Deuteronomy 21:1-17 (NKJV)
“If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. 4 The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 Provide atonement, O Lord, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
10 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
15 “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 16 then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. 17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
Today’s reading includes three difficult laws God appointed for Old Testament Israel. As civil laws for the earthly kingdom of Israel, they were abrogated when Israel went into captivity.
The law concerning an unsolved murder—another law that provided atonement for the land when blood was shed—restrained Israel from murder. The second and third laws—the laws about female captives and the inheritance of the firstborn, are more troubling. If an Israelite soldier wanted to take a gentile captive as his wife, he could do so. She would shave her head, cut her nails, and put away the garment of captivity. This ceremony allowed her time to mourn her family and prepare her for joining the people of the true God. But if the Israelite man does not delight in the woman, he must set her free so that she may remarry. While this law protects the woman, who had been freed from slavery, from being enslaved again, it sanctions divorce. The third law prevents Israelites from giving the status of firstborn, with all its rights and privileges, to son born of a favorite wife who is not the firstborn. While this law prevents a firstborn son from being defrauded, it sanctions polygamy.
Why would the Lord allow flippant divorce and polygamy among His people? Because Old Testament Israel was both church and state, and “They are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Rom 9:6). Not every Israelite believed God’s word. Many hardened their hearts against it. Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1:9 apply to these laws: “The law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate . . .” These laws were unnecessary for true Israelites, i.e. those who believed God’s promises and wanted to live according to God’s law because they were thankful for His gifts.
God does not give His New Testament Israel—the Church—these same allowances. Christ rules in our hearts by His Holy Spirit so that we curb our sinful desires, receive His forgiveness, and willingly love others as God has loved us in Christ Jesus. This love has no need of laws like these in today’s reading. Let us pray: Fill our hearts with Your love, O Lord, that we may love our neighbors as You have loved us in Christ. Amen.