The Story of Murder!

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Beth was watching a show called Dragnet on television. She thought it was very interesting. The show was about a man who got killed and the guy whose voice always sounded bland was trying to figure out who did it.
While Beth was watching the show, her mother came in. "Beth," said Beth's mother, "I don't think you should be watching that."
"Why not, mother?" Beth asked. She didn't want to be doing anything that would make her mother mad at her, but she didn't understand what was wrong with the show.
"The people in this show are not behaving as the Bible tells us they should," said Beth's mother. "Turn it off, come sit on my lap, and I will tell you what the Bible says we should do when we find that someone has been murdered."
And this is the story she told:

One day, Moses was talking to the Israelites and he said, "If you find some dead person lying in a field in the land that God gave you, and you don't know who killed him, here is what you should do: The oldest people in town and the judges should come out and measure the distance from the body to all the nearby cities. The oldest people from what ever city is closest should take a cow that nobody has ever put a penis in or used to do work and bring it to a valley where there is no corn or wheat. Then they should cut off the cow's neck.

"How do you cut off a cow's neck?" Beth asked.
"I think you'd have to ask a butcher to do that for you, Dear One," said Beth's mother. "It's probably very difficult."

Moses continued: "Then the priests should come over to make sure that everything is done right. The old people should stand next to the dead man and wash their hands over the headless cow in the valley. Then they should say, 'We didn't kill this guy and we didn't see who did it. Please, God, don't blame us for it.' And God will forgive them.
"That is how you can get rid of guilt for someone who was killed in your neighborhood."

Beth thought about this for a moment. "My, that is a lot simpler than trying to get all those clues!" she said. Then she smiled and hugged her mother. All her questions had been answered.