Deuteronomy 16:21-17:7 English Standard Version Forbidden Forms of Worship 21 “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates. 17 “You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God. 2 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. Asherah was a goddess that the pagan peoples worshipped by planting groves of trees and setting up Asherah poles to worship this goddess. The LORD forbid the people from engaging in this kind of idolatry even though they are not worshiping an idol with form. It would be similar today to those who worship "Mother Nature" or "Mother Earth" which they give no form to, but they engage in pagan practices as part of their belief system and they choose to worship the creation rather than the Creator (see Romans 1:25).
The LORD repeats the command that all acceptable sacrifices must be without blemish. This goes not only for the oxen and sheep and other sacrifices offered on the altar of the LORD at the Tabernacle or Temple, but this also applies to the sacrifices of Jesus on the cross. He had to be sinless and with without blemish so that His sacrifice could be pleasing and acceptable to the LORD. Last, but not least, are instructions for what to do if they find any person among them worshiping false gods or goddesses, including those that say they are worshiping things like the sun or moon or starts (this may also possibly mean angels or demons because the "host of heaven" can refer to either all the stars or all the angelic beings) and never give them any form in the shape of an idol. This also would include any person who said they worshiped no god but really were rebellious against the LORD and set themselves up as the authority in their lives--they have made themselves to sit in the place of god, which was part of the first temptation to Adam and Eve, "You shall be like God knowing good and evil." All of the world religions out there be they monotheistic, polytheist, atheistic or pantheistic are all covered by this prohibition--Judaism (at this time) and now Christianity, which is simply the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, not the abolition of it, stand apart from the rest. Now Judaism of today that refuses to worship the Father, Son, and Spirit and refuses to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the atonement for our sins would also fall into the category because they have chosen to stop reading and stop believing certain prophecies that clearly point to Christ. They have made a false version of the LORD that they say they believe in and in a way are engaged in idol worship because of that. That would sound harsh to a Jewish person who is proud of believing they are adhering to the Law, but I'd say that same thing about the Christian denominations that pick and choose which parts of the Old Testament and New Testament to believe and try to change the clear meaning of Scripture to, in their own works, make the Bible relevant in today's times. For instance--those that refuse to accept God's prohibitions on sex before marriage, divorce (and remarriage and sex with someone who has been divorced), witchcraft (which goes hand-in-hand with drug use) drunkenness, homosexuality, gluttony, lying, greed/covetousness, rebellion, and may other sins that identify someone as being a child of the devil instead of a child of God and being controlled by the flesh instead of being controlled by the Spirit. See Matthew 7, 1 Corinthians 6, and Galatians 5. Let's come back to today's passage though that we're specifically talking about violation of the first and second commandments. Whether or not we build an idol, we are not to worship any other gods or goddesses, and we are not to make idols of any kind whether or not we intend to worship them. When it is reported that a person among the Israelites has broken the LORD's covenant and turned away to other gods, this is something the community is to take seriously. There is to be inquiry and investigation. If after a thorough examination of the facts and evidence the person is found guilty, they are to be taken outside the city and stoned to death and two or three witnesses must be present to substantiate the charges before the person can be put to death. No one would be put to death based solely on the testimony of one man or testimony which did not agree with each other (see the trial of Jesus and how they could not find even two witnesses to agree to any of the facts of the case and He was about to be let go until He confessed that He was the Son of God in front of them so that the all would hear Him say it). The witnesses would be the first ones to cast their stones, and then the whole community would join so as to be in agreement with the verdict that was rendered. We'll see in the New Testament that sometimes the people got whipped into a frenzy and were ready to stone someone without investigation, evidence, or witnesses. We originally based much of our criminal justice system off of these same principles. Originally no one was to be tried based off of the testimony of a single witness, the witnesses brought forth must all agree, and for a death-penalty case, the witnesses were present at the execution to once again give their testimony and be in agreement with one another and together they would execute justice (though it may not be by the means of throwing stones like in this passage--perhaps the person was beheaded, hung, executed by firing squad, or some of the more modern means used today like the electric chair and lethal injection). Notice that the Law does not ever tell us to build prisons to keep people in to try to reform them or to hold them until they die a natural death. The cost of committing some sins was the death penalty and the trial was fast and justice was meted out quickly. We also believe in the right to a speedy trial today. If there is supposed to be a death penalty case, the case should have overwhelming evidence for all to see quickly. There should be no need for trials that drag on and on for years and years. No one is going to escape God's justice and if we restricted ourselves to the cases which had multiple witnesses (preferably eyewitnesses) that agreed with each other on the facts of the case, then we'd have far fewer cases in our system and we wouldn't have a need for so many prisons. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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