From Deuteronomy 19-21:
1. It would sometimes be nice if our law courts had the same rules as the Israelites had. It seems that many times we see stories on the news of some person in jail that was falsely accused of something that he/she did and there was not a single witness. Then there are other accounts of situations where many witnesses saw what happened and yet the person gets to walk free. It does not appear that the laws God set up would allow that to happen very easily.
2. I did not realize that the cities of refuge were to be three as a base number, and then they were to increase this number to six whenever God increased their land.
3. I'm afraid. Can I go home? - In chapter 20:5-9 it states that all of the men that go to war must be asked first if they have unfinished business and also see if they are afraid. If one of these things is true, they can opt out of fighting. I wonder if this means that they have to inquire before each and every battle. I mean, I am sure that sometimes these guys must have been afraid, right? I wonder if they set it up similar to our military, where it is a purely voluntary force of fighting men.
4. I did not realize that they were to offer forced labor to the cities that they fought before they fought them. This was an offer that was only offered to cities that were far away from the land promised to the Israelites. The cities that were in the area where the promised land was God commanded the Israelites to fully destroy.
5. Interesting! God commanded the Israelites not to cut down any fruit trees that were around the cities that they besieged, so that later they could harvest the fruit.
6. Unsolved mysteries were handled a little bit differently in God's plan. The elders of the town closest must take an oath before God that they had nothing to do with the murder of the person and had seen nothing. When they made this oath they were to wash their hands over a heifer whose neck was broken there in that area.
7. No one would want to be considered a stubborn and rebellious son under the laws that God gave. Otherwise that would be instant death penalty.
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