If thy brother. — The substance of this law is that individual idolaters might be executed in Israel. It justifies Jehu and Jehoiada in destroying Baal out of Israel and Judah (2 Kings 10:19-27; 2 Kings 11:18). It also accounts for the covenant made in the time of Asa (2 Chronicles 15:13), that whosoever would not serve the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether man or woman.
The law may seem harsh, but its principle is reproduced in the Gospel: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
It is impossible to deny or escape the identity of the Lord Jesus with the Jenovah of the Old Testament He does not always put the execution of His judgments into human hands, but He is the same for ever.