Laws Concerning Homicide and Witnesses

Jim ButlerDeuteronomy 19

Deuteronomy 19 applies three commandments of the Decalogue to the concrete conditions of civil life in Old Covenant Israel: the sixth commandment through legislation on cities of refuge distinguishing accidental homicide from murder, the eighth commandment through the prohibition on moving property landmarks, and the ninth commandment through the law of witnesses and its penalties for perjury. The sermon examines the distinction between manslaughter and premeditated murder, the role of the avenger of blood, the lex talionis as a limiting and proportional principle, and the blood-guiltiness that falls on a nation that fails to execute justice. The overarching application is that these laws reveal the sanctity of human life, the justice of God in civil society, and the sinfulness that made such detailed legislation necessary — all of which drives the hearer to the new covenant, in which Christ alone kept what Israel could not.