Deuteronomy Chapter 21
God’s intention has always been that man would live in harmony with Him. But man has broken that relationship because of his or her sin. The same intention was true for the promised land and God declared it to the Israelites before they ever set foot on that ground. God wanted an intimate relationship with the people He had chosen to be His set apart ones. The last verse declares what God demanded for that relationship to be whole. “You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. Deuteronomy 21:23
There were many ways that man could and did defile the land of Israel, but despite all that transpired we must remember that God never gave up on them and He never deserted them. God was always with them, and He still is with His people.
Let's Reflect
1. One way they must not defile the land is to leave the dead body of someone lying on the ground. It may be that no one knows what happened to that person, but the body needed to be taken care of. A sacrifice was made on behalf of the slain man. And even though no one knew who committed the murder, God did. The priest would ask for atonement for that man’s murder. According to verse 8 why did they perform this request of atonement?
2. God allowed them to take captive women and children of enemy peoples that they would go to war against. A man might be attracted to one of those women and want to take her as his wife. The woman who was willing to be his wife would show humility by shaving her head and trimming her nails to denounce any ties to her past worship of other gods. How many days would the man wait to consummate the marriage?
3. The time of waiting before consummating the marriage was a test for both the man and the captive woman. It was a test for the woman to see if she would give up her past ties and a test for the man to see if he would wait to see if this woman was going to become the woman he could take as a wife and live under the rules and laws of God. If something in her character began to show that she was not going to follow God, what would the man then do?
4. In verses 15-17 we might be tempted to see this situation of a man having more than one wife as a contradiction to Scripture. God has not contradicted Himself but rather man has. This passage assumes that a man has gone against God’s laws and taken a second wife already. The issue discussed here is that because there is the problem of two wives, when the man hands down his birthright to his sons under normal circumstances the double portion would go to the first-born son. For example, if a man had 5 sons, his inheritance would be divided into 6 portions. The first-born would receive 2 of the 6 portions and the rest their equal portions. The question presented and answered here is that the first-born son belongs to the wife that is not loved as much as the second wife. What did God’s law state regarding who should receive the double portion of the birthright?
5. Another defilement of the land is a rebellious son. God stated that when a son was so rebellious that nothing the father or mother said would change the ways of the son, then the parents were to take action regarding the rebellion. The judgement for this rebellion was stoning, but what first had to take place before the stoning of the son occurred?
6. What example was given of the rebellion of the son, what was he doing or not doing?
7. And the last example of a defilement in the land was a man who had received the death penalty for his crime and then his body was put on display for all to see by hanging him from a tree. What did God say needed to happen regarding this man’s body? And what did God say about a man who was hanged on a tree?
