Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Deuteronomy 21 through 22, God establishes laws for the people of Israel. Laws for handling murder?
laws about marriage and family. Safety and stewardship. and laws about following God single heartedly. Pastor Rich unpacks each of these laws within their historical and biblical context. showing the heart behind them.
These are national laws for Israel, but could it be that they also point toward the gospel? Pastor Rich shows eight ways these laws pave the way for Jesus in this message titled, Accept Atonement, O Lord. for your people whom you have redeemed. Good morning, church. We are in section four of the book of Deuteronomy.
You'll remember: this is Moses speaking to the generation, the next generation of Israelites. They came out of Egypt to the Promised Land. And um They are about to go into the promised land, the land that God has promised the forefathers. And Moses is speaking to them, calling he's giving them a history lesson. He's calling them to faithfulness.
They are a people who worship God. They are a people who are set apart. This is section four, a people set apart. These are this section through chapter 26 is a list of various laws, all kinds of laws. The Mosaic Law.
And these are laws to protect the land. The family? The innocent And the weaker person. A lot of these laws protect women and children. And we will see that these laws stand apart.
from the Neighboring nations, the godless, the pagan nations around, and the laws that they had. And these laws stand apart. And we talked about that last time because of their relationship with. The holy living Creator God, Jehovah. And also because of that, the uniqueness of human life created in the image of God, human beings as image-bearers.
So we're going to go through chapter 20.
So, we have to do that. Chuckle, chuckle, right? And um Let's do this. As I was studying this, it became very apparent to me that there is so much. In this passage of scripture, That points to the cross.
The songs that we sang this morning were just absolutely perfect. For this. Because we will see that there is so much in here that foreshadows the cross, the coming of Messiah, Jesus, the Savior of humanity. That's what all this is about. But also, there's going to be some elements in here that by contrast.
Champion the grace of God as we see the whole of Scripture in its context.
So let's do this. We begin in chapter 21, verses 1 to 9, the section that Dwight just read for us. And again, as we talked about last time, all of the precepts have an underlying principle to them, which is why they are appropriate for us. The underlying principle.
So I'll be, I'll introduce each section. by the underlying principle that it presents. In chapter 21, verses 1 to 9, the underlying principle is atonement for guilt. Atonement for guilt is a necessary thing. In God's economy there must be atonement for guilt.
Murder or manslaughter is an affront to God's justice because God alone is the giver and taker of life. He alone has the authority for that.
So in this case, the guilty party is unknown.
Someone has lost a life and the guilty party is unknown, whether it was by accident or it was intentional murder. In other words, it's an unsolved mystery. And God presents a prescribed right. for atonement for this to happen. It happens.
the responsibility falls on the nearest city. I want you to look with me at verse 8. And as this atonement happens. Out in the wilderness. Except verse 8, accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.
Now there's a foreshadowing of the cross there, isn't there? Right? We'll get to that. We'll get to that. But what is important here, what is important here is the sanctity of human life.
the sanctity of human life. negligence, indifference, or hostility. towards the life of another human being. is an affront to the one whose image that person bears. That's the underlying principle behind all of this.
And that is why there has to be atonement for guilt. in the taking of human life. Any human life. And I might add whether that person is alive and walking on their own two feet or in the womb of their mother. There's a lot of people that have a lot to answer for today.
Here's the second one. The underlying principle is protection for females, and this is something that sets. The Mosaic law very much apart from other pagan cultures and law systems. and his protection of females. As we saw last time, Uh they th those countries that would Challenge Israel by opposing God and therefore challenge Israel.
The Lord gave them command: go out and give them terms of peace. We saw it in chapter 20, give them terms of peace. But if they don't accept those terms of peace, Then all the males have to give up their lives, and you get everything else. Right? This is God's prescription for that time.
So if we were to see a scenario like this, and then the spoils from chapter 20, and there is a man of Israel who sees a woman of the captives, and she is now a part of, they're all part of Israel now. and this man wants to marry one of the captive women. There's some very interesting provisions that are given here in verses 10 through 14. First of all, He needs to give the woman time to mourn. He needs to give the woman time to mourn and then to be initiated into the community of Jehovah.
She sheds all of her identity and association with her former. Culture. And then she becomes a part of Israel. And then it says in here, and it's hard to understand exactly what is meant here, but if the man no longer finds delight, he's taken her as his wife, and he no longer finds delight in her. And one of the commentators said he just falls out of love with her.
I'm like, No. No. That's a 20th, 21st century imposition on the scriptures. You know, God never provides for a man who just falls out of love with his wife. You know.
That's that's That's a very unfortunate commentary on that. That's not what he's talking about, but he needs to, if. If he finds something that is not right about her, that she should not be his wife, he needs to let her go. But here's the protection for it. In most cultures, in all the neighboring cultures, if a woman was taken captive, She was property.
And you could do anything to her you wanted to do. And God says that's not okay. And if this man lets her go, he says, long story short, she is not to be treated as a commodity. You don't, she doesn't become your slave. You don't give her to somebody else.
You do not treat her as a commodity. You let her go free. That's protection. This is one way that the Mosaic law was quite unique. protection of females.
Go on to the next section here, chapter 21, verses 15 to 17, and this is the privilege of the firstborn.
So let's take the case of the situation we just talked about. A man takes a captive as his wife. And she bears a son. And then he has to let her go.
Well, he has a son.
Now he has. His second wife, Now this is not something, this is not something that's, verse 15, if man has two eyes, this is not something that is prescribed, this is not the ideal, but the Bible often does deal with these could be occasional circumstances that happen in the midst. And so it deals with it, but it is not prescribing this. And we need to make a distinction between the two. But in the case above that we just talked about, it's possible that maybe a child was born, right?
And so. Um The Bible here protects the rights, the privilege of the firstborn. The rights of the firstborn. They stand. The firstborn son gets a double portion of the inheritance, and there's a reason for that.
And the rights of the firstborn stands whether dad likes his son's mother or not. They stand. Because the firstborn has Responsibilities and privileges of succession. The firstborn is the one by succession, the one to be the leader of the family out front, leading out front of the family.
Now, This has a lot of foreshadowing to it, and we're going to see that a little bit later on. But the privilege of the firstborn must be guarded and protected. The next section in chapter 21 is verses 18 through 21. And the underlying principle here is rebellion is a grave matter, and that is a play on words. Rebellion is a grave matter.
It takes the situation of a rebellious son and a rebellious son who is beyond hope. He has been disciplined, he has been pleaded with. And there's no change in this person. this young man. And this one is to be by his parents.
He's to be taken to the elders. And they say he is a glutton and a drunkard. In other words, he's all out debauchery. All right. There's no self-control.
He's entirely living for himself. And what the Lord makes very clear is in a situation like this, this evil needs to be purged. This is an evil thing. needs to be purged. Because the rest of Israel will hear and will fear.
This is a part of the law of Moses. This is also related to the fifth commandment that we have. in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and Exodus chapter 20. And the fifth commandment is to Honor your father. mother.
Paul also mentions that in Ephesians chapter. Yeah.
Alright, let's go on to the next one, chapter 21, verses 22 to 23. Shame is not something to flaunt. Versus 20. 22 to 23 of chapter 21. There could be one who is a subject of capital punishment.
And this person is hanged on a tree. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission. Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good.
and your deepest satisfaction in him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
