Deuteronomy 21:1-23

Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love

Love and Obey the *LORD your God

Deuteronomy

Philip Smith

Chapter 21

v1 ‘Suppose that there has been a murder. Then someone finds the dead body in a field. It is in the country that the *LORD your God will give to you. You do not know who killed the person. v2 Your leaders and judges must go out. They must measure the distance from the body to each of the nearest towns. v3 Then the leaders in the town that is nearest to the body must choose a young cow. This cow has never worn a wooden bar that joins two animals together. And it has never worked. v4 They will take this cow to a valley where there is a stream. Nobody has ploughed the land or has planted anything there. There they must break the cow’s neck. v5 The priests who come from the family of Levi must go there. They must make decisions in circumstances of arguments or physical attack. The *LORD your God has chosen them to serve. And they give a *blessing from the *LORD. v6 Then the leaders of the town that is nearest the body will wash their hands over that cow. v7 They will say this. “We did not murder this man. We do not know who did it. v8 *LORD, forgive your people in *Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Do not consider us to be responsible for the murder of an innocent man.” Then they will not continue to be responsible for the man’s death. v9 In that way, you will remove the crime of the innocent man’s murder. You will have done what the *LORD wants you to do.’

When somebody carried out a murder, the whole society became not *clean. The leaders and judges had to act. The judges had to be certain that the measurement was correct. They killed a cow. God said that its blood covered the *sin. The stream would remove the blood of the cow. The priests would tell the leaders what to say. They said it over the body of the animal. They would ask God to forgive the sin. Then there would be no evil results from the murder. And the relatives of the dead man should not get *revenge on the city.

In those days, people believed that they shared responsibility. Today many societies do not believe that this is true. So a ceremony like this is not necessary now.

v10 ‘When the *LORD your God allows you to defeat your enemies in a battle, you can take people as prisoners. v11 You may see among them a beautiful woman that you desire. If so, you can take her as your wife. v12 Take her to your home. She will shave her head. Then she will cut the nails on her fingers. v13 And she will change her clothes. She must stay in your house. She will be sad about the loss of her parents for a month. After that, you can go to her and you can marry her. v14 If she does not please you, let her go free. You must not sell her or deal with her as a slave. That is because you have had sex with her.’

They allowed the woman a month to be sad for her parents. Perhaps her father had died in the battle. Her mother then would belong to another master. The woman had to shave her head and she had to change her clothes. That meant that her previous life had ended. At the end of the month, the man could marry her. If later the man did not like her, he could divorce her. He must not sell her as a slave, but she could go free. The *Israelites dealt with women better than any other country did. The *Israelites acted in a way that showed sympathy.

Some teachers said that a man could divorce his wife for any reason. Jesus said that it was wrong for a man to divorce his wife. But he could divorce her only if she had sex with another man. Both Moses and Jesus give freedom and honour to women.

v15 ‘Suppose that a man has two wives. He loves one wife but he does not love the other wife. Both of his wives give birth to sons. The son of the wife, whom he does not love, is born first. v16 Then the man decides to divide his property among his sons. But he must not give to the son of his favourite wife the share that belongs to the first son. v17 He must give the double share of what he has to his first son. He must do that even if the first son is not the son of his favourite wife. This son was the first son that he had. He must give to this son the share that he should have.’

The son born first should receive a double share in the property. The father must not give the double share to the son of his favourite wife. (Jacob did that with Joseph in Genesis 37:3-4. But when that happened, it was because of God’s gift. The son could not demand it. However, Jacob’s first son had lost his place. See Genesis 49:3-4.) God wanted a man to be fair to all his wives. A man could have a favourite wife, but he had to obey the law.

v18 ‘Perhaps a man has a son who will not obey his father or his mother. He will not obey any rules and he refuses to change. The son does not listen to his parents even if they punish him. v19 His father and his mother must take him to the leaders at the gate of the town. v20 The parents will say this to the leaders. “Our son will not change his mind and he opposes us. He will not do what we tell him. He wastes money and he is a drunk.” v21 Then all the men in the town will throw stones at him to kill him. So you will remove the evil person from among you. Everyone in *Israel will hear and they will be afraid.’

Here the law supported the authority of the parents. Clearly, the son was out of control. He refused to obey God’s *commandments and he would not change his mind. The *sins of which they accused the son were probably just examples. The parents had to agree that they should take their wicked son to the leaders. If a son’s behaviour was very bad, he had to die. This son opposed his parents and he refused to change his behaviour. Therefore, the son must not continue to live in that society. The parents did not kill their son. Instead, all the men in the town had to carry out the punishment that the leaders had ordered. There are no examples in the Bible when that actually happened. However, these verses show the responsibility of parents. But it showed also the importance of how people behave in their society. God wanted the *Israelites to *keep his commands and to be *holy.

In Mark 7:10-13, Jesus says that we should give honour to our parents. We should always help them and not refuse. We must not say this. ‘I cannot help my parents because I have given my money to God.’ In Ephesians 6:4, Paul tells parents not to make their children become angry. Sometimes children refuse to obey when parents do that.

v22 Suppose that the people kill a man. They do that because he is guilty of a crime. Then they hang his body on a tree. v23 You must not leave the body there during the night. Bury him the same day. If you hang a person on a tree he receives God’s *curse. You must not ruin the land. The *LORD your God has given the country to you. It belongs to you.

When people *sinned in certain ways the punishment was death. Then often they would hang the body on a pole. (This pole was a piece of wood that they cut from a tree.) They had to bury the body before sunset, or it would make the land not *clean.

Notice that Joseph of Arimathea buried the body of Jesus before sunset. (See John 19:31-38.) In Galatians 3:13, Paul refers to Jesus’ death. Jesus felt the experience of God’s *curse and God’s *judgement when he died. As Jesus did that, he freed us from God’s *curse.

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
blessing ~ a good thing that God does for us; when someone asks God to do good things for a person or for people; when a person speaks good words about someone.
clean ~ good in thought and in action. But, in the Old Testament, many things could make a person not clean towards God. For example, if they touched a dead body, that would make them not clean. And the Israelites must not eat animals that God called not clean.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, it tells about the history and the beliefs of the Israelites.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
revenge ~ to get revenge means to return an injury that someone has done to you. God’s revenge is his desire to give the punishment that a person deserves.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
commandment ~ a rule or a command that God gave to the Jews; the 10 rules that God gave to Moses. That was on the mountain called Mount Sinai (or Horeb); a command from someone who has authority.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Mount ~ mountain. For example, ‘Mount Sinai’ means the mountain called Sinai.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
keep ~ to do whatever you should do because of a promise or a law; to respect and to give honour to the law.
holy ~ morally good; something completely good and perfect; something that people consider to be very important in their religion.
curse ~ the opposite of a blessing; bad things that God will do to people because they have been wicked; to say that God will curse someone.

blessing ~ a good thing that God does for us; when someone asks God to do good things for a person or for people; when a person speaks good words about someone.
judgement ~ when God or a judge says what is right or wrong.