In Deuteronomy 17, we read about the law of
capital punishment. “On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death
sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence
of only one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised
against the person to execute the death penalty, and afterward the hands of all
the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” (Deuteronomy 17:6-7)
Friedman comments,
It is of course significant that witnesses must know
that, if they testify against someone in a capital case, they will have to
strike the first blows against the defendant themselves. That conveys vividly
how serious their testimony is. But it is at least as significant that all the people participate in the
execution as well. Capital punishment is the act of a community—in ancient
Israel and even more so in democracies. In biblical law, the community must
know that if they are going to have capital punishment they must understand
that this means that the community as a whole is taking lives. So that there
can be no mistaking this point, the entire community must participate in the
execution. In postbiblical societies where the entire people does not
participate personally, this point may easily be forgotten, but it is true all
the same: a community that has capital punishment is responsible as a community for the lives it takes.
It is not just the executioner or just the witnesses or just the courts.
Perhaps this fact—that in ancient Israel all the people
had to carry out the execution—was one of the forces that led Israel to make
capital punishment almost impossible in rabbinic law.[1]
The latter part of Deuteronomy 17 contains law
regarding the king of Israel, a position that the Torah allows for. The king is
to have a copy of the law and he is to read it all the days of his life “so
that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words
of this law…” (Deuteronomy 17:19) This is a subtle reminder to the modern
reader that most people in ancient Israel would not have had a copy of the law,
only the king and the Levitical priests. The blessing of the average person
being able to have a copy of God’s law is a relatively recent event, dating to
the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Now we take this privilege for
granted and forget what an amazing thing it is that most people have at least
one copy of the Bible in their home and that some people have many copies. The
question is: as the ancient kings of Israel were to read the law, do we read it "all the days of our lives"?
Friedman’s comment on this is as follows:
It is unclear whether this means a copy of this Law of
the King or a copy of the full law code of Deuteronomy in which it is now
contained. In either case, this means that Israel has a constitutional
monarchy. Baruch Halpern has shown substantial evidence that Israel’s kings
were bound by this Law of the King from the time of the first king, Saul
(Halpern, The Constitution of the
Monarchy in Israel). That means that Israel was historically a constitutional monarchy, with a written
constitution, more than a thousand years B.C.E.[2]
In addition to the king, another important role
in ancient Israel was that of prophet. In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses says, “The
Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own
people; you shall heed such a prophet.” Christians believe this was fulfilled in
Jesus of Nazareth.
Deuteronomy 18:21 raises an important question,
namely how one is to recognize a true prophet or a false prophet. Moses tells
the people to judge by whether the prophecy comes true or not. But of course if
one waits for that, it is too late. One wants to know when the prophet speaks
whether at that moment one should be listening to that prophet or not. Perhaps
Moses means that one should judge by the prophet’s past record.
Deuteronomy 19 contains laws regarding life and
property that will apply once the Israelites enter the Promised Land. Friedman
notes that:
Most of the Torah thus looks toward the well-being of the
land from outside it. Only about 29 of the Torah’s 187 chapters take place in
the promised land. Moses never sets foot in the land. And the phrase “Land of
Israel” never occurs in the Torah. (The land acquires this name only after the
people of Israel have settled there. It first occurs in 1 Sam 13:19.) Yet, the
Torah’s story is focused on and directed toward Israel constantly. It is the
promise of the covenant with Abraham. The promise is renewed to Isaac and
Jacob. Jacob’s body is returned from Egypt to be buried there. Joseph asks to
be taken back for burial there someday as well. And almost the entire content
of Exodus through Numbers is the story of the people’s liberation and journey
home.[3]
This serves as a reminder to me that our promised
land is not here in this world. Throughout this life, we should be constantly journeying
toward that land and remember that this is not our home. We are just passing
through.
It reminds me of the story of the man who lived
in prison for many years and finally got out. Someone asked him how he survived.
His answer: “I never decorated my cell.”
That is a good reminder not to get too
comfortable in this life or too attached to anything but God.
Deuteronomy 20 deals with Israel going out to war against their enemies. Though there are numerous issues of concern with regard to holy war in the Bible one thing is true: the verses that deal with such war also have a spiritual application for us today. Moses says, "When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 20:1) When we engage in spiritual warfare (see Ephesians 6:10 ff.) we must remember verses such as these and not be afraid, for the Lord our God is with us. In fact, as Christians we have an even greater reminder of this truth, for one of Jesus' names is Emmanuel, God with us. (Matthew 1:23)
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