INTERESTING FACTS : In most parts of the Bible, everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with "Thus saith the Lord". It is... not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite -- it excludes or repels -- the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force... It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long, except to those who go to it for something quite different. I predict that it will in the future be read, as it always has been read, almost exclusively by Christians. --C.S. Lewis

DAILY READING : DEUTERONOMY 21 - 23

TEXT : Deu 21:22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: Deu 21:23 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 thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

THEME : REDEMPTION

As we continue reading the "Second Law" [Deuteronomy], we observe the meticulous detail given to the countless variety of possible sins committed by the people of Israel. Command after command is given to Moses by God who in turn gives them to Israel. Nothing is omitted. It is a perfect Law, and if Israel had followed it, the result would be a holy, righteous, and godly people. It was observed and obeyed for a period, then over the years Israel defaulted in its covenant with God and brought the curse of the Law upon them.

Still there is no fault with the Law. It is holy. Further, if righteousness could have been obtained through works, it would have been gained through the Law as we see in Romans. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." [Rom 7:12] Again, the Law is righteous, if men use it righteously. "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." [1 Tim 1:8] Then again, the Law was not made for righteous men.

"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." [1 Tim 1:9 - 10]

Further, the Bible declares the Law was undermined in its force and ability to produce godliness by the weakness of human nature.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. [Rom 7:7 - 10]; "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." [Rom 8:3]

On the weakness of God's Law through our sinful flesh, Matthew Henry comments.

"The law could not do it. It could neither justify nor sanctify, neither free us from the guilt nor from the power of sin, having not the promises either of pardon or grace. The law made nothing perfect: It was weak. Some attempt the law made towards these blessed ends, but, alas! it was weak, it could not accomplish them: yet that weakness was not through any defect in the law, but through the flesh, through the corruption of human nature, by which we became incapable either of being justified or sanctified by the law. We had become unable to keep the law, and, in case of failure, the law, as a covenant of works, made no provision, and so left us as it found us. Or understand it of the ceremonial law; that was a plaster not wide enough for the wound, it could never take away sin."

Therefore, not only Israel, but also all of us were under the curse of the Law. The curse of the Law had both temporal and eternal consequences. Christ has redeemed us from both. Chiefly, the eternal since not all the effects of sin have been removed from the Church or the earth.

TRUTH FOR TODAY : CHRIST BECAME A CURSE THAT WE MAY INHERIT A BLESSING!

In Deuteronomy 21:22 - 23, and particularly verse twenty-three, we have one of the curses of the Law. Concerning its immediate application Albert Barnes writes -

"He that is hanged is accursed of God - i. e. "Bury him that is hanged out of the way before evening: his hanging body defiles the land; for God's curse rests on it." The curse of God is probably regarded as lying on the malefactor because, from the fact of his being hanged, be must have been guilty of a especially atrocious breach of God's covenant. Such an offender could not remain on the face of the earth without defiling it (compare Lev_18:25, Lev_18:28; Num_35:34). Therefore after the penalty of his crime had been inflicted, and he had hung for a time as a public example, the holy land was to be at once and entirely delivered from his presence."

Yet, concerning its prophetic and Messianic application, we look to the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter three.

Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. On the verses, John Gill remarks.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law-"The Redeemer is Christ, the Son of God; who was appointed and called to this work by his Father, and which he himself agreed to; he was spoken of in prophecy under this character; he came as such, and has obtained eternal redemption, for which he was abundantly qualified; as man, he was a near kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belonged; and as God, he was able to accomplish it. The persons redeemed are "us", God's elect, both of Jews and Gentiles; a peculiar people, the people of Christ, whom the Father gave unto him; some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation: the blessing obtained for them is redemption; a buying of them again, as the word signifies; they were his before by the Father's gift, and now he purchases them with the price of his own blood, and so delivers them "from the curse of the law"; its sentence of condemnation and death, and the execution of it; so that they shall never be hurt by it, he having delivered them from wrath to come, and redeemed from the second death, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

The manner in which this was done was by being made a curse for us; the sense of which is, not only that he was like an accursed person, looked upon as such by the men of that wicked generation, who hid and turned away their faces from as an abominable execrable person, calling him a sinner, a Samaritan, and a devil; but was even accursed by the law; becoming the surety of his people, he was made under the law, stood in their legal place and stead and having the sins of them all imputed to him, and answerable for them, the law finding them on him, charges him with them, and curses him for them; yea, he was treated as such by the justice of God, even by his Father, who spared him not, awoke the sword of justice against him, and gave him up into his hands; delivered him up to death, even the accursed death of the cross, whereby it appeared that he was made a curse: "made", by the will, counsel, and determination of God, and not without his own will and free consent; for he freely laid down his life, and gave himself, and made his soul an offering for sin"

Christ has redeemed from us from the pain and penalty of sin, by taking the curse of sin on Himself! Now, we have and will yet inherit the blessings of God the Law could not grant us!