Deuteronomy 21:22-23--A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

Deuteronomy 21:22-23
English Standard Version

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed
22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

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Look at how this foreshadows what would happen to Jesus (though Jesus committed no crime).  In fact, the New Testament authors would cite this verse as one of the reasons that Jesus died on a cross because, "For a hanged man is cursed by God." Another way to say that is "Cursed is any man who is hanged on a tree."

While the intent here was for people to see the guilty man hung up as an example to all when they executed the death penalty against someone found guilty, this is probably also where some people get the idea that those who commit suicide, particularly by hanging themselves, would be accursed (damned to hell).  That's not what this passage says though if we read it carefully.  It is God passing the same sentence along that the elders and priests already have (which they got from the LORD to start off with) so that heaven and earth are in agreement about this man's guilt and that not only was physical life taken from this guilty party, but it would seem that such a person would experience the second death and not eternal life because such a person was in rebellion against God and His perfect Law.

So am I saying that works save someone or make them lose their salvation?  No!  I'm saying that the works of such a criminal reveal what is in their heart, that they are "in Adam" and not "in Christ."  They are controlled by the flesh and not by the Spirit.  They are children of darkness and not citizens and priests of His kingdom of marvelous light.  So then we should not be surprised that the root of our heart bears fruit in keeping with our identity and that if the fruit is bad, we know the root is bad and that we can safely say that someone living in open rebellion, being proud of that rebellion, and perhaps even making such rebellion their identity means that there has been no salvation because there has been no change of heart and we know that we must have the LORD take our heart of stone that is dead and cold towards Him and give us a heart of flesh that is alive and beats for Him (the heart on which He will write His Law and commandments so that we will not even need to be taught to obey by anyone else because we will love to obey His Law).

The LORD warns them that if they make such a public display to remember to take the dead man down and bury him before sunset so as not to defile the Promised Land that they were being given as an inheritance.  I'm not exactly sure how this would curse the Land, but the LORD knew, and it was for this reason that the Pharisees wanted to make sure that Jesus and the two thieve that He was hung with were off their crosses before sundown.  They had to break the legs of the two thieves, but Jesus was already dead and no bone in His body was broken (they were also really concerned about Jesus being on the cross during the Sabbath which apparently was also really bad).

So we see an idea now why crucifixion was so hated by the Jews and why it was the worst punishment that could have been chosen for Jesus because hanging a man on a tress was supposed to be a public indictment of the man's guilt not only in this life, but in the life to come.  Truly Jesus did not deserve this kind of condemnation, and we see that He was vindicated when the LORD raised Him from the dead on the third day.  So then those of us that stood guilty and condemned can accept His death in our place so that we would not need to stand condemned before God in heaven (though we may still be condemned before men here on earth) because there is another part of the Law that speaks to atonement whereby the blood of the innocent, spotless lamb could cover over the sins of the guilty--though the blood of this Lamb would actually totally pay for and take away our sins.  We read about this in Hebrews 9:11-10:18.  The symbol that was once a symbol of being accursed is now the symbol of grace and forgiveness because the Innocent Man died in my place to satisfy the curse.