We have arrived in our COME AS A CHILD bible study to the passages of Deuteronomy written in Chapter 24. The chapters before this passage have been concerned with certain laws which maintain how Israel is governed and what laws they should keep as a brand new nation.
The previous discussions have covered certain ceremonial laws, civil laws and moral laws. All of these matters were being discussed by God and then given to Moses for the people of Israel to follow as they progressed into the new land and became a new nation that exemplified God’s way of life to the whole watching world.
Understand that the focus on the lengthy discussions and the giving of these laws were to keep the new nation of Israel pure, unharmed and on-track, so that they would be allowed to grow and mature and to become an example nation to all other nations. Most of all; eventually they would be the nation blessed by God to produce a Messiah who would come to save the world.
The coming of Messiah would change many things; but that would not happen for a long, long time. Many of the laws discussed during this time period would change and evolve when a Messiah did come into the world.
Until then; Israel had to remain very pure and this would be done only by obedience to these laws and statutes that God was giving them through the last words of Moses to the people.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 24, verse 1 we come to a strange and hard to understand verse which has been very often misused. Let’s read it together and digest it before we begin to discuss it.
Deuteronomy 24:1; No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
This passage may not be important for the reasons that first come to mind with people of a modern generation. At first many think this passage is referring to homosexuality or sex choices of those men who wish to become women. That is not the intent though.
Stop for one moment and consider what it took to become a true covenant-keeping Israelite.
The main mark of a true Israelite was always circumcision.
Of course, circumcision required an official ceremony using certain parts of the male body. Every head-of-household in Israel was required to be circumcised. This was the mark of God upon the whole nation. If you did not have certain body parts available (through your own choice and by your own will) it was virtually impossible for you to become an official Israelite.
God does not approve of men deliberately mutilating their bodies, EXCEPT for keeping covenant with Him. Circumcision is allowed and encouraged; but no other cutting or changing of the body is ever encouraged.
This scripture surely sounds bold and foreboding to those who have, possibly through no fault of their own, lost their masculinity. But is that really the case?
We have to go back and study the Hebrew interpretations to get the true meaning of this sentence. There we will find that this verse isn’t referring to anyone who has been injured by accident, or suffered from diseases (such as cancer or even old age) and been forced to lose their masculine body parts, or possibly these parts of the body have only become dysfunctional. God isn’t talking about any such cases, or any such dysfunctional states. He is only referring to those who have DELIBERATELY crushed or cut themselves in order to deny their masculinity. Circumcision is accepting the responsibilities tied to masculinity; deliberate and intentional castration is NOT accepting those responsibilities.
Question one is; why would this even come up?
Answer; because there were eunuchs among the congregation of Israel.
And question two is; who would do such a thing to their own body?
Many eunuchs were servants of royalty while living in Egypt and they had no real choice in the matter. Royalty had castrated men to live in the palace and guard their wives and daughters. Some of the people who had traveled away from Egypt with Israel had been such eunuchs. These are not the men that God is referring to in this scripture.
As a matter of fact; God makes provision for such servants in Isaiah 56: 3-5 which states: Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
Note that God promises this ONLY to eunuchs who did not change themselves deliberately.
God says that they will always be honored in his Kingdom as long as they are obedient to God’s ways and keep His Sabbaths and hold to His covenants.
Basically; we understand that eunuchs were excluded from serving in “the assembly of The Lord” because God’s covenant with Israel was vitally connected with the idea of the “seed,” and emasculation is a “crime” against the seed of man.
God is very specific in his concerns for how He created humans and gave them the ability to create life.
This “seed of mankind” is the very avenue that lets mankind “be fruitful and multiply” as Genesis commands right from the beginning of man and God’s dealings with one another.
Additionally; many eunuchs in those days were made to be eunuchs because of pagan beliefs and it happened within pagan ceremonies in times and places where they were dedicated to pagan gods. Usually when such things occurred, it was carried out from a personal decision a man-made; not one that was forced upon them. In other words; through pagan ways of thought – these men chose this path for themselves; ignoring the path of The One True God and giving themselves over to false and pagan gods.
The new nation of Israel could not be led by such pagan-thinking men.
Of course, we also have to understand the words “assembly of the Lord” in this passage to mean “the civil servants of the nation of Israel,” and not the whole congregation of the people of God. Eunuchs who were true to God’s ways, whether they had changed from pagan ways, or whether they had not chosen to be Eunuchs but had been made so by men; were accepted and loved by the congregation of the People of God. This has always been the case and is still the case today. If not; something is very wrong within the congregation and it should be addressed.
So how would we interpret this passage of scripture in our walk with God today?
We must understand that when Messiah came; he provided a way for the forgiveness of all sins. Today if a man mutilates his body and castrates himself in order to change his sex; it would still be considered a sin. God has provided many scripture passages that proclaim his hatred for homosexuality; yet – it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love the person who has practiced the lifestyle of homosexuality. God simply does not approve of this lifestyle.
God forgives those who go against His will; all they have to do is ask. Many read the bible and come to the conclusion that God wishes for mankind to keep the sex that God created for them when they were born into the world. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love such a person who doesn’t. Forgiveness and compassion are the trademarks of God’s love.
Jesus has made all things new.
He has provided a way for anyone who has been this rebellious against the ways of God to be forgiven and welcomed back into the midst of God’s people. God wants all prodigal sons to return unto Him and to find eternal rest in keeping God’s ways and living the life that God intended for them to live. All of God’s people are definitely commanded to love and accept such a person.
We are all on a journey and many of us are looking into things from a different path of this journey. All people should be loved. One way of expressing love is by proclaiming the truth of God. It is only through the truth of God that mankind will reach that place of being in total communion with one another and also in total communion with God.
The ancients were physically circumcised.
Today Christians follow God through the circumcision of the heart.
God’s people must always honor God’s mark upon their lives; no matter what generation of time they are living through.
God was giving Moses His thoughts on what it would take to form a nation that would produce a Savior for the world.
Today; God is giving those that this Savior has saved His thoughts of how to led mankind into yet another new nation; one that which is called The Kingdom of God. There are no physical countries left to conquer; but there is a spiritual country that we must be seeking with all of our hearts. It is a place where mankind follows the ways of God.
Such a place can only be reached by maintaining a continuous journey that consists of faith, hope and love. Jesus told us the greatest of these is love. Like those old Israelites forming a new nation under God; we all must be about helping one another to arrive safely into this new Kingdom that is eternal and forever.