Emasculated, Mutilated, Illegitimate, and Lost | Sunday, October 16, 2022

He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the LORD. One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever... (Deuteronomy 23:1–3)

Under the law no one could stand before a holy God—and that is exactly why we need the grace found only at the cross.

Bizarre Statutes and Cultural Distance

In our recent studies in Deuteronomy I feel a little like a skipping record in my redundancy. The section we find ourselves in is one in which Moses reiterates some stipulations of the law he had given Israel some four decades earlier, back in Exodus and Leviticus. These laws are difficult for us to make sense of, especially as we try to bridge both the cultural context and the more than 3,000 years that separate us from Moses.

Today's text covers statutes about emasculated men, nocturnal emissions, where you can and cannot go to the bathroom within the camp, runaway slaves, ritual harlotry, and charging interest on loans—all here in Deuteronomy 23. As much as I'd love to make perfect sense of each strange stipulation and draw out a present-day application, it really isn't easy. In some cases the Hebrew is so difficult that even the most well-versed scholars are left scratching their heads.

Words Scholars Cannot Agree On

When we read in verse 1, "He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the LORD," scholars question what "emasculated by crushing or mutilation" really means. Was this man born this way, made so by accident, by his own action, ritualistically, or through captivity as a prisoner of war? There is no agreement, so determining a proper interpretation is nearly impossible.

The phrase "the assembly of the LORD" is no easier. Some scholars see it as acceptance among the whole nation of Israel. Others believe it refers to a ruling or judicial body. Still others see it as appearing before God at the tabernacle, and later the temple. There's just no good consensus.

Verse 2 says, "One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD... even to the tenth generation." At first reading this seems clear—a child born to an unmarried mother. But the word translated "illegitimate birth" is the Hebrew word manzer, and it appears only once in the entire Torah. Linguists have a term for a word used only once in a large body of text: a hapax legomenon, Greek for "once spoken." Because there's no other context, its meaning is nearly impossible to pin down.

That kind of uncertainty drives us crazy in our hyper know-it-all society. We don't like coming to things without a clear answer. But all we can say with certainty is that we don't know what manzer meant—yet Moses and those listening understood. Whoever they were, they were not to enter the assembly of the Lord, "to the tenth generation," which, as verse 3 makes clear about the Ammonite and Moabite, simply means forever.

The Point We Can See Clearly

So is this passage pointless? Sadly, some never teach through books like Deuteronomy because they see no application. My problem is that I read 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If that is true, there has to be something here God wants to speak to us. Notice that in the opening seven verses of chapter 23, entrance into or association with "the assembly of the LORD" is mentioned six times. We don't understand all the particulars, but something is clear: under the law, not everyone was permitted to appear before God. In religion there are always purity tests, and that's what we find here. Certain people were separated and set apart from the people and could not appear before the Lord.

Holiness and Separation Were Essential

When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. (Deuteronomy 23:9)

When in enemy territory, outside the holy nation, Moses tells Israel to be on guard not to harbor any wicked thing. Under the law, the people of God were to be untouched by anything unclean or wicked. They had to maintain purity; they had to be holy.

I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (cf. Exodus 11:45)

God calls His people to be set apart, separated, consecrated to Him. Under the law not everyone was permitted to appear before God, and holiness and separation from anything unclean was essential.

If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp... but it shall be, when evening comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. Also you shall have a place outside the camp... and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp... therefore your camp shall be holy. (Deuteronomy 23:10–14)

If a man became unclean by an occurrence in the night, he had to go outside the camp to be cleansed and returned the next day. If he needed to relieve himself, he was to go outside the camp and cover his refuse, so that purity within the camp could be maintained. Under the law, you must keep yourself from every wicked thing and be holy.

We Are All Inherently Religious

This concept isn't unique to Moses, the Torah, or Israel. All human beings, in every civilization and every time, are naturally religious. Modern 21st-century science even acknowledges a religious inclination—some researchers call it the "god gene." Even in a highly secularized society, we will be inclined toward religious thinking and ritualistic practices. Evolutionary biologists might call it a product of evolution, but the reality is we default toward religion because God made us this way. It is hard-coded into us by our Maker.

I saw a perfect example this week. The theoretical physicist and outspoken atheist Lawrence Krauss wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal titled "Now Even Science Grants Must Bow to Equity and Inclusion." He explained that, starting in fiscal 2023, every proposal responding to a solicitation from the Office of Science must include a "PEER plan"—Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research—describing strategies to promote equity and inclusion as an intrinsic element of advancing science. Krauss went back to his group's last proposal on gravitational waves, the early universe, neutrino cosmology, dark matter, supersymmetry, and black hole physics, and asked what any of that has to do with diversity and inclusion. Nothing.

He asks whether the heart of the nation's scientific research enterprise is to be held hostage to ideology—whether the government will refuse to fund major initiatives because scientists show insufficient zeal for fashionable causes. The answer is a resounding yes. Why? Because we are inherently religious, and the new secular religion of the West has a deeply ideological "woke" worldview. There is now a woke purity test for admittance into the public assembly of our culture.

If you think that's crazy, also in the news was PayPal. Its updated user agreement came under scrutiny because progressive purity tests, if not met, might cost users up to $2,500 in fines. PayPal is now walking it back—it instantly cost them more than $5 billion in stock losses—but the impulse to add a statute to their law code goes back to the desire in every one of us to be religious and holy. Under the law, the requirements must be met to maintain purity and holiness—whether within the assembly of the Lord 3,400 years ago, or within the academy, the sciences, and the corporate world today.

An Ever-Increasing Burden

There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 23:17–18)

Because of the religious impulse in every one of us, you will always feel pressure to keep yourself from every wicked thing—and the list of wicked things will always grow larger, until it becomes too heavy to bear. As I shared last week, that's exactly the point: the list of abominations is an ever-increasing burden until it breaks the backs of those who try to carry it.

According to the law, eunuchs have no place in God's assembly. Those of illegitimate birth are excluded. Moabites and Ammonites are rejected. Prostitutes and perverts are shut out. Wicked things are accursed; uncleanness must be purged; holiness is required. According to the experts of the Torah, there are 613 commandments—not just to love God with all your heart, not just to love your neighbor, not just the Ten Commandments. That's only the beginning. And beyond those 613 came countless rabbinic amendments, customs, and traditions for more than a thousand years.

Why the Law Is a Burden

Under the law the burden is greater than we can bear—but only if we assume the law's purpose is to make us holy before a perfect God. The heavy weight of the law was never meant to make us holy; it exposes our inability to bear it. Just as Paul writes, we are not and cannot be made righteous or justified by the works of the law. Under the law of Moses we find ourselves in bondage to sin, leading to death. But the story doesn't end there.

Isaiah's Promise to the Outcasts

Nearly a thousand years after Moses, Isaiah wrote these beautiful words:

Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people"; nor let the eunuch say, "Here I am, a dry tree." For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths... even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters... Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer... for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:3–7)

Some 800 years after Moses gave the law saying eunuchs were separated and foreigners like Moabites and Ammonites could not be part of the assembly, Isaiah foresees a day when even the descendants of Moab and Ammon find a place and a name among the righteous—a day when even the emasculated eunuch is brought near and not cut off. Just before this, Isaiah says, "Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed"—even for the Moabite, the Ammonite, the manzer, or the one emasculated.

The Law as Tutor

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

That word "justified" means made righteous, made right with a holy and perfect God. By the law you and I will never be just and righteous. "No one is justified by the law in the sight of God... for 'the just shall live by faith'" (Galatians 3:11). The law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good, says Paul in Romans—but it is also a burden so great we cannot bear it.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19–20)

What the law does, it does very well: it exposes unrighteousness by being a burden too great to bear, and it looks forward to a day when righteousness and salvation are revealed only in Christ.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13–14)

Every Law Code Leaves Us Guilty

The law of Moses is powerful to reveal how far we fall short of God's holy standards. But it isn't only the Torah—it's also the law written on our hearts and consciences, which accuse us and render us guilty before God. Add to that the crazy moral codes we devise in our cultures, and they too become a burden too great to bear, whether the woke dictates of progressivism in 2022 or the guidelines of our institutions and corporations.

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things... do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:1–4)

If you try to live up to the 613 commandments of the Torah, you're completely sunk. And if you think you can devise a better law code, whatever you come up with will only bring you into further bondage before a holy, righteous God. The standard isn't another person's goodness—it's the perfect righteousness of God, and none of us measure up.

The Real Problem Is Us

Ultimately it isn't the law that is the problem; the law simply does a good job exposing the problem, and the problem is us—sin within us.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

When it comes down to it, we don't need to figure out what "emasculated" means in verse 1, or what "the assembly of the LORD" is, or what manzer means, or who exactly the Moabites and Ammonites are. The purpose of the law is to render you and me guilty before God, so that we might find righteousness in Christ.

Every religion in the world—whether the sacred religion of Judaism or the secular religion of wokism—leaves us in the same place: guilty before a holy God. None of those things can make you right before Him. They only reveal how guilty we are and how much we need His forgiveness and grace, found in only one place: at the foot of Calvary's cross, at the nail-pierced feet of Christ.

There's so much more I'd love to say—that there are Moabites and prostitutes in the family tree of Jesus, revealing how gracious God is, and that one of the early notable converts in Acts was an emasculated Ethiopian. But those stories will have to wait. For today it is enough to say that under the law we are all emasculated and mutilated, illegitimate and lost. We are all dead in sin, and only in Christ Jesus is there forgiveness and life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. I hope you know that truth.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would minister that reality to anyone who hears this message—whether on the day it releases or months or years from now. Lord, reveal that whatever law code we are trying to follow, whether the ancient codes of something like Judaism or the 21st-century codes of some woke ideology, none of those things will make us right before You. They only reveal how far we are from You and how much we need Your grace—and that grace is found only in You, Jesus. We thank You that You who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive Your righteousness. Help us to put our trust fully and completely in You, not in some method of trying to be better, but entirely in You, who took our sin so that we might receive Your righteousness. Help us to trust in You, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.