Monday, March 28, 2011

Deuteronomy 19

7 comments:

Unknown said...

There are two things that stood out to me here. First,

"you must remove FROM ISRAEL the guilt of murdering innocent people so that things will go well for you." v13

I remember being exposed to the concept of divine judgement at one point, how it starts out resting on the head of the individual but then grows and spreads to extend to the persons belongings (livestocks and lands being cursed rather than blessed) and if they continue in their wretchedness it spreads to their offspring (I believe this is a direct cause of bad influence and subsequent sin, not because the offspring pay for the sins of the father because scripture refutes that) and then scripture shows how judgement grows beyond that to taint and curse the nation itself. And then it creates a vicious circle where we have the nation/society contaminating the people within it, and it's all just one awful downward spiral into debauchery and separation from God. No wonder the OT is so full of so many commandments on how to live, God knows exactly what we are up against when we allow sin to creep into our lives and culture.

The other verse that stood out to me was the one where the witness that lied was ordered to be punished with the punishment that fits the charge being made. What a great way to prevent false testimony!

Denise said...

"This attitude toward punishment may seem primitive, but it was actually a breakthrough for justice and fairness in ancient times when most nations used arbitrary methods to punish criminals. This guideline reflects a concern for evenhandedness and justice - ensuring that those who violated the law were not punished more severly than their particular crime deserved. In the same spirit of justice, a false witness was to receive the same punishment the accused person would have suffered."

Elisa said...

"Here is the rule about a person who kills someone. That person can run to those cities for safety. The rule applies to all those who kill a neighbor they didn't hate and didn't mean to kill." v4

What I see in this verse is, if you kill a man by accident you do not deserve to die, God will look into your heart and know that you did not kill that man on purpose, but I think you should ask for forgiveness.

shailey said...

"You must never show pity!Your rule should be life for life,eye for eye, tooth for tooth,hand for hand,foot for foot."v21

I used to think you should have pity for people even if they did wrong.But if people do wrong and are getting punished you should not have pity for them for they know the consequences so it's their fault that they got into trouble.

Unknown said...

my kids comments always provide great mealtime discussion starters around here....

Unknown said...

the final consensus from our discussion was that we can and should feel sad that someone made wrong choices that lead to discipline or unhappy consequences, but not to seek to revoke the consequences out of pity because that is not in the person's best interest. I just love me some good discussion fodder =)

Chris said...

I like the outcome of that discussion. Taking away the consequence does not always help the guilty party. And I like the 'out of pity' part. Jesus took the consequence of my sin not out of pity but out of love. I still reap the daily consequences of poor choices, but the ultimate message of His love is eternal wholeness.