Deuteronomy 19:14-21, Thoughts on Deut. 19

Just a reminder: we are in the “statutes and judgments” section of Deuteronomy. And most of these “details” have to do with a nation about to enter the land God promised to them.  The LORD is their King.  At some point Israel will likely have an earthly king, but that king will be chosen by the LORD and he will be responsible to lead the people in obeying God’s law, including His statutes and judgments.  That is why it is the LORD who is giving all this to Moses.  Having said that, consider this list of topics that are a part of God’s plan for the nation of Israel.

·       19:1-3: A road system.  Every country has a road system.  In this case, it is related to people’s ability to get justice.

·       19:4-7: Cities of refuge.  We have noted these before (Dt. 4:41-43).

·       19:8-10: More territory for Israel.  You may be aware that both in Gen. 15:18 (to Abraham) and Exod. 23:31 (to Israel at Sinai) God promised a much larger nation than what became Israel’s in the days of Joshua, and even in the days of David and Solomon when Israel was the largest in it’s history.  That was still in God’s plan as these verses indicate.  It was promised to the Fathers.  And when that happened, three more “cities of refuge” were to be established, in addition to the three on the east side of the Jordan and the three on the west side of the Jordan.

·       19:11-13: Vengeance.  Now, be careful.  God is the only Judge who can always be perfectly just; thus vengeance belongs to the LORD (Dt. 32:35).  However, it is God’s prerogative to delegate that to others, as He wills.  Thus, judges and police and armies often carry out God’s punishment of people.  In this passage, the relative of a person who was murdered, under the authority of the elders of his own city, was God’s tool of vengeance.  Blood shed unjustly (murder) pollutes the land (Gen. 4:9-12; Num. 35:29-34).

·       19:14: Private property boundaries.  In Israel, land was inherited from ancestors.  The property boundaries were set in antiquity.  We understand that the land has a special significance in Israel.  But respect for someone’s rightly-owned property was a “sub-category” under the command, Thou shalt not steal. 

·       19:15-21: Protection from false accusation.  A witness found to be false was subject to the same penalty that would have come to the one he accused.  In our day, people are often subject to frivolous lawsuits, that even winning the case takes considerable money and time.  It is fair that they have some means of recovering these losses.  But what Israel’s system did was to punish the false accuser.  The effect of this would be to discourage a person from ever making the false charge.

We began with a reminder today.  Let’s conclude with one, the reminder of the blessing of God’s laws: And what great nation is there that has such statutes ad righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day (Dt. 4:8)?