Tuesday 19th August
Read Deuteronomy 21:1-21
“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. 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 ploughed 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.
10 When 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 make 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 dishonoured her.
15 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 double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
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.” (NIVUK)
This chapter returns to social justice issues relating to unsolved murder, the treatment of captive women, inheritance and a rebellious son. The first is a sacrifice to atone for a life, making the claim of the innocence of Israel before God, the God who gives life. The sequence described apparently parallels the practice of the local Hittite people thus removing the guilt that would have otherwise been there; guilt is dealt with. The second set of instructions are to stop abuse of captive women (makes me think about the reality of abuse of women in our society now) and to give opportunity for those women to be integrated into a household, even in a case where it does not work; vs14 ensures the best outcome possible and recognises that while there are two involved, grace is shown to the vulnerable. The third situation is a clear instruction to avoid conflict; distribution of inheritance is not to be based on emotional attachment but on the just principle that the firstborn is the rightful heir in this cultural setting. The final situation is the most confronting with rebellion of a son leading to parents asking for capital punishment, the ultimate judgement of evil. Some commentators suggest that what is described is rebellion linked to occult practices common to Hittite culture! This would make sense of the reason given in vs2 for this punishment, so that Israel will see and fear the consequences of this evil. Is this the equivalent of a warning about ignoring the instructions given at Sinai? Put these instructions together and is there a common thread? Underlying the apparent ‘harshness’ of the Hittite culture there seems to be a tempering of that harshness with justice and grace, a ‘structure’ to avoid conflict. The stoning of a rebellious/ idolatrous son seems to be the outlier (I don’t think it’s a model for 2025) although it points to the importance of following God and His ‘rules for life’ to ensure a stable and happy society.
Geoff Hinch
