Ben F. Gardner

God does not treat every kind of “need” the same way. That theme runs through Deuteronomy 14 and 15, and it matters because the church (and the modern state) often blur categories into one loud idea: “Help them” without any clear biblical method. In

Deuteronomy 13 — God’s Case Law Against the Family Outline What Deuteronomy 13 actually addresses Public subversion versus private, family seduction What the law commands and why it sounds severe How Jesus and the New Testament reframe the principle

Introduction: Harsh Law, Greater Mercy Deuteronomy 13 confronts a hard truth: idolatry is not a private matter. When a whole city turns from Yahweh, the problem is systemic. The law Moses gives for that circumstance—utter destruction—sounds brutal until

Introduction Deuteronomy 15 teaches a plain, practical, and merciful economy for a covenant people. It draws a careful distinction between two kinds of poverty and prescribes two different responses. One response is charity without expectation of

Psalm 69 is kept in Scripture not as antiquarian reading but as practical instruction for how God’s people are to live through seasons of pain, rejection, and trial. Read two ways, it teaches two things at once: how suffering shapes a faithful soul (think

Deuteronomy 14 places two things side by side that at first glance feel unrelated: instructions about how Israel was to mourn the dead and a detailed list of what they could and could not eat. The organizing idea that ties these commands together is