Deuteronomy 21:10, “When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,”
This is an amazing chapter in the Bible from which you may have never heard a sermon preached. This chapter talks about taking a wife from a nation that you captured in war and if you grow tired of her, she is free to leave and go home, you are not sell her off into slavery. If a man has two wives, one he loves the other he does not, but if his first born is of the wife he does not love, that son is still to be given his rightful place as the first born or the eldest, something Jacob did not follow when he gave Joseph the role of the eldest. It also tells us that if a son is rebellious he is to be stoned. I mean try that one out today.
Obviously, this chapter of Scripture has no relevance to us today. I mean our culture is such a melting pot as it is that war brides have little to no impact on our society. As long as the government is satisfied she is not spy we no problem with it. Of course the whole idea of stoning a son who is rebellious is absolutely ridiculous not only to us today but those in ancient times as well. It is generally believed among Christians that the gentiles are not bound by the dietary laws, ritual laws or any of the laws that were given to the Jews to declare their holiness to God. Jeremiah teaches that the law was to be written into the hearts of man and this is confirmed in Romans 2:15 and Hebrews 10:16. Our hearts tell us that we do not stone a son for being rebellious. The Jews have a Talmud which consists of many volumes that explain what constitutes rebellion and what does not. They have put so many checks and balances on capital punishment that it is virtually impossible to execute anyone.
That leaves us with the question, if this chapter is not relevant to us why is it even in the Bible? I am of the opinion that every chapter, every verse, every line of the Bible speaks to us and although we know in our hearts it is wrong to sell a war bride into slavery or to stone a rebellious son, these verses do have relevance to us, we just need to look at it very closely.
I will take just one line to show how the Jewish sages and rabbis find relevance in ever obscure passages of Scripture. The line I chose is when you go forth to war against your enemies. Now the word for war in Hebrew is milchamah. The word is spelled Mem, Lamed, Cheth, Mem and Hei. Notice the three letters in the middle of the word Lamed, Cheth and Mem. These three letters spell the word lechem which is the word for bread. Ultimately all wars are fought for bead or food. In ancient times, as it is today, all wars are fought for the resources of the land. This could be pastures, water, food and today oil and other resources that are not available in one’s own land. The point is, milchamah does not necessarily have to be a war between nations, it can be a war between individuals, co-workers who are threatening your job and livelihood, or even among families. The word for enemies is ‘oyeb which is simply an adversary. Although the context is clearly speaking of warring nations which has no relevance to us that does not mean we cannot learn something from this passage. We all, at one time or another, confront an adversary and milchamah war or do battle with that adversary to protect our source of bread or resources that we need to survive.
Here is what I found interesting in reading Jewish literature with regard to this passage. The phrase against your enemies in Hebrew is al ovecha. This can and should be read, on top of your enemies.
In every battle in ancient times the armies sought to achieve victory by gaining the higher ground. In other words when we do battle with our adversaries we are never to stoop to their level of evil to fight that battle on its own terms. The sages teach that one who wrestles with a filthy person becomes dirtied as well. When we confront our adversary who threatens our livelihood or even our lives we are to rise above it, to affirm our belief that there is no true existence other than God. Nothing that is contrary to His goodness and truth has any real power.
In fact Jesus Himself affirmed this in Luke 6:27-28, “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Jesus is saying that we are not to go against our enemies but to be on top of our enemies. We are not to stoop to the level of our enemies and return hate with hate, we are to rise above it, seek the goodness of God and return it with love.
In fact this whole chapter in Deuteronomy has relevance today even if we do not take captive women or stone rebellious sons. If you look at this chapter carefully you see a picture of love and mercy. The captive woman in a loveless marriage would be allowed to leave that marriage and return to her people and not to be sold into slavery. Even the stoning of a rebellious son, the decision was placed in the hands of the elders. How do you define rebellion, at what point does rebellion become worthy of death? How much opportunity do you give a son to repent to change his rebellious ways. What about an abused son and the rebellion is really self-preservation? Deuteronomy 23 does not address all these issues and many more, nor does it address the issue of mercy. God left those issues in the hands of the elders who had His law written in their hearts. I believe God deliberately left these laws ambiguous so that when they put their heads together they soon realized that they could not stomach killing a child and addressed all the possible issues and passed them down in oral tradition and eventually placed in the Talmud. They set up so many checks and balances that it became virtually impossible to execute a son for rebellion. When Jesus said, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone,” He was not telling these Pharisees anything new, He was simply reminding them of the teachings of their elders who when faced with the execution of a child or capital punishment, they realized there is a place for mercy. When faced with such a hideous thing as taking a child’s life, even a rebellious one they learned about mercy and hence realized that they themselves too were once young and rebellious and had to throw themselves at the mercy of God.
From Deuteronomy 23 I see a God who does not condone sin and rebellion but one who is filled with mercy and made us in that image so that we too will learn to be merciful to our enemies, loving them and blessing them when we learn how merciful God is to us. We deserve to go to hell for our rebellion, yet like the Jews of old with their Talmud, God has set up so many checks and balances, that it is virtually impossible for us to go to hell. He sent His son to die on the cross, the payment, the punishment for our sins is paid, all God has to offer us now is mercy. If a person goes to hell now it is only because they chose to go, they wanted to continue in their rebellion. As in days of old a son was given every chance, every opportunity to repent but if after all the checks and balances he continues to be rebellious, he was stoned. I have yet to find any records of the stoning of a child under Jewish law, but it is still on the books. Only a fool would continue in his rebellion after all the checks and balances were applied. Only a fool has said in his heart there is no God, only the fools end up in hell.
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