Deuteronomy chapter 18

vs 1

This means that Israel has to keep up a sin/thankfulness coefficient in order for the tribes of Levi to survive. Either that, or the festivals represented enough for all Levites to live on, at least barely. After all, it was not like other ancient societies who had so little access to meat that they could only eat it at sacrifice - God has told them they'll be so rich they can eat meat whenever they want!

vs 2

Which means that the living standards of the Levites would be an excellent barometer of the overall spirituality of the Israelites. They would be the ones to suffer, when sacrifices stop coming in.

vs 3

Not bad, really. I'm not an organ man myself, but this is a substantial part of the animal.

vs 4

This is all the stuff that is given to God. The Levites are the ones that get the benefit of it. I love that this is made really clear - you will give stuff to God, but God doesn't eat it or make use of it. He wants you to give it up as a sacrifice to him, but in the end the Levites quite plainly are going to get it.

vs 5

Israel may not have been the first people group to use a sacrificial system, but God uses that system for his glory. He is able to bend it to his will. Well, use it to exeplorise what he wanted.

vs 6

So it's not that Levites were bound to the towns they were sent to either. That's pretty cool, considering that for the most part in the ancient world most people didn't travel much.

vs 7

So Levites who feel called to the central place of worship can go there. Not just for a holiday though.

vs 8

From moving house, I assume it means. So even a rich Levite can still work in the service of God. That is their inheritance, regardless of where else they make money.

vs 9

You should be too busy killing them all anyway.

vs 10-11

There are a lot of words for pretty much similar things here. I'm sure they all have their intonations. I know the Greek ones do.

Apparently the Wiccans want "witchcraft " to be translated more literally in the Bible, because they think that the translation "witchcraft" is eisegetical and has been put there to allow for the persecution of the Wiccan religion. Since Wicca is only like 4 years old, they are at least partly right. I don't think Moses had a bunch of robe wearing hippies in mind when he was talking about this. He was talking about real magic of various kinds. Still, modern readers of the Bible don't really understand all the vagaries and trivialities of ancient magic, so probably better to just use a term like "sorcerer" or "witch" to get the general meaning across.

So remember, when you're preaching on Deuteronomy 18, don't preach hate against Wiccans. Be sure to include a suitable footnote, "This is not talking about Wiccans. Wiccans are just a bunch of postChristian neopagans that want to forge for themselves an identity that they think sounds cool, and gives nerdy fat guys an excuse to meet ditzy chicks."