May 18, 2019: Day 21 – Deuteronomy 21

We cover a lot of ground in this chapter.  We begin with the age old question of what do we do when we find a body lying around that no one has taken credit over their death?  Well, that’s an easy one.  You gather the elders of the city closest to the body, kill a calf in the river, wash your hands, and you should be good to go.  It’s pretty common practice these days, okay, it isn’t, but that’s what they did many, many years ago.  

You then have the directives over what do you do with the women whom you have conquered and you find them pleasing to your sight.  You bring them home, let them mourn for a month, and then they are all yours.  If the one you have taken home no longer pleases you then you can let her go, she is no longer a slave.  As we read this with 21st century eyes I hope, I really I hope that you read it as I do, as words that belong back nearly 1,000 years before Christ.  For when Jesus came he said you shall not divorce your wife, for once a woman was released from her house she had no life.  She had to prostitute herself and she found herself without a means to an income and in much worse state than when she was protected in a household.  Remember, this was nearly 3,000 years ago.

Finally, we find what we have to do with rebellious children.  Read this well  and pay attention.  Both mom and dad are to take this rebellious child to the square, tell the elders that he is rebellious, and then they are freed to stone him to death.  So that’s how things were handled 3,000 years ago.  

Really finally we find the reason why Jesus was not left hanging on the cross on Good Friday.  You read that when “his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day.”  Jesus was taken off the cross that same day and buried in the grave of Josephus.  The more we read  the Old Testament the more we understand why people did what they did back then.  Also, the more we realize why we do things differently than how they did it back then.