AM Bible Study Group; August 30, 2011

Deuteronomy 19:1-21

Theme: God commanded that the gift of the land be honored by respecting the life of its inhabitants.

Chapter 19 begins a new section in Deuteronomy. Its focus is on laws that govern and protect human relationship. Much about these laws is unique to Israel among the laws of nations; and shows that God is compassionately concerned with the needs of individual people in the advancement of His purposes.

Note how individual human beings are valued . . .

I. BY PROVIDING CITIES OF REFUGE (vv. 1-13).

A.God commanded that cities be separated in the land that God was giving His people as cities of refuge (vv. 1-3). Roads were to be established for ease of travel to them. This is an expansion on the provision God made in Exodus 21:12-14 and described in greater detail in Numbers 35:9-34. Cities were already established by this point on the East side of the Jordan River (Deuteronomy 4:41-43).

B.The circumstance in which someone was permitted to flee to one of these cities was what we today call ‘involuntary manslaughter’ (vv. 4-7). These cities provided protection of the guilty party’s life from the avenger of blood. The number of cities was to help make it possible for a man to flee to one of them no matter where he may be in the land until a just decision could be rendered. If the land that the Israelites occupied was enlarged—as God promised—they were to set additional cities aside in on the West side of the Jordan (vv. 8-10). This was done in the times of Joshua (Joshua 20:1-9).

C.This would not, however, protect a man who was truly guilty of voluntary manslaughter (vv. 11-13). In such a case, a man who fled to one of these cities was to be turned over for justice. Thus the land would be protected from the shedding of innocent blood. It is a great offense to our holy God when the blood of innocent human beings is shed upon the land He gives. After Cain slew his brother Abel, God told him, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).

II. BY PROTECTING HISTORIC BOUNDARIES (v. 14).

A. The people were also to protect the demarcation of the lands of the inheritance that God was giving them. They were forbidden from moving the boundaries of the land that had been established, or from removing their neighbors landmark.

B. God’s gift of the land to His people was to be considered sacred. It was not to change hands. In the year of Jubilee, land that had been lost or traded was to be reverted back to its original owners (Leviticus 25:13-17). No one was to oppress his fellow Israelite by taking his land (see Micah 2:1-2). It was an act of covetousness and theft. To move the landmark of one’s neighbor, then, was a great sin (see Deuteronomy 27:17; Job 24:2; Proverbs 22:28; 23:20; Hosea 5:10).

III. BY PRESERVING THE INTEGRITY OF JUSTICE (vv. 15-21).

A. In order to further protect the people from acts of injustice, no one was to be judged on the basis of an accusation from one witness only (v. 15). More than one witness must be provided in order for an accusation to be confirmed. This principle is behind the Lord Jesus’ instructions to His church in matters of discipline (Matthew 18:16; see also 2 Corinthians 13:1).

B. In the case in which a witness against someone is suspected of being a false one, the matter was to be brought before the priests and judges (vv. 16-17). If it is determined that the witness was indeed false and malicious, then he was to receive what he had intended to bring upon the one he was falsely witnessing against (vv. 18-21). This law of retribution (or lex talionis) was referred to by Jesus in the Sermon on The Mount—showing us that the spirit of this law is not to do harm, but to prevent retribution from going to extremes (Matthew 5:38-42); such as Lamech did in Genesis 4:23 (“For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me”). Only an eye could be taken for an eye, not a life for an eye.

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We see these protections horribly disregarded in the story of King Ahab and the vineyard of Naboth. Ahab wanted the land of Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money” (1 Kings 21:2). But Naboth told the king, “The LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!” (v. 3).

Ahab nevertheless sinfully coveted the land; so his wicked wife Jezebel took action on behalf of his covetous desre. “And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying, ‘Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people; and seat two men, scoundrels, before him to bear witness against him, saying, “You have blasphemed God and the king.” Then take him out, and stone him, that he may die’” (vv. 8-10). After this was done, she told her husband, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead” (v. 15). Ahab did not respect the land-rights of his fellow Jews, allowed false witnesses to accuse him so that he would be put to death, and did not regard the shedding of innocent blood on the land of his kingdom. And as a result, God brought judgment down upon the house of Ahab.

This was the kind of behavior that was common among the wicked nations that God drove out before Israel. But as these laws in Deuteronomy 19 show us, our God a just and good God who values human beings. He established laws to protect the life, livelihood and rights of the people who live on the land He gave.