Protection in the Land
Notes
Transcript
Order of Service
Order of Service
Welcome
Welcome
Prayer
Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Notices
Notices
Prayer Meeting - 7:30pm
Friday 7pm - Online
Sunday Morning 11am & 6pm
Tithes & Offerings - £
Main Prayer
Main Prayer
Hymn -
Hymn -
Reading
Reading
“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, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 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. 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. 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. 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, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 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.’ So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament 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. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her. “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Sermon
Sermon
Last Time
Fighting in Faith
Exemptions from Fighting
Offer of Peace
Preservation for the Future (Fruit Bearing Trees)
It is not victory at any cost
We must be concerned and mourn over evil around us and its impact on the church
The Christian View Point
The world we live in is God’s world
The church is God’s Church
We should be concerned about what happens in God’s World
Especially about what happens in God’s Church
We live in a callous society, where violence and murder are taken far too casually by the general public who are not directly involved in what has happened.
Even worse, Christians do not mourn as they should over evils that take place within God’s church
Paul highlights this and warns of arrogance...
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
Protecting the Land from the Guilt of Innocent Blood (v1-9)
Protecting the Land from the Guilt of Innocent Blood (v1-9)
“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, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 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. 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. 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. 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, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 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.’ So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
Deut 20: Removing Evil from the Land
Blood Shed - a great evil in God’s eyes
Witnesses
False Witness
Here, a body is found but it is not known who killed the person
The nearest town is to take responsibility
And, Take action so that the guilt of innocent blood being shed in God’s Land can be purged away
Here the elders of the town were to act on behalf of the citizens
Being an elder was a position of responsbility not a privilege
Heifer was to have it’s neck broken in a valley with a stream of running water
Symbolism of the guilt being washed away and removed from the people
The heifer was the substitute for the murderer
They were to wash their hands over the heifer, symbolising that the city was innocent and that the heifer bore the guilt
Atonement is to be made for the guilt of bloodshed
Important words in the prayer “Do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel”
Here there is a clear need to be concerned about what takes place around us
Indifference towards the breaking of God’s laws can be considered sinful
Protecting a female captive who is brought into the land (v10-14)
Protecting a female captive who is brought into the land (v10-14)
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament 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. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
Throughout history women have been treated extremely badly during times of war
Raped and taken to captors country to suffer degradation and servitude
This was NOT to happen when Israel went out to war against its enemies
Any captives were to be treated very differently
If a soldier saw amongst the captives a beautiful woman, who he wanted to marry, this was permitted but first there was to be a certain procedure
The shaving of the head, paring of the nails and change of clothing seem to signify that the woman was not in a different land from her own, and she was beginning a to live a new life in Israel
She was given time to adjust and mourn the fact she would not see her perents again
After a month he could take her to be his bride
But if there are any problems then
he could not sell her
nor make her his own slave
Reality was that at home there would have been a lack of men, and a life of servitude was the likely alternative
Protecting the Firstborn’s Inheritance in the Land (v15-17)
Protecting the Firstborn’s Inheritance in the Land (v15-17)
“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
God’s Law clearly was against poligamy
the principal of regulating practices were not the will of God
Yet it had encroached amongst the Israelites
Instructions were given to curb the practice
Whatever the reason for two wifes, the firstborn remains the firstborn
The firstborn must be acknowledged
If the firstborn is the son of an unfavoured wife then he is to get double his inheritance
Children are protected from an unfair father
Protecting Parents from a revellious Son (v18-21)
Protecting Parents from a revellious Son (v18-21)
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Here parents are protected from a rebellious and unruly son
Here the son will not listen at all to his parents and has grown up to be “a glutton and a drunkard”
He is not fit for any inheritance
The parents have recourse to the elders as the authority in the town
The death penalty seems very servere to us, but the point is that Israel’s whole stability and continuance in the land depend on obedience
That obedience is first learned in the home
All the men were to join in stoning, showing that the whole town repudiated the spirit of stubbornness and rebellion
The deterant effect was “all Israel shall hear and fear”
Psalm 78:8 “and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.”
Jeremiah 5:23 “But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.”
Rebellion on the home against parents, is rebellion against God, and such rebellion spreads (faint hearted soldier - Deut 20)
Protecting the Land from Defilement by a Dead Body (v22-23)
Protecting the Land from Defilement by a Dead Body (v22-23)
“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Many societies hung the bodies of those who gaced the death penalty for their crimes to deter others, grim visual aids.
Israelites may hear and fear, not see and fear
The practice was not completely outlawed but the body was to be buried the same day.
Such a person was under the curse of God
To make a spectacle of an accursed body defiled God’s Land, so the body had to be be buried out of sight
Paul reminds us of this and the relevance to Jesus’ death...
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Hymn -
Hymn -
Q&A
Q&A
Hymn -
Hymn -
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Doxology
Doxology
