Tues.’s Devo - Laws to Protect the Innocent

Read: Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30; Luke 9:51-10:12; Psalm 74:1-23; Proverbs 12:11 If a murder was committed and there is no evidence of who committed it, then the elders and judges were to measure the distance of the crime scene to the nearest town. That town was to be responsible for atoning for the murder. To do this, they were to take an unyoked heifer to a valley that had not be plowed but had a stream. There they were to break the heifer’s neck and bless the Lord. *** The elders would then wash their hands over the heifer and confess their innocence in the crime. This way they would be remitted of the guilt of the man’s murder. *** If while in war, a soldier saw a virgin and wanted her for his wife, he was to bring her home with him. She must shave her head, cut her nails and change her clothes. She would stay in his house a full month before he married her. If when married, she didn’t please him, he had to set her free; she could not be sold. *** If a man had two wives and loved one and not the other and the one he loved least had his first-born son, he must honor him as the first-born. He was to receive a double portion as the first-born. *** If a son was rebellious and a drunkard, the father was to bring him before the elders of the town and they were to judge his case. If the son was proven guilty, the men in the town were to stone him. *** If a person was sentenced with hanging, he must not remain hanging from the tree overnight but must be buried that day. A person who is sentenced to hanging is cursed in the Lord’s sight. *** If your neighbor needs help, you must help them. *** Women must not disguise themselves as men and vice versa. *** If a bird’s nest is found, they were not to take the mother with its young. The mother must be allowed to live to have other young. *** You must build railing around your flat roof to prevent anyone from falling off. *** You were not to mix things like crops, animals, or threads. God’s creations were to be pure and undefiled. *** If a man accused his wife of not being a virgin when he married her, her father should bring the tokens of her virginity and prove her innocence in court. If the man was found to be lying then he must stay married to her all his life. He must also pay her father 100 pieces of silver for tarnishing their name. *** If she is proven guilty of not being a virgin, then she should be stoned at the door of her father’s house. *** If a man is proven an adulterer, he and the woman must die. If a man has sex with a woman who is engaged and she doesn’t cry out, they were both to die. If she was raped, then only he was to die. *** If a man was to have sex with a virgin and is found out, he must pay her father 50 pieces of silver and he must marry her and never divorce her. A man was not to marry his father’s former wife. *** God’s laws were to protect the innocent but punish the guilty and to remove sin from the land. *** In Luke, Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time. He came to a village that did not welcome him so he passed it and went to the next. Three men came up to him with excuses to why they could’t follow him now. By Jesus’ answers he was saying that there were more important things than the things they were concerned about. Preaching the Kingdom of God was at the top. *** Jesus chose 72 men and sent them ahead of him to preach the kingdom of God and tell them it was near. If they didn’t receive them and their message, they were to wipe the dust of that town off their feet and continue to the next. *** Lord, help us to wipe disappointment and rejection off our feet. May our mission be to share the good news of God’s kingdom.