1-2 “When you are in the land the Lord your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder. In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns. 3-5 When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a heifer that has never been trained or yoked to a plough. They must lead it down to a valley that has not been ploughed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the heifer’s neck. Then the Levitical priests must step forward, for the Lord  your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the Lord’s name. They are to decide all legal and criminal cases.

6-8 The elders of the town must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken.  Then they must say, ‘Our hands did not shed this person’s blood, nor did we see it happen. O  Lord, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood. 9 By following these instructions, you will do what is right in the  Lord’s sight and will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.” Deuteronomy 21:1-9 New Living Translation paraphrase (English Standard version link)

This is quite a straight forward passage but it raises an important principle which many nations have forgotten. The problem Moses addressed was that of what’s known today as 'a cold case'. A murder had been committed but the murderer was unknown. Moses tells them that the people of the town nearest to where the crime took place were to take responsibility for seeking God's forgiveness for what had happened. (vs 1-2) It meant offering a pure sacrifice to make atonement for the life that had been taken and the innocent blood that had been shed. (vs 3-5) They would be confessing that they truly didn't know who had committed the crime, and asking for forgiveness. (vs 6-8). Verse 9 describes what God's response would be.

What does this tell us of the value God puts on human life – particularly the innocent? (Not innocent in the sense of not being a sinner – but innocent in the sense of not deserving to have been killed.)

Another question. Does God want people to be indifferent to a crime like murder?

I guess the answers to both those questions are quite straight forward. But then how do you think God must feel about societies like ours today – especially in the large cities – where murders are so frequent and very often unsolved? Many of us are sadly unmoved by the ever increasing statistics. And what about the killing of babies in the womb? We actually know in such cases who the people were doing the deed – but, sadly, we have come to simply accept the shedding of innocent blood.

But look again at verse 9. There is a guilt that the land needs to be cleansed of. The Levitical priests could only pronounce God's blessing if true justice took place – or if atonement was made when the guilty could not be found. Is it any wonder that nations today are experience the increasing violence they do. God's blessing is not there.

What can the response of Christians be? In one sense we are quite helpless because the laws of countries are what they are. But could vs 6-8 be part of the way forward?

The people where the crime had taken place were called to prayer and to seek God's forgiveness. Perhaps we need to be crying out to God more than we do for the bloodshed taking place in our land, including that of the abortions. We can pray too that our hearts won't become indifferent to these things. We can pray for God to raise up people in authority who will take a stronger stand for life, just as He did in bringing much of the slave trade to an end. We can also pray for those responsible in solving crimes and bringing murderers to trial. And we can certainly pray for our local communities and ask God to bless the preaching of the gospel so that those who are violent would be converted. God takes violence seriously - so should we.