Setting – Instructions are given regarding how to handle an unknown killing. Instructions were given about wives from a captured city and handling of a stubborn and rebellious son. And instructions were given regarding death by hanging.
Content – If a man was found dead and no one knew who killed him, a non-worked heifer (from the closest city to the dead man) was to be brought to the valley of running water where no farming has been done, along with the priest, and it’s neck broken. Then the elders of the closest city were to wash their hands over the heifer confirming that they didn’t kill the man or didn’t know who did. Asking God for forgiveness; requesting that the guilt of innocent blood not be held against them. This will remove the bloodguilt from their midst if they do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
If an Israelite finds a captive woman (woman from a city that Israel captured) and wants him for a wife, he is to shave her head and trim her nails. She is to go into morning for her father and mother for a full month. After this she could be his wife. If the man is somehow displeased with her, he can let her go from the union, but not to sell her.
If a man has two wives and loves one but not the other, the first-born (if from the unloved wife) would receive a double portion of what the father. The son of the loved woman wasn’t to supersede the first-born just because he was from the loved wife.
A stubborn and rebellious son would does not listen to his father or mother was to be brought before the elders of the city, the city would stone him to death. This was to purge the evil from their midst.
Lastly, a guilty man worthy of death would die by hanging from a tree. They were to remove and bury the hung man before evening; not letting him hang over night.
Application – God wants evil out of the midst of Israel. He wants the death of the heifer to remove bloodguilt and the death of a stubborn and rebellious son in order to remove the evil from them. It’s repeated often in Number and Deuteronomy (as well as the rest of the bible of course) that God hates sin (evil). He is so serious about removing it, that death is often the requirement for its removal. He requires from Israel to utterly destroy nations, man, women and child that are an abomination to him, ones that are plagued with sin.
If God is this serious about sin, how can we not take it just a serious? We see some levels of sin, some worthy of death, others requiring animal sacrifices. In all cases, death, either of the person or an animal, is the punishment for the sin. Christ death of the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, removing the sin from the individual once and for all. But the sin we still engage in is still serious. Just because we aren’t the ones to die for it, the sin is still to be removed from us.
Content – If a man was found dead and no one knew who killed him, a non-worked heifer (from the closest city to the dead man) was to be brought to the valley of running water where no farming has been done, along with the priest, and it’s neck broken. Then the elders of the closest city were to wash their hands over the heifer confirming that they didn’t kill the man or didn’t know who did. Asking God for forgiveness; requesting that the guilt of innocent blood not be held against them. This will remove the bloodguilt from their midst if they do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
If an Israelite finds a captive woman (woman from a city that Israel captured) and wants him for a wife, he is to shave her head and trim her nails. She is to go into morning for her father and mother for a full month. After this she could be his wife. If the man is somehow displeased with her, he can let her go from the union, but not to sell her.
If a man has two wives and loves one but not the other, the first-born (if from the unloved wife) would receive a double portion of what the father. The son of the loved woman wasn’t to supersede the first-born just because he was from the loved wife.
A stubborn and rebellious son would does not listen to his father or mother was to be brought before the elders of the city, the city would stone him to death. This was to purge the evil from their midst.
Lastly, a guilty man worthy of death would die by hanging from a tree. They were to remove and bury the hung man before evening; not letting him hang over night.
Application – God wants evil out of the midst of Israel. He wants the death of the heifer to remove bloodguilt and the death of a stubborn and rebellious son in order to remove the evil from them. It’s repeated often in Number and Deuteronomy (as well as the rest of the bible of course) that God hates sin (evil). He is so serious about removing it, that death is often the requirement for its removal. He requires from Israel to utterly destroy nations, man, women and child that are an abomination to him, ones that are plagued with sin.
If God is this serious about sin, how can we not take it just a serious? We see some levels of sin, some worthy of death, others requiring animal sacrifices. In all cases, death, either of the person or an animal, is the punishment for the sin. Christ death of the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, removing the sin from the individual once and for all. But the sin we still engage in is still serious. Just because we aren’t the ones to die for it, the sin is still to be removed from us.
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