Scripture Daily

Context No. 2309 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 21:15-23: in context

15If a man has two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated, 16then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn; 17but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, 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. 18If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them, 19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place. 20They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear. 22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Don’t defile your land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

Among the laws Moses gives is one about the burial of an executed criminal. If a man guilty of a capital crime is put to death and his body hung on a tree, it must not remain there overnight but be buried the same day; for, the law says, anyone hanged on a tree is under God's curse. To hang on a tree was to bear a visible sign of being accursed, cut off, under the condemnation of God. This law would take on a startling significance when Christ was crucified, hung on the tree of the cross.

This law about the accursed criminal hung on a tree points, in a way Moses could not have seen, to the cross of Christ. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, the law declared; and Christ was hung on the tree of the cross. By the law's own word, then, Christ, crucified, was under a curse. But he was not cursed for his own sin, for he had none; he bore the curse for us. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, Paul says, by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Christ took upon himself, on the tree, the curse that our sin deserved, becoming accursed in our place, so that we might be freed from the curse. This is the heart of what Christ did on the cross. We were under the curse of the law, the condemnation our sin deserved. And Christ, on the tree, took that curse upon himself, becoming a curse for us, bearing the condemnation we deserved, so that the curse might be lifted from us. He became accursed that we might be blessed; he bore the condemnation that we might go free. He himself bore our sins, Peter says, in his body on the tree. The curse of the law that hung over us was borne by Christ on the tree of the cross. This is a truth to rest in with gratitude and wonder. The curse we deserved, the condemnation of the law, was not laid on us but on Christ, who bore it in our place on the tree. We are freed from the curse not because we did not deserve it, but because Christ became a curse for us, taking upon himself on the cross the condemnation our sin deserved. This is grace beyond measure: that the sinless one became accursed in our place, that the curse might be lifted from us and the blessing come to us. This calls us to receive with gratitude the freedom Christ purchased by bearing our curse. The law declared cursed everyone hung on a tree; and Christ, hung on the tree of the cross, became a curse for us, bearing the condemnation our sin deserved, that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law. Let us receive this with wonder and gratitude: that Christ took our curse upon himself on the tree, becoming accursed in our place, so that we, who deserved the curse, might be freed from it and receive the blessing, redeemed from the curse of the law by the one who became a curse for us on the tree.

Do I grasp what Christ did in bearing my curse, or do I still feel under the condemnation my sin deserved, and can the law's word that everyone hanged on a tree is accursed, together with Paul's teaching that Christ, hung on the tree of the cross, became a curse for us, redeeming us from the curse of the law, move me to receive with wonder and gratitude the freedom Christ purchased by taking my curse upon himself, becoming accursed in my place so that I might be freed from the condemnation and receive the blessing?

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