A Reverse Golden Rule and Other Laws

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Now, chapter 19, Deuteronomy continues with a repetition of some of the civil law. Remember, we're giving you a second chance for this rising generation to learn it. Certain cities of refuge are designated for people guilty of involuntary manslaughter. We saw that earlier, too. Uh, extradition is required for someone who's faking it, and they really are guilty of murder.

[00:00:22]So, you can't just take advantage of things that you don't uh that you don't don't apply to you. And then verse six, lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot.

[00:00:35]That's a phrase we didn't see in the earlier version. I I just love the phrase. So repeating this about refuge cities, we just people need a place or a time to cool down. And so if your heart is hot, make sure there's some distance.

[00:00:52]Send people to a a room of refuge in your house. if if the burden and the encumbrance and the strife have gotten you to a point where you're losing your cool. Okay, parents, uh leaders, let some time pass before you rush to judgment or jump to conclusions. It will help you in your judgment to make sure that it's righteous. Uh so careful when your heart is hot. Allow your emotions to subside. Another element added here in section or in chapter 19 he repeats the law of witnesses has to be two or three just like we saw before but then adds that in cases of false accusation this is really important remember that's what why we need two or three witnesses uh but then this verse 18 the judges shall make diligent inquisition and behold if the witness be a false witness and hath testified falsely against his brother then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother. So shalt thou put the evil away from among you. In a way, it's like this weird reverse golden rule. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Well, in this case, for false witnesses, do to them what they intended to do to somebody else. We're trying to eliminate false prophets and false teachers and hear false witnesses. So, we're going to need multiple witnesses.

[00:02:09]That would help. But what if they're all in cahoots with each other? Well, if it ever turns out that you were wrong, then guess what? We will do to you what you intended to do to the person you were falsely accusing.

[00:02:24]Remember I pointed out in the Nephi Laben story, it follows perfectly Mosaic law to the point that Nephi is the witness and he's first to lay his hands upon the guilty. Well, one of the things that makes Laban guilty of death among all of these attempted murders and so forth is the first experience he has with Layman. When Layman comes and asks Laban, "Can we have the plates?" Notice what Laban says to him. He says, "You are a thief and I will kill you." Now, Layman may have been a lot of things. He had some issues, right? But we have no evidence that he was ever a thief. So, Laban just falsely accused Layman of something. I'm not here to steal your plates. I came forthrightly and asked you for them. Round two will actually try to purchase them. I'm not a thief.

[00:03:15]So, that's a false accusation. And what was the penalty that Laban was trying to inflict upon Layman? Death. You're a thief and I will kill you. Well, I'm not a thief. So that accusation comes back to bite you Laban. H interesting. So another reason that Laban was punishable by death. I mean you can take inspiration even out of it. Even though it's full Nephi 4 is full of God walking Nephi through this. But even if he just took Nephi to court, he'd get off scot-free because according to the law of his day, he was simply executing justice and judgment. Love that. One last thing in verse 20, 21, those which remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. By eye shall not pity. Life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

[00:04:19]And that summarizes all of these oh condemnations for civil infractions. It was a chance again eye for eye tooth for tooth. So this is a lower law than what we're used to. I'm glad we've grown beyond. But this is justice firmly established in law.

[00:04:39]And what's interesting here is it's a visible reminder to everyone else the consequences of sin. Now that can be taken to an extreme and public shaming, whether that was the the pillary or the post, whether that was public hangings and things like that, uh public crucifixions in the Roman period, oh social media media crucifixions that sometimes people go through with public shaming today. Uh we need to be more careful, more more higher than that. But what's interesting here in that time period, this does serve as a public warning and a cautionary tale so that no one else wants to commit these kinds of evils.

[00:05:23]Well, if those are rules of life, chapter 20 then shifts to some rules of war. And he says in verse one, "When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seeest horses and chariots, and a people more than thou." So, uhoh, I'm afraid. Well, don't be. Be not afraid of them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. How's that for horses and chariots? Let not thy heart faint.

[00:05:48]Fear not. Do not tremble, neither ye be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. We sing it every time we turn to how firm a foundation. Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

[00:06:14]Have Have we not seen that throughout history, ancient as well as modern?

[00:06:21]Ah, don't don't faint. Fear not. But then some other rules that are interesting. Verse five, the officer shall speak unto the people, saying, "What man is there that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle and another man dedicated.

[00:06:39]So there are going to be some reasons where someone might be exempt from having to go off to war. And having a new house is one it's interesting where it's no, you deserve to enjoy the fruits of those labors before you put your life in jeopardy. Uh how about another one in verse six, what man is he that hath planted a vineyard and hath not yet eaten of it? Or in seven, what man is there that hath betrothed a wife and hath not taken her? If you fast forward to Deuteronomy 24:5, he adds another wrinkle to that. When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business, but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife, which he hath taken. In our day, we talk about maternity leave. Thankfully, we finally got around to adding paternity leave. Thank you. That would have been nice. Uh but in those days there was even marriage leave which I find fascinating to put into perspective just how important to society a successful marriage was.

[00:07:44]Let's give you a whole year. We sometimes joke that the first year is the hardest. Well, let's cut him some slack then. Okay. Can you imagine if the year you got married for a year you didn't have to work? You didn't have to go to war. You didn't have to go to school. You could just spend time together. That's a honeymoon stage, right? Wouldn't that be nice? And truly deepen that relationship and cement it on solid footings so that now you can raise children in righteousness. Now you can contribute to society at large. That would be nice. But it is interesting with these these passages there are some reasons you might be excused from coming.

[00:08:22]Now, Jesus knows Deuteronomy 20 really well because when he gives the the parable of the marriage of the king's son, that's the Matthew title. In the Luke version, it's called the parable of the great supper. But notice what happens. This is when the king is having a feast, a wedding feast for his son.

[00:08:42]The crown prince is ready to come into his own. And this wedding feast needs to be supplied with guests. Now the king had already sent out invitations before but when it came actual time to come to the wedding feast all kinds of people come up with reasons they would say we would call it excuses as to why I can't come oh please excuse me see if these sound familiar Luke 14 18-20 and they all with one consent began to make excuse the first said unto him oh I have bought a piece of ground I must needs go and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. Another said, ah, I have bought five yolk of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee, have me excused.

[00:09:27]Another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.

[00:09:32]Now, that's like textbook Deuteronomy 20. I have reasons why I shouldn't have to go off to war, or in this case, even go off to to honor the king and his son.

[00:09:45]I've got too much work to do on the land. And I've got a new car, a new yoke of oxin I want to test drive. I've got I just got married and I mean two times in Deuteronomy it says I'm off the hook for at least a year. Can you just excuse me please?

[00:10:02]Oh what kinds of excuses? That's the irony. They actually had a leg to stand on. Do we?

[00:10:10]Or do we at least try to find justifiable reasons why I don't yet want to come unto Christ? I don't want yet to prepare myself for the wedding feast to put on my wedding garment and come prepared fully clothed and covered to welcome the lamb the king of kings. So interesting few last things in Deuteronomy 20:8. The officers shall speak for further unto the people and they shall say, "What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted?

[00:10:43]let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. You see, that's the one final exception to the rule as far as enlistments are concerned and the draft and you got to come to be able to fight for Israel. Don't come if you're busy with other things and there's a legitimate reason, but don't even come if you're afraid. That's how this chapter began, right? Don't be afraid.

[00:11:08]Don't faint. God is with you. But if you don't believe that, we learned that a generation ago. The fear of the 10 spies was contagious and it spread throughout the rest of Israel until behind every tent flap they were accusing God of having them. We cannot let that happen.

[00:11:26]So only the brave need apply.

[00:11:31]Come. We need that. We'll see this in two weeks in the book of Judges when Gideon is told by God, live Deuteronomy 20, ask the fearful to go.

[00:11:45]To which Gideon, I'm surprised he didn't actually say it out loud, but I guarantee he thought it. Does that mean I can leave because I'm scared to death?

[00:11:52]No, that doesn't apply to you, Gideon.

[00:11:54]You're my judge. You're the deliverer here. I'll get you up to speed. But twothirds of his army goes home because they're scared to death.

[00:12:03]We cannot afford again attitudes are contagious and we cannot afford to spread fear or doubt or discouragement.

[00:12:15]We can be honest and we can be open but we can also hold on to faith and hope and and courage trusting that God will be with us. That thankfully is contagious as well. Haven't you ever been rallied the troops by some amazing speech from your coach at halftime or from the prophet in conference or a local leader that just has more courage than we? I'm grateful for that. Last thing, verse 10. When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. I I'm afraid we're going to lose sight of that next week. just assuming that these bloodthirsty Israelites are going off to commit genocide throughout the land of Canaan. No, renounce war. Proclaim peace is what the Lord says in the Doctrine and Covenants. And we get a preview of that here in Deuteronomy of all places.

[00:13:08]Proclaim peace unto it. But here he says, if they refuse and choose to fight you, we saw that as they were journeying towards the promised land. And hey, we just we'll pay you for anything we take.

[00:13:19]We don't want to mess with you at all.

[00:13:21]like whatever and they attack and then okay now we have to fight back and they all get destroyed as the Israelites have been led by God in all of this. They're told by the end of chapter 20 though if you're fighting a distant enemy outside the promised land and they won't heed your warnings as you're publishing peace then yes fight. You'll have to you'll end up killing the men.

[00:13:44]Do not kill the women and children.

[00:13:47]We're trying to do a live and let live as much as we possibly can. However, in the promised land, if you're fighting those nations that have gotten to a degree of iniquity where they are guilty of capital crimes, sins, and are now ready to receive capital punishment, then no mercy there. They must be utterly destroyed. And again, that's hard for our modern hearts to wrap around, and it should be. That's good on us. But verse 18, why utter destruction?

[00:14:21]That they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods.

[00:14:28]There are lines we cannot cross. So at least for now, it will be justice before mercy. It will be walls before windows.

[00:14:38]It will be bars before draw bridges.

[00:14:42]There has to be security before there is openness.

[00:14:48]But once we're secure, yes, we can open the gates. We'll see that in the New Testament and beyond. Chapter 21.

[00:14:55]Interesting chapter. This one deals with unsolved murders and family law. Okay.

[00:15:01]So, part of this second law due Deuteronomy is to help us navigate even these issues. They're told that if you find a dead body somewhere out in a field, for example, but there's no murderer that you can identify, then what do we do with that? Because justice has not been served. And we don't even know how to serve justice. So, here's the way. The elders and judges from the nearest city. If it's out in the countryside, what city is closest? Go there and bring out the elders and judges from that town and have them bring a cow with them. Okay. Verse four.

[00:15:32]The elders of the of the city shall bring down the hepher unto a rough valley which is neither eared nor sown.

[00:15:40]And they shall strike off the heer's neck there in the valley. Now this is odd like so many rituals are in the Old Testament, right? But let's put our symbolism glasses on and picture what's happening here. The the hepher is going to be slain. So that sounds like a sacrificial animal, right? But they're out in a rough valley, not eared, not sewn. Nobody's planted it. Oh, so it looks like there are no human fingerprints on this territory right now. They don't know anything about fingerprints back then. But do you understand what I'm getting at? There is this rough huned sort of we don't know what's going on here. There's no evidence that that points to a culprit.

[00:16:23]We have a dead body lying out in the field. So, let's bring an animal. And in some ways, we will ritually reenact what happened. We'll commit the murder ourselves in a way. We're going to go out in a place that doesn't show any human fingerprints, that's just kind of out there wild, untraceable, and we will slay something that didn't deserve it. So, we're now the guilty parties. We elders and judges of this nearest town. But then verse six, all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the heer that is beheaded in the valley. And they shall answer and say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it."

[00:17:12]In a way, this reminds me of the trial of jealousy that we saw before. That strange one where the woman has to drink the bitter water and then her thigh will rot or her belly will swell. And we talked about like that sounds like is God really going to make that happen?

[00:17:26]And it's like doesn't matter. The person the psychossematic symptoms of guilt welling up within them. It's like h if there's any fear that this that I'm going to be found out, I'm going to I'm going to prove that myself. I'll find myself out. I'll out myself. And a similar thing is happening here with these elders of the city. I'm performing a ritual murder in some ways and I'm going to wash my hands of this and say I had nothing to do with it and I don't know anything about it and I do it's out in the valley. It's in the full sight of God. Are you really gonna say that now that you have or do you have blood on your hands?

[00:18:13]Are you clean or are you unclean, guilty or innocent? This reminds me obviously also of Pontius Pilate washing his hands.

[00:18:23]As Maxwell said, never were they dirtier than after he did that.

[00:18:28]In this case, it's a matter of we really are clean from the blood that's been shed. We had nothing to do with it and there's no way that we can make it right.

[00:18:39]Or we would. Pilate could have made it right. But he didn't. They then pray in verse 8, "Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge, and the blood shall be forgiven them." That's how you do it. That's there's no way that we can find out who did it. And justice will not be served in this life. So please God be merciful to those of us who cannot administer justice through no fault of our own. We'll leave that in your hands and pray that our hands are clean through the process. He then adds a few other things here in chapter 21 that are interesting. He says that in war if you take captive a woman that you desire to marry and again I apologize for the the misogyny of the ancient world, okay? But God is trying to work within their culture and then lift them up above their culture. And it's a line upon line, gradual approach. Little by little, as we saw before, Jesus will have some stronger things and better things to say than what is being said here. But we're going from Egypt to to Israel, from outer darkness to tastial or from tstial to terrestrial. Jesus will take us the rest of the way. But in these cases, if you take captive a woman and desire to marry her, you can. But according to this chapter, she first has to shave her head and be given an entire month to mourn her family. Now that seems odd, but what does it do? It recognizes her as a real individual who has lost everything. That this is a moment of mourning and a new birth, a new beginning with a new household. Treat her like you would a new baby. joining your family. That's what shaving hair typically symbolizes with the leper cleansing ritual and so on. The other thing that it does is it absolutely forbids any kind of rape because sadly unfortunately tragically in wartime that's often what ends up happening. the the the victorious soldiers go in and and think that they have right to all the so-called spoils of war, including women that are innocent and must be kept innocent.

[00:21:13]Here, if you want to marry them, it's a marriage and a month will pass. This cannot be motivated by a moment of lust.

[00:21:23]This has to be something that they can prepare for and that you can prepare and purify yourself for as well. Again, this sounds harsh, but we are rising above rape, which is a tstial sin. in a few verses later in those kinds of cases after marriage divorce is allowed but you cannot sell your ex-wife which again sound like well duh but well if this was a a captive from a a a land that we conquered and I've married her and for whatever reason I don't want to remain with her you don't sell her okay so in some ways what's happening here you are rising above picturing a woman as mere property. You you have to be better than that. Rise above rape. Rise above that objectification or commodification of woman. Later it explains plural marriage and says if one wife is loved and another is unloved, we can think Rachel and Leah here. If the firstborn son comes from the unloved wife, then deal with it, dad.

[00:22:36]This is still the order of the family.

[00:22:39]And you must honor that son as the firstborn. That's what Joseph, excuse me, Jacob would have done with Reuben, had done with Reuben until Reuben disqualified himself. Even though Reuben was Leah's son, he's the birthright boy until he disqualifies himself. And what's that doing? So far, we've seen examples of rising above some tstial level. And here it's rising above a level of nepotism or family favoritism that's that's not justifiable.

[00:23:11]In fact, in Matthew 19, Jesus teaches this. Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. So Jesus there is taking a terrestrial law and lifting it up to a celestial level.

[00:23:28]Moses, yes, allowed for divorce. And it seems that it's no fault divorce that's being allowed for.

[00:23:34]Oh, that no fault divorce has wre havoc in families ever since that was allowed a few gener a few decades ago. But to see it allowed there in Moses's time, Jesus is not confirming that, yep, that's the way it always was supposed to be. And so read Deuteronomy 21 and some of these other chapters with a grain of salt that that's better than what they were living prior, a step up for them. But it would be a step down for us. So let's be better than that. Let's be more celestial.

[00:24:05]Another detail in chapter 21 that I hope we live beyond and above is if you have a stubborn or rebellious child, then they should be publicly executed. Yikes.

[00:24:16]I hope that that's not just motivation for the child to be a better child, but for the parent to be a better parent.

[00:24:23]The last thing I would ever want to do is actually execute that penalty. And so I'm going to be a very intentional parent and hope that I raise good children.

[00:24:34]Near the end of this chapter, then verse 22. And if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, so this is going to be a public hanging, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree. But thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God, that the land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

[00:25:01]Now we can think public hangings there but also public crucifixions because the cross is a tree of sorts and as they are left hanging upon that tree.

[00:25:14]Oh, anyone so hanging is a cursed of God.

[00:25:18]But even they convicted criminals deserve to be laid to rest. Bury them and bury them that day. Don't leave them up there.

[00:25:29]Now, if we're thinking crucifixion of Christ, as we should, in John 19, it describes the the Jewish leaders sending a message to the soldiers, make sure you break their legs because tomorrow is the Sabbath. And crucifixion can be such a long and torturous ordeal that they might be hanging up there for quite some time. And if they die on a day where we can't do the work of taking them down to give them a proper burial, then they'll be hanging up there for too long. So, let's speed up the process so we can give them their burial today instead of tomorrow. Well, we know that Jesus had already given up the ghost and so no need to break a bone in that Passover lamb. But that's that's this is the the verse from their law that they're trying in this twisted way to live.

[00:26:24]In fact, Paul, who knows his Old Testament inside and out, will point to that in his letter to the Galatians where he says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree."

[00:26:42]He's invoking Deuteronomy 21 to point out that Jesus became our curse so that we could become his blessing. A willingness to take our place on the cross. We barabuses one and all. and to lower himself to that level so we could lift he could lift us up to