Deuteronomy 21 - Various rules

If a murder went unsolved a cow had to be sacrificed. The purpose was to ensure that the community took the matter seriously. There is a great tendency to look the other way. Sometimes murders will go unsolved, but we must never adopt a "shrug of the shoulders" attitude to these matters.

Then we get rules on marrying captive women. Now our first reaction to this may well be to react in horror and think this is just a matter of male dominance. However, we need to look at the context. A little thoughts shows that the woman is actually being treated with respect, certainly with far more respect than was the general way of things in war. First, the woman was to be given time to grieve. Then she could not just be case aside as worthless. In war women are often treated as mere sex objects - consider what happened in Germany when Russia defeated her. 

Next we have rules on what happens if a man has two wives. The rules ensure that a son is not mistreated because of favouritism. Now the rules are not supporting having several wives, merely accepting that it would happen. 

A rebellious son was to be dealt with seriously. It was a matter to be dealt with publicly.

Deuteronomy 20 - War

Now we get instructions on going to war. The first instruction is not to be afraid. If the Lord was with them, then they would win. At the same time they were not to give in to fear or panic. Fear will always confront us at various times, the key is not to give in to it. If the Lord is with us we will win.

There is a list of those who were exempt from the army, mainly those who had just got married, just acquired a new home and so on. It was no use having people in the army whose thoughts would be elsewhere.

War was not to be violent for its own sake. A city was to be given the chance to surrender.

The cities in the land of Israel were to be completely destroyed. The motive behind this was to ensure that there was no vestige of their false religions left in the land. For these would lead Israel astray.

Deuteronomy 19 - The Legal System

Next the cities of refuge instructions are given again. These were places where people could flee if they had unintentionally killed someone. The system was well organised. The land was split into three regions, and there had to be good roads to the cities. So there was a concern that justice is carried out properly. If someone is killed relatives of the victims naturally feel aggrieved. In such a case it is possible that further injustice could be carried out. Hence the cities of refuge.

Today in our society there is increasing talk about taking account of the feelings of victims in trials. We need to be careful about this. The reason why this has arisen is that our courts have been far too lax on criminals. In the instructions we see here, we find that proper steps are taken to ensure that innocent people are not wrongly made to pay for murder, but on the other hand, if someone is guilty of murder then they are dealt with very severely. So there is a good balance. What we need in our society is a legal system that does acquit the innocent and judges the guilty. All the talk at the moment about taking account of victims is just a sign of a broken legal system.

Cases required at least two witnesses. Interestingly, I think Scotland still has this requirement, but England does not. Telling lies on court was a most serious offence.

In many ways the legal system was more advanced than ours!

Deuteronomy 18 - Priests, Occult and Prophets

The priests were to be wholly devoted to God and utterly dependent upon Him. Therefore they did not have an allotment or inheritance in Israel. The Lord Himself was to be their inheritance. How does this apply to us? We believe in the priesthood of all believers. We share in an inheritance with Christ. But we are also the true Israel. In the present time we kind of straddle the two. So there will be times when we are utterly dependent upon God, when His only provision to us will be Himself, but these times will not be continuous. There will be times when we do have goods and provision in a more normal form (still provided by God, but in a more tangible way). The rest of the people were to provide for the Levites. In the same way, the congregations should provide for the "full time" Christian workers.

They were to having nothing at all to do with any occult practices. Verse 10 shows us one of the reasons for this, these things were often associated with child sacrifice. Indeed, these things were one of the reasons that the Lord was driving out the current inhabitants of the land. Now someone might say that these practices are no longer associated with child sacrifice. However, they do no good at all. Horoscopes, fortune telling, mediums etc will not do you any good.

Moses knew that a prophet would come who was like him, but greater. He is the one we must listen to. The instruction "you must listen to him" adds poignancy to the words from God to Jesus, "this is my Son, listen to Him".

Earlier we had a test of a prophet was that if he tempted people away from the Lord he was not a true prophet, even if what he predicted came true. We now get a second test. If he speaks in the name of the Lord , then the test is whether or not what he says comes true.

So a prophet must have two key features:

1. Devotion to Christ

2. Accuracy.

Deuteronomy 17:8-20 - Courts and Kings

Verses 8-13 are interesting. If the law courts could not decide an issue, then they were to go to the priests for a decision. Now we need to remember that cases could only be brought to the courts in the first place if there were at least two witnesses, so we are not talking about any trumped up charge here. There would have been a proper case which just proved to be too difficult to decide. 

Now the idea of taking things to the priests goes against all thinking in our society, but we would do well to think for a moment or two. We try to solve every problem by setting up laws and processes. Now good laws and processes are valuable, but they cannot decide everything. Our current legal system is a complete shambles, and seems to do precious little for justice in many cases. 

Israel did not have a king, and was not meant to have one. However, in the time of Samuel she demanded a king and was given one. God knew this would eventually happen, so He gives them rules concerning the king. First, he must be an Israelite. There were also restrictions put on the king, he was not to become an absolute monarch. He was not to become enormously wealthy, and he was not allowed to take the people back to Egypt. In modern parlance this would be "against the constitution". Nor was he to have many wives. Solomon, of course, famously fell foul of this one, and was indeed led astray.

The king was to devote himself to the Law. He was there not to get his own way, but to rule on God's behalf. Nor was he to consider himself better than the rest of the people.

Deuteronomy 17:1-7 - Worshipping other gods

There are more warnings about not worshipping other gods and about worshipping God properly. Why these injunctions? Well they would see outwardly impressive symbols of other religions. They were not to be taken in by them. The warnings about worshipping God in the proper way are there because it is vital that we worship God in the way He has chosen. God is not created by man, but gods are. Left to our won devices we will make things up, we will event gods, we will make up ways of doing things, but this is the root of rebellion. It is God alone who gives life, we need to trust in Him. One of the main problems that the churches have today is when they go against the Bible, thinking we know better. We do not know better.

Strong action was to be taken against those who led the nation astray, but this had to be done only on the basis of firm evidence (two or three witnesses) not on hearsay or rumour. Those who testified against the person had to take responsibility for their testimony, and the whole community had to take responsibility for the judgement. Now we might say that having a different religion does not merit such a harsh penalty, and I am not in favour of stoning heretics! However, it was not just a matter of following a quaint religion. The false religions of the day led to child sacrifice, and all sorts of other evils. It was not just a matter of having a different "view" on things.

Deuteronomy 16 - Festivals - a foretaste of the kingdom

They were to celebrate the Passover. On that night in Egypt the people ate a meal with unleavened bread. They were to do the same so that they would remember the Passover. They needed to remember how it all started, and why they were saved at all. In the same way Jesus told us to remember Him in the Lord's Supper. We take bread and wine. This is not just an intellectual remembering, but an emotional remembering as well. 

They were to celebrate the harvest, seven weeks after they started to take in the harvest. They were to give a freewill offering. Now we may ask how can someone be commanded to give a freewill offering. We need to understand what the Law is. If we see it as just a set of commands that needed to be obeyed then we miss the point, just as the Pharisees missed the point. What the Law does is describe the kingdom life that people were meant to have. It told them how they would live if they were living in the Kingdom of God. Now the Law is only a shadow of the New Covenant, so it does this in part. Nonetheless, it is a foretaste of the kingdom. It is only through the cross and the Spirit that we can truly enter into the kingdom. But one of the features of kingdom living is giving freely.

They were to be joyful at the festivals. These festival included everyone, male and female, servants and free, and foreigners. This foresees Paul's words on there being neither slave nor free, Greek nor Jew in Christ. The Kingdom is for all who will come to Christ.

Justice was to be a key trait of the nation.