Purge the Evil from Your Midst, Part 1
Deuteronomy 21:1–23 – Deuteronomy: Then You Shall Live
Second Sunday in Lent – March 8, 2020 (am)
This passage completes Moses’ instruction on the sixth commandment (you shall not murder). Some believe it also begins instruction on the seventh (you shall not commit adultery) in v.15 (e.g., Barker ESVSBN) with the mention of wives and children. But I personally believe that instruction on the sixth commandment continues through chapter 21 (cf. Walton 218). It began in c.19 with discussions of accidental (1-10) and premeditated homicide (11-13), [landmarks] (14), the requirement of two witnesses in [death-penalty cases] (15) along with the treatment of malicious witnesses (16-20), then [the law-of-the-hand] (21). Chapter 20 (as you heard last week) [discusses] the rules for warfare.
Chapter 21, as we just heard in our reading, touches on a wide range of topics that somewhat defies categorization. But I think what draws them together is that each focuses from one angle or another on the value and dignity of life. And that is the contribution they made to Israel’s applied understanding of the sixth commandment. Let’s listen, then discern what this means for us.
Moses Addresses the Value and Dignity of Life
Atonement for Unsolved Murders – 1-9
The first scenario involves an unsolved murder. A man is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him (1). So, the elders and judges from the nearest city are supposed to take an [unbroken] heifer to an [unplowed], [unplanted] valley with running water, and they’re supposed to slay the heifer by [breaking] its neck (3-4). The priests should also be present, evidently to finalize or authenticate the proceedings (5) because this heifer is not being offered as a blood sacrifice; they were away from the altar so this is a different sort of sacrifice. But if they obeyed the Lord in His instruction here (9), [washing] their hands (6) then [testifying] to their innocence in this matter (7), the Lord would accept the slaying of this heifer as atonement, [purging] the guilt of innocent blood from among His people (8-9).
We should note two things here: first, the value and the dignity of life that bears God’s image are matters of such profound gravity that even the death of a nameless man at the hands of an anonymous assailant by an unknown means must be acknowledged and addressed by the social, political, and spiritual leaders of the community nearest which it happened. The guilt of spilling innocent blood doesn’t go away just because we don’t know who was responsible. In the absence of knowing the actual perpetrator, his guilt spreads to the community (8-9) and to the land (cf. 23), regardless of whether his sin was murder or manslaughter. And that guilt needed to be [purged] as stipulated by God. Such is the value and dignity of life.
Second, we also need to note a related but different point: secret sin does not go unnoticed by God. Just because no human being may know what we’ve done, that surely doesn’t mean we’re not guilty for it. Nor does it mean we won’t be held accountable for it by God, even if that doesn’t happen until the final judgment (cf. Rev.20:12-13). But it also doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences right there where it happened. Crimes defile the place where they happened. Even natural disasters that spotlight both the value and the frailty of life stain the locations where they occurred. Those tornadoes in Middle Tennessee this past week show us that again with painful clarity. As long as there is life in that area there will be memory of this tragedy—twenty-five dead. How much more is this true when there is someone responsible for the deaths, regardless of whether (s)he is known or anonymous? Murder stains the place where it happens. It haunts the crime scene. And manslaughter is little better, the unintentional taking of life. We feel the pain each time we pass one of those small memorials along a highway where some loved one was unexpectedly lost.
23 … You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. Num.34 explains: 34 … for God Himself says: I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel. God is in there among His people in the land, and their sin [defiles] the land where He dwells. So, is His presence any less with us here today? No. In fact, He inhabits the assembly of His people by His Spirt and spreads throughout our community in individual lives. He’s not just inhabiting a tent in the midst of our camp. Atonement must be made for [shedding] innocent blood.
Marrying Female Captives – 10-14
The next scenario is also associated with death. A woman whose family has been defeated by Israel in some distant land (cf. 20:13-16) can be [taken as a] wife according to the conditions listed here. But she must be treated respectfully; she’s not your property (14). She should have a full month to mourn her losses. She should [cut] off all ties to [her] former life and enter fully… into [her] new one (Merrill 291), thus the [hair], nails, clothes (12-13). If you divorce her, she’s free. She’s a defeated enemy but her life has value and dignity.
Now, we need to say here before we move on that this mention is not an endorsement of divorce; Scripture is clear that marriage was designed and intended by God to be life-long (Mal.2:15; Rom.7:2). What Moses is teaching here opens our eyes to one of the most remarkable qualities of the law, which reveals God’s holy, righteous, and good standard to His people (Rom.7:12): perfect as it is, it is not unrealistic! It should not be unattainable in that it is accommodated to our sinfulness. Divorce shouldn’t happen; it displeases God and ruptures human relationships. But right here in His law, and elsewhere (24:1-4), He builds in the sort of disposition His people should maintain when it seems to them to become a necessity: it should not be dehumanizing on any level; it should not undercut the value and dignity of the other’s life.
Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn – 15-17
The next scenario moves into a related subject, this time guarding the value of marital offspring, children, still guarding the value and dignity of life (which is why I don’t believe Moses is moving on to the seventh commandment here). 15 If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16 … he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved…. Now, this passage is no more an endorsement of polygamy than the previous one was of divorce: two become one flesh in marriage, one man and one woman (Gen.2:24). Not even their kings should have multiple wives (17:17).
But when it does happen (and unfortunately it was not uncommon in OT times), it must not become an opportunity to devalue life by manipulating or undercutting the right of the firstborn (17). Even the dignity of our children is to be honored.
A Rebellious Son – 18-21
But that doesn’t mean the children get a free pass. 18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, … 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say…, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. …
This one stretches us, but we must remember that this doesn’t happen with the first or second offense. Nor does it mean that there was no prior remedial route that could be taken with this son. But he had adopted an undignified pattern of behavior that disrespected his parents (remember the fifth commandment) and devalued his own life, persistently dishonoring God’s law. So his situation needed to be addressed, and his penalty opens our eyes to how seriously God takes rebellion.
A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed – 22-23
Finally, when a convicted criminal has been executed and his body is hung on a tree as a sober warning to the community (Merrill 296), it should be removed and [buried] that same day (23). The reasons given is because a hanged man is cursed by God (23) and that [curse] would broaden to include the whole community if the body were not removed before nightfall (Merrill 296). The value and dignity of life is upheld even in the execution of capital punishment.
Discerning What Difference This Makes to Us Today
This is a very interesting progression of thoughts. And it’s particularly so when we hear it as instruction on how to honor the sixth commandment that forbids murder, how to understand the value and dignity of life, of one another, such that we don’t become guilty of murder in our hearts like Jesus identified (Mat.5:21-22). But what difference does this list of scenarios here in Deu.21 make to us today, really?
We can identify with different scenes and circumstances in this list, but I think our real engagement with it begins as we see ourselves in the convicted criminal of this closing scenario (23), the one who was hanged on a tree and cursed by God. Because that’s who we are. Accommodating though the law of God is, understanding of our weakness, we can be absolutely confident that no one is justified before God by meeting the requirements of the law (Gal.3:11). Holy and righteous and good though the law is (Rom.7:12), revealing the standard of God with merciful understanding of our sinful, rebellious hearts, we still cannot meet that standard! So, the law only brings a curse upon us! But, Gal.3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” And God does this 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith, so that we might know the full blessing of God, being reconciled to Him in Christ and declared not guilty before the law!
The One Who was hanged on the tree absorbs the guilt and receives the penalty of any rebellious son who turns to Him in repentance and faith. He can bestow the double blessing of the first-born on all who receive Him. He can enable any foreigner to embrace and accommodate to life within the covenant community. He can even address and remove the burden of guilt for the secret sinner who got away with his crime in the eyes of the world, but whose sin has stained the place where it occurred and still darkens his own heart with hidden guilt and muted remorse. Are you a secret sinner today? God, in His holy justice but also His gracious mercy has provided for your release! He knows you are guilty even though no human being knows what you’ve done! And He has absorbed the curse of your guilt and your punishment in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ if you will turn to Him in repentance and trust in Him as your sin-Bearer.
Conclusion
That’s what this text means to us today. It puts before us the very scenario that Paul picked up on in Gal.3 to clarify how the gospel works—Jesus absorbs our guilt and curse so that we can receive His righteous-ness and blessing. 2Co.5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Let’s thank God for Jesus Christ today.