← Back to sermon library

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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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, 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, 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 
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.