Worship, Sex, and Filthy Lucre Text: Deuteronomy 23:17-18
Introduction: The World's Worship
The book of Deuteronomy is God's charter for a holy nation. As Israel stood on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the Promised Land, God, through Moses, laid out the blueprint for their society. This was not to be a nation like any other. The surrounding Canaanite cultures were sinking in a mire of depravity, and the central vortex of that depravity was their worship. We must get this straight. False religion is never just a matter of getting a few theological propositions wrong. A false god will always demand a false morality. And because God created us as male and female, and because our sexuality is at the very core of our identity, false worship is almost always sexualized worship.
The pagans believed their gods were cosmic forces of nature, and they sought to manipulate these forces through their religious rites. Their gods were capricious, lustful, and violent, just like fallen man. Their worship involved appeasing these gods, often through sympathetic magic. If you wanted your fields to be fertile, you would perform lewd sexual acts at the local shrine, acting out what you wanted the gods to do in the heavens and on the earth. This is the background for our text. This is the world Israel was about to walk into. God is not simply giving them a list of arbitrary rules; He is building a fortress around His people to protect them from the spiritual poison of the Canaanites. He is teaching them that Yahweh is not like the gods of the nations. His character is holy, and therefore, His worship must be holy, and His people must be holy.
These two verses are a direct assault on the foundational assumptions of all pagan religion. They address the unholy union of worship and sexual perversion, and the equally unholy attempt to launder the proceeds of sin through religious observance. God is drawing a series of bright, sharp lines. He is distinguishing His people from the world, His worship from their worship, and His economy from their economy. And as we will see, these lines run straight through the modern world and right up to the front door of the church today.
The Text
"None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of Yahweh your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God."
(Deuteronomy 23:17-18 LSB)
Holy People, Not Pagan Prostitutes (v. 17)
The first prohibition strikes at the heart of Canaanite worship.
"None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute." (Deuteronomy 23:17)
The term here for "cult prostitute," qedesha for the female and qadesh for the male, is not the standard word for a common prostitute. It comes from a root word meaning "holy" or "set apart." This is a piece of grim, satanic irony. These individuals were "set apart" for the service of pagan gods like Baal and Asherah. They were religious functionaries. Their prostitution was an act of worship. This was how the Canaanites served their gods. By engaging in sexual acts at the temples, they believed they were participating in the divine drama, encouraging their gods to be fertile and to bless the land.
God's command is absolute. "None of the daughters of Israel." This is a total prohibition. Israel is to have no part in this. Why? Because sexuality is a gift from God, designed by Him to be a glorious picture of the covenant love between Christ and His church, enjoyed exclusively within the covenant of marriage. To take this holy gift and offer it on the altar of a demonic idol is a profound act of spiritual treason. It is to take a wedding ring and use it to pay for adultery. It is a blasphemous confusion of categories. It treats the holy as profane and the profane as holy.
And notice that God extends the same protection and prohibition to the men. "Nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute." The qadesh was the male counterpart, a man "set apart" for homosexual acts in the service of an idol. The pagan world was rife with this. God's law here is a bulwark for the created order. He made them male and female. The perversion of this order is not just a personal sin; it is a religious rebellion. It is an attack on the Creator's design. God is establishing a people whose identity is found in Him, not in their sexual appetites. Their bodies are for the Lord, not for the local fertility shrine.
No Dirty Money in God's House (v. 18)
The second prohibition follows logically from the first. If the act is detestable, then the proceeds from that act are also detestable.
"You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of Yahweh your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God." (Deuteronomy 23:18)
The law now broadens. It speaks of the "hire of a harlot," which covers common prostitution, and the "wages of a dog." The word "dog" here is a term of ultimate contempt in the ancient East, used to refer to a male prostitute. The money earned from these activities is tainted. It is filthy lucre. And God says you are not to bring it into His house for any vow or offering.
This is a profound statement about the nature of God and His worship. The pagan gods could be bought. Their favor was for sale. You could commit all manner of wickedness, and then bring a portion of your ill-gotten gains to the temple to square things with the deity. But Yahweh cannot be bribed. He is not a partner in your sin. He will not be made a beneficiary of your rebellion. The attempt to do so is an "abomination."
An abomination is not just something God dislikes, like we might dislike a particular food. It is something that He finds constitutionally repulsive. It is a violation of His created order, a perversion of what is good and right. And here, the abomination is twofold. First, the sexual sin itself is an abomination. Second, the attempt to consecrate the wages of that sin by offering it to God is an abomination. It is hypocrisy of the highest order. It is an attempt to use God as a spiritual money laundering service. You cannot sin with your body on Saturday night and then try to buy God's favor with the proceeds on Sunday morning. God's house is holy, and the offerings brought into it must be holy.
This principle establishes that the ends do not justify the means in the kingdom of God. We cannot build God's church with the devil's bricks. We cannot say, "Well, the money came from a corrupt source, but we can use it for a good purpose." God is not a pragmatist. He is not desperate. He does not need the wages of a dog to fund His enterprise. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He demands not only that we give, but that we give from a pure heart and from righteous labor.
Conclusion: The Gospel for Prostitutes and Dogs
So what does this mean for us? The "house of Yahweh" is no longer a stone temple in Jerusalem. It is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these principles are as binding as ever.
First, the church must maintain a radical distinction from the world's sexual chaos. Our culture is a vast Canaanite fertility cult. It worships at the altar of sexual freedom, self-expression, and identity politics. It has its own priesthood, its own rituals, and its own dogmas. The church is called to be a holy nation, a people set apart. This means we teach and live out God's beautiful design for sexuality, manhood, and womanhood without apology and without compromise.
Second, the church must be scrupulous about its own finances. The principle of rejecting "the wages of a dog" still applies. The church must not entangle itself with corrupt sources of money. We are to be supported by the tithes and offerings of God's faithful people, who have earned their living in lawful and righteous ways. We are to trust God to provide, not resort to worldly schemes that compromise our witness.
But last, and most importantly, this law drives us to the gospel. In our natural state, we are all spiritual harlots. We have all gone chasing after other gods. We have sold ourselves for the fleeting pleasures of sin. "All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). The wages of our sin is death, and we cannot bring those wages into the house of God to buy our salvation. Our offerings are an abomination.
So what hope do we have? The hope is that God does not accept our filthy payment, but rather provides His own. Jesus Christ came into this world to save prostitutes and dogs. He welcomed them, ate with them, and transformed them. He did not come to be paid off by them, but to purchase them. He did not enter the house of God with the wages of a dog, but with His own precious blood (Hebrews 9:12).
He takes the harlot and makes her His bride. He takes the one who is an abomination and washes him, sanctifies him, and justifies him in His own name (1 Corinthians 6:11). He doesn't accept your dirty money. He accepts you, washes you clean, and then makes you and your work acceptable to God through His finished work on the cross. That is the gospel. And it is the only way any of us can ever dare to enter the house of God.