Scripture Passages:  Deuteronomy 21:10-14; Luke 13:1-5

Questions

1) When discussing Deuteronomy's cultural context, my family and I needed to wrestle with the idea of God calling his people to conquer other nations in Old Testament times. Feel free to wrestle with this in your group if you feel the need. If you like, you can wrestle with questions like, "how do we know when God is prescribing specific actions like warfare for all people, and when he is speaking into time-and-place specific situations like the culture and realities of Old Testament times?" Christians throughout the ages have struggled with these questions, so it's understandable that we still do.

2) How did the instructions in Deuteronomy 21 sound to you during Sunday's sermon?  Were you more taken aback by the graciousness of God's instruction or the brutality of the times? Have your thoughts or feelings about this passage changed since then?

3) Canadians tend to see the invasion of sovereign nations as a bad thing in our times, and we tend to view it from a distance-- something happening in other parts of the world. Is there a contemporary morally ambiguous power dynamic that we might compare to this situation? How might we apply the lessons of this instruction to that situation?

4) Similarly, with our current era of indoor plumbing, paved roads, and good footwear, we don't often run into the need to wash our feet in one another's houses. Given that foot washing was the most humble service one could provide for another, and given the taboo that would have been in place around washing the feet of a peer or someone beneath you-- what contemporary situation might we compare foot washing to?  

5) Given your discussion for #4, what does this say about the kind of service those with power in the church are called to?

Spend time praying with and for each other.