DEUTERONOMY 21: MURDER, DISPUTES, DECISIONS AND DEATH by Albert Lopez; check out the complete teaching here!
INTRODUCTION: As we continue in the book of Deuteronomy, we are now in chapter 21. Moses will continue to remind the new generation of what to do when you encounter a crime, issues dealing with captivity, the first-born, rebellion against the Law, and how to handle capital punishment. This is still part of Moses’ Second address and this will continue until chapter 27 or 28 where Moses will start his Third address. What we are reading in this chapter will still fall under series of laws and statutes God’s people were to follow in order to honor Him. Crime and injustice would defile His land and God did not want his land defiled.
CRIMES: MURDER Of An UNKNOWN PERSON:
DEUTERONOMY 21:1-9
"If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 "then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 "And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. 4 "The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5 "Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. 6 "And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 "Then they shall answer and say, 'Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 'Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 "So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Verse 1: A slain person – God keeps a record of the innocent blood shed by both animals and people, and one day God will ask for an account of this blood!
GENESIS 9:5-6
5 "Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
Jesus was slain as the Lamb of God: Remember the song: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.”
Verse 1: “The land your God gives you” - God can give this land because it belongs to Him; everything belongs to Him.
Verse: 2: “Measure the distance” – this speaks of the jurisdiction of who would be responsible to deal with these issues: The elders and judges are sort of playing the detective role here. Based on what they would find it would fall under someone’s jurisdiction.
Consider the crucifixion of the LORD Jesus:
Every human being is under this Jurisdiction of GOD and is guilty:
ROMANS 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Verse 5: “Every dispute, every assault shall be settled by them:. They were the ultimate authority which was given by God. Likewise, Jesus is our High Priest and all authority has been given to Him (MATT 28:18).
Verse 6: “They are to wash their hands over the heifer”; in similar fashion we see Pilate washing his hands from his part in the murder of Jesus. “I am innocent of this man’s blood” said Pilate. To which the religious leaders cried back:
“Let his blood be on us and our children”.
Verse 7: “Our hands did not shed this blood”: Unlike this situation we are reading about, our hands did indeed shed this innocent blood of the Lamb of GOD. We learned that both Jews and Gentiles are guilty of murdering Jesus. That includes you and me. Do you believe this? (I murdered Jesus, my sins, my rebellion, my unbelief)
Verse 8: “Forgive your people, whom you have redeemed” …and the blood guiltiness shall be forgiven.
Compare verse 8 with what Jesus said on the cross, “Forgive them for they do not know what they do!”
Forgive your Church - Forgive Albert, forgive, Adriana, forgive Blue. Remember: Believe and Repent, you can’t repent if you don’t know what you are repenting of
Verse 9: “Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord”. For the elders of the city along with all of Israel, doing what was right meant obeying the Lord in these instructions if a slain person was found amongst them.
For us, we are to believe the Gospel of the Lamb who was slain on our behalf or in our place. Like Pastor Danny said recently:
Believe what God is saying about your sin condition and repent and turn to Jesus. Reason with God at the Cross and only at the Cross. Sins there may become white as snow. There only are we redeemed and forgiven.
CAPTIVITY: Female Captives –
DEUTERONOMY 21:10-14
10"When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, 11 "and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, 12 "then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 "She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 "And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
Verse 10: “War against your enemies” – we’ve seen that some were allowed or given permission by God to stay behind from the battle, in order to enjoy God's blessings which He had recently given to His people: some were given new houses, others vineyards, others a wife. Even the ones who peed their pants at the thought of battle were allowed to stay behind!
By the way, we should not fear because first and foremost God goes before us!
Also, God has told us in EPHESIANS 6:10: to be strong in Him and the power of His might.
Let me tell you His might has no limit and no equal Why? He is the Omnipotent, All mighty One!!
Verse 10: The Lord your God delivers them into your hand - who is doing the Fighting and the delivering? The Lord your God if indeed He is your God
JOSHUA 21:44
And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand.
As a bonus:
JOSHUA 21:45
Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
God is fighting for You to demonstrate His great love and ultimately to save You!
Verse 11-13: Among the captives a beautiful woman
Those who not only see her, but also want her as a wife. If you want her as a wife here is what you must do (Not a Canaanite, they were to be destroyed!): Bring her home to your House, shave her head and trim her nails. Remove the clothes of her captivity. And then clothe her with freedom.
Just the same as our LORED Jesus, Who took our filthy rags and clothed us with Himself and His righteousness!
ISAIAH 64:6Be one with her by taking her - having sex with her and thereby making her a wife would have to wait for at least 1 month (To make sure it was not done out of lust, or a rash decision). This process was to cleanse her (purification) and make her clean and no longer defiled
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
ISAIAH 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
In a way, we as children of God were at one time that “captive woman”.
The LORD Jesus who is the Savior but also the bridegroom, took a filthy wife and washed her with His precious blood; He continues to wash His bride aka Church with His Word
Why?
EPHESIANS 5:26-27,32Verse 13: “She… shall remain in your house”, I believe this is a picture of “Abiding in the True Vine” (JOHN 15), which is Christ. Why? To bear much fruit. Why? To do what is right in the Lord’s eyes and bring glory to the Father.
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Verse 14: “If you are not please with her, then let her go”: This verse bears the idea that we as the church are the bride of Christ but unlike this situation, Christ will not let us go. If anything, we let go of Him at times. He however has said “I will be with you always” and “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (MATT 28:10; HEB 13:5).
The Book of ISAIAH is sometimes referred to as the 5th Gospel: it reveals how God planned on redeeming His people Israel. Yet we also find key verses in the Book of JEREMIAH about the LORD’s salvation, that is, His “living waters”:
JEREMIAH 2:13Firstborn inheritance
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns that can hold no water.
DEUTERONOMY 21:15-17
15 "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 16 "then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. 17 "But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
Verse 15: “wives…loved and the other unloved”.
Let’s talk about the story of Jacob and how he loved Rachel but he got Leah instead (reads like your common variety soap opera)!
Rachel in this story is the one loved and Leah was the unloved one.
GENESIS 29:33Verse 16: “Disallowed to make the son of the loved the firstborn”. Meaning, give him that is the unloved one the double portion and the rights that come with being the Firstborn. God occasionally bypassed the first born and chose the second born:
Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.”
Abraham: Instead of Ishmael God chose Isaac
Isaac: Instead of Esau God chose Jacob
Think about this: God does not accept our first birth, which is of the flesh, but offers us a 2nd birth a spiritual birth that makes us His firstborn children.
Rebellion
DEUTERONOMY 21:18-21
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, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 "then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' 21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
Verse 18: “A stubborn and rebellious son” (This situation was not easy for the parents, the elders, everyone who was involved)
This is describing us when we were in the world, that is Egypt spiritually speaking.
EPHESIANS 2:2Positive: We who lead the Bible studies for the boys of our church are very proud of them because they are striving to be the opposite of this stubborn, rebellious son, the very opposite of this rebellious world! Some of them have said how they enjoy the bible studies; we can see how the Lord is turning their hearts and attention towards Him and His word and we are so grateful!
In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Negative: In our national capital, DC., they want to take parenting rights away: There is a new law there that if your child wants to change gender and you oppose them in that decision, the authorities can take your kids away from you! Your kids can run away to Foster Care run by the government. and they don’t have to tell you or advise you at all!
Also, there are doctors advocating for kids as young as 7 years old to make their own medical decisions; mainly to push this agenda of gender redesignation. It is so demonic! These things are why we have rebellious children! And the fact that parents are not conducting themselves with godly authority over their own children, not owning their stewardship over these precious gifts from GOD!
ANARCHY IN THE HOME WILL INEVITABLY BREED ANARCHY IN SOCIETY!!Verse 21: “…stone him to death”.
Instead of being stoned to death and getting our wages of death, justly deserved, God through his Son gave us His Mercy and Grace instead!
This obedient Servant of YHWH God took our rebellion all the way to the cross and nailed it there!
COLOSSIANS 2:13-14
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The story of the prodigal, the father running to him protecting him from possibly being stoned and shielding him (Elders would not stone if the Father had his arms wrapped around him)
Death by Hanging
DEUTERONOMY 21:22-23
22 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 "his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
Verse 22: A sin worthy of death equates with death itself.
“The wages of sin is death” (ROM 6:23a) “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (ROM 6:23b).
You deserve death but because of my Agape love, I choose by grace to give you life. The life I give you is not just life here on Earth because in your sin, you are a dead man walking with no life here or in the world to come. Another will pay the penalty of your sin, so that Their righteousness can be imparted to you! And you can therefore be blessed with this free gift of eternal life!
Verse 23: “He who is hanged [on a tree] is accursed of God”
GALATIANS 3:13He who was blessed of the Father became a curse for us so that we might be blessed through Him! Those who trust in Christ cannot be condemned by the Law because Christ bore our curse. This speaks to us of Calvary where God took our punishment for us, that He may be able to welcome us Home.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),
ROMANS 8:1-2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
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