the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 19:15-21; Deuteronomy 20:1-9
The priests and the judges were to unmask and punish false witnesses (v. 18; Proverbs 19:5; Proverbs 19:9). Filled with iniquity, when Jesus appeared before their Sanhedrin, they sought false witnesses against Him to put Him to death (Matthew 26:59)!
Ch. 20 deals with war. Who is responsible for preparing for it and for getting the soldiers into action? One would expect officers. But there are none at first; once again it is the priests and the judges. What needs to be appreciated in effect is neither the power nor weaponry of the soldiers but faithfulness and devotion to the Lord. V. 5 onwards lists the reasons for discharge and suspension which meant that a man did not have to take part in the war. They make one think of the bad excuses made up by those who were invited to the great supper in the parable: "I have bought a piece of ground . . . I have married a wife . . ." (Luke 14:18-20). But let us listen to the experienced advice of someone who himself had fought the good fight: "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." It is on this condition that each of us can be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Timothy 4:7).
