After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 23-25 (excerpts)

6/1/26 | Thad Yessa | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience

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Welcome to the After the Sermon podcast where Pastor Will usually answers follow-up questions and shares your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church, but we're blessed to have Pastor Thad with us this morning on the podcast.

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Happy to be a special guest this week.

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Yeah. Thanks for preaching yesterday. And with this podcast, we want to remind you that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. Pastor Thad, could we start with a reminder, a recap of the sermon from yesterday? Just high level, brief overview.

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Yeah. Thanks. Yesterday we were in Deuteronomy chapters 23 through 25 and just some excerpts from each of those sections kind of wrapping up God's laws to the Israelites. The God of the law part four is what the sermon was entitled. And our main idea was that God calls his people to reflect his character in the everyday life, that as God's giving these laws, they're addressing work and poverty and integrity and animals and all sorts of stuff. And how do these laws encourage, challenge, convict us today and how we think about our ordinary lives and living those for God as his covenant people.

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Yeah. Really good. Thank you. That might be the briefest sermon summary we've had on this podcast.

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Brief is something I'm well known for.

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All right. First question is from Brett, then a related question from an anonymous congregant. Brett wrote in, "How does Deuteronomy 24:16 square with passages about God visiting punishment on people for generations? Example, Exodus 25 to six." Then another congregant wrote in, "In some cases, God holds individuals alone accountable, but in some cases, generations of families are held accountable for the actions of a single member of their family. Why is this?

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" Yeah, that's a really good question on both of those. Thank you, Brett, as well as anonymous listener. And so just to read the verses that Brett in particular referenced Deuteronomy 24:16 says, "Fathers should not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers." And then in Exodus chapter 20, verse five, God says, "Visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, specifically dealing with Brett's question, then we'll come to the anonymous listeners related but a little different. In Deuteronomy 24:16, this is about human and legal courts and justice. And so here in this specific section of verses, God is giving laws for Israel and their civil system that the principle is that the individual is legally responsible. So a son is not going to receive punishment because a father is caught stealing or a father isn't going to be punished because his daughter got caught in some sort of sexual sin with this.

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That this is also different than what's going on in the surrounding cultures in the ancient world where oftentimes entire families would be punished for a person's action. So that's what's going on in Deuteronomy 24 in that specific section of just dealing with this is a legal system. This is what's doing where Exodus 20 verses five through six, as well as our anonymous question asker that the generational consequences of sin, that God is speaking in the context of covenantal faithfulness and idolatry. And so that particular phrase visiting the iniquity does not mean innocent children are being punished for the sins they did not commit. Scripture repeatedly rejects this idea. You have in the New Testament Jesus, his disciples are walking and they look to a blind man and disciples say," Hey, who sinned? This father, this man's father or mother and Jesus says neither one of them.

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"And so the idea that sin has consequences that spreads through generations is true, that we are all affected by the sins of those who have gone before us in some ways, that we are all sinners that are also affected by sin. And so children often inherit sinful patterns from their parents and participate in same or similar rebellion, suffer effects of their parents' sins for Israel and in Exodus 20, as it's referencing, continues in covenant unfaithfulness. And so the last part of that verse is, " Of those who hate me. "So the generations being judged are not innocent victims in one sense they're being participants and continuing in the same patterns of sin and rebellion against God. So it's this, this is going to continue on in you. And so it's repeated the wickedness of the kings of Israel and Judah, that sons often walked in the sins of their fathers and judgment continued because the rebellion continued or you have a few good kings along the way that for at least one generation stop the sins of their forefathers.

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And so what's going on is this idea of between the two, a legal situation. If I get pulled over for speeding, I'm going to be the one who has to pay the speeding ticket or what's happening is this idea of generational of we're being affected by the sins of our forefathers and therefore we are now participants in the same acts of that. But there is also just pastoral note, real comfort and hope that via sanctification the Lord's work and help and effort, like we do not have to be known only by the sins of those who have gone before us or our parents, that there is real healing and hope in moving forward. Will and I have talked often, he shared this idea with me that as parents, one thing that we'd like to do is leave our children a little less screwed up than we are.

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And that's a little tongue in cheek, but like also help our kids to not walk in the same heirs and mistakes that we have done. That's part of our job as parents in response to that. We are helping others come along the journey so that they don't fall into the same mistakes and troubles that we do. And so that's one thing that God's trying to address with again, individual being held responsible as well as kind of this idea of corporate responsibility.

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That's good. Thanks. Next one comes to us from John. John, thanks for your question. He wrote, how do we understand "none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever" in light of Ruth becoming part of Israel and even being part of the lineage of Jesus.

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  Thank you John for that question. I should also just add David Weber after service asked me the same

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  Exact

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  Question and honestly just wish I would have had more time in Sunday to talk about this. So John's referencing Deuteronomy 23 where it says, "No ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even to the 10th generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord." And I quickly referenced in Sunday sermon that if we were to continue reading in the scriptures and get to the book of Ruth, we would read of Ruth being a mobile or the fulfillment in Matthew chapter one where we read of the lineage of Jesus and via David that Ruth is part of that lineage. And so how do those two ideas fit together that Mobites may not enter the assembly of the Lord and Ruth being a Moabite being part of the lineage of Jesus. And so in part what's happening in Deuteronomy is the addressing of this covenant hostility, not racial or ethnic alone, that the ammonites and the Moabites are being excluded because Deuteronomy 23: four says, "Because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way because they hired Balam against you so that they were consistently against the covenant people of God and God himself, that they represented nations that are characterized by idolatry, hostility towards Israel and rejection of God as the God of the universe.

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  And so their exclusion here is directly tied to their attitude and actions towards God and towards God's people. Whereas Ruth is the exact opposite of the rebellious Moabites that are being condemned here in Deuteronomy. That Ruth in fact does the opposite of that. She does not cling to Moabite idolatry. She does not cling to hostility towards Israel or to God and instead she leaves Moab. She abandons her former idol worship. She joins herself with God's covenant people marrying one of Naomi's sons and then when that son

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  Dies, she then covenants to be with Naomi and come back to Israel and she trusts in God. And so he confession of this idea of her fleeing, rejecting her mobile identity is found in Ruth 1:16 and 17 where she says, Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God, that she's not acting as a Moabite opposed to Yahweh, but she has come in one sense to faith in trusting in the God of Israel. She shares a very similar pattern that we see of God welcoming in outsiders into his covenant family. You see this with Rahab, the Canaanite, you see it with Egyptians joining the Israelites in Exodus as well as all throughout as we've been talking through Deuteronomy of these foreigners who sojourned, who wandered with God's people. And so with that also you have this phrase repeated in Deuteronomy, this assembly of the Lord, which refers to a specific and legal participation.

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  So there's some debate amongst scholars about how exactly should we think about this assembly of the Lord. Is this all of Israel is considered the assembly of the Lord? Is it those who are truly following after Yahweh are part of the assembly of Lord? Is it those who are coming to the tabernacle? And so some, many scholars understand enter the assembly of the Lord as referring not to living amongst Israel in general, personal salvation or worshiping God, but full participation in Israel's governing and covenant assembly. So it could refer to a phrasing or to think of it differently. They may not have religious standing. They may not serve in a leadership capacity. They do not have covenant privileges tied to national identity. And so it helps also explain why foreigners are allowed to live amongst the Israelites, why they're allowed to worship God, while they may participate in some forms of worship.

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  So again, some of it comes to how do you interpret the assembly of the Lord, meaning all mobites are going to not be allowed to serve in leadership capacities and all of that. And so I think it's twofold. Ruth's rejection of her mobile identity and two, as well as what it means to be in the assembly of the Lord.

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  Next two are from Victoria. We'll start with the first one. It's a good place to start. She wrote, "What are some techniques to discern people today as ammonites and mobites, idomites and Amalek?" I guess having traits of those people- How would you interpret that?

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  I'm assuming she's not talking specifically about some sort of ethnic view of writing off people. I think that would be a little bit problematic for a Christian to have that sort of view versus potentially the idea of certain offense or attacks from individuals and determining how it is that we should engage or not engage with those specific individuals. Victoria, if clarification needs to be given, send us an email, but I'm going to answer what I think is the intended question. And so I want to also just be upfront and just say we should be very cautious with trying to directly associate ourselves with the children of Israel when talking about this idea of completely rejecting off and cutting off people. Our society and culture as a whole is very big into this idea of cancel culture and completely rejecting an individual based on a single action or a corporation based on a decision that they make.

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  Even this morning I was reading an article about how Patagonia has just filed a trademark suit against someone else who is sort of using their logo and that has ties to the LGBTQ community and it's becoming this big thing and people are now calling for the cancel of Patagonia as a company because of their aggression towards this, even though they're trying to just protect their trademark and property in that sense. And so I don't think it's helpful for us to operate in that way as Christians of this idea of cancel culture and writing people and individuals off in part because we should be gospel people remembering that God can redeem even the worst actions in an individual and bring that person to selfific faith. And so in one sense, we need to be very careful with this as well as this idea of setting boundaries.

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  Boundaries are good. It's good to set up fences and walls and have divisions in that way. But again, I think culture and society has too quickly held onto that, that I'm going to just mark every single individual who I don't like or I don't agree with as an unsafe person. And so I just want to just name those things and frame those up of we just need to be extremely cautious with thinking about now to bring it back to Victoria's question in regards to animonites and Moabites and Edomites and all of that. I think what you see here portrayed and throughout the Old Testament is this constant hostility that's being instilled towards Israel, God's covenant people. And so for us, if we are constantly facing hostility and attack from individuals based on our following after Jesus and the gospel, I think one, we should count that a blessing to be persecuted in the name of Jesus in one's ends.

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  Again, persecution is real spectrum and has different varying levels for that. I'm guessing most of us aren't losing jobs or being kicked out of apartment complexes or things like that or thrown in prison like other brothers and sisters around the world. But if there is a certain hostility that we're facing towards individuals, I think we respond in the sense of praying for those individuals in their souls, remembering that God can even turn those hardest against him into sons and daughters of the king and in that effort into if it has turned to a sense of hostility and frustration and work that there is a certain level of putting up appropriate boundary to not continue to do all with that individual as much as possible. I think of Jesus talking to his disciples about kicking off the dust of your feet and leaving a town as it's rejected.

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  Again, relying on the spirit's work and individual's hearts, knowing that we can't change people's hearts, it's up to the work of the spirit, but we still have a certain level of responsibility of prayer and responding appropriately with our actions. I would just say if you're ever in a situation of thinking about, if you want to think about cutting someone off or putting up a boundary to seek a lot of counsel about that first, that's not something that should be just rushed into and a lot more could probably be shared about that. Maybe we'll add a section in the Ask the Pastors podcast about what's appropriate for setting up boundaries for individuals.

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  Our second question is, what if we make a hasty vow and we cannot fulfill it?

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  Yeah. So this is referring to in Deuteronomy where Moses is writing and saying, "Hey, if you make a vow before God, be sure that you are quick to fulfill it. Also, remember that your vows are voluntary, that God has not obligated you to make one." So if you're someone who has made a quick vow to God, perhaps you made a vow that says, "God, if you give me this job, I'm going to give you X number of dollars for your provision for this or an individual I could see who says, God, I'm going to vow my life towards the ministry and I'm going to give myself fully to you and then finds themselves like, actually, I don't think God has called me to full-time ministry or God, I'm going to vow a life of singleness and celibacy and then this person comes and now they believe that God has actually called them to marry an individual.

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  You can put in any sort of example and there I think of times where God, if you don't let me get in trouble for this, I promise I'm going to read my Bible every single day and we can be very quick and hasty to rush into vows. And so Victoria's asking, what do we do if we hastily jump into a vow? I think our response is that we go to the Lord and we apologize and ask forgiveness and repent for our haste and our actions and remember that he is a good and gracious father. And we repent of saying, God, I was not truthful. I was not honest. I may have intended to be truthful and honest with you, but I wasn't. Would you help me to grow in this area of seeking to be a truth teller and to be honest with my words and receive the forgivenes that he offers us and move on and seek to grow in our walk with him in the spirit.

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  That's good. And then lastly, she had an application about kindness to animals. She wrote, "I've seen the ox eating the grain in my own dog on walks. I now let him sniff and take his time rather than power through and go at my own time." That's good. Next question is from Carrie. She wrote, "What about the passage? If a man will not work, he shall not eat when it comes to showing compassion to the poor and vulnerable, those that camp out at stoplights for years." This is in response to a comment about Jesus tapping on our car window.

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  Yeah. So in what Carrie's referencing as I made this statement drawing out from the text that God's people, both the children of Israel and Christians today cannot be indifferent towards those who are vulnerable in whatever category you may put that in scripture often refers to the vulnerable as those who are widows, those who are fatherless, those who are sojourners and in our text talking about those who are financially insecure in the moment. Brian and I were talking about this earlier, that it was only in the second service that I made this comment just trying to really get it in people's minds of as you drive up to a stoplight, we all know the feeling of seeing an individual there who's holding a sign or in a Walmart parking lot with their whole family and we're doing everything in our power to not make eye contact with that individual for fear that they are going to walk up to us and then we'll feel either obligated or convicted like, "What do I do?

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  How do I respond? I don't want to engage in this. " And the idea coming across of Jesus is kind of tapping on our window trying to illustrate that we cannot be indifferent towards those who are vulnerable and poor around us. And I had a couple other people just ask me like, "What's the barometer for which we deal with this in the everyday life?" And I think that the individual standing on the corner at a stoplight at our intersection is probably the one that comes most to mind for us. But I'd like to just frame it out a little bit more that I use that because that's the one that comes most to mind, but to more so emphasize is that there are those who are vulnerable all around us. Like I mentioned, scripture repeatedly commands God's people to care for widows, orphans, sojourners, the hungry, the disabled, the oppressed, the poor.

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  And so we see repeated, not just in the Old Testament and Deuteronomy and Exodus and Proverbs, but in the New Testament, Jesus showing compassion towards those who are marginalized in society, he's going and he is talking to the prostitutes. He's talking to the tax collectors. He's talking to the disabled or James condemns empty faith that ignores physical needs. And so for Christians using the phrase, the scriptural phrase, the verse, "If a man will not work, he will not eat." A lot, I think, tend to use that as an excuse for harshness indifference or contempt towards those who are struggling with people. What is your heart posture towards an individual that you see on the side of the road? Now Carrie specifically mentions seeing an individual for years I think is very different than seeing an individual for the first time, but asking the question, how do I respond where when I see someone who is needy or has the appearance of needy?

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  And so I think Paul's specific offense in Thessalonians is a concern with idleness and not inability without phrasing not willing to work, not unable to work that in Thessalonika some people apparently stopped working, they became busy bodies, they were dependent on others unnecessarily and they neglected responsibility. And so Paul's confronting laziness and irresponsibility within the church. And so it brings up another point about a biblical ethic that work is good, responsibility matters, that Christians are to be contributing people, that dependency should not be cultivated unnecessarily. And so you're trying to weigh these two things and so we should not err on one side of harshness without mercy of, again, our heart posture being that one of like, "Well, they made a poor choice, that's not my problem." Where for Israel in their context, talking about the poor and the vulnerable amongst them, just referencing that they are farmers and herdsmen.

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  And so if a flock of, not a flock, whatever, a large gathering of locusts, swarm of locusts is coming in and destroying their crop, well, that's not their fault. They didn't attract the locust there or a disease coming in killing all of their livestock. Well, that's not something they did or if there's drought, that's not something they did. And so to not have this attitude of they made a bad choice and it's not my problem, I think an argument could be made. Again, there are bad actors out there who are trying to take advantage of people's generosity at the corners, at streetlights. There are those out there, I'll admit, but I would like to be charitable and think a large portion of people who are perhaps like that, that were thinking of the vulnerable in that specific instance, they are struggling with mental illness or addiction or trauma or abuse or disability or generational poverty that they're just a product of generations of their family having difficulty with money, whether intentional or unintentional.

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  And so I think Christians, and I tried to draw this out, we should be people who draw out individuals dignity in that and in showing compassion. So one sense with the individual at the corner, and I talked to our mercy ministry even just about this yesterday, I was like, "Hey, I made this example. I think we should probably think about having blessing bags again where we're not giving an individual cash at a corner, but we're providing them with something that dignifies them, a Ziploc bag that has a water bottle or a blanket or a poncho or deodorant or some beef sticks and some different things." And so we want to help restore people's dignity where for those who are really struggling and vulnerable and weak and desperate, we want to do our part to care well for them. And that's one way that here at West Hills that we've tried to do that of saying, "Hey, I see you and I care.

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  Let me give you something." And I failed to even mention that in there there's a gospel drag where we're going to point them towards where they can find real lasting hope, something more than just daily bread but eternal life. And so that's one way in doing that. And so we want to be really cautious to make sure that there's not a certain harshness towards them, a judgmentalism towards them in that. And then the second heir is compassion without wisdom, meaning that helping always means giving whatever it is that's asked for.

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  There's this book, I can't remember who wrote it, when Helping Hurts,

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  And

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  We can help in a way that really hurts an individual where we could in an effort to try to be helping and try to be compassionate and caring for the vulnerable. We're enabling addiction, we're sustaining destructive patterns, we're discouraging responsibility and we're creating unhealthy dependency. And so I think that's more along the lines of what Carrie's drawing out is how do we have wisdom in doing that? And so to seek the genuine good for an of its one, I think in some ways a blessing bag seeks to do that by, "Hey, I don't know you, but I see you and I want to be compassionate. So I'm going to give you something that will help you. If you are someone who is in need of help, this will help you in a certain situation, as well as we as a church, we have our mercy ministry funding that goes to seek and care for individuals.

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  But oftentimes when someone calls and they're needing something, we're trying to connect them to individuals who have in organizations that have really good resources that can help someone with their financial stewardship or help them find a place where they can stay for the night or get a warm meal or get a hot shower. And so we're trying to really point someone in a direction of like, yes, I could offer you temporary help and you could potentially take advantage of that, but I'm going to try to give you a real lasting hope. And so we can, to the best of our abilities, also try to get to know individuals. Again, we think of the individuals at the stoplight, but it could be other people that we meet in the general orbits in which our patterns of life take us in, where we see individuals and can recognize this is an individual who is struggling in some sense or another.

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  How is it that I can get to know this person and their story and try to help them? And so we should avoid this idea of just general harshness when we see an individual. It's like, wow, they're so lazy. They've just made poor decisions and that and have a heart posture of how can I care for this individual while also being wise in that. And so if we do notice individuals who for years are on a corner and some statistics have shown just how much money, because people are really generous individuals on the corners have been ... I saw one study that showed someone brought in six figures over a course of a year by just standing on a corner. And again, that's what we're not trying to contribute to, but asking the question, how can I show this individual dignity? How can I avoid dehumanizing a person?

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  How can I help provide this person flourishing? Again, it may not necessarily be something that you physically or tangibly provide. It could be, but how can I point this person in a direction that is going to lead them towards longevity in flourishing and prayer for wisdom and how to engage in this wisely?

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  Yeah. Really well said. Thanks. Lastly, a question from an anonymous congregant who wrote, how long must we suffer? How big a pile of sorrow and tragedy must be placed upon us before relief comes? When will respite or even temporary relief come?

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  Yeah, I appreciate whoever this individual is and pray that they really do find relief from their suffering. If I could just read where this is coming from, from

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  The sermon. And so in the first part, going back to talking about the Ammonites and the Moabites in that Moses is writing that they hired Balaam who would come and offer curses against Israel. And in verse number five, it says, "But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into blessing for you because the Lord your God loved you. " And in there I drew reference to the Christian life is one of hope that for Christians, the future is incredibly bright in the sense of we know where our eternity and security lies and that is with Jesus and being with him and fully in his presence and in a place that has no more sin and no more sorrow, no more evil and no more wickedness. And so again, that's both a present reality of we can hang onto this hope as well as a future reality where we will experience it fully and for this individual who's writing how long must we suffer, how big a pile of sorrow and tragedy must be placed upon us before relief comes.

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  And I don't mean to be dismissive in this. In one sense, in a future sense, relief has already come through what Jesus has done and what Jesus is offering, but even though that is the reality that awaits us, it's not always physically felt here in the present and there is real suffering and there is real sorrow and there is real hardship and we join with the Psalmist in saying like, "How long, oh Lord." Or we think of Job and how he goes through tremendous suffering of losing everything in the end and asking God why and he never fully getting an answer or resolve from God about why have I experienced all the suffering and all this sorrow and all of this hardship. And so when will temporary relief come? I think the relief comes and rooting ourself and what we know is true and praying and asking that the Lord would truly be our daily bread in those moments when we're experiencing suffering, where it may feel even perhaps too difficult to carry on because of what we are experiencing, that the praying and asking Lord, would you meet me in this moment because I am so weary and I am so tired and I am so exhausted of these circumstances that I am facing myself in.

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  Would you help me to not just know what future reality awaits me, but would you help me feel that future reality now in the present moment and may it be enough to continue trusting, hoping, and waiting, knowing that you will make good on all of your promises, that you will make good in bringing me to be with you for all eternity, where you will make good on vanquishing all evil, where you will make good on getting rid of all sickness, where you will make good if they're not being any war and you will make good on all of these promises, would you help me to believe, truly believe deep within my bones and to feel some sense of this reality now? And we wait for the Lord to work knowing that he is working whether or not we feel it or see it.

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  Yeah, that's good. Well, thanks Dad and thanks for preaching yesterday faithfully and we hope that this has been edifying for you as you seek to be changed and to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go continue to apply the sermon and make disciples and Lord willing, we'll catch you right back here next week.