Sermons from Lone Rock Bible Church Thou Shalt Not … Why Not?
(Part 2) Murder is not just bad for the victims, it is a personal offense to the God of the heaven. After all, He is the Author of Life, which is His alone to give and to take. Let’s look closer at: 1. God’s position is first 2. God’s people are special 3. God’s point of view is best I have had probably as much or more struggle putting together thoughts with regard to the Sixth Commandment as ever I have had. It is a difficult subject matter. There is something about that that we do not like and should not like. There is confusion that abounds with regard to the topic and God’s point of view on it. I have to propose that God’s point of view is in all likelihood not our own. That is something to which we need to adjust because He is not going to. The commandment is listed for us in a number of different places. Keep in mind that there are quite a number of words in the Old Testament language for kill. The one that is used here is correctly translated in this New American Standard Bible as "You shall not murder." In addition to that, look at Exodus 21:12, "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." An interesting sidebar with regard to capital punishment crimes in the time of the Bible and the time of the Old Testament. All cultures in the ancient Near East had capital punishment attached to property crimes. In other words, you steal, you die. You vandalize, you die. That sort of thing. Property crimes bought capital punishment. Only in the economy of God’s law is capital punishment levied on personal offenses, which is interesting and I hope we can explore that. About 11 years ago, watching the news, I saw a white Bronco going down the interstate in full view of the police helicopter. Away we went with what was arguably the most publicized trial of the century, the OJ Simpson trial. I, to this day, am puzzled by the whole thing. Maybe no other legal event in our awareness illustrates the confusion that abounds in our society when it comes to law and justice as does that particular incident. We have a criminal trial in which the defendant was exonerated, followed by a civil trial in which he was held responsible. I do not understand how one can be true and the other not. With that, and this is where it gets pretty strange, it is not just a trial of an individual accused of a double homicide; it is a trial of a celebrity accused of a double homicide, a very wealthy, high-profile celebrity, and a black celebrity. The whole issue became a circus, and that is not my word. I look at the Bible and while certainly the Bible introduces to us ethical dilemmas, particularly as involving personal crimes, it just is not that tough in Scripture. I want us to ponder this notion. The point of the Commandment, "you shall not murder," is to underscore God’s premium on human life. Not quality of life, but life. Life as a gift from God. Life as an eternal privilege from God. God is the source and author of all. He wants His gift to be highly regarded, hence the commandment. God’s position is first Last week we tried to dispel some of the confusion. Why should we hold life in such high regard? Three reasons or three truths are laid down for us. One is because God’s position is first and that is all we need to say. What God says is right because that is who He is and that is not negotiable. God’s people are special Let’s jump to the second truth that helps us with this dilemma and that is this: God’s people are special. Special means God’s people are unique. People are in a class by themselves. People, only people, are created in the image of God. God’s people are special and unique because God is unique. All the Commandments are traceable not only to what God wants, but beyond what God wants to who God is. God is special. God creates people in His image, therefore people are special. So any attack on God’s people is an affront to God Himself. Psalm 8 has been scrutinized for centuries because of one place in it that has been disputed. I want to point that out. The Psalmist begins:
Picture the Psalmist on a starry night, and he knew a lot of them, pondering the heavens without light pollution, seeing the stars in their brilliance. He had been talked to by God. In all of God’s splendor God shows David his line will bring us Messiah. That boggled David’s mind. "Who am I Lord, that you should choose me?" He had a healthy view of the distance between himself and God. Certainly his experience with the celestial world could only underscore that. Lord, you have displayed your splendor above the heavens.
Do you ever feel small? David is feeling miniscule here, and with good reason. Here is the issue:
In a number of translations, the word is "angels." There are scholarly reasons for that. The word in the text for God is the word Elohim, the same word translated as "God who created." Translators made it "heavenly beings" or "angels," because they just could not imagine it meaning what it said. In ancient Hebrew tradition, angels were exalted beings. They could not for the life of them figure that people actually could be more significant than angels because angels could do so many special and supernatural things. But the text is quite clear, "You have made him a little lower than God." That is supported in Genesis by the account of creation. God’s creates, and the culminating act of His creation is that which is made in His image, and that is people.
You design and create. You assign responsibility.
Lord, you are wonderful and your people, in your image, are wonderful as well. He creates! The first two chapters of Genesis -- let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. The Bible says male and female He created in His image. Men and women in the image of God, reflecting God’s character. It says He specifically sculpted man, almost as if God got down and breathed life in. We are using picture language; we are stuck with it, but it gives us the impression of the distance, the trouble, the condescension God went to in order to create people in His own image. It is the most remarkable thing -- so don’t kill them. Be respectful of the life God breathed into that first human and which He perpetuates in all people. He creates men and women. In the second chapter of Genesis we are provided some detail there as the perfect complement they are to one another to reflect the image of God, perfect spiritually, perfect physically. He gives a responsible mandate: fill the earth, subdue it, rule it. Rule over it all. Be My stewards. He sanctified their work and their calling in life in relation to the rest of creation, giving them responsibility before Him. Providing human beings not only with His image, but with His creativity, with His purpose, with His appreciation for responsibility and all that goes it. He, in a sense, sanctified every legitimate calling He lays upon a person. There are eternal implications of that, whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, the Bible says do it all to the glory of God so our lives on this earth, carefully crafted and animated by the God of glory, have ripples that go beyond this life and on to the eternal sphere. He gives eternal destiny. The preacher in Ecclesiastes and Job in his bad moments talks about people, animals, grass -- it all just dies and deteriorates and returns to the earth. But he knew, and the Bible teaches consistently, that is hardly it. We are given an eternal destiny. When God gives life, and God’s life never ends, and He gives His life to people, that means our lives never end either. We will transition out of one world into the next, but we have eternal destiny from the sovereign and wise and benevolent source, the author of all life. Not only that, but don’t you know He gives us some eternal play, if you will. He communicates His gospel truth which is able to make people wise unto salvation through people. People to people. It’s done at camp. It’s done at the kitchen table. It’s done at evangelistic crusades. The eternal gospel is the property of people. We have influence, certainly in this life, but beyond this life to the next. People are the only creation that do that. We will be around forever. He gives us unique capacities as created in His image. The book of Romans and elsewhere in Scripture bears this out. Every human being ever born has a built-in moral compass. Everybody gets ones, regardless of culture, regardless of era. This is right and this is wrong. There is an innate understanding that accompanies every person. Ecclesiastes says God has put eternity in their hearts. That’s what it is talking about, given a conscience, a moral compass. Every human being has unbelievable mental capacity. Take an individual from a stone age existence, we think primitive means stupid. The Bible says no, you can take someone from a stone age existence and that individual can be trained and schooled so that his or her brain operates far beyond the capacity of any computer on earth. That’s special; that’s unique. And they say we only use 10 percent of our brains, sometimes less. People have unbelievable mental capacity and people have the ability to reason. Even though we have urges and needs, we are reasonably able to control them for the sake of long term benefit, most of the time. Only people share that quality. People have an eternal destiny and people have unique capabilities, some for the better but some not because of the curse and because of the fall. Because of sin, people alone are the most creatively cruel and deliberately mean and sadly perverted of all creatures ever made. History bears that out. Human experience of a personal level bears that out. No one is more cruel nor more creatively cruel than a human being. That is as it is. It’s interesting whether it’s on an individual or massive scale, when people are unkind, always self is at the root of it. There is always a self-centered, self-aggrandizing, self- appeasing, self-centered motive always underscoring it. That’s why we have a Sixth Commandment. You shall not deface, bend, fold, spindle, mutilate, disrespect, disregard My special creation or you will pay. The stakes are high. We have a Sixth Commandment, "You shall not murder." It is a word that is intended to underscore the value of God’s special creation. That’s what it is about. My people are valuable, don’t do them harm. It is also to prevent our offending one another and particularly our offending God. Turn to Genesis 9. There is some irony here. I am going to say that God’s point of view from the Bible indicates that murder is wrong, killing is not. In Genesis 9, we have just come off a flood. Many, many people have been killed. They are in various states of decomposition even as these words are being said in Genesis 9, when God provided the promise of the rainbow. Notice what He says:
Reminding them of their dominion. They are the sole survivors.
In other words, He is saying, "I have saved you through the flood. I have established your primacy in the earth. I hold you valuable, and I hold you to account for maintaining that sense of value.
That’s why. God’s point of view is best and this is God’s point of view. When it comes to the difference between murder and killing, human life is a wonderful blessing the Bible says. Therefore, murder is always wrong. Killing is not. The Bible distinguishes between the two. All death is sad and should be grieved. Why? Because of the fall. The Bible says in Romans 5:12, death spread to all men because all sinned. It is just a fact of life. It is an intrusion into God’s original established creation. It is not what we are used to. There is something about death that sets us back, and it should. Under any circumstances, we should always be taken aback and grieved when someone dies, because of sin, the fall and human nature. It is just the way it is. That’s what God’s point of view is to begin with. Secondly, I think this could be the most important consideration for us. It helps me understand how it is the Bible sanctions what it does from one part to the next. It is this: eternity is more important than this life. That is very difficult for us to remember because the sum total of our experience is this life. It is hard for us to think in terms beyond that. You understand we are not talking about our point of view; we are talking about God’s point of view. And God sits in the vantage point where He is totally able to step in and out of either one. And God knows which life lasts the longest and which one is free of sin and characterized completely by righteousness. It is hard for us to remember, but let me give you a few passages from the New Testament that are helpful. These are Jesus’ words. Jesus told His disciples a disciple is not above his teacher nor a slave above his master. He said you have to be prepared for what has come to Me will come to you. Jesus told His followers. He told them whom to fear:
Jesus is saying, look, this life is not the only one. Be more concerned about the next. It reminds me of what Justin Martyr, one of the earliest believers to give his life for the faith is known to have said; that is "They can kill us, but they cannot hurt us," drawing attention to the fact that the next life is the main one, the main event. It is the one about which we must be most concerned. We pick that up also from the apostle Paul in Philippians. He understood this. Paul in chapter 1, beginning in verse 21 said interesting words. Words, if we are honest, we kind of scratch our heads at. We believe them and we want to, but he knew them, and we will too.
I want that next life, Paul says, and yet, to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. My work is not finished here, so I may want personally to be gone and into heaven and get on with it, but for now God is leaving me here so I will be happy to do that. Clearly his priority was heavenly. He talks in the book of Colossians chapter 3 about setting our minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, cultivating more a heavenly-minded perspective. Revelation 20, talking about the final judgment. Some of this is a bit mysterious. The main point is pretty simple.
You are fine if you make that first resurrection. If you get beyond this life and into the next you are in good shape. You do not want to deal with the judgment of God at the Great White Throne. The next life lasts a lot longer and is a lot more significant than this one. You are blessed if you get there. Eternity is more important than this life and we have to train ourselves to move in that direction in our thinking because so much of what gives us grief in our notion of God is what happens in this life causing us to despair, to scratch our heads, to give unwise counsel, to be in error over some fairly big issues. God’s point of view is best; that is, all death is sad. Secondly, eternity is more important than this life. Third, God only has the right over life and death. It is God’s special prerogative to initiate eternity in the individual life. That is God’s to do. The Bible has a lot to say about that. God only has right over life and death. It is His to give. It is His to take. Job had it right. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It is His. He is author of life and death. He holds the keys of death and hell. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the author and the finisher. This is His prerogative and when His prerogative is interrupted, is transgressed by you or me, that is sin -- when we interfere with His will. Several thoughts: He is sovereign over accidents and over illnesses. We call them accidents. He is sovereign. It is His prerogative to initiate eternity and if He is not sovereign at that point, He is not sovereign. The Bible teaches He is. If He is not, we have very little hope and a capricious, undependable God. But the Bible does not teach that at all. He has our days numbered. He has our circumstances in hand. He is sovereign over those phenomena the insurance companies call acts of God. They are His. It is God’s to determine whether we run a sprint in life or whether we run a marathon. That is His call and He needs to be given by us all freedom to make it go His way. Also, in the Bible, God takes lives. Does He allow it? I don’t care if He allows it or not. He can stop it if He wanted to and He doesn’t. Because He is all powerful. He is not an anemic, impotent, asleep-at-the-switch sort of God some would like to worship in order to let Him off the hook for things. He doesn’t need to get off the hook. It is His hook. He is sovereign. I mentioned the flood in the early chapters of Genesis. How many lives? We don’t know, just a lot of them. By the way, when God takes life, in the Bible, that is not a commentary on whether the person who has been killed goes to heaven or hell. That is not in the discussion. We have to remember that. Gale Fister said it this way: How many believers and his sons got on the ark? Were there eight? We don’t know that. When the water came up, there could have been more. We have to be slow to say physical death, even at the direct hand of God means eternal death. We do not know. It does not necessarily mean that. Sodom and Gomorrah experienced fire and brimstone. God sent that. The city of Jerusalem and Judah, because of David’s transgression, the death angel had a free hand for three days. Thousands were killed. There is that one incident in the opening chapters of II Kings where the prophet is sitting on the hill. The king sends a captain and fifty messengers to say come down and see the king. Fire from heaven comes down and killed the captain and his fifty. One comes back and another captain and his fifty comes up to say, "The king wants to see you." Fire comes down again. The third guy shows up with his fifty. He looks around at the charred and smoldering corpses and says, "Please, sir. If it’s ok with you, the king would really like to talk." Did those 102 guys go to hell? It does not say that, but they were removed at the hand of God because they represented a sinful regime that was bent on disrupting and distorting God’s people and God’s plan. The ground opened and swallowed many at Korah’s rebellion. God sent His people among the Canaanites and smote quite a few hip and thigh, leveled cities, placed many people under the ban. We think God in the Old Testament really had an attitude. No, the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are identical. As a matter of fact, Jesus makes mention in the New Testament about those whose blood Pilate mixed with the blood of the Galileans. He slaughtered Galileans. A tower from Siloam fell and squished 18 people. Jesus said do you think you people are righteous and those people not? The point of all that is that you who remain might repent. The point of that is that you will look at the blood of the Galileans mixed with the sacrifices and you will look at the corpses of those upon whom the Tower fell and you will start thinking in terms of your own eternity because that is where God’s concern is right now. That’s the point. Ananias and Sapphira had twin funerals in the 5th chapter of Acts. Twice in I Corinthians mention is made of God taking believers out of the picture physically for their sin. It is mentioned in I John 5, there is a sin unto death and again in James chapter 5. God does take lives. In the case of murder -- and the Commandment says you shall not murder -- God also delegates killing. He doesn’t do it; He delegates it to His people whom He calls to police their own ranks. It is in accordance with what is known as the law of the tooth. It’s mentioned several times in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 24 and in Exodus 21. This is a misunderstood passage. It almost sounds like God is really bad here.
We think isn’t that just awful vengeance? No, it is not. What we have here in the law of the tooth is God’s way of restraining lawlessness. The whole point of it is to check vengeance. If someone were to do bodily harm, damage or injury to another person, the tendency on the part of that person would be to do precisely what the McCoys did to the Hatfields. You kill my pig, I kill two of your pigs. You kill two of my pigs and I’ll kill your cousin. It just goes on and on. The point of the law of the tooth is to keep it fair and to end it now. You cannot ransom for murder. Other things you can, but the value of human life is such in the eyes of Scripture it is not ransomable, except in the case of manslaughter. Recall that there were three cities east of the Jordan and three on the west that were called Cities of Refuge. If somebody accidentally took the life of another person they fled to that city. Why? Because the avenger of death was on their trail. He would kill him. If they got to the city, they were safe there and the elders of that city were to see to his safety. They had to stay there until the high priest dies, then they were free to go. The law of the tooth, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, is a preventative measure, to prevent revenge from getting out of hand and from accelerating the damage beyond what has already occurred. The punishment must match the crime, in other words, according to Scripture. The Bible says in James 4, "Why do you murder?" Because someone has something you don’t have and you want it. You murder out of a heart of hatred, greed, bitterness, illegitimate desire. That is where murder comes from. Murder is deliberately taking life for self-centered ends. It springs from anger and hatred and greed. Something follows from that -- murder reveals not only a cheap and disrespectful view of God and God’s image; it actually violates the First Commandment. Someone usurps God’s position and does what only God ought to do -- end life. It shows a cheap regard for God and a cheap regard for those made in God’s image. It is a blasphemous act from that standpoint. It certainly causes pain on a human level. It is also a deliberate affront to the God of life, and life is to be held as precious. It ravages society if unchecked and, beloved, it is unchecked in our society. We are paying dearly for it. Throughout Scripture God has consistently removed people through physical death, who, if not removed, would compromise the safety and security and holiness of God’s people and thereby damage God’s reputation. It comes back to God again. He has policed those ranks. God purges. God prunes for the overall well being of His special possession. The overall well being, long-term well being, of His special possession. The law of the tooth underscores the preciousness of human life. It is not cheap. Do not trifle with it. Do not disrespect it. Do not treat it as cheap or you will pay the price. Realize just how costly it actually is. That law will maintain and promote the safety and security of society at large if exercised consistently. It will prevent the unraveling of society so people, whether they are rich or poor or famous or not or black or white or male or female will get equal treatment under the law. None of those issues should matter. God laid down a law of this nature, and it is severe by design but severe because there is a lot at stake. It ought to encourage all people to seek God. It is His creation, His law. To seek Him, to honor Him, to trust Him, to pursue Him, rather than self because we can see that His point of view is best and His eternity is longer. There is no trial, there is no dilemma, there is no problem in this world that would not instantly be righted if all parties concerned put their trust in God. Let’s begin right here. We trust God. We move forward. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |