Return in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21. We saw this recently in our Bible study on Wednesday evening a few weeks back. And we saw that it truly does set forth two broad themes.
First, the equity of God's law. and secondly, the glory of God's Son. I hope that as we survey this particular chapter at the end, when I return to those themes, you will appreciate the equity of God's law and the glory of God's Son. I figured after such a light sermon like this morning, we should jump into Deuteronomy chapter 21. Basically, what is covered here is the rule concerning an unsolved homicide.
There are some family matters taken up and then what the disposition concerning an executed criminal is. I realize these are themes that we often do not think about. We need to remember that this is written for the people of God on the plains of Moab and Moses delivered these addresses on the plains of Moab to equip the people to go into the land of promise, the land of Canaan, and to occupy that land. They were a special group.
They were a theocracy. They were directly ruled and governed by God Most High and this was their constitution. So there isn't a direct correspondence necessarily with everything that we find here concerning the unsolved homicide, for instance, and then the law concerning female captives of war. Obviously, we're not at war, and so we don't have the question of female captives.
But again, I just want us to understand and get a sense for what does display here the justice or the equity of God's holy law. So I'll just pick up reading in Deuteronomy 21 and read to the end of the chapter and then we'll survey the chapter's contents. 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, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 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 is not pulled with a yoke.
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. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. For the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him their word every... Excuse me. to chosen to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord.
By their word, every controversy 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. Then they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 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.
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. When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife. Then you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 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 into her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 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.
If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have born him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 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. 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. 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 who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious.
He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear in fear. If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
For he who is hanged is accursed of God. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your Word, and we pray now for the guidance of your Spirit.
Though we aren't a theocracy under your direct rule with this as our Constitution in this land, nevertheless this chapter displays the justice of your holy law. It displays equity, and it displays as well, in light of the New Covenant Scriptures, the glory of the Son of God Most High, the only Redeemer of your elect. How we thank you, our Father, for your grace and your mercy in providing to us your written word. We pray that you would receive the things that you would have for us tonight, that we would take these things, that we would ponder them, that it would affect the way that we conduct ourselves.
And we pray in Jesus' holy name, Amen.
Introduction: Five Specifics
As I said, there are five specifics that are dealt with in this chapter. The first is the rule regarding an unsolved homicide, verses 1 to 9. Secondly, the rule regarding female captives, verses 10 to 14. Thirdly, the right of the firstborn son, verses 15 to 17.
Fourthly, the punishment of the rebellious son. And then fifthly, the disposition of the body of an executed criminal. Again, these are some light topics for our Sunday evening on this fair December 9th. But as I said, it does display to us the equity of God's law.
Rule Regarding Unsolved Homicide
Let's just jump right in and look at this rule first of all regarding an unsolved homicide. Note the situation in verse 1. of chapter 21. If anyone is found slain lying in a field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him. Now the presumption is that it's a murder, an unsolved murder.
It could possibly be an accidental homicide. Either way, somebody caused death to another person, whether with premeditation or whether accidentally, and then left that person on their own there in the wilderness. Somebody else comes along and discovers this particular body. Notice that there is a rule prescribed in how you are supposed deal with this situation.
You don't just say, well that's the price of doing business in the land that the Lord our God has given us to possess. No, rather you need to make atonement. There needs to be atonement made with reference to the blood, the innocent blood that has been shed. And so that rule is given in verses 2 through 8.
There is an assumed responsibility. The elders and the judges, probably from the central tribunal, the higher court. They come and they measure the distance between the body and the cities nearby. The elders of the city nearest the slain man then act as representatives.
They assume the responsibility for this dead body. And then what specifically is in view is this atonement. It's not strictly a sacrifice. This does not fall into the same sort of a category as sacrifice.
Notice the rule in verse 3. After you have measured, after you have assumed responsibility, the elders of a particular city, verse 3, 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. 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." Again, it's not strictly sacrificial in nature. Probably this heifer is taken to an out-of-the-way spot, similar to this body that is lying there in an out-of-the-way spot.
Instead of driving a knife into this animal, rather they break the neck. The idea, however, is that there must be a death to atone for the one who has been killed, who has been murdered, who has been destroyed. This is the emphasis in the passage. We are not to allow innocent blood to pollute the land of Canaan, to pollute God's promised land that He has given to His people.
Then notice the priests' involvement. The priests were involved in civil matters as well. Verse 5, 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. 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. Again, it's probably similar to what we find on the Day of Atonement. Remember, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest took one of the goats, sacrificed it, cut it, took in the blood into the mercy seat.
And then there was that second goat that the high priest laid his hands over, and he confessed the sins of Israel. And then he sent that goat into the wilderness. It was a picture. It was a representation.
It was a symbol. It was sacramental in nature. of God's removal of guilt from the people of Israel. The same idea here. They're washing their hands.
They have broken this heifer's neck. It is a symbolic reference that God is purging from them the guilt of this particular blood that was shed. And then note specifically their prayer. Verse 6, all the elders of that city nearest to the slain shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.
Then they shall answer and say, our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel. You see, even though they were not physically responsible, the guilt of innocent blood still lay on the land. And so God prescribes this as a means to purge this guilt from the community.
Note their prayer. 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. Their argument isn't remove this guilt because we're a righteous people.
It's remove this guilt because you're a gracious God. You have redeemed us. You have brought us into this land. There is this unsolved homicide or murder and God we want to do what you've called us to do to deal properly, to deal equitably, to deal righteously with blood that has been shed in our society.
Craigie says, the basis for forgiveness is offered in the prayer. It is not the merit of Israel, but the fact that God had ransomed His people from the bondage of Egypt. The act of ransom had been an act of grace, and on the basis of such glorious precedent, the elders sought another act of grace in receiving the forgiveness of God. And then the particular purpose is underscored in verse 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. Now, what do we learn from this? Well, I think Christopher Wright nails it. He says, it is often when the Old Testament seems most culturally remote from us that we need to pay closest attention to its challenge.
He says, what ought to strike us from this law is not the oddity of a cow with a broken neck in an uninhabited wadi, but the expected response of a whole community through its civic, judicial, and religious leaders to a single human death. One. This ceremony This right, this prescription. If, as I've suggested, it's the higher court, it's the central tribunal that sends out these elders and judges to do the measuring, you've got the Supreme Court involved and then you've got the court at the local level.
You have the priests involved. Here's what Wright goes on to say. In our society, a violent death has to be a particularly gruesome or shocking one to even become newsworthy, let alone a matter for public penitence. We have lost not only any concept of corporate responsibility for blood guilt, having rejected a sovereign moral God to whom we might be corporately responsible, but we have increasingly lost any sense of the sanctity of life itself.
I mean, come on, if somebody is found dead in a brook somewhere, unless they've been decapitated, unless they've been, you know, brutalized in some sort of a manner, it's not even going to make the local paper anymore. Life really just doesn't matter anymore. This teaches us something differently. This highlights the reality that if there is an unsolved homicide, a cold case as we might call it today, God the Lord hasn't forgotten.
God the Lord doesn't hide his eyes. God the Lord doesn't turn away. He says we, or at least our emergency services, can cope with hundreds of road deaths. We can tolerate millions of abortions.
What need have we for rituals of cleansing that would acknowledge responsibility even where personal guilt cannot be assigned? Shedding innocent blood has become a fact of life, silently sanitized by statistics. You see, God doesn't operate that way. God tells them to go through this particular procedure in order to provide atonement for this unsolved homicide.
When we speak of the sanctity of life, it is because man bears the image of God most high, as Gerhardus Vos says. When that image is attacked, it is an assault upon God Himself. And so God prescribes in His Word, in this theocratic situation, in the land of Canaan, a particular rule that speaks to an unsolved homicide.
Rule Regarding Female Captives
Notice, secondly, the rule regarding female captives. Again, Wright says this. We might like to live in a world without wars. I would.
And thus without prisoners of wars. However, Old Testament law recognizes such realities and seeks to mitigate their worst effects by protecting the victims as far as possible. I guarantee you, when we read verses 10 to 14, we are puzzled by this. We think, this is an odd ritual.
This is an odd thing. What is going on here? You want me to tell you what is going on here? These women are being protected by the God of Israel.
That's what's going on. Wright says, if we ask whose interest this law serves, the answer is clearly the female captive. If we ask whose power is being restricted, the answer equally clearly is the victorious soldier. The law is thus a paradigm case of the Old Testament's concern to defend the weak against the strong, war being one of the most tragic human expressions of that situation.
Now, these female captives of war came from the cities outside of the seven cities under the ban. Remember, God sends them into Canaan. There are seven specific cities where they are to utterly destroy everything that breathes. They are to destroy man, woman and child in those cities in Canaan.
These are the farther out cities. These are the cities that when Israel comes to war with, they can offer a peace treaty. And if the people accept those terms and will be subject to Israel, then that's the way it goes. but there were certain cities that were prescribed under the ban. There was no treaty, there was no peace, there was no captives, there was only destruction.
Again, people say, oh, that's a bad thing. Well, God has his reasons and we, you know, we could spend time another time looking at that. So the particular cities in view are the cities that are far from you. Note the means of protection for this particular woman.
You see the situation. You've gone in, you've destroyed your enemy. You see a good-looking woman. You want to take her as a wife.
What does God say? He says you need to do it in a biblical manner. You see, God speaks to these realities in a means and in a manner by which the innocent parties are protected. The woman, specifically, is not to be raped or violated.
What is in view is marriage! Verses 11 and 13. He doesn't say, go into these nations, go into these places, when you destroy the men, you can do whatever it is you want. No, there is a specific reason or a specific end in view.
You see a woman and you want to marry her. God doesn't say you can go in and do whatever it is you want to do. That's not protecting the women. Secondly, the woman is to be given time to adjust to her new circumstances within the home, not a prisoner camp.
This whole idea of cutting her nails or her hair and all that sort of thing, it's found elsewhere in the scripture. It's a purification rite. It's not something so bizarre as to say, oh yeah, you know, look at how these women are treated. No, it's a right of purification.
It indicates the transfer from a foreign community into the covenant community. And then she is given time for mourning. And then notice, thirdly, the soldier who takes this woman to be his wife is not to exercise his privileges for a month. That means no conjugal relationship for that one month span.
Let her mourn. Let her be sad. She's left her family. You're not some pig that just goes in and grabs her and brings her home and has his way with her.
No, God is speaking for the provision and the protection of the particular woman in view here. And then notice, if the man does not want to be married to her. Notice in verse 14, it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free. But you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
You see that? She has freedom now in Israel. If the man does not exercise the responsibility of marriage, if he does not provide for her, if he does not continue to give her that sustenance that she needs, she is allowed to be a free woman. She's not property, she's not bought and sold, she's not traded like a donkey.
She is now a free woman in a free society in the covenant community where Yahweh of Israel is looking out for her. It's a beautiful thing. We mentioned this the other night at our Bible study. More and more nations are imposing Sharia or attempting to impose Sharia.
And you hear people say, well, Sharia is just like the Old Testament. No, it isn't. Yahweh of Israel cares for female captives. Sharia doesn't even care for females.
There's not similarity between the two. What we find in the old covenant law is protection for the judicially innocent.
Right of the Firstborn Son
Note the third instance, the right of the firstborn son. There is a presupposition here. The presupposition is polygamy. Without spending a lot of time on this, the existence of polygamy here is not sanctioned necessarily, but it is regulated again to protect the innocent.
There are a lot of things that came into this world after the fall that in an unfallen world there wouldn't be. But since we're in a fallen world and these things are upon us, God speaks laws to regulate and to protect the innocent parties. We have seen this before. Divorce.
In an unfallen world, there'd be no divorce. But in a fallen world, God has made prescription to protect innocent persons. Capital punishment. In an unfallen world, there'd be no need for the state to execute criminals.
But in a fallen world, there is law given for that particular purpose. Slavery. Again, in an unfallen world, we wouldn't have slaves. But in a fallen world, when there is slavery, God regulates it to protect people, his image bearers.
Warfare. There wouldn't be war in an unfallen world. Right? Everybody with me?
But in a fallen world, God regulates and gives principles even for warfare, so that we don't conduct ourselves like animals, and so that we will respect people like female captives. So in this instance, in verses 15 to 17, the situation is very clear. An Israelite has two wives. He happens to love one more than the other.
Well, the one who is unloved has the firstborn son. What is being prohibited here? Don't give all of your inheritance to the son of the loved woman. Is everybody with me?
You see that? In this instance of polygamy, what could happen? The son of the unloved woman could be bypassed from that inheritance that is rightfully his. God says no.
You do what's right. You go based on principle. You go based on love. If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they are born in children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 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." Don't let that cloud your judgment.
Don't let that affect inheritance rights. Don't be willy-nilly. Be a man of principle. You're going to take two wives and you're going to function in that capacity.
You don't jit the son of the woman that you don't love as much that is the rightful heir to firstborn status. You see, God's law is equitable. I hope you appreciate that. I hope you'll never kowtow to people and say, oh, that Old Testament is so barbaric.
It's so wretched. It's so cruel. No, it isn't. It's so God glorifyingly fair and equitable that the people who are made in His image find protection.
And then
Punishment of the Rebellious Son
notice, fourthly, the punishment of the rebellious son. This is an interesting section. We're going to spend a little more time here. There is a connection between these two scenarios.
The son, the firstborn son, What happens here? The father acts like a tyrant. The father says, well, I love this one, so I'm going to give the inheritance to him who is not the rightful heir. That's tyranny.
That's capricious. That's vile. That's wretched. But then the text goes on to specify the contrary violation, a son who is rebellious, a son who is incorrigible.
We move from tyranny to anarchy within the home. Both are equally offensive to the living and the true God. Klein says, if misuse of authority produced tyranny, disrespect for proper authority would produce anarchy, the very contradiction of the covenant order as a manifestation of Yahweh's Lordship. Let's look at the punishment of the rebellious son.
We have to identify this son in verse 18 I have five brief observations. I know again five means all we're gonna be here for a while We're not notice first.
Identifying the Rebellious Son
This does not apply to a naughty child, but to a rebellious adult son Please get that You'll hear this from people. Well, you know, Deuteronomy says we're to take our two-year-old out because he had a tantrum, and deliver him over to the elders of the city, and watch them stone him to death. This is not a child. I have yet to meet a two-year-old, or a five-year-old, or a ten-year-old, or even a fifth... well, anymore fifteen-year-olds are guilty of being drunkards and gluttons.
This is a late teen. This is an adult. Remember, this is a time when there wasn't adolescence. You were a child or an adult.
You didn't have this teenage period where you got to sit and play Nintendo and not have any responsibility. That's a modern invention. You were either child or adult. There was no adolescent phase.
This is an adult son. This is a rebel. This isn't the boy who doesn't finish his waffles. Though boys, finish your waffles.
Because if you don't, you may end up like this particular person. Secondly,
Parental Discipline Presupposed
this passage presupposes the exercise of parental discipline. when they have chastened Him, and He will not heed them." Just on the bare reading of this passage, brethren, it would be foolish to assume that this happened a lot in Israel. Do you know how long parents would forego? How long parents would suffer? How long parents would exercise patience? while they're chastening their son, while they're praying for their son, while they're loving their son, to get to the point where they take that boy to the elders of the city and they turn him over for capital punishment.
There's a lot of pain in a passage like this. People do not arrive at this situation willy-nilly. This is a long, drawn-out process of dealing with an incorrigible, rebellious son. Thirdly,
State's Monopoly on Execution
this demonstrates the state's monopoly on capital punishment. The family and the church do not have the right to execute criminals. That's simply not the case. Fourthly, the passage shows respect for father and mother.
It's very interesting. He will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother. She's on equal footing. She's not inferior, she's not property, she's not the eldest daughter, but rather she is an authority over this boy.
And if he disobeys the father and he disobeys the mother, it is tantamount to disobedience to the living and the true God. And then fifth, this case highlights the specific violation in view. He is stubborn and rebellious. Drunkenness and gluttony are symptoms of the bigger problem.
He's not being stoned because he's a drunkard and a glutton. He's being stoned because he's stubborn and rebellious and he's incorrigible. That manifests itself or it fleshes itself out in a pattern of drunkenness and gluttony. His issue is deep-seated.
His issue is ingrained. His issue is a problem with authority, namely the God of Israel and his parents. The latter words, Craigie says, glutton and a drunkard do not specify the crime, but indicate by way of example the kind of life that has resulted from disobedience to parental authority. The crime, in other words, is disobedience, but the result of the crime is the dissolution of a proper style of life.
And then note the procedure involved. The parents take him to the elders of the city. The parents then level charges against the child. Again, if you think this was a willy-nilly thing, you know, they just used to kill people in Old Testament Israel, you haven't thought through the passage.
You know how parents are. You know how you are. This wasn't something you sat around at the kitchen table and said, if you don't stop it, I'm going to take you to the elders of the city and turn you over to be stoned. You didn't joke like that.
This is final. This is death. This is heavy. This is hard.
Based on chapter 17, we assume this case is heard and decided like any other criminal case. Not the case that a father might be upset at his son and say, you need to take care of this kid. No. Deuteronomy 17 prescribes.
You hear witnesses. You weigh evidence. You seek out witnesses. All those things come to pass.
What we have here is an abbreviated form. They deliver him up. We are supposed to assume from Deuteronomy 17. They try the case appropriately and accordingly.
And then if he is in fact found guilty, the elders then make this determination. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones, so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." Put away evil from Israel and promote fear in Israel. One man comments on this section. His name is Vern Poitras.
He's a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. In a very good book called The Shadow of Christ and the Law of Moses, he makes this comment. He says the death penalty for wholesale violation of parental authority may seem harsh to modern sentiments. Maybe a little bit offensive to us.
We're delicate. We just don't see such things. Hopefully, as I've described it in a little bit more detail, you see there's more going on and this guy won't eat his peas. He says, but I would argue that it is not only just but realistic.
Parental authority, even if very imperfectly exercised, takes place in the context of personal relationships and natural pressures in the direction of love. Parents have many advantages over the state. If a person does not receive instruction from parents, the chances of receiving instruction from the state's more impersonal discipline are nil. The man doesn't respond properly to his mom.
What does he care about the RCMP? A man doesn't care about his mother. Why should he care about a government agent? It just doesn't follow.
He says the person who rebels in wholesale fashion against parents will also rebel against the state and create a general destruction and disorder until eliminated. He says it is mere sentimentality to refuse to come to grips with this reality. There was something in place for the hardened criminal in Old Covenant Israel. And then
Disposition of the Executed Criminal
the fifth situation is the disposition of the body of an executed criminal. I'm not smiling because this is funny. I'm smiling because it's probably not what you expected tonight. We go from the Sermon on the Mount to the plains of Moab.
We go from the Golden Rule to how do we deal with a body that's been put to death. Notice the executed criminal. If a man is committed a sin deserving of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree. This isn't military operations.
This isn't when they'd hang an offending king or an offending soldier on a tree to instill fear in the rest of the persons. This is the execution of a criminal in Israel. His body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hanged is accursed of God." The body was to be removed from the tree.
The body was to be disposed of properly, buried that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Remember, they're going in to Canaan. They're going to conduct themselves as a body politic. There will be offenders.
There will be execution. But there are rules governing such things so that we're not barbarians. so that we're not callous and vile and wretched, but rather God's order is one that does bespeak something of His equity, of His justice, and of His righteousness. I hope by the end of this chapter you see and appreciate that truth. God is just.
He does not take lightly the death of an individual, even if it's an unsolved homicide. God's justice is seen in these rules governing these female prisoners of war. God's justice is seen in these rules governing inheritance to the firstborn son of a man. God's justice is seen in the dealings with this incorrigible, rebellious son who will not be reasoned with.
And God's justice is seen, finally, in this section where the body is to be taken off of the tree and buried that day. So I hope, I pray, I desire, and I would really appreciate it if you would approach Deuteronomy 21 and instead of going, wow, this is a bunch of weird stuff, you say, praise God Almighty, for His equity and His justice and His righteousness.
The Glory of the Son
That was the first theme. The second theme is the glory of the Son. And if you say, where is the glory of the Son? The glory of the Son is seen in those last two accounts.
Christ as the Accused Rebel Son
It is no accident, my beloved brothers and sisters, that in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus was accused of being a winebibber and a glutton. Do you know what the Jews were thinking? The Jews were thinking that this Jesus is the disobedient son. This Jesus, the winebibber and the glutton, is only worthy to suffer death.
This Jesus, being the rebel that he is, deserves punishment at the hand of God and the state. And as we know from the scriptures, 2 Corinthians 5.21 tells us that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. In other words, the one who was obedient was made disobedient. Not made in the sense that he actually became a sinner, but he was constituted a sinner.
And he was made thus so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. When we read this section about the rebellious son, we need to think of Jesus Christ taking upon Himself the penalty for rebel sons like you and I. That God did in fact make Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. You say, well, how do you know that this is the case?
Again, Matthew chapter 11, certainly, verse 19, Jesus said, you call me a winebibber and a glutton. And I think the larger context there is that Matthew is showing us that it's not Jesus that's the disobedient son, it is Israel that is the disobedient son. And they will ultimately be cut off under the wrath and fury of God. There is that element wherein Jesus assumes our disobedience in order to pay the price for our rebellion against the living and true God.
So Matthew 11, 19 specifically targeted at the Lord Jesus.
Christ Cursed and Hanged on a Tree
But then this statement concerning the body on the tree. Who quotes this in the New Testament? Who speaks of this passage in the New Testament? Well, in case you have forgotten, I'll just read it.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. I hope you're all saying, Paul and Galatians. You should be right. Galatians 3.10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
So brethren, as you read Deuteronomy 21, marvel at the equity of God's law and marvel at the glory of God's Son, that the Lord made Him who knew no sin to be the disobedient Son, to punish Him in our stead. Paul links that atonement. Paul links that curse bearing. with what we find there at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 21. It really is an amazing link.
It really is an amazing picture and it really does hopefully shed some light upon what's going on there in Deuteronomy 21. We have a great Savior, a glorious Lord, one who was in fact made sin on behalf of his people. Again, not that he actually sinned. It was a transaction.
It was constituted. And he did that for the disobedient sons that the Father had given him. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for our Lord Jesus, and we pray, Lord God in heaven, that we would appreciate his redemptive work on our behalf, his curse bearing at Calvary on behalf of those whom you had given him. And God, may we as well appreciate the equity of your law and your dealings and the way that you prescribe law and rule and principle to deal with issues that affect people in this world. Give us an appreciation for these sorts of things, God. Give us a desire to think your thoughts after you, to apply your word in our own daily lives, in our own situation.
And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.