Deuteronomy 21:1-9 – Am I my brother’s keeper?

The sixth commandment of God says, “You shall not murder.” And we know that loving our neighbors must be reflected in our respect for human life. Here in the first nine verses of Deuteronomy 21, God gave instructions on what His people had to do when they were not guilty of a particular murder. The chapter opened with God’s call for His people to be concerned with what happened in their neighborhood. The scenario in these verses portrayed the discovery of a dead body, and no one knew who had murdered that person. Since the taking of a life to God was a grievous sin, cleansing must be carried out even though the murderer was unknown. God would not allow His people to shrug their shoulders and pretend as if nothing had happened. He wanted to ensure that the guilt of shedding blood in His land must be purged. So the elders of the town nearest where the dead body was found would be responsible to take appropriate action for the cleansing.

Here was what God expected the elders of that city to do. They had to carry out a cleansing ritual to rid the land of the guilt of shedding innocent blood. A heifer, a young cow that had not been yoked and put to work, would be taken to an unpolluted stream nearby. Its neck would be broken in the place of the unknown murderer. All the elders of that city where the dead body was found would come forward and wash their hands over the neck of the slain heifer. They would then openly avow that they did not murder the person neither did they know who the murderer was. Then they would adjure the Lord to free them from the guilt of the murder of that dead man. The declaration would be done before a presiding Levitical priest. The objective of the whole procedure was to atone for the murder and to declare the people who were innocent free from the guilt of shedding blood.  

What does a passage like this mean to us? We live in a self-absorbed world. The proclivity of us fallen men is to be concerned only for ourselves and not for others. A piece of disturbing news in the USA recently told of a lady who was raped for a good eight minutes on a train in the full view of fellow commuters. It was sad enough that none came to her rescue. But what was unacceptably deplorable about this situation was that some commuters whipped out their handphones, not to call the police but to record the whole scene. This type of nonchalant, couldn’t careless attitude has become so prevalent in our fallen world. The world is plagued with a Cain-like attitude. Like him, many would ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is common to see such attitude that says, “If I am not hurt, it doesn’t concern me. It is not my business, and I am not bothered by what has happened.” We can now understand why God’s commandment included the call to love others as ourselves. As believers, we cannot be indifferent to social injustice. We must be part of the solution to our problematic world. We need to be a light to shine forth the righteousness of God.