Crime, Justice, Aliens, Orphans & Widows -- Our Responsibilities

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Revelations (& Rules) About Our Own Responsibilities -- Deuteronomy 24:16-22

Hang in there as we look at three more and very important areas in what appeared to be a never-ending chapter (number 24) in the book of Deuteronomy. It is after all, a book of laws.

You Pay for Your Own Sin Verse 16 tells us very clearly that 'sin' is individual. If someone committed a crime in Israel, a relative could not be punished in his/her place and the criminal be left to live and go about their business freely. The example used is a father agreeing to be killed instead of his son for a crime the latter committed, and vice-versa. The Hebrew practice of that law is borne out in 2 Kings 14:6 and 2 Chronicles 25:4. There were no substitutes -- regardless of status. There were no scapegoats as is often the case when the mighty and the rich get tangled up in crime today.

David Guzik provides a little relief here for us who are parents when he says, "It is wrong for a parent to automatically blame themselves for their wayward children; though they may have a part in the problem, it isn't always the case."

Today, there are many opportunities for those with money to pay the fines charged to criminals for various crimes. However, I am not sure that there is any way that a person who has been found guilty of a crime punishable by death and is so sentenced, can pay enough to erase that sentence. And that is the way it should be, even though there is a chance of the justice system making a mistake. When you are on death row, you know that your days are numbered. In the United States at least, only the President can pardon you.

Bottom practical line here is this: If you care enough about your relative or friend, the time to help him/her is before they commit the crime when you get whiff of their plans, not afterwards.  Afterwards, they are responsible for their own sins. And maybe that's why sometimes you have to turn a person in when they're planning to do harm, rather than let them do the harm. They may not appreciate it, but in the end, it is better for them.

From a Biblical perspective, and I stand to be corrected, there was only one exception to this law. And that is when the Son of God died in our place to atone for and erase our sin, the sins of the whole world, in the eyes of God the Father. The First Adam made us all prey to sin. We had to pay our own price for our sin and the wages of sin was and is death. The Second Adam, through His own sacrifice on the cross, made it possible for us to escape that burden of dying for our sins.

Don't Pervert the Justice System Verses 17-18 required the Israelites not to fix or rig their justice system to take advantage of those who could not defend themselves including aliens, orphans and widows. The focus seems to be on their inability to pay large, or any amounts for their bail (what the text refers to as a pledge). The reason being that all Israelites are to remember that they or their forefathers were once slaves in Egypt, and that God redeemed them when they had nothing to offer.

Today, we may not pervert the justice system intentionally. It happens because of the way our legal system is set up. It has rules and requires certain mechanisms to be triggered to ensure fairness and equity in treatment. The problem is that those requirements are not either easily known or accessible to someone who cannot afford top-notch legal defence advocates to fight for them. As a result, the so-called law is applied and the poor man loses. That's why we have the expression, "a man who is his own lawyer, has a fool for a client".  A poor alien (immigrant, refugee), orphan, or widow who cannot afford a good lawyer, doesn't have a chance in our court systems.

Our responsibility as Christians is to be on the lookout for situations involving people we know, or know of, who may indeed be disadvantaged in this way, and to do all we can to get them the help they need if at all possible so that they will have a fair chance of defending themselves with the authorities.

While You're Raking It In, Remember the Less Fortunate In verses 19-22, Moses tells the Israelites that while they are reaping their harvests, or beating the olives out of their olive trees, or gathering their grapes off their vineyards, they are not do go back and get every last piece sheaf in the field, every last olive, or every last grape. Only one pass-through was allowed. In fact, they are intentionally to leave the remains so that the poor folks -- again the aliens, the orphans, and the widows -- may have a chance to gather those, eat, and survive. And the Israelites were to do all this because again they needed to remember their days of slavery in Egypt. So God was commanding them, through Moses, to behave in this manner.

Chuck Smith calls this practice "God's welfare system" for those with real needs. 

That may not be as practical for us today. We can't let people wander into our factories after hours and just help themselves to the leftovers, so they can make something out of them and resell them, etc. There are two many risks involved including ones for their own safety. But that does not excuse us from our responsibility to act in other ways to take care of needy strangers, orphans, and widows. I believe Christians have a choice. One option is that they have a responsibility to ensure that their church that gets all their charitable funds have a very vibrant program of assisting aliens, orphans, and widows. Alternatively, Christians must research and find meaningful avenues of wisely supporting such groups. I don't see how we can escape that. I believe the instructions given  here on this matter in Deuteronomy are echoed by what Jesus taught throughout the four gospels of the New Testament. To ignore this requirement of "how then shall we live" as believers today, is to be missing a major chunk of what it means to be a follower of Christ in the 21st century.

David Guzik reminds us that satisfying this requirement was a demonstration of a grateful heart to all that God had blessed the Israelites with. How much more reason for us today to do likewise?

Let's end this review of these four verses on being charitable wth the wise words of Matthew Henry, who alone can state things this way:

• 1. "Say not, 'It is all my own, and why should not I have it?' But learn a generous contempt of property in small matters. One sheaf or two forgotten will make thee never the poorer at the year's end, and it will do somebody good, if thou have it not.'
• 2. "Say not, 'What I give I will give, and know whom I give it to, why should I leave it to be gathered by I know not whom, that will never thank me.' But trust God's providence with the disposal of thy charity, perhaps that will direct it to the most necessitous.' Or, "Thou mayest reasonably think it will come to the hands of the most industrious, that are forward to seek and gather that which this law provides for them.'
• 3. "Say not, 'What should the poor do with grapes and olives? It is enough for them to have bread and water;' for, since they have the same senses that the rich have, why should not they have some little share of the delights of sense?' Boaz ordered handfuls of corn to be left on purpose for Ruth, and God blessed him. All that is left is not lost.

Summary Comment I cannot, however, leave this section without commenting on an observation that I have made as I study my Bible. There is no escaping it, God in the Old Testament and Christ in the New Testament, have a lot to say to us about "aliens in our land, orphans, and widows".  I know this realization has caused me to rethink my actions or lack thereof in this regard.  I can only point this out to readers, and pray that they too will reconsider their actions in the 'necessary' and required support and blessing of aliens, orphans, and widows.

Note to reader: If you like the way we are studying scripture, why not subscribe to our posts by providing us just with your email? You can do that to the right of this column in the "Subscribe to" section.  You can also search our earlier studies in the "Blog Archive" section below that.  Finally, please encourage others to study along with us by sharing this link with your family and friends. Thank you and God bless.  Ken G.

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Eye For Eye, Tooth For Tooth -- Exodus 21:22-25

“And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide.  But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
 

Here is that famous passage, the words of which we have often heard quoted when we talk about “getting revenge” – wanting equal value compensation for what was taken from us.  From this stems the idea of a ‘victim’ being made ‘whole’ at the expense of the ‘offender’ or ‘criminal’.

Again what we notice is that God knew men would be fighting each other and that often such a fight would involve a woman, one way or another.  Thus we have these verses dealing with just that, and in particular, what is to happen when the woman is pregnant and she loses the child as a result of being injured during the fight between the men.

If the woman miscarries a fetus after being involved in a physical struggle but she herself does not suffer other injury, then only a fine is to be levied.  The ‘life for life, eye for eye’ principle does not go into effect unless the woman herself is further injured.  But we may well ask “What about the baby? Was that not a life? Should not the principle of life for life have applied in this case?”  Good questions.

I do not believe God was ignoring the fetus at all.  Elsewhere in scripture God shows His true feelings about the miracle He creates in a woman’s womb.  Here are some of them:

·      Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb? (Job 31:15)

·      Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb; Thou didst make me trust when upon my mother's breasts. Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb. (Psalm 22:9-10)

·      For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:13-16)

·      Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, `Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. (Isaiah 44:2)

·      Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone, (Isaiah 44:24)

And if that is not enough to convince you He does not ignore the fetus, the Scriptures also speak of at least five key figures of history who were called from the womb:
Samson:

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. "But he said to me, `Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'" (Judges 13:6-7, see also Judges 16:17)

Jesus (prophecy):

• Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me. (Isaiah 49:1)
• And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), (Isaiah 49:5)
• Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb; Thou didst make me trust when upon my mother's breasts. Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb. (Psalm 22:9-10)

Jeremiah:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

John the Baptist:

"For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother's womb." (Luke 1:15)

Paul:

But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased (Galatians 1:15)

Scripture answers scripture.  Where there appears to be a conflicting idea or thought, we look to the whole of the Bible and see what the overwhelming position on the issue is.  So, in our current passage, the focus is not the fetus but on punishing those who do harm to others.  It is not that there is no punishment for causing a miscarriage, but it is left up to the husband of the woman and the courts to determine what it is.

However, damage caused in the case of men struggling with each other and a woman is injured further, then the punishment reverts to the ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth’ principle.

I was wondering about the point, or points, of the passage.  They didn’t seem to come out as clearly as they do in some of the other passages.  However, on some further reflection and study, I did come up with three:

1.     God again indicates how He comes to the defense of the weak and vulnerable.

2.     God does not support punishment that exceeds the crime.

3.     The victim and the victim’s family matter, but they also have to be reasonable as determined by the courts.

We would do well to examine our current justice systems to see how we are doing in these areas.  A comparative study between countries or cultures would yield some interesting results.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Oh, What a Mess, What a Mess in America's Judicial System. Explaining and dissecting the N.C. death-row racial bias bill.

It seems to me that one measure of a country's success is the degree with which its justice system works well, for the good of the country, the majority, and the wrongly accused. However, when I read  what is going on in some American states, I wonder how successful the U.S. is on this criteria. Let's take the recent example of North Carolina.

Let me see if I can summarize the situation and then comment on the implications:

1.  Back in 2009 the current Governor of North Carolina signed into law a bill that requires judges (I assume on appeal) to amend a "death sentence" if they believe that that lower court sentence was based on racial prejudice.  They must amend it to "life in prison without parole" in such cases of belief.

2.  Two weeks ago, a number of N.C. legislators put forward a bill that would repeal that law, arguing two things:  first, that it can and does clogg up the system with appeals, and second, that it has the impact of imposing an indefinite moratorium on legalized death penalties in the state.

3.  Just today (Wed. Dec. 14, 2011), the Governor vetoed the appealing bill and the 2009 anti-racial-bias bill stands.  It's formal name is the 2009 Racial Justice Act.

4.  The 2009 bill was designed to offset the belief or concerns that race impacted on who was sentenced to death in the state and who might not be.  And the defense lawyers can use simple statistics as an argument.  Almost all executions have been stopped in the last five years as a result.  Almost all of the 158 prisoners now on death-row have filed for reconsideration under this Act -- both black and White inmates claim their sentence was an act of racism.

5. But this theatrical circumstance has at least one more scene to go -- by law, when a Governor issues a veto in N.C., they have a certain number of days (this time by Jan. 8th) to recall the legislature so that they could, if they were able to, override the veto.  Fat chance as Republicans who support the repeal of the bill don't have the necessary majority to do so.

6.  Apparently most N.C. citizens support the death penalty and are not too happy with the Democratic Governor's solitary decision.

7.  On the other hand, there is 2010 study by two law professors at Michigan State University that found a defendant in North Carolina is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims was white, according to article in the link below.  But again that's just statistics and no statement is made on the merits of those cases.


Now, let's try to think about some of the finer points of this situation:

A. Racism is indeed a sin that our world, and in particular, our Western society is saddled with.  And we should do all we can to minimize its negative impact on people and society.  However, this Act seems to assume that if the judge is white, he/she will go for the jugular rather than an alternative sentencing based on racial prejudice; if the victim is white, the white judge is even more likely to do so; and if the jury is predominantly white, the accused who is black has little chance.   And the death-row prisoner can simply use statistics to get the relief he/she wants.   That is, there is no safe-proof way of looking at a case and determining (in this appeal) that the lower court's process was or was not racist on the merits of the case -- but rather, through statistics, just assume it to be so.

B. Although the amended sentence would be "life without parole" -- we all know how that can be changed over time including pardons.  It would be better if the act read, "life sentence without the possibility of parole".

C. Many of us believe that justice delayed is justice denied.  But that works both ways -- both for the accused that is innocent and the accused that is guilty.  Denying the execution of the sentence a criminal has been given is justice denied for his/her victims and society.

D.  And then of course there is the fact that the provision for an over-ride is rendered useless when the opposition to the governor does not have the votes.  A flaw in the system in my opinion.  And add to that this sole governor is acting contrary to the majority of her constituents.  Another flaw.

E.  For my money, we, especially Christians, are obliged to take a much higher approach.  We need to arrive at the "more correct" answer to this dilemma (for there is no possible human answer that is perfectly correct, moral, etc.) by using a paired-comparison decision-tree of priorities by which we can assess pairs of competing variables and determining which has the 'higher' value to society as a whole and allowing the winners to float to the top until we arrive at our agreed to decision.  And always each consideration should be, at least for Christians, also assessed in light of what the Bible may say about it.  Variables in this case include: justice, delays, system clogging, death-sentences, racism, criminal penalties, and so on.

What then are we to make of all this?  Racism is caused by sin.  Sin screws everything up.  There is no right or wrong in the eyes of sinners.  Each man and woman does/thinks/demands whatever seems right in their own minds.  (Proverbs 12:15, 14:12, and 21:2.)   There are no absolutes to help them.  And the sinkhole of society gets deeper and deeper.   I don't believe in evolution, but if this keeps up someone will need to explain to me how it is that man today is evolving to be more like a four-footed animal in his behavior.

-- For Epistoli, I'm Ken Godevenos, and I invite to express a different point of view in the comment section below.  Here's the link to the original article. . . . 

The Associated Press: NC governor vetoes death-row racial bias bill

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Latest FBI Hate Crime Report. Bottom line: Islamophobia is a Myth.

This department of the federal government says hate crimes that are "anti-Jewish" outweigh hates crimes that are "anti-Muslim" 4.8/1. Tell me again, "just who is Islamophobic?" Not Americans. The Obama administration (excluding the FBI) just want us to think Americans are -- it serves they purposes and failure to deal with radical terrorist Islam very well.

Read the key aspects of the report on the FBI's own site.

FBI — Incidents and Offenses

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Crime By The Wealthy & Healthy

Once in a while, while driving without her, I am tempted to use my mother-in-law's "disability parking permit" that sits in my wife's car in order to park in a handier place -- but then my conscience, not to mention my wife, says "no". That's breaking the rules and the law. So I diligently look for another spot further away.

However, the thought of misusing such a permit in order to avoid paying for parking is totally criminal. This story is all about those who do just that -- and they're not poor. If anything they're the fast, younger, and rich.  And they don't qualify to use the permit that's sitting on their dash.

I say report them, embarrass them, and fine them big time.  They're cheaters and more.  And yes, I feel strongly about this.  How did you guess?

Toronto News: Unlimited free parking, anywhere, anytime - thestar.com

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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