Year 1, Day 170: Deuteronomy 19

Repetition

Alright, today we get several topics that we have heard before.  If you are like me, you probably hit this chapter and said, “This again? Didn’t we cover this several chapters ago and in other books?”  Yes, we did, actually!  And that just shows how much we’ve been paying attention and learning.  The value of repetition is that we get to evaluate what actually have learned by what sounds familiar to our ears!

Repetition also give us an indication to the importance of these concepts.  We repeat that which is important to understand.  So let’s look at these again from a new perspective.

Cities of Refuge

The cities of refuge are there to prevent people who do not intend to kill – but who do kill by accident.  They are a means for these to be able to continue to live in safety.  They are there because righteous nations need a place for true justice to occur.  A righteous nation provides a measure for trials, investigation, and fair punishment.  Whenever we rush to judgment or punish without investigation (whether as a nation, as friends, as parents, or whatever) we are not acting righteously.

Also, notice that it is in chapters like this where we really get a taste of the real focus of God when it comes to sin.  Yes, there are consequences for all actions.  Even the person who kills unintentionally must live limited to within the city of refuge.  But God clearly makes a distinction between the person who kills unintentionally and the person who kills intentionally.  There is hope for the person who kills on accident.  There is retribution for the person who kills and means to do so.

Priests and Elders

Furthermore, notice that it is the priests and elders of the community who judge.  When I read this, I thought of the importance for having elders in the community who are upright and forthcoming with truth.  It is important to have elders to whom their opinions are worth listening.  It is important to have these people within the community so that rest of the people can have good role models and develop trust. 

Paul tells us all about the importance of elders in his letters – especially those to Timothy.  When a culture gets to the point of no longer having people within them who can act like elders and be fair judges and truth-tellers, then it is in serious trouble.  When a community no longer has people who are known for their commitment to God, God’s ways, and God’s truth then it will begin to crumble.

Punishments and the Crime

To conclude this blog, I’d like to return to a concept that I have blogged about in the past.  Punishments must fit the crime.  When punishments are too lax, crime sprees occur since the benefit from doing the crime outweighs the risk of getting caught.  When the punishment exceeds the effect of the crime, the system is seen as unjust and power hungry.  The only system that is truly fair is a system where a person’s crime and punishment are weighted fairly against one another.

I think that we can see this in today’s government.  How many people today truly respect our legal system?  We hear of convicts being exonerated after more evidence (or a deeper look at existing evidence) proves them innocent and unfairly convicted.  We hear of convicts getting out of their sentence after serving a small fraction of the sentence simply because they were on good behavior.  We have a legal system making up silly laws because one lawyer here or there has the desire to exploit a loophole.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that our legal system doesn’t work at all.  Nor am I saying that in our culture I could even do any better.  But I am willing to lift up our own legal system and assert that if we look seriously at it, we can find evidence as to why these principles are important enough to be repeated often and be reminded regularly.

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