Deuteronomy 14:2

_FOR THOU ART AN HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD THY GOD, AND THE LORD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BE A PECULIAR PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF, ABOVE ALL THE NATIONS THAT ARE UPON THE EARTH._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-21 Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things, with which God has in Christ blessed us. Here is election; "The Lord hath chosen thee." He did not choose them because they were by their own acts a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Ephesians 1:4. Here is adoption; "Ye are the children of the Lord your God;" not because God needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father. Every spiritual Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is sanctification; "Thou art a holy people." God's people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses...

EXPOSITION HEATHEN CUSTOMS OF MOURNING TO BE AVOIDED. NO ABOMINABLE THING TO BE EATEN. MEATS CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. TITHES. DEUTERONOMY 14:1 Israel, as the people of God, chosen by him to be his children by adoption, must not only abstain from idolatry, but also avoid all heathenish usages and practices, such as those connected with mourning for the dead, and those pertaining to the use of food. DEUTERONOMY 14:1 Ye a

FOR THOU ART AN HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD THY GOD,.... Set apart by him from all other people, and devoted to his worship and service, and many of them were sanctified and made holy in a special and spiritual sense; and therefore should not conform to the customs of Gentiles, whether in their extravagant mourning for the dead, or in their religious services; see Deuteronomy 7:6, AND THE LORD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BE A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ABOVE ALL THE NATIONS THAT [ARE] UPON THE EARTH; to be his peculiar treasure, to be his peculiar servants and worshippers, to enjoy peculiar blessings and privileges, and behave in a peculiar manner different from all other people; and have no connection with them, especially in things sacred; and, in order to keep them a distinct peculiar people from all others, a peculiar diet was appointed them, that so being prohibited to eat such thing

10. THE CHILDREN OF GOD AND THEIR SEPARATION CHAPTER 14 _ 1. The declaration of relationship: A holy people (Deuteronomy 14:1)_ 2. Their food as a separated people (Deuteronomy 14:3) 3. Concerning tithes (Deuteronomy 14:22) Ye are the children of the Lord your God. Because God had chosen them to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the other nations, they were to be an holy people. To them belongeth still “the adoption” (Romans 9:4). God called Israel His firstborn son and that nation holds that place, in the divine purpose, among the nations. Sonship, in the New Testamen

Heathen customs to be avoided. Deuteronomy 14:1_ f._ Heathen mourning rites. Deuteronomy 14:1. cut yourselves: Leviticus 19:28 *, _cf_. Leviticus 21:5. BALDNESS: the custom in mourning of shaving the hair between the eyes (_i.e._ on the top of the forehead). These are merely extreme forms of expressing grief; but most recent scholars regard them as survivals of acts of sacrifice, the blood and the hair being offered up to heathen deities or to dead but deified ancestors (p. 110). See Jeremiah 16:6

HOLY. See note on Exodus 3:5. the LORD. (Hebrew. _Jehovah._) Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel Septuagint, and Syriac, add "thy God". PECULIAR. as. treasure. See note on Exodus 19:5. Compare Deuteronomy 7:6. THE EARTH. the face of the soil. Figure of speech _Pleonasm._ Hebrew. _'adamah._...

_For thou art an holy people_, etc.] Almost exactly as Deuteronomy 7:6 (_q.v._). Note also the Sg. address in contrast to the Pl. of the context. This _v_. is, therefore, probably an addition by the hand which inserted these later laws in the code of D....

VER. 1-21. God, having chosen Israel for his own, separated them from the nations, adopted them as his children, and designed them for his glory, has a right to expect from them that they should answer these purposes of his grace, and approve themselves a holy people before him. And this must appear, 1. In their mournings, when all inordinate sorrow must be avoided; and every superstitious practice which the Gentiles used must be abhorred. _Note;_ (1.) We are not forbidden to mourn for the dead; but to express immoderate sorrow would be the proof of idolatrous attachment to the creature, and a dishonour to God. (2.) As our bodies are not our own, but bought with a price, we must glorify God in them, and not disfigure or deform that temple where he is pleased to take up his abode. 2. In their meat. Though many of the forbidden beasts, or fish, or fowl, may, in themselves, be good for food...

LESSON ELEVEN DEUTERONOMY 14:1-21 3. ONE HOLY PEOPLE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS (Deuteronomy 14:1 to Deuteronomy 25:19) a. DISFIGUREMENT FOR THE DEAD FORBIDDEN (Deuteronomy 14:1-2) Ye are the children of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and Jehovah hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 14:1, 2 250. Why the strange prohibition in...