October 22, 2013
DEATH REMOVED GUILT
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
Will Heydel
Central Truth
According to the Mosaic Law, when innocent blood is shed and the guilty one is undetermined, there still has to be an atonement for justice because God is holy and God is just.
Key Verse | Deuteronomy 21:8–9
"'Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 21:8-9)
Deuteronomy 21:1-9
Atonement for Unsolved Murders
1 If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. 3 And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. 6 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, 7 and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. 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.’ 9 So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Dive Deeper | Deuteronomy 21:1-9
As I write this devotional, I am a Resident at Watermark. So far in the Residency program, we have been challenged to study Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. It has been a walk in the park . . . just kidding.
One word came to mind when I studied Deuteronomy 21:1-9. That word is "holiness." Throughout all of the Bible, God has called His people to be set apart to Him as holy. Specifically, for the Hebrew nation, God took a man named Moses and established a Law. This law was established to show them their sin and was the way that they could continue to have a personal relationship with a holy God.
In my Bible, Deuteronomy 21:1-9 is subtitled "Atonement for an Unsolved Murder." God has always required a sacrifice to be made for sin. In this case, someone is murdered, and the murderer is not detected. But, because of God's holiness, there still has to be a way to remove the guilt that comes with someone having been murdered. And the responsibility to remove the guilt falls on the people of that land.
This passage only made sense to me when I realized that death is what removes guilt. Many times in the Old Testament an animal sacrifice had to be made in order to clear the land of its guilt. In this case, an innocent heifer died in the place of a guilty criminal.
I can be really hard on myself when I sin or mess up. This passage was a great reminder for me that Christ's sacrificial death on the cross removed my guilt completely! Just like the innocent heifer had to die in place of an unknown and guilty criminal, the innocent Lamb of God had to die in the place of a guilty sinner like Will Heydel. I deserved death, but Christ humbly took my place on the cross to rid me of my guilt. Praise be to God through Jesus Christ!
Discussion Questions
1. Why did God establish a Law in the Old Testament?
2. How would you define "holiness"?
3. How does Christ dying on the cross rid us of our guilt?