Daily Devotions
Cursed Is Everyone Who Is Hanged on a Tree
Reading for March 6th: Deuteronomy 21-23
"And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance."
Deuteronomy 21:22-23
These words are quoted in the New Testament by the apostle Paul when he wrote, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'" (Gal 3:13) Jesus hung and died on a cross (a tree) and thus became a curse for us.
We know that when Moses said these words (by inspiration). that he didn't know he was speaking of the Christ (1 Pet 1:10-11). He couldn't appreciate how profound this truth would become some 1,500 years later.
However, the one who gave Moses these words did. No one, not Moses or anyone else who read these words, could imagine the grief and the pain God felt when he revealed this sober truth: "a hanged man is cursed by God." Oh, the pain these words caused our Father as he ordered them to be written.
How much more when the Father saw his only Son hanging on a cross... cursed, on a tree!
Father, help us to see your Son more clearly this morning. Help us to know the pain you felt in your heart. Help us to hate sin even more.
