Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 14: God sets His people apart

Begin in prayer

Before reading the laws that set Israel apart, let us remember God’s right to shape His people’s lives. Ask Him to teach our family holiness and generous joy through His Son.

But know that Yahweh has set apart for himself him who is godly: Yahweh will hear when I call to him.

Psalm 4:3

Father in heaven, You are holy and call Your people to belong to You. Help us understand the commands we read and see the purity that Christ gives. Teach our family to receive Your provision with gratitude and to care for those who lack it. Please open our eyes as we read Your Word, make us more like Christ, and bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Moses addresses Israel as the LORD’s children and forbids cutting themselves or shaving their foreheads for the dead. Their food must also distinguish them as a holy people. God specifies the animals, fish, and birds they may eat, and forbids eating what dies by itself. The yearly tithe provides a joyful meal before the LORD at His chosen place. A long journey may be made with money that is exchanged for food and drink there. Every third year, stored tithes must feed the Levite, foreigner, fatherless, and widow.

As you read Deuteronomy 14, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God sets His people apart for holy lives and generous fellowship.

Israel’s identity as God’s chosen possession explains the commands about mourning and food. Because they were “the children of Yahweh your God,” they must not cut themselves or shave their heads for the dead. Clean land animals must have divided hooves and chew the cud, while permitted fish have fins and scales. God also forbids boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk. The tithe means a tenth of the produce, brought for a meal that teaches reverence and shared joy. Distance does not cancel participation, because the produce may be exchanged for money to carry. The third year’s store makes God’s provision available within their towns to those who lack support.

How does Deuteronomy 14 show us that God sets His people apart for holy lives and generous fellowship?

God claims the whole life of His people.

Israel belongs to the LORD as His holy possession. That relationship reaches their mourning and their tables. They must follow His commands in the habits others may consider ordinary.

God teaches His people to rejoice.

The tithe brings the household before God to eat and rejoice. Those living far away may carry money and buy what is needed. The meal must teach them to fear the LORD always.

God provides for those who lack support.

Levites have no tribal inheritance like the other Israelites. Foreigners, fatherless children, and widows must also eat from the third year’s tithe. The LORD’s gifts are to become generous provision for others.

Memorise

For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession

Deuteronomy 14:2

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what in me is unclean that only Jesus can make clean?

Israel is told, “you are a holy people to Yahweh your God”. Their daily food marked their distinct calling under God’s covenant. Jesus later taught that food entering the stomach cannot defile the heart.

The heart needs cleansing from sin, and Christ gave Himself to purify a people for His own possession. At the cross He bore the punishment owed by His unholy people. He rose again, and His completed offering is enough to make them clean.

Come to Him with your sin and trust Him to wash you. Whoever believes in Him is forgiven and made clean, and belongs to Him. He makes His people holy and glad to share what God gives.

Parent's note

Tell your children that these food distinctions marked Israel under the old covenant, while Jesus teaches the need for heart cleansing. Please choose someone your family can help, and share with them from what God has given you. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for His gifts, and bring the heart question about holy and generous living to Him. Every child can pray, so invite each child to give thanks.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

1 Peter 2:9

Father in heaven, thank You for providing food and every good gift. Cleanse guilty hearts through Jesus, and give those who trust Him a desire for holiness. Help our family use Your gifts with gratitude and share them with those who lack support. In Jesus' name, Amen.