The Corpse of an Executed Criminal
21: 22-23
The corpse of an executed criminal DIG: What positive and negative imagery did God use to teach His people to respect and obey His Torah? What do you think was the original purpose of declaring God’s curse on criminals hung on a tree? How does this apply to Yeshua’s death on a tree?
REFLECT: Do you think that criminals being executed for heinous crimes is a deterrent to others in your society from committing similar crimes? Why? Why not? What reminders or imagery help you to obey and follow the Lord?
A criminal’s lifeless body would be hung publicly to call attention to breaking God’s mitzvot, and to be removed before sunset so as not to defile the Land.
ADONAI used both positive and negative imagery to teach His people to respect and obey His Torah. On the positive side, the men wore blue tassels on the corners of their clothing to remind them that they belonged to YHVH and were privileged to have the Torah to obey (Numbers 15:37-41). The weekly Shabbat and the annual feasts were reminders of all that the LORD had done for Isra’el, and the presence of God’s sanctuary kept His presence before their eyes. The Levites scattered throughout Isra’el were living reminders of the Torah of God and the importance of knowing it.
On the negative side, the offering of blood sacrifices was a vivid reminder that the basis of forgiveness and fellowship was the surrendering up of a life: For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives – for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life (Leviticus 17:11). Whenever the community stoned someone to death who violated the covenant, it would cause the people to “hear and fear.” Isolating lepers outside the camp, burning leprous clothes, and tearing down leprosy-infested houses reminded the people that sin is like leprosy and must be dealt with. But the public exposure of an executed criminal’s corpse would be an object lesson that few would forget.
A criminal found guilty of committing a capital crime was stoned to death in Isra’el. But if the elders wanted to make the judgment even more grim, they would order the body hanged (or impaled) from a tree (pole) until sundown. It was customary in Semitic societies to expose corpses of men condemned to death by attaching them to a pole or even impaling them. There are several examples of this in the TaNaKh (Numbers 25:4; Joshua 8:29, 10:26-27; Second Samuel 4:12, 21:5-9; Esther 7:9). If someone has committed a capital crime and is put to death, then hung on a tree (21:22). What an object lesson that would be! Besides the shame and degradation of this manner of death, the one so executed would be unable to fall to their knees as a final act of repentance before God, thereby implying that they were under the irrevocable curse of Ha’Shem.
The corpse of the executed criminal’s body was not to remain all night on the tree. This was to be observed at all costs. The Hebrew syntax is very emphatic on this point. The reason was that a person who had been hung on a tree had been cursed by God. He needed to be buried before sundown so that the body would not decay any further and defile the Land, which ADONAI had given to the Israelites to inherit (21:23). The presence of the corpse hanging up to public gaze, with crime, as it were, clinging to it, and God’s curse resting upon it, might result in untold disasters for Isra’el if it left a dead body hanging for an extended period of time. Therefore, as soon as the necessary amount of publicity had been achieved, and other likely offenders had been warned (see the commentary on the Life of David, to see link click Bw – Sha’ul Takes His Own Life: The Desecration of the Bodies), the corpse was buried before sunset. This rather gruesome symbolic act reminded the people that God cursed people that committed capital crimes.
In his day, Paul drew upon this brief section of scripture to make an analogy. Just as the corpse of a condemned criminal carried the curse of God, so Yeshua, hanging on a tree as a condemned and executed criminal was publicly exhibited as one who bore the judgment of God. Messiah bore the same shame as every executed criminal and was publicly exhibited as one who was cursed of God.468 He was Talui, or ha’Talui, which literally means the Hanged One, or contextually, the Crucified One (see the commentary on Galatians Bk – Cursed is Everyone Who Hangs on a Tree). To free us from the curse of God, Yeshua, Himself, had to be cursed of God. As Paul tells us: He (God the Father) made the One who knew no sin (God the Son) to become a sin offering on [our] behalf, so that in Him (God the Son) we might become the righteousness of God (the Trinity) (Second Corinthians 5:21).
Dear Holy Heavenly Father, Praise Your great love that was willing to be our sacrificial sin offering as the lamb or God (John 1:29). You endured awful pain and suffering that all who love You may have Your righteousness. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). Our pains and trials are not worth comparing to all You went through as our Creator God being willing to be made in the form of man and to endure shame, betrayal, awful beatings and then crucifixion (Philippians 2:6-11). I take my eyes off my pains and problems and look to heaven’s joys. For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). In Yeshua’s holy name and His power of resurrection. Amen
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