But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. Sermons
1. As representing God in the theocracy. 2. As a member of the distinctively learned class of the nation. 3. As one whose special office it was to teach and interpret the Law of God (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10; Ezekiel 44:24; Malachi 2:7). The differentiation of functions in society has long since taken learning in the law out of the hands of the clergy, but we may remark - I. THAT SPIRITUAL AND CIVIL FUNCTIONARIES MAY RENDER EACH OTHER IMPORTANT ASSISTANCE. The spheres of civil and spiritual jurisdiction are indeed distinct. Yet as the lawyer and judge, with their legal expertness, their knowledge of forms, and their experience in sifting evidence, are often of the greatest service in processes purely ecclesiastical, so, on the other hand, the best of them stand in need of that higher direction and enlightenment of the conscience from God's Word, which it is the business of a body of spiritual teachers to supply. The ministers of religion have a function: 1. In upholding the Law of God as the supreme standard of right. 2. In furnishing general enlightenment to the conscience. 3. In reminding judges, the highest of them, of their duties and responsibilities before God as set "for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well" (1 Peter 2:14). II. THAT LAWS BASED ON GOD'S WORD HAVE ATTACHING TO THEM A DIVINE AS WELL AS A HUMAN AUTHORITY. The duty of the priest was not to invent laws, but to interpret the existing Law of God. To it all cases of right had ultimately to be appealed. God's Law, as exhibiting the unalterable principles of right, underlies human law and gives to it authority. Whatever may happen in courts on earth, no decision will stand in the court of heaven which that Law is found to condemn. Laws e.g. which invade rights of conscience, which (as in slave-holding countries) place the life of one man at the mercy of another, which are favorable to illicit relations of the sexes, which make light of divorce, which bear unequally on different classes of the community, which prop up abuses, etc., may be submitted to, but cannot be justified. Where, on the contrary, the law of a land is in essential harmony with the principles of righteousness, obedience to it becomes a duty of religion. He who sets it at naught strives with God not less than with man, is "as they which strive with the priest," and does "presumptuously" (cf. Hosea 4:4). - J.O.
Keep the feast of weeks. (a Harvest Thanksgiving sermon): —I. THE SACRED CHARACTER OF THE HARVEST. Indicated by time appointed for it — fiftieth day after Passover. As God hallowed the seventh day, so He hallowed the harvest fields of the world. II. THE GREAT TROUBLE GOD TOOK TO IMPRESS HIS PEOPLE WITH THE SIGNIFICANCE AND MEANING OF COMMON THINGS. We walk along streets of gold, set with jewels, as though they were granite cubes. In the hand of Him who saw the kingdom of God everywhere and in everything, a grain of corn contained in its suggestiveness the deepest mysteries of the kingdom. III. THIS FEAST WAS A PROVIDENTIAL MIRROR IN WHICH TO SEE AGAIN ALL THE WAY IN WHICH THE LORD THEIR GOD HAD LED THEM. Happy, thrice happy, is the man who, in the land of plenty, has a wilderness history on which to look back. There is nothing more sublime to the mariner in the haven of rest than the conflicts with the tempests in mid-ocean through which he passed. IV. THIS FEAST WAS A NEW BOND OF BROTHERHOOD FORGED IN THE FIRES OF THE EVER-NEW AND NEVER-CEASING LOVE OF GOD. They were to call the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Plenty in some natures petrifies, but this is not its legitimate effect. It should enlarge the heart, and broaden and deepen the sympathies of a man. V. THIS FEAST WAS TO BE A TIME OF GREAT MORAL AND SPIRITUAL RECTIFICATION ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE. Repentance. Thanksgiving. (H. Simon, Ph. D.) Homilist. Harvest to the Jews was an event of great and general interest. It was the occasion of one of their grand national festivals. This feast was called by different names — the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of First-fruits. From commencement to close, their harvest festivities included seven weeks.I. THE HARVEST HOME WAS A SEASON FOR NATIONAL GRATITUDE. What they offered conferred no favour on God, it was His own; but it expressed the sense of their obligation and the depth of their gratitude. Three things are necessary to the very existence of gratitude towards the giver. 1. That the gift should be felt to be valuable. 2. A belief that the favour is benevolently bestowed. 3. A consciousness that the favour is undeserved. II. THE HARVEST HOME IS A SEASON FOR NATIONAL REJOICING. Where there is gratitude, there is joy, will be joy; gratitude is praise, and praise is heaven. The revelation of the Creator in the harvest field may well make human hearts exult. The God of the harvest there appears, mercifully considerate of the wants of His creatures; as a loving Father, with a bountiful hand, furnishing the table with abundant supplies for His children. There He appears punctual to the fulfilment of His promise. There He appears rewarding human labour. III. THE HARVEST HOME IS A SEASON FOR NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY (see Deuteronomy 24:19-21). 1. Where God gives liberally, He demands liberality. 2. The liberality demanded is to be shown to the poor. God has planted the poor amongst all peoples, in order that the benevolence of the rich may have scope for development. (Homilist.) Rejoice before the Lord thy God I. We may be thankful for this day of thanksgiving, ON ACCOUNT OF ITS HAPPY RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. It is a day which, in all its appropriate exercises and enjoyments, presents to us our life as a blessing, and our God as a Benefactor; the seasons as a circle of elemental adaptations to our comfort, and the Regulator of the seasons as the Almighty Being who takes care for our varied good; the course of our rolling days, as a series of lessons and opportunities, and the Everlasting and Uncreated One as the Friend who crowns our days with His loving kindness. Thus a great deal is done every year, by a common and hearty expression of thankfulness, to break up, or at least to modify the alliance brought about by several causes in many minds, between religion and great strictness and gloominess. We find that "it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord; yea, a joyful and a pleasant thing it is to be thankful"; for when we dwell on the causes of thankfulness, our gratitude must needs flow naturally and spontaneously out of our bosoms, and go to swell the general stream of praise and gladness which spreads over the land. And we find that it is not at all inconsistent with thankfulness to God for the bounties of His providence, that we should enjoy those bounties freely and honestly and smilingly.II. We have reason to rejoice in our feast, on account of ITS HAPPY DOMESTIC INFLUENCE. The day is peculiarly a domestic day; a day for the reunion of families. The houses of the land are glad on this day. III. Our festival is to be honoured, ON ACCOUNT OF ITS HAPPY POLITICAL INFLUENCE. If it exerts a happy influence on our religions sentiments and on our domestic relations, it cannot but act with a benign power on those relations which hold us all together in one community. A genial nationality is fostered by that mingling together of prayers, and common interests, and pleasant hospitalities, which occurs on this day. And so far as our nationality is brought about in this manner, there is nothing repulsive or exclusive in it. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.) People Levites, MosesPlaces Beth-baal-peor, EgyptTopics Act, Acteth, Acts, Contempt, Death, Die, Died, Ear, Evil, Exterminate, Hast, Hearken, Hearkening, Judge, Listening, Minister, Ministering, Obeying, Presumption, Presumptuously, Pride, Priest, Purge, Remove, Serve, Standeth, Standing, Stands, ThusOutline 1. The things sacrificed must be sound2. Idolaters must be slain 8. Hard controversies are to be determined by the priests and judges 12. The one who shows contempt for the judge must die 14. The election 16. and duty of a king Dictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 17:12 5358 judges 5896 irreverence Library BethphageThere is very frequent mention of this place in the Talmudists: and, certainly, a more careful comparison of the maps with those things which are said by them of the situation of this place is worthy to be made; when they place it in mount Olivet, these make it contiguous to the buildings of Jerusalem. I. In the place cited in the margin, the case "of a stubborn judge" (or elder) is handling. For when, by the prescript of the law, difficult matters, and such things as concerning which the lower councils … John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The Reign of Saul. 'Make us a King' Adonijah Jehoiada and Joash The Bible in the Days of Jesus Christ Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant. The Story of the Adulteress. The Golden Eagle is Cut to Pieces. Herod's Barbarity when He was Ready to Die. He Attempts to Kill Himself. He Commands Antipater to be Slain. A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox. Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements. Second Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Condemned by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. Easter Tuesday The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire Deuteronomy Links Deuteronomy 17:12 NIVDeuteronomy 17:12 NLT Deuteronomy 17:12 ESV Deuteronomy 17:12 NASB Deuteronomy 17:12 KJV Deuteronomy 17:12 Bible Apps Deuteronomy 17:12 Parallel Deuteronomy 17:12 Biblia Paralela Deuteronomy 17:12 Chinese Bible Deuteronomy 17:12 French Bible Deuteronomy 17:12 German Bible Deuteronomy 17:12 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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