Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 23; Luke 3
Deuteronomy 23 has one of my favorite laws in the whole Pentateuch: “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever…” This is just such an extreme judgement against the Ammonites and Moabites, that even someone as far removed as 10 generations (only 0.19% Ammonite or Moabite genetically) would still not be allowed to become part of the people of Israel. So even when you are so far removed from these people as to basically be fully genetically distinct from them, you still cannot join yourself to God’s people.
I know this might seem like a weird favorite law to have, but the reason I love it so much is that it results in an absolutely amazing picture of God’s redemptive mercy and goodness toward those who choose to be faithful to Him.
One of my favorite stories in the entire bible is the story of Ruth. If you’re not familiar with it, the short version is that there is a famine in Israel so a man takes his wife and sons to go live in Moab (despite God’s prohibition against doing so) and takes Moabite wives for his sons. He and his sons end up dying and his wife, Naomi, decides to go back to her home in Israel, sending her daughters-in-law to go back to their homes and find new husbands. One leaves, but the other, Ruth, refuses to leave Naomi and instead tells her that she will follow her, become one of her people, and serve her God, and the rest of the book of Ruth is Ruth doing exactly that and faithfully and sacrificially loving and caring for her mother-in-law. The end result is that Ruth is ultimately redeemed by and married to a relative of her deceased husband named Boaz.
And what does any of this have to do with Deuteronomy 23? Ruth was a Moabite and should therefore never have been allowed to be part of the people of God, nor should any from her lineage. And yet, Ruth was the great-grandmother of none other than King David, God’s chosen king, and the line through whom God brought forth the Messiah! It would be one thing if all we saw was that the people accepted Ruth as one of them. This story happens during the time of the judges when we are repeatedly told , “There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes,” so maybe the people simply accepted a Moabite into the assembly of the Lord against the Lord’s direct command. But no, that’s not all we see. We see God validate this woman’s heart in turning to follow Him instead of the gods of her people by bringing forth his king through her, and ultimately taking on flesh through her line in the person of Jesus. Could there be any more validation than that that God accepted her into His people???
I like to see everything as black and white with little to no gray, so when I read that law in Deuteronomy 23, as extreme as it is, it seems very clear to me that no Moabite, even so far as ten generations removed, should ever be allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord. But instead of God’s black and white judgement, we see God’s redemptive mercy. When Ruth chose to turn from her people and her gods in order to show mercy to one of His daughters by continuing to take care of her mother-in-law, God responded with a mercy and blessing of His own that she could never have imagined when she was first making the choice to follow Naomi.
Between this law and this story, we are given such a beautiful and humbling picture of the heart of God for His lost children. And if this was His heart for someone coming from a people directly under His judgement, how much more so does He desire to pour out His grace, mercy, and love on those willing to turn to Him now by faith in Jesus?
Father, open our eyes today to glimpse more fully your gracious and compassionate heart for us, and give us that same heart for those around us that don’t yet know you and whom you long to have join your family of faith.
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