Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions unsolved mystery. This is Deuteronomy chapter 21 the first couple verses we're going to talk about what happens if there's an unsolved murder in Israel. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word and thank you for the blessing it is to get to know how you deal with life and murder and death. Lord, we pray that your spirit would please work in our hearts and in our minds in such a way that we would understand what's going on here. and that we would have the same heart that you do in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. Deuteronomy chapter 21. And this is another one of those sundry laws, a law concerning unsolved murders.
If anyone is found slain, lying in the field, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, Then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities.
And it shall be that the elders of the nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not been pulled with a yoke. The elders of that city shall bring their heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck where there in the valley.
Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. For the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord. By their word, every controversy and every assault shall be settled. 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.
Then they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of your people Israel. and atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. So that's gonna end it at verse nine. We need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? A, what's this about? There's an unsolved murder. Nobody knows what happened to this guy. He's laying dead in the field. It's clear somebody murdered him. But the murderer is nowhere to be found. There's no evidence to show who murdered this guy.
This is the reality of what's going to happen in Israel. This is kind of the whole point of as we keep going through these sundry laws, They live in a sinful world. God's law was not sanctioning that there's allowed to be unsolved murders, but they're going to, it's going to happen.
And so what do you do, right? The Lord does not just let bloodshed go without requiring something of it. And so what, what do you do about that? God who says if somebody kills a man, but you know, if he's if you shed a man's blood by man's hands So you be killed right? How do you deal with that when there's an unsolved murder? Well, there's a system for that in Israel to still provide atonement, right?
They're gonna figure out Okay what's the closest town and then the priests and Levites are gonna show up in that town and they're gonna meet with the elders and they're gonna go and they're gonna take a heifer and And they're going to break the neck of that heifer to show, like, you know, this is essentially this man, it's a substitute, essentially, right?
This heifer that's being, it's neck broken is similar to the murderer who should be killed. And then they're to take water and they're to wash themselves on top of that heifer, right? With the waters. Falling down on the heifer and they're washing their hands of it, right? They're saying we're innocent of the blood of this person. We didn't do it. We don't know who did it and we need the Lord to take away the guilt of the land.
And so now if the murderer is somewhere watching, you know, it's letting them know, man, if we find out who you are, your neck's going to be broken. You're going to die because you're a murderer, and they believe in capital punishment. And so this is what the Lord is doing here. And so what is this about? If there's an unsolved murder, there's a ritual to go through so that they can still uphold justice. and they can still atone for that death somehow. It's also still meant to be a memorial or an act of signification that this is not allowed amongst God's people.
What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I have verse 1 underlined because that's really what it's talking about when it says, and it is not known who killed him. But then I have verse 9, the last part of verse 8 and 9 underlined. So I would probably say verse 1 is the best verse to summarize this. end of eight, nine is kind of at the heart of why, why is this here?
So dealing with innocent blood. So last see calling, what are we called to do? Right? Well, one is recognize that we live in a sinful world, right? We live in this type of world where we may have the best, the absolute best judicial code possible. We might have the best legal code possible.
There's still going to be, unsolved things. There's still going to be tragedy. There's still going to be things that we can't anticipate. And so no matter this is right, this is the divine law coming straight from God himself. And even then, they're sinful people. And so this is what the Lord is saying. There's stuff is going to happen and it's evil and it's wrong and that's a world we live in. And so we have to not resign our hearts to being okay with that, but recognize it in our lives that there's always going to be heartbreak. These things are going to happen and we should weep and mourn and plead with God that he would come again. that He would establish His kingdom and change the hearts of all men.
So I think that's what this is getting at. What we're called to do is to cry out to Him for justice. But also I think it calls us to recognize that we're longing for the day of Christ. We're longing when Jesus will return and make these things right. And until that time that we are those who are called to sanctify life. That God has made it holy.
And that we ought to be those who take it seriously when there's murders, unsolved murders. We shouldn't be hoping and asking our attorney generals and et cetera to keep opening up cold cases, keep trying to figure out what happened with missing persons. Keep pleading with God that he would bring justice. Let's pray. Father, you are omniscient. You are the one who marks every hair on our heads. You are the one who knows when every sparrow falls to the ground. And you are the one who comforts those who are grieving.
Whose children have been slain, have gone missing, and their parents don't know where or by whom. Lord, we pray that you would please let them know. that you, these parents, Lord, let them know that you know what's happened. And Father, we pray for those who have committed these atrocities, who seemingly have gotten away with murders and kidnappings and such. Lord, we pray that you would please bring them to justice. We pray that you would turn their hearts from the vileness and wickedness which they have done, that they would turn to you. Lord, we look forward to that last great day when you will come again. So Lord, we pray that you would come quickly in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. May his Holy Spirit comfort you as you live in a fallen world. May you long for the day of Christ Jesus. I'll see you next time. Bye.