Monday, March 18, 2019

Strangers in the Land: Ger 28

Deuteronomy 16:9-17

“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the ger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. 
“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the ger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice. 
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

What Does It Say?

Deuteronomy 16 is mostly a recap of ordinances for various feasts. There is also an extended warning against bribery and corruption, but that section doesn't deal with ger.

Chapter 16 doesn't tell us much we don't already know. Ger are to be included with the worship of God during these feasts (both the rejoicing and the feasting), specifically because the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. No mention here that the ger need to be circumcised as with Passover. Perhaps these feasts were open to the uncircumcised? Then again, the part of chapter 16 that deals with Passover doesn't mention circumcision either, so that one could go either way.

Not gonna lie, there's not much to pick through here, particularly compared to last time. Next!

Next: Deuteronomy 23

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