Deuteronomy 21:1-9 "Unsolved Murders"

Text Read

“If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every dispute 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 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

Text Explained

Up to the this point the laws regarding homicides have focused on those involving witnesses. Here we come to a situation where foul play is evident, but no witnesses are around or forthcoming. How could the community answer for the shedding of blood found in their area of responsibility? A murder has taken place and justice must be done, but who is to bear the blame when none in the community know who has committed the killing? Does it even matter?

Setting

“If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, Billy is moving his flock and he comes upon a corpse. He can tell by the multiple stab wounds that the corpse did not die of natural causes. Billy returns to his town and alert the village judges and elders.

Response

2 then your elders and your judges (Representatives from your community/city) shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. The elders would have the responsibility to determine which town is closest. The city nearest to the murder becomes responsible for the crime that was committed within its borders and thus is required to perform the ritual of atonement for that city.

Rabbit Trail: Why does it even matter? Why does there have to be an atonement ritual if the guilty individual is unknown? Genesis 9:5-6 reminds us of the value of a human life. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. In the time of Noah, God sets down the value of a human life. If a person or even an animal takes the life of a human being, that animal or that human must forfeit there own life. In this we find that the cost of a life is the murderers life. We see the sacredness/value of 1 human life is the life of the murderer. Be it man or animal an animal that murderers a person, that man or animal’s life is now forfeit. A person cannot pay their way out of this penalty. The reason a human is so valuable is because that person was made in the image of God. To murder a human being is to strike against God Himself. 1 Samuel 2:6 “The Lord kills and brings to life; He brings down to sheol/grave and raises up.” Again 1 Timothy 6:13 “…God, who gives life to all,...” God is the Giver and Taker of life. It is His prerogative whether a person is to live or die and a murderer is taking the authority of God into their own hands and ending the life of one who bears His image. It is God’s right to take a human life and not any others. This is the reason why a ritual of atonement was needed. The responsibility for this ritual falls on the officials of the city nearest to the body. This does not mean that the city is held responsible for the crime or even suspected of it. The city is not liable for compensation to the family of the victim. “Rather, unatoned blood-guilt affects the whole community, and the officials of this city act to make amends on its behalf.” (McConville, J. G. (2002). Deuteronomy (D. W. Baker & G. J. Wenham, Eds.; Vol. 5, p. 327). Apollos; InterVarsity Press.) To help us understand the seriousness of this, we once more consider the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were the people who had come to Joshua and pretended to be a people from far away. Joshua failed to seek the Lord’s guidance and treated them as if they were from a far country. When the ruse became known, the Gibeonites were spared and treated as vassals to the Israelites. Later, Saul, in his zeal, broke the treaty the Gibeonites had made with Joshua and attempted to commit genocide upon them. Later still, 2 Samuel 21:1-14 tells us of a famine that was sent upon the land for three years. David seeks the Lord and the Lord says “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.” The entire nation was suffering a famine for three years because large scale murder had occured and the blood of the murdered was not atoned for. This is the gravity of un-atoned murder/blood-guilt. The city must offer some type of covering for the blood-guilt that occured in their city.

3 And the elders of the city (Representatives) that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. Blood sacrifices always had to be offered on altars and many towns would not meet that criteria. So the animal would have to have it’s neck broken. The breaking of the neck would also symbolize the taking of the murderers life.

5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD (Representatives of the Lord), and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. While we are not exactly sure what role the Priests would play in this. One scholar notes ‘they come late, have nothing to do, but simply cannot be left out’ (McConville, J. G. (2002). Deuteronomy (D. W. Baker & G. J. Wenham, Eds.; Vol. 5, p. 328). Apollos; InterVarsity Press.) Perhaps they are their as witnesses to the guilt or innocence of the community at large.

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 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 8 Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ In light of this uncertainty the town elders, on behalf of all the people, were to symbolize the innocence of the community by washing their hands over the carcase of the heifer (v. 6), then state their collective innocence of the deed or even of being witness to it (v. 7), and plead with the Lord to accept their act of exculpation and absolve them of any blame for the death of the victim (v. 8). Once this was carried out sincerely and properly, the removal of guilt effected by it would be proclaimed, presumably by the priests who must somehow become instruments of this declaration. (Merrill, E. H. (1994). Deuteronomy (Vol. 4, p. 289). Broadman & Holman Publishers.) 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. “The ritual is explained in connection with the prayer of the elders (8); it is best understood as a visual representation of the removal of sin and its effects from the land...the aim of the whole process has been to protect the community from the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and the consequences of it. (McConville, J. G. (2002). Deuteronomy (D. W. Baker & G. J. Wenham, Eds.; Vol. 5, p. 329). Apollos; InterVarsity Press.)

Text Applied

So what we find in this section is a murder has occured. There is no way for the community to make it right by punishing the guilty. Therefore the community, through its’ representatives, condemns the murder and offers the heifer as a substitute as a substitute for the unknown murderer. In this way, they publicly acknowledge the wrong that was done in their community, condemn it, and offer an example of what would happen to the murderer. Why is this important? You see to simply bury the dead and move on would make it easy for people to turn a blind eye to the atrocities of others. What is at stake here is the guilt of the community. The nameless individual who committed the murder is guilty, but how the community responds when that atrocity occurs is also relevant. It is not enough for the people to not do bad things, but the community was being required to condemn the atrocity even if there was not an individual to condemn.

How you respond to evil matters? Christian, it is not enough for you or I to say “well I don’t do such and such”. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In the Church, Church Discipline: One of the most heart-wrenching things that churches have to do is church discipline. Where the church removes someone from their body over unrepentant sin. Yet we see a glimpse of the need of it. When the community found out about a murder in their community, they had a public ritual to atone for that sin so that the blood-guilt would not be upon the whole community. To ignore the sin would be to become complicit in the sin. If the Church knows about sin in the life of one who is a part of that body, yet the church never go to that individual and lovingly confront them, if they simply ignore it, then the church becomes complicit in the sins of the individual.

In the Culture: In our culture, there is great evil occuring. It was not enough for the Israelites to individually say, “I am innocent of that sin” they had to make public condemnation of sin. For Christians, our relationship with Christ must be personal, but it can never be private. Our relationship with Christ must be personal, but it can never be private. Our culture has quietly accepted the murder of thousands of innocent children. How you vote matters. Racism exists, what you say matters.

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