Deuteronomy 21
1-8 Purifying the land after a killing by an unknown murderer: If a dead body is found on the ground, this ground that God, your God, has given you, lying out in the open, and no one knows who killed him, your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the body to the nearest cities. The leaders and judges of the city that is nearest the corpse will then take a heifer that has never been used for work, never had a yoke on it. The leaders will take the heifer to a valley with a stream, a valley that has never been plowed or planted, and there break the neck of the heifer. The Levitical priests will then step up. God has chosen them to serve him in these matters by settling legal disputes and violent crimes and by pronouncing blessings in God’s name. Finally, all the leaders of that town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over the heifer that had its neck broken at the stream and say, “We didn’t kill this man and we didn’t see who did it. Purify your people Israel whom you redeemed, O God. Clear your people Israel from any guilt in this murder.”
8-9 That will clear them from any responsibility in the murder. By following these procedures, you will have absolved yourselves of any part in the murder because you will have done what is right in God’s sight.
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The shedding of innocent blood brings curses on a land. Here God makes provision for unforeseen tragedy-the discovery of a murder victim with no murderer in sight. The leaders and judges of the nearest city will work together with the Levitical priests, offering a heifer as a sacrifice to atone for the sin of murder.
How spiritually pervasive is the sin of murder? We have lived in three different American cities that were former centers of the slave trade. In each of those places, there were sections of town that were spiritually clean and other sections that were so soaked in evil that even passing through those areas was nerve-wracking. We lived in an apartment in New Orleans that had such terrible spiritual heaviness that we were sure someone had murdered someone there. We had to do spiritual warfare daily to cleanse the place so that we could tolerate being there.
Compassion toward female captives in wartime 10-14 When you go to war against your enemies and God, your God, gives you victory and you take prisoners, and then you notice among the prisoners of war a good-looking woman whom you find attractive and would like to marry, this is what you do: Take her home; have her trim her hair, cut her nails, and discard the clothes she was wearing when captured. She is then to stay in your home for a full month, mourning her father and mother. Then you may go to bed with her as husband and wife. If it turns out you don’t like her, you must let her go and live wherever she wishes. But you can’t sell her or use her as a slave since you’ve humiliated her.
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Beautiful young women were valued as spoils of war; however, what happened once the soldiers took these women home? God cares about such women and demands that they be well treated, giving them a month to mourn her father and mother before the soldier can sleep with her. If the relationship fails to work out, the woman must be free to leave without the threat of slavery.
15-17 When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
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While there are those who argue in favor of polygamy, the reality may be grim. Here God warns that a firstborn son is a firstborn son, whether his mother is the father’s favorite wife. The firstborn is to receive all the rights due him, no matter what. Here in Ghana, we have witnessed terrible treatment of children from unfavorite wives, including watching as an unfavorite wife was forced to stand in the hot noonday sun for ninety minutes, waiting for her husband to agree to pay her children’s school fees. Maintaining one’s status as a favorite wife is not easy either, for there is always the chance that the husband will find a younger cuter lady to wed, demoting the current wives in the process.
18-20 When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won’t do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won’t obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, “This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won’t listen to a thing we say. He’s a glutton and a drunk.”
21 Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he’s dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what’s happened and be in awe.
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Forget “touchy-feely” parenting! God has no patience with disobedient rebels who disgrace the family. We don’t know how many times this injunction was carried out; however, the mere threat of it should have been enough to bring many potential rebels into line.
22-23 When a man has committed a capital crime, been given the death sentence, executed and hung from a tree, don’t leave his dead body hanging overnight from the tree. Give him a decent burial that same day so that you don’t desecrate your God-given land—a hanged man is an insult to God.
Here God assumes that someone committing a capital crime such as murder will be hanged; however, even in death, the body of the murderer deserves respect. This command continued to be observed even up through Jesus’ day, for the bodies of crucified criminals had to be removed before sundown. The soldiers broke the legs of the other men crucified with Jesus so that they would die from asphyxiation, being unable to raise themselves up to take deep breaths; however, Jesus was already dead so there was no need to break his legs.
What shines through all these various commands is God’s concern for the sanctity of His creation and His concern for the disadvantaged, such as women captured in battle. God wants His land to remain spiritually clean, for He knows that failure to discipline rebellion, failure to protect the vulnerable, and failure to cleanse the land will pollute the land with demons.
What lessons might we gain from this collection of commands? We must be careful to avoid polluting our homes and work places with violent or pornographic material from social media. Thirty-five years ago, we visited a Christian friend and I borrowed her computer. When I entered the small room where the computer was located, I immediately felt an evil presence. I prayed and rebuked the devil; however, I suspected that someone-perhaps a visiting teen-ager- might have been the culprit. As a small child, I learned a song in Sunday School that applies. “Oh be careful, little eyes, what you see. Oh be careful, little eyes, what you see. For the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful, little eyes, what you see.” Simple but true.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to honor You in every bit of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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