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The First Commandment: Statutes and Precepts (36)
Deuteronomy 17.2-7
2 “If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant, 3 who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. 6 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.”
Breaking the first commandment was serious enough to warrant such drastic punishments in ancient Israel because, if one will not hold to the first commandment, he cannot be expected to hold to any of the others. And, since the Law of God marks out the path to life, rebellion against that Law destroys social order, upsets established institutions, sows the seeds of misery and death in every place, and thus deprives human beings of the love God intends. This must be avoided, even if it means separating the offending ones from the community.
But notice that even accused offenders have legal protections. Justice requires that evidence be produced and witnesses be heard, and these must all agree before any act of judgment or retribution is pronounced. Notice also that those who stood as witnesses were to participate in carrying out the judgment.
In ancient Israel the death penalty was the only way effectively to purge such an evil from among the people. We must not consider that either the form of the death penalty or the frequency of it, as seen in ancient Israel, should be employed in the same way in this age of grace and the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor. 5). At the same time, we must not consider that so severe a penalty has been altogether revoked (Rom. 13.1-4).
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.