yet again, this protects the would-be bride in this situation. Because giving the brother-in-law a choice to say no keeps her away from a reluctant husband who wouldn't care for her.

In the New Testament, Paul makes it clear this practice is over since Jesus the Messiah had already come and widows are to be released to marry whoever they want.

There are more miscellaneous laws finishing out this chapter, but I do want to talk about verses 13 through 16. Verse 13 and 14 are saying that you shall not have different size bags and weights in your home. That seems weird us, The context though shows us what this really about is deception.

With the type of economy the Israelites would have, being largely agrarian, God did not want His people to have different weights or measures for selling and buying. God is really trying to keep His people from manipulating one another.

that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

On our way out of this chapter, I want to read verses 17 through 19 and plan a seed for later.

Verse 17 says, Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and he cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that LORD your God has given to you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

God is talking here about the people of Amalek, the Amalekites.

will see later that Israel will have its chance to carry this out and unfortunately they failed to do so. And this failing is actually felt in different books all the way into the New Testament.

I know and truly understand how it feels when we read a passage where God is telling His people to completely wipe out another nation. But guys, God declared the end from the beginning. He knows what people will do before they ever do it. I know this has been a long episode, but hear me out just for moment longer.

The Israelites failed to kill the Amalekites hundreds of years later under King Saul. At the end of King Saul's life, it is an Amalekite who actually kills him. Later in the Book of Esther, Haman, who is the chief villain of that story, nearly destroys the entire nation of Israel, and he himself is an Amalekite.

In the New Testament, King Herod, who tried to kill all the baby Israelite boys in order to kill Jesus when he was just an infant, was also an Amalekite. Think about all that happened that would have never happened if the Amalekites had been killed. Think about all that happened because they weren't that we'll never know about this side of heaven. When God says to do something, especially when it's this drastic, we need to remember that He knows what we can't know.

the end from the beginning.

In this final section of Specific Laws, Chapter 26, it deals with the offering of first fruits and tithes in the land. This is a fitting conclusion as it focuses on responding to God's gracious gift of the promised land. Verses 5-10 are often believed to be an early Israelite creed, much like we have our Apostles' Creed. And this creed was quickly recounting God's faithfulness to His promises as the basis of their praise and thanksgiving.

God makes sure to note that the Levite and the Sojourner, who were landless, are included in the celebration of the land.

Verse 14 gives three statements that the worshiper must declare to be fully obedient. I have not eaten of the tithe, even when I'm in mourning. I did not remove any of it while I was unclean, and I didn't offer any of it to the dead.

Now I hope by now when you come across a weird practice that God seems to randomly condemn, you're starting to think, I bet there's more to that. Well, you'd be exactly right. And eventually I'll hope you get to, I bet that's a pagan practice. Because chances are you'd be right in that too.

I think it's only fitting to end this very long episode by reading the last few verses in chapter 26.

starting in verse 16.

And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for His treasured possession as He has promised you, and that you are to keep all His commandments, and that He will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that He has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God as He has promised." The Lord always fulfills His promises. Likewise, He also asks His chosen people to fulfill theirs.

And friends, that is going to do it for this very long recap. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.