The Sacredness’s of Life.  (Deuteronomy 21:1-14)

Transcript.

We all know that from a biblical point of view life is sacred.

However, I’d like to ask a question and that is what the practical ramifications of that are.

In the book of Deuteronomy Moses explores that very question.

So, what I'd like for us to do is look at some very little-known laws that really relate to one way or another the concept of the sacredness of life.

I believe the reason these five laws are grouped together in chapter 21 even when they seem so different from one another and for attaching them to the previous legislation is to be found in the desire to bring out the sacredness of life and impress that upon the early covenant nation of Israel.

Now the reason I say that is that the laws which follow don’t seem to be related to each other unless you understand what ties them together is the concept of the sacredness of life.

So that what we are going to look at today, we're going to do is look at 5 relatively unknown situations and laws and try and find their common theme.

Welcome….

Let’s begin right away with verse one ,Moses says.

If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was, 2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighbouring towns.

(Deuteronomy 21: 1-2)

An interesting versus it not, so what is going on?

This verse is talking about somebody who's been killed, and we don't know who did it. The body is found out in a field somewhere.

So effectively this verse is talking about an unsolved murder and what this verse says is that the elders from the various cities near this body are to go out and measure the distance from the corpse to the various cities 

Now why would they do that? Well the answer will be given shortly but before we look at that let me just point out that this verse is at least suggesting that when there's an unsolved murder that somebody has some kind of responsibility of looking into it. That much is obvious from the verse.

The reason they do this measurement is that some city is responsible, but they had to figure out which city so the city closest and the courts there had to assume responsibility to carry out the investigation.

But what is it that the Lord wants them to do. Beginning at this point there are things in this passage that we don't know.

We all know that, from a biblical point of view, life is sacred. But I think this passage begins to ask the question: what are the practical ramifications of that? 

As I said in the introduction, I believe that in this 21st chapter Moses explores this very question. But the way he does it seems strange to our modern ears.

Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead it down to a valley that has not been ploughed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck

(Deuteronomy 21: 3-4)

What is this akll about?

Here it is: a heifer, which is a young cow, representing the unknown murderer; it was his substitute. It was to be an animal that had not done any hard labour.At any rate, verse 4 says, "The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, and they break the heifer's neck.”

Again, we're given some details without any explanation. As you can imagine, Bible teachers start speculating here. One said, "The breaking of the neck symbolized the punishment due to the murderer but executed on his substitute. The blood of the heifer would fall on unplowed ground, which would absorb it. Its blood would disappear into the topsoil rather than turning up at a future date because of plowing. This indicated that the crime deserved capital punishment." 

Again, I don't know that we can prove that, but it's a good suggestion.

Look at verse 5:

" The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault."

(Deuteronomy 21: 5)

So, he is simply saying that the priests are going to be involved in this. All that verse is really saying is they are the Lord's representatives.

The next verse says, 

Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

(Deuteronomy 21: 7)

There is a hand washing, which obviously in Scripture symbolizes innocence or cleansing of some kind. The next verse says, 

and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.

(Deuteronomy 21: 8)

Apparently, there seems to be an implication in all of this that they were ritually unclean, and the washing of the hands solved that problem. If you know anything at all about Mosaic legislation, you know that in the book of Leviticus, it discusses things being clean and unclean.

If you ever touched a dead body, you were ceremonially unclean. Here, the elders are going through the ritual to become ceremonially clean again. One suggestion is that by washing their hands over the heifer, they presented their innocence of the crime and asked that no guilt of bloodshed should be attached to them.

Even when the individual guilt could not be ascertained, there was still a corporate guilt that needed to be addressed. The land was to be cleansed from the defilement of blood, which is to say they were to be cleansed ceremonially.

Verse 8 says.

ccept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, 9 and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

(Deuteronomy 21: 8-9)

This indicates that atonement was made in their situation.

Alright, that's our first case: an unsolved murder. The priests and the elders go out, measure the distance, break the neck of the heifer, and wash their hands. What are we supposed to conclude from this?

I think several observations can be made.

First, as I mentioned earlier, the city closest to the corpse had some responsibility. Cities were responsible for accounting for the murders committed within their jurisdiction and addressing them. When there is an unsolved murder, the city, the community, and the government are to step in and deal with that situation.

Second, this seems to indicate that guilt beyond the individual was involved. The elders washed their hands even though they didn't commit the murder. Some have called this corporate guilt.

In God's government, the ritual prescribed removed the pollution caused by bloodshed, which is what I suggested earlier. They were ceremonially unclean, and this ritual absolved them of that. 

Apparently, we all incurred guilt by not making our communities and our societies safe places to live in.

Maybe our societies should have provided safeguards against this kind of thing happening. Maybe this is the first call for their to be a sort of proto police force and all the other aspects of community safety and security, all the ways in which we protect and serve one another

Lastly, and probably most importantly, this ritual demonstrates how extremely valuable God considers life. Think about this for a minute: if you found a body out in the middle of a field, the family might be concerned and want to give it a proper burial, but the whole city has some responsibility. This implies that there is a sacredness of life. 

This was a serious situation; even though the murderer was not found, the land and the people had some responsibly, some might say guilt, and the animal sacrifice was needed to provide atonement. The elders made atonement, and that, in turn, turned away the judgement of God.

This is the first case: an unsolved murder, treated with great seriousness. It wasn't a matter of finding a body and treating it as something worthless and discarding; they went through an elaborate ritual over this unsolved death or murder.

What strikes me today is detectives still often take unsolved murders very seriously. This seems to me to be part of what's going on in this passage. The first case is of an unsolved murder, and it was treated with the utmost seriousness.

The second case in Deuteronomy 21 concerns the treatment of women prisoners of war.

When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails.

(Deuteronomy 21: 10-12)

In those days if you go out to war as a soldier, and you are victorious, you have the right to the spoils of war. If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and want to marry her, you can bring her home, but she has to shave her head and cut her nails. 

What does that have to do with marriage? What's the significance of this ritual?

First, let's make some observations. Apparently, the soldier was single. Additionally, if you remember from Deuteronomy 20, which gave some rules of engagement, this likely pertains to cities far away because God forbade them to marry Canaanite women. 

Given the context of chapter 20, which talks about cities far off, and the prohibition against marrying Canaanite women, this probably refers to cities outside the boundaries of Palestine.

So, the soldier brings her home, and the text says, “he is attracted to her”. The Hebrew word used here means to love, to long for. So, he falls in love with this woman and brings her home. What happens next? Verse 13 says.

Put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

(Deuteronomy 21: 13)

This presupposes the soldier wasn't married, as it specifically says he may become her husband. Additionally, she is given a month to mourn her parents, suggesting they were killed in the battle.

This mourning period allowed her time to adjust psychologically to her new situation and prepare for marriage. This practice, common in the ancient world, gave her time to adjust to the new relationship.

Interestingly, one commentator I read suggested that shaving her head and cutting her nails made her less attractive, giving the soldier time to reflect on his decision. At that time, it was believed a woman’s beaty was to a great extend encapsulated in the fullness of her hair.

This would give him a month to reconsider whether he truly wanted to marry her. I thought this was quite insightful. Shaving her head and trimming her nails might seem odd to us, but it served a practical purpose.

One commentator noted that the Israelites were unique for this time in that they are commanded here not to rape, plunder, or otherwise mistreat captives as other armies of the ancient Near East did.

This practice protected the dignity of the woman in captivity. This kind of treatment was in stark contrast to the cruel treatment of women captured in war among neighbouring nations.

Now, if all of this isn't interesting enough, what happens next is even more so. Verse 14 says.

If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonoured her.

(Deuteronomy 21: 14)

This implies that if the soldier married her and then decided he no longer wanted to be married to her, he could not not sell her as a slave or otherwise mistreat her.

Therefore there was no opportunity for the soldier to go through some sort of sham marriage in order to have his way with her and then discard her or worse  still profit for the situation by subsequently selling her into slavery.

Regardless of the reason, the woman was to retain a measure of dignity even if she was subsequently divorced.

So, we have seen two cases so far: an unsolved murder and an unwanted wife.

The third case, which I’m going to call "an unloved son," begins in verse 15…..