Stranger Things in the Law | Sunday, September 25, 2022

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, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities... and the elders of that city shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. And they shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel..." (Deuteronomy 21:1–9, abridged)

God's strangest-sounding laws reveal a people called to be utterly different from the world around them.

Reading the Bible on Its Own Terms

One of the great challenges in studying the Bible is remembering that every time you open it, the text before you is between 2,000 and 4,000 years old. Judging what you read by 21st-century eyes or Western American values is not just unwise—it is basically foolish. Yet it is hard for us to read these passages without shaking our heads and asking, "What on earth is going on here?"

That was exactly my thought as I prepared to teach Deuteronomy 21. I even recorded a short YouTube video asking people to read the chapter and send me their questions. The responses were just what I anticipated: Why would people be guilty of shedding innocent blood if they didn't kill anyone? Why would God allow a beautiful captive woman to be taken as a wife? Why does He permit a man to have two wives, one loved and one unloved? And could a stubborn, rebellious son really be put to death?

Miscellaneous Laws for the Promised Land

These are the head-scratchers of Deuteronomy 21, and more will follow in the chapters ahead. Many Bibles even label them "miscellaneous laws." God is informing His people how they are to govern themselves in the promised land, addressing things Moses had to deal with during Israel's wilderness wanderings—customs the people had picked up during their 400 years in Egypt.

One of the things a passage like this teaches us is that it is often easier to get the Israelite out of Egypt than it is to get Egypt out of the Israelite. These statutes seem strange because we see them through the lens of America in 2022, but they directly affected daily life for the people Moses led 3,400 years ago. And that is actually a comfort to me, because it reveals that God has something to say about the weird things we encounter in our own daily lives—on a campus, a construction site, a corporate office, or within our families—things people centuries ago could never have imagined.

God's People, Governed by God's Ways

When Israel had to deal with an unsolved murder, or with female prisoners of war, there was a way the surrounding nations and the Egyptians handled such things. But God called His people to live differently. The temptation was to keep doing things the way they had always been done. God wanted to transform His people into a people who truly walked after His ways.

So while direct application is nearly impossible—you're not going to find a bride among prisoners of war, and your inheritance probably won't be divided among multiple wives—there are principles we can glean. The key one is this: God's people are to be governed by God's ways, not the ways and customs of their old life or the people around them. The way your neighbor, coworker, or partner does things will differ from how you are to do things, because you are one of God's people.

Two Kinds of Salvation

This matters because it is easier for God to redeem the Israelites out of Egypt than to get all the ways, traditions, and mindsets of Egypt out of them. As you read the rest of the Old Testament, you see them fall back into their old ways—and that is true of us as well.

For God to save me from the punishment of sin, that was dealt with by Jesus on the cross—substitutionary atonement, where He became my substitute and bore the penalty for my sin. I don't even fully recall the day I trusted Christ as a young child. But after we become God's children, there is another aspect of His salvation: He wants to deliver and sanctify us from the power of sin. That takes an entirely different work of His Spirit and His Word in our lives.

The Unsolved Murder

Moses gives direction for how to handle a situation where there is a murder but no known murderer. There was surely a customary way of dealing with this in the ancient Near East. Based on what we find elsewhere in the Old Testament, it looked like this: if a slain person was found in a field and no murderer could be located, you would find the nearest city and simply kill everyone in it.

You may think they didn't really do that, but the Old Testament shows otherwise. In Genesis 34 the men of a Canaanite city were all killed over the rape of Jacob's daughter Dinah. In Judges 19–20 the same form of justice fell on the city of Gibeah. In Joshua 22, two and a half tribes of Israel were nearly annihilated over supposed idolatry—without even an investigation. Corporate guilt and corporate justice without a trial was standard fare.

Atonement and Mercy Over Retribution

But God says, "That is not how you will do things as My people." The elders and judges were to find the nearest settlement—not for retaliation, but for atonement. The elders of that city were to take a calf that had never pulled a yoke, bring it down to a valley with flowing water that had never been plowed, and break its neck there.

There is great cost in this. The heifer was a young, healthy animal with potential value ahead of it. The valley with its flowing water was rich land, perfect for plowing and planting. Once the animal was slain there, both the land and the elders became unclean for a time. All of this was a sobering reminder of the weightiness and value of life. A human life had been taken, and that life had dignity—even when the murderer could not be found.

It was also a reform. Instead of bloodshed and the slaughter of an entire town, there was now recompense and forbearance. For God's people, atonement and mercy were to be valued above retribution. This isn't to say justice was abandoned—where there was a clear criminal, justice would be served. But where the murderer was unknown, atonement was still necessary, and mercy was still extended.

This same principle carries into the New Testament. James 2 tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment, and that is good news. Our God is holy and just, yet when He introduced Himself by name to Moses in Exodus 34:6, the first word He chose was "merciful"—not "holy" or "just," though He is both. And He wanted His people to lead with mercy too.

War Brides

When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house... and she shall mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her... 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. (Deuteronomy 21:10–14, abridged)

To our eyes and ears in 2022, this looks completely insane. Suppose you are victorious in battle, you bring back the spoils, and you see a beautiful woman among the captives and desire to make her your wife. In ancient Israel you could do that—we'll see something like it at Jericho when we reach Joshua. But Moses lays out a ruling for how it must happen.

First, you bring her into your home. Then she shaves her head and trims her nails. Then she puts off the clothes of her old life and puts on mourning clothes to grieve her father and mother for a full month. Only after that may you marry her and consummate the marriage. And if at the end you have no delight in her, you must set her free. You cannot sell her—she is not your property—and you cannot treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.

Dignity for the Captive

If you're thinking this is bizarre, remember you are thinking like an American in 2022, not an Israelite in 1400 BC. This strange passage teaches that for God's people, even a woman shamed and taken captive had dignity and value.

How were women taken as prisoners of war typically treated 3,400 years ago? You don't even need to go back that far—what atrocities await a woman today when an invading army overruns her home? Will she be given a merciful time of mourning and a waiting period, or will she be ravished, brutalized, and left for dead? Now you see it. Through 2022 eyes this looks harsh, but seen from 3,400 years ago, God is saying, "For My people it will be different. She has dignity and value."

Two Wives and the Right of the Firstborn

If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved... and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved... he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved... but he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion. (Deuteronomy 21:15–17, abridged)

Before the specifics, let me say this: the Bible's reporting of events is not its endorsement of them. When Scripture records that patriarchs of Israel had multiple wives, it is reporting that polygyny existed—not saying it is acceptable. As Jesus taught, He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and "for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." God's design is one man and one woman, joined for life. But sinful humanity has practiced polygyny since the fall.

Now to the passage. If a man has two wives, and the less-loved one bears his firstborn son before the loved one, how is the right of the firstborn handled? In the ancient Near East, inheritance was not divided equally; the firstborn son received a double portion and governed the family's affairs after the father's death. So firstborn status was a very big deal.

This was literally Israel's own history. Jacob—whose name became Israel—had two wives, Leah and Rachel. Leah was the unloved wife, Rachel the loved, yet Leah bore the firstborn son. Moses' instruction is clear: the firstborn of the unloved wife is the firstborn and takes that status. The principle for us is this: God's laws are not subjectively flexible based on the whims, desires, or preferences of His people. Sometimes we think we can fudge a little because we're God's people, holding standards for others we don't hold for ourselves. That is Phariseeism, and it is a real problem.

The Stubborn and Rebellious Son

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son... then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city... and they shall say, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious... he is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. (Deuteronomy 21:18–21, abridged)

One person who read the chapter said this seems to contradict Christ's teaching about the prodigal son—a reasonable observation. The idea that parents would bring their disobedient son to the elders to be put to death for breaking the fifth commandment seems, to us, unfathomable.

But the point of application is not literal capital punishment for disobedient children. It is a simple and profound truth: for God's people, His laws apply equally to all, even those we'd like to give a pass. This principle continues in the New Testament—"there is no partiality with God" (Romans 2:11), "God shows personal favoritism to no man" (Galatians 2:6), "there is no partiality" (Colossians 3:25). The trouble is that we often do show favoritism, applying standards to others we won't apply to ourselves or to our own children. God says, "That's not how it will be for you. You love your kids, but the law applies to them equally."

Hanged on a Tree

If a man has committed a sin deserving of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day... for he who is hanged is accursed of God. (Deuteronomy 21:22–23)

There is much I could say about this verse's connection to Christ. Paul cites it directly in Galatians: "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.'"

But what does it say to us today? Hanging on a tree was not the form of execution in Moses' day—stoning was. This hanging was done after execution as a further shame brought upon the offender and his family, displaying the body naked. After King Saul's death, the Philistines hung his naked body on the walls of Beth Shan (1 Samuel 31). Moses says it is not to be that way among God's people.

Purification, Not Humiliation

For God's people, the judgments of the law are not for humiliation but for purification. We do not use the judgments of God as a way to expose and embarrass hypocrites or shame sinners—yet that is exactly how Pharisees work, pointing the finger to show how foolish and shameful others are. That is not how God wants His law used.

Paul wrote, "We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully" (1 Timothy 1:8). The judgments of God are given to direct us to God and to ready us for His sanctification—to make His people more like the God who calls them. Moses makes it clear: you are not to use these statutes to humiliate offenders and their families, but to cleanse the people and the land.

Stranger Things in the Law

Though there are strange things in Deuteronomy 21, the lessons are important. God was redeeming Israel out of Egypt, but He also needed to remove the mindset of Egypt from them so they would walk in His ways. We may not apply these laws literally today, but the principles beneath them—the spirit of the law over the letter—are vital for us to learn.

Closing Prayer

God, I pray that You would help us learn from the principles found here—the spirit of the law over the letter—so that we would walk in a way that honors and glorifies You. It is clear that when we become Your followers and put our trust in You, You have redeemed and saved us from the curse of the law, because Jesus became a curse for us. Lord, You took our sin upon Yourself on the cross and clothed us in Your righteousness. We are justified, but You want to sanctify us. Remove from our lives all the mindset, ways, customs, and traditions of this world, and continue to transform us more and more into the likeness of Your children. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.