Deuteronomy 13 is all about how mean and cruel God is. Can't go to another religion without being killed! If a prophet comes to you, even if backed by signs and wonders, and tells you to go worship another god, kill them!! If a person, even someone closest to you, brother, sister, friend, whomever, comes to you and tells you to worship another god, out them to the community and...yup...kill them!!! And if a whole town turns against God and goes to the worship of another god or gods, wholesale slaughter is ordered, down to the cattle of the people who live there.
Mean and cruel, or simply absolute? We sin, we die, rules of God...except for Jesus. Obey God and worship God and you live. Don't and you die. But we like to have 'options' as humans.
Deuteronomy 14 then focuses in on faith in God and dietary restrictions. Rules for which animals can and cannot be eaten are laid out. Can't eat an animal that died on its own-but you can sell it to outsiders. Then there is the rule of the tithe, one tenth of your produce or flocks. Every third year, it goes to feed God's servant tribe, the Levites. The other two years, you are required to come into the presence of the Lord-see the references to the Lord's selection of a place in Deut. 12, and therein eat the tenth. God always wants his people close. Live too far to transport the produce or flocks? Convert them to cash, come and eat locally.
Now Romans 11, Paul is not abandoning Israel. He ties in his own lineage to God's Chosen People. He recognizes
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