Year 7, Day 172: Deuteronomy 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 21 gives us another series of interesting and disjointed laws.  I don’t know that I have the space to talk about all of them here.  However, feel free to check out the link above if you want a more thorough discussion on each.

As I did read through them, my mind focused on two of the laws.  First, we have the law for the unknown murder.  God’s not dumb.  He knows that murders often occur by people who do not want their act observed.  God knows that within the heart of sin is a place that does not want the sin to be observed.  It is the fundamental essence of sin.  Sin knows that it is set apart from God.  It knows that it cannot stand the light.

However, just because sin is unobserved does not mean that it has no consequence.  Just because sin is unobserved does not mean that it doesn’t affect a community.  Sin always has a way of leaching into the people around us, even if it goes unobserved.  What God desires of us is that we take the time to recognize the unobserved sin around us and ask for repentance.  We might not be able to solve every case of sin, especially among those who wish their sin to remain hidden. But we need not remain blind to their effects.  We would be wise to remain vigilant instead.

The second law that I found interesting is the law for taking women as conquests in warfare.  Of course, we need to understand that this was an entirely different context in which women – especially women of conquered nations – had more in common with property than with being considered a civilian.  That is considerably different than with many modern countries, especially in the western world.  But I find it interesting that there are still rules governing this circumstance.  A conquered woman may be taken as a wife.  But the woman must be allowed to mourn her change in circumstance.  She must be allowed to mourn her loss of community and family.  After this time, she can become a wife to a Hebrew man.

However, it is possible that after watching a woman mourn for an extended amount of time, the man may decide not to keep her.  Perhaps he even feels guilt for what has been done and no longer wants to force himself upon her as his husband.  In this case, she must be set free.  She cannot be kept on as a slave or servant.  The woman must be set free to go and do as she desires.  Considering that we would speak of this overarching aspect of culture incredibly inhumane, we have a remarkably humane decision in the midst of the inhumane cultural dynamic.

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