The Value of Life-Deuteronomy 21 and 22
Read Deuteronomy 22:8
Today’s Truth
Moses goes into how to atone for unsolved murders, how female captors are to be treated fairly, how to protect a son from an unfair father and how to protect a father from an unruly son. The laws continue to cover things like caring for and returning your neighbor’s possessions when you find them and the severe punishment for men accused of rape.
But even small issues about respecting life are found here. People must be sure to put railing around their roofs so that people don’t fall off and injure themselves. Even birds are protected. An Israelite may take the eggs of a bird, but not the mother too.
Discussion Questions
- How do you view human life? Are you respectful of the value human life? Explain.
- Why is God specific about putting railing around a roof so that no one can fall and the person be guilty of bloodshed?
- God is ultimately ethical. Are you? Does God set the agenda for how you treat one another? Explain.
Application
The good news of Jesus is that when he comes and makes his dwelling with us he does purge us of all evil and guilt. He doesn’t wait until we clean ourselves up, but he comes and does it for us.
God’s value of human life, talked about in this passage, is seen in at least two powerful ways in the Gospel.
First, God became a human life. Second, he who prohibits murder and fights for the preservation of life, allowed himself to be murdered and did not preserve his own life.
But because he did, he can now come and dwell within us through the Holy Spirit and work, day by day, to actually make us into people who treat one another with the respect he has for human life.
