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The filet mignon of the word, part 15, The laws of devotion

The laws of devotion are rooted in God’s ownership, because that which is devoted to Him becomes His property by law.

In an overall sense, everything God created belongs to Him by right of creation. This right underpins His sovereignty. However, after creating all things, He delegated authority to Adam and gave him work to do. Man then was given authority to the extent of the labor that he put into any project. So God owns what He labored to create, but man owns his own labor when he takes what God created and reshapes it into something useful to him. God creates; man forms it.

There are times when man may desire to give God something that is under his authority. In such a case, man does not have a lawful duty to give it to God; it is a voluntary act of love, often done to express appreciation for what God has done for him. It is neither a tithe nor a first fruits offering, nor gleanings, for these are already claimed by God, and it is man’s duty to respect God’s right of ownership.

That which he gives to God voluntarily is done by the laws of devotion. The Hebrew word is cherem. The basic law of devotion is found in Leviticus 27:28,

²⁸ Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart [cherem, “devotes, consecrates”] to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted [cherem] to destruction is most holy to the Lord.

When land was “devoted” to God, it fell into a special category of land wherein the giver did not have the right of redemption, nor would the land be returned to him in the year of Jubilee. In my view, when the final age is completed and all things are under the administration of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:28), all of creation will be devoted to God. Men’s authority will fade into insignificance and irrelevance, because they will act fully as stewards of God’s property.

Of course, this stewardship itself will be performed through his God-given authority as it was meant to be when God delegated authority in Genesis 1:26. Yet because there will no longer be any abuse of authority, and all will know God’s will, God will not need to command men to do what is right, because the law (nature) of God will be written in every heart. That is the promise of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:10, 11).

Being Devoted to God

The law speaks primarily of land or cities (such as Jericho) that may be devoted to God, but because we are made of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), the same law applies to us. But in our present state (since Adam’s sin), the carnal mind is at enmity with God and therefore resists being given to God and placed under divine authority. Therefore, the law of devotion requires death to the carnal mind, and when we are truly devoted to God, He works in us to kill the flesh.

It is only by dying with Him that we are raised in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). In fact, this is the difference between the average believer and the one who has been devoted to Him. Those devoted to Him seem to be the most mistreated people of all. This mistreatment is based on the pattern of Jesus Christ Himself, for Jesus told His disciples in John 15:18, 19,

¹⁸ If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world… because of this the world hates you.

That which is devoted to God no longer belongs to this world. A transfer of ownership has occurred in order to give us the same love relationship that Jesus had with His Father. Those who are devoted to God are those who “abide” in Him (John 15:4).

Leviticus 27:28 tells us that what is devoted “shall not be sold or redeemed.” In other words, God owns it permanently. So Jesus says in John 10:28, 29,

²⁸ and I give aionian life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

These are the ones placed into God’s direct ownership under His covering and authority. This was the way Jesus applied the law of devotion under the New Covenant, for no devoted thing, once given to God, could be “sold or redeemed” from God’s ownership. That is the underlying meaning of devotion, as the term is used in Scripture. In other words, they are not for sale at any price.

Jericho was Devoted

When Joshua conquered Jericho, he received instruction from the Lord in Joshua 6:17-19,

¹⁷ The city shall be under the ban [cherem, “devoted”]; it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord… ¹⁸ But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban [cherem], so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban [cherem], and make the camp of Israel accursed [cherem] and bring trouble on it. ¹⁹ But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.

To take that which has been devoted to God brings a reverse devotion, translated here as “accursed.” We read later how Achan took for himself some gold and silver, and as a result, he himself was banned (devoted) and suffered the same fate as the city itself. A reverse devotion involved destruction under the curse of God.

Under the New Covenant, when carnal things are devoted to God, He destroys the flesh in them in order to consecrate them as a useful vessel in the house of God. Devotion is a process of death and resurrection by which God judges and corrects the sinner in order to regain ownership. In this way nothing is lost in the end. It is the overall process by which mankind will be redeemed.

When Adam sinned, he came under the curse (judgment) of the law, among which was the law of devotion. God owned Adam by right of creation, but in sinning, Adam essentially stole that which God owned and put it under his own control. So he became mortal, a slow death. But this was not the end of the story but was only a beginning. Resurrection is how the story ends, thanks to the law of Jubilee, where all inheritances are restored—even’s God’s inheritance.

The instruction regarding Jericho gives us another layer of meaning, for it specifies the gold, silver, bronze, and iron that belongs to God by right of creation. So Haggai 2:8 says,

⁸ “The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,” declares the Lord of hosts.

We also discover from Daniel 2:32, 33 that the Babylonian succession of (carnal) empires were equated to metals:

³² The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron…

Hence, when we engaged in spiritual warfare against the system of Mystery Babylon in the 1990’s, we took note that the assets were to go into the treasury of the Lord. These assets were devoted to God in the work of building His Kingdom. Taken together, these metals also represent the people of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as prophesied in Daniel 7.

The lesson of Achan is very relevant here, for he buried the gold and silver in the ground under his tent (Joshua 7:21), as if to tell God, “You cannot have these people, for they deserve to die and never live again.” Unfortunately, many Christians have been deceived into adopting the Achan Doctrine, where God loses the major portion of that which He creates and owns. This shows the importance of understanding the restoration of all things.

Babylon, like Jericho, is a city devoted to God. The city as an institution is a system of man’s government, based upon the laws (traditions) of men. This is slated for destruction, so that the people may come into the treasury of the Lord. Therefore, the laws of devotion should be viewed not only in its destructive aspect but also constructively in saving the world through Christ’s death and resurrection. 1 John 2:1, 2 says,

¹ … We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ² and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.