August 30, 2020
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!
In this passage the Lord reveals to us His concern for justice to be upheld among His people. Moses commands the people concerning cities of refuge, to which those who had killed someone unintentionally could flee for their lives, the establishment of property boundaries, and false witnesses. Notice that each of these laws is a specific application of one of the ten commandments (v.1-13 you shall not murder; v.14 you shall not steal/covet; v.15-21 you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor).
The extent of God’s justice, as well as the extent to which the people were to purge all evil from among themselves, are displayed in verse 21. The retaliatory judgment against evildoers was perfectly just: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. Exactly as they had done, or exactly as they intended to do, it was to be done to them.
God is the God of mercy, but He is also the God of justice. We see both put on display ultimately in the cross, where God’s just wrath towards sin and His compassionate mercy towards sinners meet. As His people, God calls us to put His justice on display in the way that we conduct ourselves and in the way we treat others!
Deuteronomy 19
Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge
19 “When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lordyour God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lordyour God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
4 “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— 5 as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, 6 lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. 7 Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.8 And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—9 provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three, 10 lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
Property Boundaries
14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
Laws Concerning Witnesses
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Family Discussion Question:
- Do you think that one of the characteristics of the church today is a concern for justice? Why or why not? How can we move towards being people of justice, as God has called us to be?
dear heavenly Father, thank you for being God of second chances! since i am a sinner and now forgiven i love you and you only, giving you all the praise. Amen
Lord, thank you for your example at the cross❤
We need to purge sin from our land. We have purged God from our land instead so that we no longer have a God consciousness. We need believers to be revived and the lost to be saved. Until then, God cannot bless us but He will judge us.
AMEN and HALLELUJAh!!! There is so much sin in our world. We need to be an example to others of how much the Lord Our God has done for us. We were sinners and now have been forgiven. We need to be sure we treat others the same and show them Gods Love. In Jesus name I pray Amen
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are a mighty, loving and just God. You have taught us not to covet or take from others what is not ours. You are the ultimate judge that we will have to stand before one day. If we remember tht we are all sinners wanting
and needing forgiveness then we will not judge others. We all want what is right and lawfully ours but ultimately everything we have belongs to You. Help us to know when correction is needed and show us how to hold each of us accountable. If we follow Your commandments we will know how to live. Please bring peace to our nation once again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Father, we thank you for your mercy and your sacrifice on the cross for us. We pray that in our land today we could know that vengeance is not ours to give but yours, that you are the One that gives justice. All we have to do is trust you to serve to everyone your mercy and justice. You are the One that instills moral equity. We pray that the people of our country would look to you for justice and mercy and we would be the conduit to spread your love to them and bring peace on earth.
I will love the Lord my God. And walk in His ways always.
Lord, give me wisdom and discernment to know when and how to apply mercy and justice to reconcile people to you and others.
Father,
How wonderful is your creation. The stars and moon shout out of your splendor and power.
In the midst of living today, calm my spirit. I thank you Father for all my many blessings.
Show me a glimpse of heaven that I might share that vision with others that they may recognize you and surrender their lives.
Show me a glimpse of hell itself that I might share that vision with others and may you open their eyes so that they may choose to surrender their lives to the God of the universe.
May my plans be your plans. Continue, O LORD, to bless me, enlarge my territory, fill me anew and afresh with your Holy Spirit, and help me to see evil and to run from it so as not to cause you or anyone pain.
I humbly stand before the throne beside your only son, Jesus Christ, and make my petition known to you by and through his name.
Amen
I think it is interesting to notice how God shows us in these three laws that He set up that He reveals our true hearts of evil intent! Did you see that He showed in each law given a way someone would try to break that law? (Except for the Law of Boundaries!) In the CITIES OF REFUGE – He mentions someone USING that CITY OF REFUGE as a RETREAT for a REAL CRIME OF MURDER he committed! In the second law of the BORDERS SET BY “MEN OF OLD” there is no example of someone trying to “cheat” and maybe move someone’s boundary so he could have more “territory?” Notice the third law given: THE LAW OF WITNESSES What is the term we use for someone who LIES AS A WITNESS in the Court of Law” PURGERY. So, we see the TRUE INTENT of our hearts! “THE LAW WAS WRITTEN TO BE BROKEN!?” I’m so glad Christ died for people who break the LAW! All of us have “Broken the law”! Thus God’s Plan is THE CROSS, where Jesus BLED FOR LAW BREAKERS!