Words from the Weary Wilderness - Lenten Journey Day 8

posted on March 03

Day Eight - Thursday, March 10
 
Concerning Kidnapping and Human Trafficking
 
Read: Exodus 21:16 (see also Deuteronomy 24:7)
 
¹⁶ Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death.
 
Deuteronomy 24:7:
⁷ If someone is caught kidnaping another Israelite, enslaving or selling the Israelite, then that kidnaper shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
 
Today’s Word from the Weary Wilderness: “shall be put to death.”  (Exodus 21:6)
 
Reflection: It’s getting harder and harder to live in the wilderness, and we are only in Exodus 21. What we today call “human trafficking” is lifted up in these verses. It is worth noting today that what is in Exodus is sometimes repeated in Deuteronomy. We will begin to see this pattern. When a command is written down in Exodus or Leviticus and also emphasized in Deuteronomy, it remained important to the Israelites once they were settled in the Promised Land. “Upon further review” they found this wilderness command to be crucial to life together. Not every command we will study in these forty days is repeated in Deuteronomy, but this admonition against kidnapping and trafficking remains important to the people of Israel.
 
Prayer: God of the Wilderness, we join the people of Israel in condemning kidnapping and the trafficking of human life. We recognize our own propensity to use people for our own purposes, and we repent of the very thought. Purify our own hearts, O God, as we seek to honor others in all we say and do. Amen.

Blessings of Peace and Health,
Bev
 
Rev. Beverly B. Coppley
District Superintendent
& Chief Missional Strategist