5/3/12. Deut 21:1-23. FORGIVE AND REDEEM YOUR PEOPLE

Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF       Thursday, May 3, 2012
Deuteronomy 21:1-23          Key Verse: 21:8

“Accept 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,”

Dear Lord, Jesus. Thank you for your love and your grace. You have brought us the forgiveness of sins. You have given us a heavenly hope, beyond all the false hopes in this world. You give us strength and newness of life. Draw us near to you. Help us to hear your still small whisper in our hearts today. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1. Forgiveness and Redemption (1-9).
Verses 1-9 read, “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 neighboring towns. 3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke 4 and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. 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. 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept 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.”

In this passage, there are deep overtones of Jesus’ death and sacrifice for our sins. If a man is murdered mysteriously and the perpetrator cannot be determined, then the nearest community should assume collective responsibility and sacrifice a new heifer to make atonement for the sin and purify the land of guilt. Actually, if the murderer can not be found the chances are that the murderer resides in the nearest town or vicinity. The town had to do something with the body. They just couldn’t bury the body in some unknown grave and forgive about it. The principle here applies today. When there is murdered body found and no one knows who it is and who did it, then the nearest town must investigate the murder. They swallow the cost. Local churches may have church services to commemorate the person’s life and honor the dead person. They must give the body a decent burial. Again, they swallow the cost. Then there must be some counseling in the community to come to terms for what happened. All this is the responsibility of the nearest community.

I can see that the people had a collective identity. They had a sense of “we” and not just “I”. That is why it is hard for us to understand the need to seek forgiveness for something that we personally did not do. It is because we are so individualistic. But if our community’s “sons or daughters” are killing people and not standing up to take responsibility for their crimes that each of us are collectively responsible for contributing to a sub culture that has allowed thing like this to happen. In that case we can take responsibility and seek atonement and forgiveness.

This required a deep sense of the people desire for God’s forgiveness and redemption, as well as a longing for national holiness. The image of the circumstances surrounding thins incident describes the power of sin. Sin is random (for the body just appeared on the field) and life-threatening and brings a curse. When we are confronted by the power of sin, we need to accept responsibility and pray for our community and nation to be forgiven and redeemed.

The question is, “do I still pray for my community and nation as a whole?” I should. But most of the time our prayers are limited to me and my own family and my own personal ministry. Through this passage, I realize that our prayers should be bigger in breadth and depth. We must confess our small vision that embraces so little in our hearts. May God grow us into giants of prayer who can pray for the forgiveness and atonement of my people and nation. For this reason we have just re-implemented world mission night.

Part 2. Protection for Women and Children (10-17).

Verses 10-17 read, “1When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails 13 and 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. 14 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 dishonored her.”

It seems to us wrong that the women would see their fathers and brothers and sons killed and then be forced to marry the ones who did the killing. But it is mercy that the women and children we not killed. The men were killed because they did not surrender to the Israelites. They could have surrendered (Deut 20), then they would be subjected to slavery. They would have survived and eventually found their place among the people of God. But they refused and resisted and fought against the Israelites. It was war. It was also the judgment of God against wicked forms of idolatry.

It happened then (1400 BC), but must never happen in the New Testament era. There was mercy however. First, they were given a chance to surrender. Second, if the woman is taken as a wife she must be respected. She must not be treated as a slave or servant. She must be respected and her feelings considered. A foreign woman who was captured and taken as a bride was given rights in the Israelite community.

There must be justice implemented when there is a transfer of money and inheritances. A man can not be denied his inheritance rights simply because his father does not love his mother. Look as verses 15-17, “If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a doubleshare of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.”

The inheritance of a firstborn son should be protected. It was a matter of law and justice. Things could not be left to the feelings and whims of the husband. There was the rule of law in this community. Thank God for the rule of law. We are not at the whims of someone else’s feelings. This rule of law was revolutionary in 1400 BC. However the Babylonians had a law code on 1722 BC. But it was must have been rare among the desert tribes and small villages. I thank God for the rule of law in America, which is heavily influenced by the Bible. I pray that I may be a man who upholds justice in all areas in my life.

Part 3. Disobedience and Curse (18-23).

The ancient Israelites had some very serious rules in regard to a son’s rebellion Deuteronomy 21: 18-21 reads, “18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.”

In these ancient times, a rebellious son was to be stoned before the community. This is very harsh. But the times were very harsh. These ancient Israelites were at war. They were also in a spiritual battle against idolatry. They needed to keep their identity as a people belonging to Jehovah and they needed to keep their faith. In the midst of such an environment there was no time and no room for a son’s selfish rebellion. It just could not happen. No way!

Nowadays we are not at war. The environment is not that intense and dangerous. We need to give our kids space in order to not believe and work things out. We need to be patient and prayerful. But this is how this seriousness should be applied. We need to have an attitude in our hearts that rebellion and stubbornness should not be tolerated, but if it happens we must not ignore it. We need to now how serious sin is and we need to deal with it with grace, truth, prayer and gentle instruction. That is the difference that Jesus and the Gospel makes. There is grace and a place to not believe. We must also make a distinction…are our kids rebelling against the truth of God and the Gospel or are they rebelling against our human rules and the man-made rules of our family religion or sect or family philosophy? Maybe the kids’ rebellion is not really rebellion at all. Maybe we need to reassess the rules we are trying to enforce and the structures we are keeping. But if they are rebelling against the Gospel itself, instead punishing them, we must take this seriously and respond with prayer, faith, gentle instruction and tolerance. God will do his work in their hearts in his way and in his time.

There is another reference to Jesus here. Look at verses 22-23 read, “ If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.”

A man worthy of death should be hung on a tree as a sign of being cursed. Jesus was sinless but he suffered and died on the cross for our sins. All the punishment, due us, because of our sins was poured out on him. Jesus bore all our rebellion before God and was cursed in our place. That is one reason he had to hang on a cross. He could not have been poisoned, or stoned or shot. He needed to die on the tree so that we would know that he was cursed on our place. It is a fact and God was working through history. Jesus suffering and death was not a mistake but the plan of God.

Prayer: Lord, we need to be forgiven and redeemed through Jesus.

One Word: Pray for the redemption and forgiveness of all of America.