Live as a Child of the Lord

Introduction

As Moses addresses Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, the people stand at the threshold of the promised land. A whole generation has passed. Before them lies the promised land. Around them, nations that mourn differently, eat differently, worship differently. So Moses repeats the same thing in several forms: "You are the holy people of the Lord your God. He has chosen you. Live like that."

Chapters 14 to 16 unfold this idea in concrete terms. How to mourn, what to eat, the tithe, the debts that get cancelled, the servants who get freed, the feasts that get celebrated, everything is sifted through this identity. You are a child of the Lord. So there's a way of living that fits you, and a way that no longer fits you.

This study invites you to walk through these three chapters step by step, not as a catalog of ancient rules, but as a portrait of the life God calls his children to live today. You'll see: every commandment carries the same signature. It says who God is, it says who you are, and it says what changes when the two meet.

Outline of the article

1. You are a child of the Lord: the foundation of everything
2. A different kind of mourning because hope is different
3. A people set apart, down to what they eat
4. The tithe, a school of the heart that teaches you to fear God
5. The year of release: when God resets everything to zero
6. The three feasts: remember, rejoice, present yourself

1. You are a child of the Lord: the foundation of everything

Chapter 14 opens with a declaration: "You are the sons of the Lord your God." Before any rule, there's an identity. Moses doesn't say, "Do this and that in order to become children of the Lord." He says, "You already are. So live accordingly."

That's the biblical order, and it never changes. God adopts, then God teaches. In the New Testament, Paul repeats this in different words: because you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Obedience doesn't build your identity, it flows from it.

If you have received Christ, you are a child of God. That isn't a slogan. It's the starting point for everything that follows. If you forget this foundation, everything that comes next will look like a list of restrictions. If you hold on to it, you'll see every commandment as a gift, the way a Father teaches his children to become like him.

2. A different kind of mourning because hope is different

"You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead" (Deuteronomy 14:1). Around Israel, the peoples of Canaan expressed their grief by cutting themselves, shaving their heads, tearing at their skin. The body became the place where pain was written out, because deep down there was no hope beyond the grave.

Moses isn't asking the people not to be sad. Sadness at the death of a loved one is human, it's legitimate. He's asking for something else: that the way they carry that sadness bear witness to a hope. Because the God who chose you doesn't abandon his own to death.

Paul takes up exactly this same logic in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope." You can grieve a brother, a sister, a parent. You can have a broken heart. But you don't grieve like someone who thinks it's all over. Christ is risen, and those who died in him live close to him.

That's already a first mark of the life of a child of the Lord: the way you carry loss testifies to whom you belong.

3. A people set apart, down to what they eat

The rest of chapter 14 lists clean and unclean animals (v. 3-21). Many modern readers stumble on these verses. Why would God care about what's on someone's plate?

These dietary rules didn't exist for their own sake. They served a deeper purpose: to remind Israel, three times a day, that this people isn't like the others. Eating is a simple, everyday, ordinary act. And God chose exactly that place (the ordinariness of a meal), to point to the extraordinary nature of the calling.

Verse 2 states it clearly, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." Holy means set apart. Consecrated. Not better by nature, but held apart by the hand of God.

In the New Testament, Peter applies this same logic to Christians, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Peter 2:9). The dietary list was lifted in Christ (Mark 7; Acts 10), but the logic remains. Your everyday life (what you watch, what you listen to, what you say, what you welcome into your home), is where it becomes visible that you belong to someone else.

4. The tithe, a school of the heart that teaches you to fear God

Verses 22 to 29 introduce the tithe. Every year, Israel had to set aside a tenth of the harvest, go up to the place God would choose, and eat it there (in the presence of the Lord), together with their family, their servants, and the Levites.

Look at the wording in verse 23, "You shall eat before the Lord your God... that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." The tithe isn't first a tax. It's a form of teaching. Every year, a tenth of what your work produced was set aside, brought before God, and shared with joy. And the intended result is a heart that learns to fear its God.

Fearing God, in biblical language, doesn't mean trembling. It means taking him for who he is: the giver. Every cluster of grapes, every grain, every paycheck comes from his hand. The act of setting apart, going up, and eating before him engraved that truth into the flesh of the people.

Every three years, this tithe took another form (v. 28-29). It stayed in the town to feed the Levite, the sojourner, the orphan, the widow. In other words, whoever had no land, no family, no protection. God attaches his promise of blessing to this sharing, "The Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands that you do."

Today, the form has changed, but the lesson is the same. Giving regularly, joyfully, toward the work of God and toward those who have nothing, is a practice that trains the heart not to cling to what it receives.

5. The year of release: when God resets everything to zero

Chapter 15 opens with a striking practice: every seven years, Israel had to cancel debts owed between brothers. "At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release" (Deuteronomy 15:1). Those who owed were freed. Those who had lent gave up their claim.

Moses anticipates the temptation that will rise in people's hearts: as the year of release approaches, they'll be tempted to stop lending altogether. The math becomes immediate, "If you don't get repaid before year seven, I lose everything." The text names this and rejects it outright (v. 9), "Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart... and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother."

What follows is striking. God doesn't just forbid selfishness, he makes a promise to those who give, "You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you" (v. 10).

Then comes the release of Hebrew servants (v. 12-18). After six years, they go free, and they don't leave empty-handed. "You shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally" (v. 13-14). God places this memory at the heart of the law, "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you" (v. 15).

That's the underlying logic. You were redeemed, so you set free. You received freely, so you give. The grace you received shapes the hand that lends. Every seven years, the people of Israel had to repeat this act like an act of worship: giving their brother back the freedom God had given them.

6. The three feasts: remember, rejoice, present yourself

Chapter 16 tells of Israel's three great yearly gatherings. Three times a year, every man had to go up to the place God had chosen (v. 16). These feasts weren't vacations. They were reminders.

The Passover (v. 1-8) commemorates the exodus from Egypt. It's unleavened bread, eaten in haste, as on the night of deliverance. The people must never forget the night God passed over the houses marked by blood. For us today, Passover points forward to Christ, the Lamb sacrificed once for all.

The Feast of Weeks (v. 9-12), seven weeks later, celebrates the harvest. "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God... you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow" (v. 11). Once again, the people's joy includes those who have nothing. Gratitude doesn't stay in a closed circle.

The Feast of Booths (v. 13-15) marks the end of the harvests. Seven days of celebration, living in huts made of branches, remembering the time Israel lived in tents in the wilderness. "You shall be altogether joyful" (v. 15). God commands joy because it has content: he fed his people through the crossing.

Three feasts, three reminders: God delivered me, God feeds me, God is with me. A child of the Lord cannot live without these appointments. Today, the church has inherited this same teaching in a different form: Sunday, the Lord's Supper, community gatherings. These are our feasts. They aren't boxes to check, they're places where the heart remembers who it is and who its God is.

Key takeaways

• Your identity comes before your obedience. You are a child of the Lord first; you live accordingly second.
• The way you go through loss speaks about your hope. Faith doesn't remove the pain, it turns the night into waiting.
• God cares about your everyday life, what you eat, what you watch, what you share. Holiness lives in these small gestures just as much as in the big ones.
• The tithe, giving, and sharing are schools of the heart. They teach you to fear God and not to cling to what you receive.
• The grace you received shapes the hand that gives. You were redeemed; you set free. You received freely; you give joyfully.
• Your appointments with God (worship, the Lord's Supper, feast times), aren't optional. They remind you who you are.

Personal application

1. Is your identity as a child of God what governs your life, or has it become a badge you wear without it changing your day-to-day?
2. In your times of grief or loss, does the way you go through the night resemble that of a people who have hope?
3. What do your schedule, your spending, and your conversations say about your belonging to God?
4. Do you give regularly and joyfully toward God's work and toward those who have nothing? Or has giving become whatever's left over after everything else?
5. Is there someone in your life you're holding a debt against (money, a word, a wound), that God is asking you to release?
6. What are your three "feasts" this week, the ones that bring you back before God? Worship, a time of prayer, the Lord's Supper: are you keeping them, or have you let them slip away?

Scripture references

• Deuteronomy 14 (LSG)
• Deuteronomy 15 (LSG)
• Deuteronomy 16 (LSG)
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (LSG)
• 1 Peter 2:9 (LSG)

FAQ

Do Christians still have to follow the dietary laws of Deuteronomy 14?

No. Jesus declares all foods clean in Mark 7, and Peter's vision in Acts 10 confirms it. The underlying logic remains: your everyday life, down to your meals, speaks of your belonging to God. But the list of forbidden foods no longer applies to Christians.

Why does Moses forbid cutting yourself as a sign of mourning?

Because that practice belonged to the pagan rituals surrounding Israel, and it expressed a hopeless despair. A child of the Lord grieves, but with a hope that changes the way they weep.

Is the tithe still a valid commandment for the church?

The New Testament doesn't carry the tithe forward as a required percentage. It calls believers to give regularly, generously, and with joy (2 Corinthians 9:7). The spirit of the commandment remains: a heart that gives learns to fear God and not to cling to what it receives.