A God who cares about His people clearly lays down the rules for their society and this is quite apparent from the Old Testament, especially Deuteronomy. Some of these laws may seem trivial for God to give such specific details but His ways are not our ways.
One of the laws concern unsolved murder in which the guilty offender is not known. As such, God's law clearly provides closure for the people by allowing the people to proclaim their innocence. It also closes the case and stops potential accusations.
Another law allows the Israelites to take women captured in war to be their wives. God requires the woman to be treated with respect to the point that the man was to mourn for the woman's parents for one month. And if the man decides not to have her, he can let her go but not sell her or treat her brutally.
The inheritance rights of sons is also clearly stated. The true firstborn is to have double portion, whether that son belongs to the wife the man loved or to another wife who is unloved. We saw God illustrated this by blessing both Leah, the unloved wife of Jacob as well as the unloved Egyptian slave of Abraham, Hagar, who bore Abraham's first son Ishmael. However, God exercised His divine prerogative to choose the second born to carry his Blessings in Isaac, Jacob and Ephraim.
In addition, there is also a law whereby a rebellious is to be stoned to death. Another law also states that a person hanged for committing a sin, must not be left overnight because He is accursed of God. This was the reason the Lord's body was taken down from the cross on the same day He was crucified for our sins.
Deuteronomy 21
The Law Concerning Unsolved Murder
1 “If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. 4 The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 Then they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.’ And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Female Captives
10 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, 11 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her.
Firstborn Inheritance Rights
15 “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 16 then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. 17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
The Rebellious Son
18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
Miscellaneous Laws
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