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Reasoning The Scriptures

The Unfound Murder


By M.S.Mariadas and Y.R.Dinakaran
Bible Students, M.B.S.A

“Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”
Psalms 119:18

“Open Thou mine eye” – It means these are wonderful things in God’s Law and to
see and understand clearly, or to see pictorially, but one’s mind has to be opened,
because in the Present Evil world, the god is Satan who has blinded the minds of the
unbelievers (2 Cor 4:4). No one can open eyes except God. In order to get our eyes
opened we must be taught first. To be taught by God from the Law is also a blessing.
Psalms 94:12 says, “Blessed [is] the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest
him out of thy law.” So discussing the wonderful things of the Law is a blessings from
God, let us today discuss the Law regarding the unfound murder found in Deuteronomy
21:1-9.

The ceremonies here ordained to be observed on the discovery of a slaughtered corpse


show the ideas of sanctity which the Mosaic law sought to associate with human blood,
the horror which murder inspired, as well as the fears that were felt lest God should
avenge it on the country at large, and the pollution which the land was supposed to
contract from the effusion of innocent, unexpiated blood. According to Jewish writers,
the Sanhedrin, taking charge of such a case, sent a deputation to examine the
neighborhood. They reported to the nearest town to the spot where the body was found.
An order was then issued by their supreme authority to the elders or magistrates of that
town to provide the heifer at the civic expense and go through the appointed ceremonial
ritual. The engagement of the public authorities in the work of expiation, the purchase
of the victim heifer, the conducting of it to a "rough valley," which might be at a
considerable distance, and which as the original implies was a wady, a perennial stream,
in the waters of which the polluting blood would be wiped away from the land, and a
desert withal, incapable of cultivation; the washing of the hands, which was an ancient
act symbolical of innocence--the whole of the ceremonial ritual was calculated to make a
deep impression on the Jewish people, as well as on the Oriental mind generally; to
stimulate the activity of the magistrates in the discharge of their official duties; to lead to
the discovery of the criminal and the repression of crime.

Cities were responsible for murders committed within their jurisdictions. This indicates
that there is corporate guilt in God's government. The ritual prescribed removed the
pollution caused by bloodshed. The heifer (young cow) represented the unknown
murderer. It was his substitute. It was to be an animal that had not done hard labor; its
vital force was undiminished (vs. 3). The leaders were to take this heifer into an
unplowed field in a valley where there was running water and cut off its head. The
breaking of the neck symbolized the punishment due the murderer, but executed on his
substitute. The blood of the heifer would fall on unplowed ground that would absorb it.
It would disappear rather than turning up at some future date because of plowing. The
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Reasoning The Scriptures
water cleansed the hands of the elders who had become ritually defiled by the shedding
of the sacrifice's blood. This ritual removed the impurity that would rest on the people of
the city because someone they could not find had shed human blood near it. It atoned
for this guilt in such a case.

God avenges for the shed blood of the innocent. Ps. 9:12: “When he maketh inquisition
for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” (Also see Ps
72:14.) We see in this Law a shadow, a picture of the death of Christ and forgiveness
provided by God. The Law of Unfound murder depicts God’s inquest over the death of
His own son. It happened in the history that on Nisan 14, AD 31, God had seen the dead
body of the Lord Jesus Christ lying in the field (Deut 21:1); the field means the world
(Mat 13:38). The city nearest to the dead body of the Lord was Jerusalem. God
measured and found that Jerusalem was the guilty city and so the elders and the leaders
of Jerusalem (Pharisees and Sadducees) would have had to petition God that they were
not guilty of the blood of innocent Jesus according to the Law – but what happened on
that day? Let us read John 18:29 -30. The Jews sought Pilate’s power to crucify Christ.
“Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The
Jews therefore said unto him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death”(vs. 31)
“that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he
should die”(vs.32). Pilate was pressured and compelled to crucify Christ (John 19:6, 15,
16; (also compare John 18:31; Mat. 27:19). The elders and the leaders and all the people
pleaded with Pilate to crucify Christ and sought his blood to be upon their heads;
instead of pleading with God for the innocent Blood of Christ. “Then answered all the
people, and said, His blood [be] on us, and on our children” (Mat. 27:25). Christ was
scourged and crucified (Mark 15:15-17; Luke 23:24; John 19:16). The elders and leaders
of Israel should have pleaded for mercy and forgiveness from God and should have
washed their hands (Deut 21:6) for shedding the innocent blood of Christ, but Pilate, a
Gentile, not at all familiar with the Law of Moses washed his hands and confessed before
all his innocence. “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but [that] rather a
tumult was made, he took water, and washed [his] hands before the multitude, saying,
I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye [to it]” (Mat. 27:24).
Thus the Blood of the innocent Jesus came literally upon the city of Jerusalem and the
children of Israel

The Heifer a Substitute

“And it shall be, [that] the city [which is] next unto the slain man, even the elders of that
city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, [and] which hath not drawn
in the yoke” (Deut. 21:3).

The Heifer, which has not yoked, was a ransom or a substitute for the murder
committed. It was by sacrificing this heifer and washing the hands the blood guilt that
atoned for the land. Likewise Christ Jesus is the Perfect substitute and Ransom for all
the sins committed in the world because of father Adam’s fall. His sacrifice is efficacious
to atone for the entire world. Here the heifer offered represent Christ (Heb. 10:8, 9:13,
14). The heifer which has not been wrought with; in ploughing land, or treading out
corn: and which hath not drawn in the yoke, which never had any yoke put upon it; is a
well representation and a beautiful type of Christ, whose sufferings, shed blood, and
death, atoned for secret and unknown sins, as well as for open and manifest ones, even
for all sin. A yoke is a symbol of controlled or forced submission (1 Kings 12:4, 9, 10, 11,
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Reasoning The Scriptures
14). Prophet Isaiah, while referring to the Israelites forced submission to Midianites
called the yoke a burden. “For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of
his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian” (Isa. 9:4; compare with
10:27). Sin is also a burden which made all mankind to bend and serve Satan. So
without a yoke, signifies the freedom of Christ from the yoke of sin and the service to it,
and from human traditions. He was not obliged to toil and labour. He had been
compelled to bear the yoke of the law, but had voluntarily undertaken it of himself. He
expiated the sins of such who were sons of Belial, children with a yoke; and for the same
reason, Jesus Christ, born of woman, was never under the yoke of sin and death, he was
sinless and perfect – Heb. 7:26; Luke 1:35.

“And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is
neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley” (Deut.
21:4).

Cities being generally built on hills, and so had adjacent valleys, to which there was a
descent; but here a rough valley, or the rougher part of it, was selected for this purpose.
As a valley is low, and this a rough one, it may be an emblem of Christ's being brought
into this lower world, from heaven to earth, to do the will of his Father, which was to
work out the salvation of his people; and of his coming into the lower parts of the earth,
the womb of the virgin, and to the grave at his death (Psalm 139:15), and of the low
estate he came into by the assumption of human nature - through appearing in the form
of a servant (Phil 2:9) - being in indigent circumstances and ministered to by others
(Luke 8:3) - needing the assistance of angels in the wilderness and garden - by which it
appeared he was made lower than they (Heb. 2:9) - by his being despised of men, and
forsaken by his Father (Mat. 27:46). All of which are proofs of the low estate he was
brought into and fitly signified by a valley, which was a rough valley to him where he
was roughly treated. His life was sought after in his infancy by Herod, which forced the
flight of his parents with him into Egypt. He was not received, but rejected by his own as
the King Messiah. They would not have him to reign over them. They called him
opprobrious names (Mat. 11:19). They often sought and attempted by various ways to
take away his life. When apprehended and examined before the high priest in Pilate's
hall, he was treated in the rudest manner, being spit upon, buffeted, and scourged; and
when led out to be crucified he was treated in the most barbarous and scornful manner.
He was put to death in the most painful and shameful way; and above all, was severely
handled by the justice of God, being numbered among the transgressors. When the
sword of justice was awakened against him, he was not in the least bit spared, but wrath
came upon him to the uttermost for the sins of his people. So into this world in which he
was brought proved to be a rough valley indeed to him. Some take this to be an emblem
of: 1) the hard-heart of the murderer who had committed such a barbarous and cruel
action as to kill a man; or 2) of the hard heart of a sinner into which Christ is brought
through the ministry of the word; or 3) of the infamous place, Calvary, where Christ was
brought to suffer death. But the first is best. Some interpret it, a "strong stream" or
"rapid torrent" (Maimonides and others); and indeed in valleys there are generally
streams or brooks of water, but this seems not so well to agree with what follows:
which is neither cared nor sown; that is, neither ploughed nor sown, but quite an
uncultivated place; and this the Jews understand not of what it had been, or then was,
but what it should be hereafter; that from henceforward it should never be manured, but
lie barren and useless; so it is said in the Misnah , sowing or tilling are forbidding, but is
free to dress flax in, or to dig stones out of it. R. Joseph Kimchi interprets this of a fat
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Reasoning The Scriptures
and fruitful valley, which was not to be tilled nor sown from thence forward for time to
come; the reason of which he thinks was, that they might be the more careful of their
countries and borders, and how they encouraged bloody-minded men to dwell among
them; that no slain person might be found there, and so they lose a choice part of their
possessions. This became true of the fruitful land of Judea and Jerusalem, after the
sufferings and death of Christ there (Luke 21:24), “verily I say unto you, There shall not
be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mat. 24:2).
“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Mat. 23:38). It is said while Jerusalem
was burned by Titus, thousands of Jews were crucified. Jesus was sold for 30 silver
pieces, 30 Jews were sold for one silver piece. Jerusalem the foundation of peace was
laid barren for more than 2000 years (Deut. 30:1-6).

The heifer was not burnt, nor cut asunder, but to be cut off at its neck. Some sin offering
sacrifices also had their head wringed off. Lev. 5:8 – “And he shall bring them unto the
priest, who shall offer [that] which [is] for the sin offering first and wring off his head
from his neck, but shall not divide [it] asunder.”

Breaking off the neck suggests that the sacrificial animal’s body was not be separated
(Lev. 5:8). It was to be offered completely, no portion was separated for the priests who
sacrificed it, and it remained a complete offering. How true it is with Christ that none of
his bones were broken when he offered himself on the cross (John 19:33, 36). His
offering was complete and perfect nothing was separated. Heb. 7:27: “Who needeth not
daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the
people's: for this he did once, (i.e. completely, perfectly, no repetition nor separation)
when he offered up himself. The wringing off the neck of an animal in the Law
pointed out the severity and cruelty of the death of Christ on the cross; he was not
beheaded, nor burnt, nor stoned to death, but crucified. Crucifixion was the most
shameful and the cruelest punishment given by the Romans for criminals. His body was
weakened by scourging. No other human flesh could sustain the floggings and beatings
of a Roman soldier. Christ, the greater heifer, sustained it all and later died on the cross.
His innocent blood is the only way by which all the humans can receive forgiveness for
all committed sins.

“And all the elders of that city, [that are] next unto the slain [man], shall wash their
hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley” (Deut. 21:6).

The washing of the hands is a token of their innocence, and this they did not only for
themselves, but for the whole city, being the representatives of it. (See Psalm 26:6;
73:13.) Some think that this is a confirmation of the understanding embraced by some:
that it was a strong stream to which the heifer was brought. Though it would be no great
difficulty to get a sufficient quantity of water from the nearby city with which to wash
the hands of the elders. This may denote the purification of sin by the blood of Christ
the true fountain of life referred by Zechariah, “In that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1). Sins are confessed over him shows that priests, elders,
ministers of the word, as well as others stand in need of it; and that even those
concerned in the death of Christ shared in the benefits of it (Heb. 10:22; Tit. 3:5).

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