Deuteronomy 21: Making The Most Of A Bad Situation

One objection that nonChristians sometimes raise to the God of the Bible has to do with His laws that they find offensive.  For instance, Deuteronomy 21 addresses such scenarios as the taking of captive women as spoils of war and that of having multiple wives, one loved and one disliked.  Because the Bible talks about what to do in situations like these, it would be easy to assume that God somehow benignly approves of and endorses this kind of behavior.  But there may be more here than meets the eye!

Part of the purpose of the Law was to help God's people find their way in a fallen, corrupted world.  At times there are rules given which address actions that are not God's ideal for His people, but will allow them to make the most of a bad situation.

A good New Testament example of this is when the Pharisees approach Jesus with a question about the legality of divorce in Matthew 19:1-9.  When the Lord answers negatively about divorce, saying that "what God has joined together, let man not separate," the Pharisees pounce.  "Why then did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce?" they ask accusingly.  (It is as if they believe God is pro-divorce!)  But Jesus' answer frames what should have been the basis for their discussion in the first place: the law about divorce is a matter of permission.  "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.  But it was not this way from the beginning," He said.

Sometimes the Law deals in compromise, the next-best alternative to God's ideal.  The reality is that, since the Fall, we are all living in a Plan B world.  It is less than it could have been and less than it should have been.  God's desire is for us to get back into His will.  In the meantime, the Law takes into account the darkness of this present age and calls forth as much righteousness from God's people as a naturally bad situation will allow.

That is how I understand and interpret passages like Deuteronomy 21.  When someone is found murdered under mysterious circumstances and no killer can be held responsible, it is a bad situation.  A man is dead and a murderer is going to go unpunished.  The law about the sacrifice of a heifer helps remove the bloodguilt from the land (vs. 1-9).  In all sorts of societies, warriors take plunder from captured people.  It's what warriors do.  God's law attempts to insert some justice into the matter by insisting that such captives be treated with respect and not sold callously (vs. 10-14).  God does not advocate that a man have two wives, one loved and one disliked.  But, when that situation occurs, God demands that the children of the disliked wife be treated justly (vs. 15-17).

We should be mindful what expectations we bring to the Law.  A sinless people would not even need the Law in the first place.  It is precisely because we live in a sinful, fallen world that the Law exists, and some of the situations that it addresses will, by definition, be less than perfect.  Don't confuse an attempt to make the most of our sinful reality with God's original perfect plan.  There is no comparison.