THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing

Part V: Specific Treaty Stipulations Of The Great King, Deuteronomy 12-26

L. Heeding God's Guidance On Handling Socially Destructive But Humanly Unsolvable Evils

(Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Largely beginning with the alleged "unsolved" issues of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, many Americans today no longer trust their leaders in government, mass media, academic and political realms:

(1) Last Friday, November 22, 1013, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the President's slaying, but "(m)ost Americans do not believe that what happened in Dallas has ever been properly resolved." (David Von Drehle, "Broken Trust," Time, November 25, 2013, p. 42) Most think "a conspiracy was swept under a tattered rug," that the killer(s) of the President were "a lone gunman; the Mafia; the CIA; the military-industrial complex; his own Secret Service; right-wing millionaires; Fidel Castro; Castro's enemies; Kennedy's Vice President, Lyndon Johnson" or it was "a tragic accident, and the intended target was Governor John Connally in the seat ahead of the President." (Ibid.)

(2) James Piereson, author of Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism, 2013, adds a wrinkle to the pool of theories: in his op-ed, "JFK: Casualty of the Cold War" (The Wall Street Journal, November 16-17, 2013, p. A13) he claims "(t)he assassin was a communist and not a bigot or a right-winger" as the "liberal media" implies, for it did not want Americans to react to the idea that a communist in Lee Harvey Oswald slew their President! Thus, "(t)he widespread feeling that disreputable elements in American culture contributed to Kennedy's death--fed by liberal media figures and politicians--encouraged an anti-American attitude that was a pronounced aspect of the radical and countercultural movements of the 1960s. In the process, the real assassin and his political coloration and likely motives were airbrushed from history."

(3) These theories have "spun off whirlwinds of doubt about other national traumas and controversies, from 9/11 and FEMA camps to TWA Flight 800 and genetically modified foods. The legacy of that shocking instant is a troubling habit of the modern American mind: suspicion is a reflex now, trust a figment." (Ibid., Von Drehle)

(4) Such distrust was seen in a recent powerful op-ed by cancer patient Edie Sunby. Due to ObamaCare, she lost her health insurance and access to a world-class doctor who was keeping her alive. ("You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor," November 3, 2013, WSJ.com) Edie summed: "Take away people's ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that's a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that's the point."

(5) This distrust affects us locally: Brad Davis, a local "legendary" radio talk show host on "The Talk of Connecticut" last Wednesday reported that many people have told him of their distrust of "Washington, D. C." today!

Need: Thus, we ask, "With unedifying distrust in leaders running today high due to notable wrongs that seem to many to have been at least seriously mishandled by the 'powers that be', how does God want us to think and live?!"

I. Deuteronomy 21:1-9 taught Israel to leave with God evils that were unsolvable by their human leaders to avoid a debilitating breakdown in trust so necessary for the communal health of a people and nation:

A. This passage is part of the Deuteronomy chapters 12-26 specific treaty stipulations (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 260) that were not an exhaustive list of God's laws, but instructed Israel on specific spiritual challenges she would face upon entering the land of Canaan (Ibid., p. 283; Deuteronomy 4:10).

B. As such, Deuteronomy 21:1-9 taught Israel to avoid the typically pagan reaction to humanly unsolved crimes of an unjust reactionary development of conspiracy charges followed by senseless, communally destructive feuds, and that by leaving such unsolved crimes with God in His omniscience and omnipotence to address:

1. If a murdered body was found lying in an open field with no witnesses to the killer(s), instead of doing nothing about it, which could lead to conspiracy theories followed by reactionary unjust feuds and social unrest, God had Israel deal with the crime in a potent ritual for a resolution, Deut. 21:1-9 (as follows):

a. The national elders and judges of Israel's "supreme court" tribunal at the tabernacle were to go to the crime scene and measure to identify the town nearest to the crime scene, Deut. 21:1-3a; Ibid., p. 300.

b. Then, the elders of that town were to take an unworked heifer and bring it down to a nearby valley that had running water and had not been farmed and there break the heifer's neck, killing it, Deut. 21:3b-4.

c. In view of Israel's past 400 years in Egypt, this was a powerful ritual: the Greek historian, Herodotus, claimed the Egyptians held heifers to be sacred to the goddess Isis, so they were never sacrificed (bible.cc, "Gill's Expos. of the Entire Bible: Num. 19:2). Thus, the shock to an people who had been culturally conditioned to avoid sacrificing heifers to have to kill one to atone for the shock of an unsolved murder was meant to fill Israel's strong need for a powerful ritual to handle a humanly unsolvable murder!

d. The priests from the tabernacle (Ibid.) assigned to settle every controversy in Israel (Deut. 21:5), were then to come near the local elders and witness them wash their hands [presumably from the valley brook] over the heifer's body and say, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for," Deuteronomy 21:6-8 ESV.

e. This ritual would satiate God's wrath and teach Israel to leave the unsolved crime for GOD to handle, avoiding unedifying distrust and unrest and preserving law and order in society! (Deuteronomy 21:9)

II. In OUR dispensation, we have ADDED insight on "unsolved" evils that ALSO DIRECT US (as follows):

A. Revelation 17-18 predicts the fall of a currently secret religious-economic complex, "Babylon the Great," that is powered by Satan and influences world events, a complex responsible for many world evils including the shedding of "the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that" are "slain upon the earth," Rev. 18:24, 1-23.

B. The fall of this complex will occur by God's will at the hands of the antichrist who will rule the world after Christ takes the Church from the earth to heaven in the pretribulation rapture, Rev. 17:16-17 with 4:1-2.

C. Thus, crimes like the assassination of President Kennedy, regardless which party(s) actually do the killing, are ultimately caused by this still-secret complex that GOD will cause one day to be fully punished!

D. Accordingly, we believers in Christ, by application of Deuteronomy 21:1-9 (via Romans 15:4), are called of God to leave with HIM such humanly "unsolvable" evils that occur in the world, refusing to fuel unproven conspiracy theory fires, that we might contribute to order in society as a stabilizing influence.

Lesson: God directed that Israel handle socially unsettling, humanly "unsolvable" murders by a ritual involving local and national leaders to atone for the murder with the culturally shocking slaying of a heifer, and to lead all Israel to entrust to God the unsolved crime toward preserving law and order toward a stabilized society.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin, John 3:16. (2) Then, (a) realizing a currently secret religious-economic complex that is fueled by Satan impacts world events and is responsible all sorts of evils, a complex to be exposed and destroyed by God's judgment at the hands of the antichrist after the Church is raptured, (b) may we entrust to God the many humanly "unsolvable" wrongs we see in the world, (c) not fueling unfounded theories about them that only break down healthy trust in society, and (d) so be a stabilizing influence on the earth.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

A fitting illustration to this sermon exists in L. Gordon Crovitz's "Information Age" column in The Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2013, p. A15 ("Exposing the Myth of JFK's Politics"). As difficult as it may seem to believe, Mr. Crovitz notes that Ira Stoll "makes a strong case" in his new book, JFK, Conservative, that President Kennedy "(i)n his time . . . was not considered a liberal." (Ibid., Crovitz) Indeed, today he would be considered a conservative!

In the 1960 presidential race, "'the anti-Communist, anti-big government candidate was John F. Kennedy. The one touting government programs and higher salaries for public employees was Richard Nixon,'" writes Stoll, Ibid.

"New York Times columnist Tom Wicker disdained as 'bellicose' [Kennedy's] Inaugural Address pledge to 'pay any price, bear any burden' to defend freedom. Former Democratic aide Chris Matthews understood [Kennedy's charge] 'Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country' as 'a hard Republican-sounding slap at the welfare state.'" (Ibid., Crovitz in citing Stoll, brackets ours)

"Kennedy announced that 'the most urgent task confronting the Congress in 1963' was cutting marginal income-tax rates--not an antipoverty program or a civil rights law." (Ibid., Crovitz in citing Stoll)

Then, JFK's speech "at the Berlin Wall was hard-line. He referred to communism as an 'evil system' and gloated that free countries 'have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in.' Reagan used 'evil empire' and began his 'Tear Down This Wall' speech by saying, 'Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin." (Ibid., Crovitz in citing Stoll)

Yet, the way history is taught in many circles today, we would not know of JFK's conservative bent!

This distortion of history may well be caused by the secret "Babylon the Great" complex predicted in Scripture. In view of God's promise to destroy it after He takes us Christians out of the world in the rapture, our response to this distortion of history should NOT be to get upset and fuel upsetting, unproven conspiracy theories, but to trust in God's promises in His Word to deal with all such evils, and live settled, stabilizing lives.

May we trust in Christ and leave the humanly unsolvable wrongs with God, and live edifying lives!