- And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Deuteronomy 19:20 – Such a verse has come up a few times in our study of Deuteronomy so far. Where God lays out a severe punishment in connection with some sort of sin, and the point of the severity was so that the people would witness the first time this punishment was given. After seeing the punishment, and knowing they didn’t want that in their life, it would turn them from committing whatever sin took place. Such as in our passage, God outlined that if someone falsely accused his brother of a crime and was pushing some sort of punishment, but it was found out that he was lying, then whatever punishment they were trying to push on the other person would be instead given to them. This is where the idea of an “eye for eye and tooth for tooth” came from. Whatever punishment they hoped the other person would get they would equally get instead. I believe that this same idea about God giving severe punishments to dissuade people from doing that same sin again is how He chose to handle Hell. Hell is the most severe punishment, a punishment designed for the rebellious demons that chose to turn from God. It was never meant for man, but is man’s eternal home if they reject God. While God doesn’t find joy in any person going to Hell, He will allow man to go there if they reject Him. Yet I believe God is desiring people today to see that truth and turn from that same sin of rejection. God wants us to see where sin has led those before us so we don’t choose the same path as they did and have to experience what they did. See then where sin has led others, see the struggle they faced because of it, and see the eternal punishment many have faced because of sin. See all this…and turn to Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3458
- This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past…” Deuteronomy 19:4 – God understands that sometimes a mistake is made on our part that we never intentionally meant to do. Our hearts weren’t meaning to hurt and we never meant to cause the damage we did, it was an accident. How about you though? Do you understand that sometimes people in your life will accidentally hurt you, filling your life with pain yet never had any sort of heart to intentionally do that? We see God’s heart was to offer life and forgiveness to those who committed such unintentional acts, let’s have His same heart. The people in our lives will most likely hurt us, even the ones who love us. Many times in those cases their heart was never in hatred towards you or truly meant to intentionally hurt you, yet the hurt still happened. Let’s be open to letting go of the hurt and pain that comes from situations like that. Let’s be open to offer life and forgiveness to them rather than death and hatred. If God was willing to forgive us of all our intentional crimes against Him, let’s be open to forgiving the unintentional mistakes others do in our story. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1314
- Deuteronomy 19 – Pastor Mac Daily DEVO If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. Deuteronomy 19:16-17 – In this section of scripture the Lord walks through how to handle a dispute between two parties when one side has no intention of speaking the truth and is only out to harm the other party. God doesn’t leave room for mercy with this, instead He commanded such evil to be purged from their midst. What we see is God’s heart toward a malicious witness, someone who speak falsely and harmfully against another person. God truly does care about how we use our words against each other. How then today have you been speaking of others around you? How do you speak of your boss to your coworkers? How do you speak of people at church with your small group? How do you speak of your spouse to your buddies? We may not be accusing them falsely in a court setting, but we are still using our words in a condemning, destructive way. God has blessed you with air in your lungs and the ability to speak, yet He didn’t give you such blessings to curse those around you. Be wise and careful then on how you speak of others, especially when they are not around. Let your words be filled with life, not death. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2444
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