Deuteronomy Chapter 19
Moses continues his instructions (from God) to the people of Israel and the attention focuses on 3 different areas today.
First was the setting up of Cities of Refuge.
This was important as it ensured that those who killed someone purely by accident are protected. These cities were set up so that people could flee to these cities of refuge in case they – examples given by Moses included an axe head flew off and killed someone accidentally – killed someone without any hint of malice, revenge or hatred.
But to those murderers, it was different. Even if they managed to run to a city of refuge in an attempt to escape from justice (Deut 19:11-13), they would be handed over by the elders to the one who is avenging the murder.
This might seem very heartless but this is what justice should be. The innocent should be protected and the guilty should be punished. Maybe I have watched too many dramas but the world seems to be sorely lacking in this today.
The second concerns the respect for property boundaries that have already been set up.
God knows that the hearts of man are greedy and devious and there would be attempts to gain more land by moving property landmarks and boundaries to do so. This is obvious stealing.
And for the Israelites, the land of Canaan is given to them by God. It is their inheritance. And to infringe on someone’s land was to violate God’s covenant or promise to His people. This was and is a very serious matter.
The last instruction in this chapter was about witnesses (Deut 19:15-21). Or more accurately, there needs to be a minimum number of witnesses needed to convict someone of a crime (Deut 19:15).
Interestingly enough, the all-knowing God, also set laws that deal with false witnesses. If someone bears false witness and is found out, he should be punished. And the punishment would be on the same level as what the punishment would have been if their lies had convicted the innocent party (Deut 19:16-21). And these false witnesses should be punished without any hesitation as their sin is great.
What does these 3 instructions have for us today?
It shows me that God also cares for our day to day lives. These are now laws or commandments regarding worship, sacrifices or service. But these are things that concern our every day lives that God wants to give us instructions on how to deal with them.
And this is very different from many other religions where the gods are worshipped with sacrifices, offerings only in the temples and for worship rites purposes. But the gods do not look at how the people should live their lives and what they should do.
Our worship of God is not just in church as it concerns also our everyday lives. How we behave would also determine how much we truly worship this one True God.
