So we continue our study of the book of Deuteronomy. We come to Moses' application of the sixth commandment, you shall not murder, to the second generation and their life in the land. We'll read the whole chapter. We'll hear the whole chapter this morning from verses 1 to 21. Deuteronomy chapter 19, we come to hear God's word. When the Lord your God has cut off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. You shall prepare roads for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit that any manslayer may flee there. And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there, that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past, as when a man goes into the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips. from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies. He shall flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated the victim in time past. Therefore I command you, saying, you shall separate three cities for yourself. Now, if the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers and gives you the land which he promised to give to your fathers, and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk always in his ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three. lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you. But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, Then the elders of his cities shall send and bring him from there and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, and your inheritance, which you will inherit in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established. If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. And the judges shall make careful inquiry And indeed, if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you. And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. Your eyes shall not pity. Life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. So for the reading of God's word, let us go before him and again ask his blessing on the preaching of his word. Our gracious God and father. you who dwell in heaven. We come before you as creatures, as your creatures, as men and women made in your image. And we ask that you would have mercy upon us. Help us, Father, to hear your word. Help us to understand it. Help us to apply it rightly to our lives. Grant your Holy Spirit's work in our hearts that we would hear your word, see our sin, be convicted by your spirit, and see our Savior and his perfect righteousness, his blood shed on our behalf, his life given for our life. In Jesus' name we pray and ask these things. Amen. There's a famous poet, Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, you may know of him, who described nature as red in tooth and claw. It's the image of unrestrained violence. It's nature run amok, if you will. There's a famous philosopher named Hobbes. You probably know him from the cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes. The actual philosopher wrote a book called Leviathan, in which he argued that the best form of government was a strong central government. Well, in that book, he described nature or life without a strong central government as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Pretty dim view of man's ability without government. Well, whether or not we agree with these men, they're identifying something that's true about God's creation after the fall. They're identifying the reality of living life after the fall. It's a world stained by sin. And it's not that creation is evil, creation is good. It's that we are sinners. We were created to be at the pinnacle of God's creation. And after the fall, we feed daisies. We're food for plants. More than this, we find that even when we try to restrain the results of the fall, it requires constant work, constant effort on our part. And even our best attempts fail. To the point of the passage before us then, we find that in this life, our best attempts at providing justice for one another fail often and often horribly. Our passage draws on what was laid down before in Exodus and Numbers about these cities of refuge that the innocent one who had slain his neighbor by accident could flee to and find refuge there. It draws on the law that was already given. And then it provides a background. Our passage this morning provides a background for one of the greatest miscarries of justice in the Old Testament. You may be familiar with the story of Ahab and Jezebel and Naboth and his vineyard. He had a beautiful vineyard that he had worked long in cultivating and growing fruit. This was his possession, his inheritance in the promised land that came to him from his fathers and that he would pass down to his children. And Ahab desired Naboth's vineyard. And he went to him and offered to buy it from him. And Naboth said, no, he wanted to retain possession of what was his in the promised land. And it should have ended there. That should have been it. But Naboth was consumed with his own desires. He was consumed with selfishness and pride. And so his wife went out and she hired false witnesses who rose up against Naboth and condemned him before a court of law in Israel. And Naboth was executed. An innocent man was killed, a miscarry of human justice. It's a very sad event. It should affect us. It should be something that we have to wrestle with and that we have to deal with when we hear of those who are innocent and their lives are taken. We live in a fallen world stained by sin. We live with other human beings who are sinners like we are. And we all too easily become accustomed to human death, to suffering, to miscarries of justice, Worse, we become selfish at times in the pursuit of our own justice, not content with God's justice. We become like Lamech in Genesis chapter 4, killing another for insulting us. As we come to our passage this morning, there's two points here. We're going to look at it in two ways. We're going to break it down that way. We're going to see how God treasures life, and so we ought to treasure life as well. We're first of all going to see how God guards life, how God wants life to be guarded in the promised land. And then we're going to see how God establishes justice for the protection of life, for the protection of life. So those are going to be our two points this morning. Why should we treasure life? Why should human life be something that is of value to us, our own life and the life of those around us? It's not an empty question. In our day and age, there are many who say that life is meaningless. There are many in this day and age who, if they were thinking properly about what they believe, they would recognize that what they say and believe is that life is meaningless. But life is not meaningless. And so we ought to treasure life because it is given by God. Why is this so, and how do we see this from our passage? Well, we treasure life because, first of all, and we see this in verses 1 through 14, that we treasure life because God safeguards. God puts up safeguards. for the protection of life. The misuse of justice is here prohibited in our passage. It must not happen in the promised land. This must not be true of Israel. Israel is coming into the land again in verse 1. They're receiving that which was not theirs. They're receiving something from God. God is providing for them. How then are they to live? This creates obligation on their part. Well, they are to be careful. They are to be careful. They are to make thoughtful preparation. Look at verses 2 and 3. Separate three cities. They're to designate three cities. They're to separate them out. This is careful and purposeful. If you go on and you read Joshua, you'll find that this is exactly what happened. They set aside a city in the north of Israel, in the middle of Israel, and in the south of Israel. They followed God's law in that. They made it easy. They made it accessible so that the roads weren't too far away from the city, so that one who innocently, accidentally killed another could flee to that city of refuge. Verses 4 and 7, then we see that the avenger of blood is limited. He's limited. We might be more familiar with the term the kinsman redeemer. This one's a little bit difficult to sort out exactly who this person was. And so commentaries, if you read them, will differ on this. It seems to me, this is my opinion, my guess, is that what you have is you have someone in the family who is designated to be the one who is to make sure that the family didn't have a loss of honor. So maybe this was someone who was young and fit and strong and it would be his job to go out and make sure that the family was protected. He was the warrior of the family, if you will. And that what you find as you go into the land is you have things settled, as you have things become civilized, you have cities and major towns, that this becomes more of an institution Some commentators speculate that this may have been more like what we think of as a prosecutor. It was his job to go out and get the evidence and prosecute the crime. Maybe some kind of mix between a bounty hunter and a prosecutor is what's going, perhaps is what's going on here. But he's limited. Notice that he's not allowed to go and pursue this one who is innocent even though he's accidentally taken a life. And then down in verses 11 through 13, Notice that in both cases, whether it's manslaughter, an accidental killing, or murder, a purposeful killing, notice how careful Israel is to be with this loss of life. This is something that is to be treasured by us. It's loss of life that is the issue here. Now, let's go back to verses 8 through 10. There's a little bit more going on here than just an explanation of the Sixth Commandment. In verses 8 through 10, if Israel's borders are expanded, they're to make three more cities. So again, this fits. It makes sense. You don't want these cities of refuge to be too far away from people if they need to get to them. Notice how this then is tied to Israel's prosperity in the land. This is based on Israel being blessed by God. It's based upon Israel being faithful to the covenant that God has made with them. It's tied to their obedience to the sixth commandment. Moses is talking about the future. And you say, yes, obviously. But we need to not miss that. We need to not run over that and forget that. Moses is talking about the future. As we read our Old Testament, be alive and aware of that over and over again. The Old Testament is future-oriented. It's looking towards what will happen, what will come to pass. So this is a reference to Jesus. And you say, how? This is not three cities of refuge that aren't built three ways that Jesus is our refuge. That's not what we're supposed to do when we come to a passage like this. Rather, God is communicating and teaching Israel that they are to be looking forward to what God will accomplish for them. They are to be looking forward to what God will accomplish for them. They are to continue to look forward to the one who was promised to Eve, the offspring of the woman who would come and kill the serpent. They are to continue to be looking forward to it. It's this forward-looking mindset that Israel was always to have. It was to show them they were to take that, that forward-looking mindset, and they were to think about their guilt before God, that they were the ones who needed a refuge. They can't perfectly keep the sixth commandment. And we heard that already in the reading of the law. Even in their own thoughts, in their own hearts, they would fail to keep the sixth commandment. But they're to have a sense of guilt before God, and at the same time, this forward look, What does this mean when we take these two things to put together? They need a refuge. Israel needs a refuge. It's not just the innocent one, the one who's accidentally killed a neighbor. All of Israel is to recognize that they need a refuge. And that's what we find over and over again, especially in the Psalms, that God makes himself the refuge of his people, the fortress and the high tower of his people. Then what do we find when we get to the New Testament? How does God provide a refuge for his people? Because what we find ultimately is that the refuge that we need is from our own sin. It's from God's holiness and God's wrath. Well, that refuge is only found in Jesus Christ. In verse 14, then, the properties of the families are protected. This language of a border and of a landmark, it seems a little bit odd to us. I mean, no one wants their neighbor to come over and start edging their fence over into our property. But why is that here in an exposition of the Sixth Commandment? The boundary was the extent of the land that was owned by the family. What were they going to use the land for? They were going to use it for crops and for livestock. Your land in the Old Testament in Israel is how you keep your kids from starving to death. This issue of a boundary is an issue of life and death. If your neighbor is encroaching on your land, he's taking away your livelihood. He's taking away your ability to provide for your family. He's ultimately taking away life. He's not honoring the Sixth Commandment. As we approach this text and as we see the Sixth Commandment applied to Israel, we need to apply it to ourselves as well. We must be careful to make use of the means that God gives us to protect life. Seat belts, locks, a last will and testament. We must be careful to use the means that we have to protect life. As you think about your leaders in government, do you think about how they value the Sixth Commandment? How they value life? We treasure life because God treasures life. He safeguards it. And then secondly, verses 15 through the end of the chapter, we treasure life because God institutes justice for the protection of life. It's set up. It's instituted for Israel in the land. This is for the protection of life. Justice exists here in this chapter to prevent fraud, to prevent the rising up of a false witness, These are matters of life and death, and they must not hinge just on the word of one witness. It would be dangerous to Israel if they do not follow the law. We saw this in the first point, and here in the second point also, that if they fail in this regard, it will be dangerous for them. It will not go well with them. It's an evil that they have not put away from the land. It means that they are unfaithful to the covenant. That's what this language is about. It means that they have failed to live up to the covenant, the requirements of God's covenant upon them. And God would exile them out of the land for this. Behind this then is not just Israel's relationship with God, it's the holiness of God. It's the strict perfection of his law, the strict perfection of his law. Justice then also exists in order to prevent excess, to prevent excess. Do you remember Fiddler on the Roof? Have you seen Fiddler on the Roof? Or have you heard the story about Tevye and his five daughters? And he's living in Russia and he's relying on tradition for how he manages his balance, if you will, in life. There's an interesting interchange where they talk about this law, eye for an eye and a life for a life. And Tevye says if we follow that, we'll all be eyeless and handless. We'll all be blind and without hands. I think often when we come to this idea of the eye for the eye, the hand for the hand, we tend to take it the way Tevye takes it. We tend to see it as excess, as something that's not merciful, I referenced that Lamech in Genesis chapter four at the beginning of the sermon. Lamech said this, we have his words recorded for us. I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. Lamech went above and beyond what justice required. He took it as personal insult, and he made himself the judge and the executioner in that case. This law that we have here laid out for Israel is to limit excess. It's to limit people taking the law into their own hands. Instead, Israel must pursue a careful and purposeful application of the Sixth Commandment. The judge is to make diligent inquiry. They're to only affect what the law requires and no more in these cases. We often make excuses as we come before the law and as we have the law explained to us. As we are convicted by the law, we're quick to make excuses for ourselves. Sometimes we go too far. Alcohol is a famous case. If drunkenness is wrong, then abstinence must be right. We go to excess in that way. We often excuse keeping the law for ourselves by saying, that's too hard. I can't manage my thoughts, so I never call my neighbor an idiot or a moron. We must hear the law. We must hear God's law, his perfect requirement of holiness, and see how we twist, how we step over God's law in breaking it. And don't stop there. Don't stop with the conviction. Flee to Christ. Confess it to him. Make him your refuge. In conclusion then, because God gives life, we must protect life. Because God gives life, we must protect life. God shows us his care, his love, and this careful protection that he sets up in Israel, the safeguards that he sets up for the innocent, this provision of justice for the punishing and the restraining of evil in the promised land. Jesus never belittled life. He always taught the right view of life. In this, he obeyed where we do not. But more than that, he raised others from the dead. He showed and demonstrated that he is, in fact, God, that he is the one who has life and gives life. And he himself rose from the dead. And Him then is the forgiveness of sins. This is the answer to the strict holiness of the law that we can never measure up to. It is Jesus Christ. It is not that our sins are swept under the rug. It's not that God somehow decides to smile upon us and accept us no matter how we are. It is that Jesus Christ carries our sin in our place. Our failure to measure up to the perfect standard of God's law even for murderers, even for those who bear false witness. He gave his life so that we would have life. He gave his life so that we would have life. He gave himself to be treated like a murderer and a false witness so that we would be treated as those who are innocent. If you're trusting in Jesus Christ, if you're resting in him and him alone, you must live every day knowing that you are guilty before the law and that instead you have been given life in Jesus Christ. Now there is no more guilt. It's gone. Now even the death that you will die is no longer a death of dread and terror. Now, right now, trusting in Jesus Christ, you have right and title to everlasting life in heaven forever. from this standpoint then, from this truth and this reality then, you can go on to your obligations to love God and love your neighbor, to treasure life, to protect your spouse from harm, to protect your children from harm, your parents, your skills and your abilities and your health from harm so that you can continue to serve others. Take the sixth commandment, treasure life and apply it to yourself. You can only do this joyfully and rightly if you're first resting in Christ's life offered for you. and then put to death the spite, the resent, the resentment, the hatred, the murderous thoughts that you may have, whether it's a coworker or a neighbor, a spouse, a child, family members, officials in government, those who have hurt you. Put away those hateful thoughts. And even more than this, you must love your enemy. You must love your enemy. Pray for those who have hurt you. Pray for them. Ask that God would have mercy upon them, that he would save them and deliver them from judgment, that the harm and the wicked that they have done, they would not have to bear themselves, but Christ would bear it for them. Treat others the way God has treated you. Think about others the way God thinks about you, with mercy and patience and compassion and kindness. If you are not trusting in Christ this morning, Jesus says that you have violated his commandment. You have violated his command to love and protect life in your thoughts and in your thinking. It's not enough to say, I've never killed anyone. It's not enough to say, I've never hit anyone or hurt anyone. The law requires that you love life perfectly, that you not insult in your thinking your neighbor, your family, and your friends. Don't skitter away from the perfect requirement of the law. Recognize that you cannot measure up to it, that you have failed. Confess that to God and seek his mercy. And if you will rely on Christ and Christ promises to you from his word, you then will have life. That guilt will be removed. It will be gone. And you will live forevermore. We've heard from God's Word about the setting up for Israel of human justice in the land, that they were to follow God in this, they were to treasure life that was to be built into how they lived and how they dealt with one another. But we know and we read in the Old Testament and we see even in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, the innocent one killed for the guilty, a miscarry of human justice. Human justice is imperfect at best. The innocent are punished and the wicked are rewarded. Where do we turn for comfort and hope in this life? When we see it, when we hear it, when we read it? God's justice is perfect. God's justice is perfect. Nothing escapes him. There is nothing that he fails to see or record. There is nothing that he fails to deliver the perfect punishment upon, whether it's upon those who sin or it's upon his own son. Nothing has happened in the whole course of human history that will not receive its perfect reward. Either we will bear that ourselves or Christ bears it for us, but God's justice will be satisfied. God is just. God loves life. He is life himself, and he made all life. All that exists exists because he created it. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit exist in perfect love and harmony with one another, one being and three persons, delighting in the life of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit created all that we see around us, all that has existed. And the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit worked in history to save a people for God. God created all life. God sustains all life. And God redeems from death a people for himself. He gives everlasting life. This is the God whom we serve and whom we worship on Sunday morning and for whom we live day in and day out, week by week, year by year. Our God is the God of the living. Our God is the God of the living. Let's pray. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we delight in you. We delight in your glory and your majesty. We delight in the fact that you exist and that you are God, that you are life itself and that you give life to those around you. You give life to your creation. You have made the plants and the trees, the sky and the stars, You have given us a world in which to live that is teeming and overflowing with life. It's abundant. It's all around us all the time. We thank you, Father, that you have created and made all these things. We thank you, Father, that you have given us life. Each one of us here in this room today, we have enjoyed blessings beyond count. We have enjoyed a wondrous and amazing gift and that we have lived in your world and tasted and enjoyed your beauty and your creation. We have seen your power and your goodness. We thank you, Father, that you have not left us to our own sins, that you have not left us to figure out on our own how to please you, but that you have given us life in Jesus Christ. You have given us your word and directed us to it. Give us grace today and give us grace this week, that we would delight in our life in Christ, that we would treasure and value the life that you have given us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.