In 1994, a 16 year-old Philadelphia youth tried to extort money from an
ice cream truck driver. When the driver refused, the boy shot him. As this
father of three lay dying, the neighborhood teenagers gathered around and
mocked his agony in a rap song they composed, “They killed Mr. Softee.” A
fellow ice cream truck driver and friend of the dying man came on the scene
shortly after the shooting. He told reporters, “It wasn’t human. People were
laughing and asking me for ice cream. I was crying.... They were acting as
though a cat had died, not a human being.”
In this passage, God is speaking to Noah and his 3 sons.
1. They’ve been given a fresh start in a new world.
a. so God comes and blesses them, giving them guidelines for how they’re
to live in this new environment.
b. it’s at this point God tells them they’re now allowed to add meat to
their diet.
c. but God is careful to warn man that even though he may eat meat, he
must show reverence for life
2. The picture the Bible paints for us of the world before the flood is
one of a degenerate society.
a. it was filled with violence - demonic activity was abundant - sexual
perversion was pervasive.
b. ch. 4 tells us of the descendants of Cain, a line which begins and
ends with the reputation of brutal murder.
c. we’re left with the impression that one of the reasons why God
brought the flood was because the human race had become much like a dog with
rabies.
1) it was out of control and destined to extinction through it’s own
moral disease & corruption.
2) Noah alone was uninfected, and God put down the rabid dog before it
could bite and infect the lone survivor of the spiritual plague that was
destroying the human race.
d. as Noah and his sons now step forth from the ark, God wants to
impress upon them the single greatest value, the most important truth regarding
how they’re to treat one another.
e. it’s based on the value, the sanctity of human life.
f. they must not think that because God Himself has just wiped out the
entire population of earth that HE disregards the value of human life.
g. on the contrary, it’s precisely BECAUSE of the value of human life
that the Flood was necessary.
1) men & women had come to deny that value.
2) the whole race from top to bottom had become a murderous pack of
criminals.
3) only Noah escaped the corruption of his time.
h. so God now comes to
him with words that are meant to enter into his heart and mind and lay the
ground for a subsequent history that will forever enshrine the sanctity of
human life as the primary rule for all relationships.
What is Sanctity?
It is the state or quality of being
holy, sacred, or saintly; with ultimate importance and inviolability. The human
life is to be protected not violated. So the human life is very important and
should not be violated but protected. This sacredness or ultimate importance
does not depend on status, occupation, age or wealth but just because humans
are created in the image of God. It doesn’t matter their colour, whether they
are free or slaves, young or old, white or black; all human life is important
and should never be violated.
Deviations from God’s call for sanctity of human life.
We live in a day when human life is no longer regarded as sacred. The
devaluing of life is spreading not only through violence in the ghettos, but
also through abortion on demand, which results in the deaths of 1.5 million
babies in America each year. All of these problems stem from the erosion of the
Bible as the standard for truth in our society. If you throw out the Bible and
accept evolution, then man is just an animal and there is no basis for human
morality, other than cultural norms. Without the Bible, there is no basis for
affirming that humans are created in the image of God and that human life is
thus sacred. For the survival of our nation and culture, we desperately need to
understand and proclaim the biblical truth regarding the sanctity of human life. Since God values human life, so must we. He valued human life that is
why he ordained it to be propagated as He said to Adam and Eve in Gen 1:28 “Be
fruitful and multiply”. God put the fear of man on wild animals and put all
animal life under man’s control. He also gave permission for man to eat meat.
God ordained that human life be protected even through capital punishment.
How do some people treat their own children today? We have heard about
people who abort and say it is my body. You do not have the right to kill a
life! You don’t have the right to take your own life either! Even as foetus
that child is still a human being having a soul. Some parents even encourage
their children to abort; what a shame. Some send their children in cities to
work money for them in brothels; they sleep with men to make money for these
women disregarding the life of these children.
How do you treat that child who is
staying with you at home? Do you treat him/her the same way you treat your
children? Or do you look at that one as an animal? God is watching you. How do
you treat the Orphans, the widows and the poor in the community you or in your
family? Some of us Christians are the first to drive the orphans and widows
from their home after the death of the husband. We care less about the
wellbeing of the children and the widow.
How does God value
human life? Vs5-6
In the text we just read it says “At the hand of every beast will I
require it”. God will have the beast put to death that kills a man. This is
confirmed in Exodus 21:28. He goes further to say “And at the hand of every
man’s brother will I require the life of man.” God will avenge the blood of the
murdered upon the murderer.
The first law promulgated in Scripture was that
between Creator and creature. If the creature refuse to the Creator the
obedience due, he forfeits all the Creator has given him, and, therefore, his
life. Hence, when Cain murdered his brother, he only displayed a new
development of that sin which was in him, and, being already condemned to the
extreme penalty under the first transgression, had only a minor punishment
annexed to his personal crime. So long as the law was between Creator and
creature, God himself was not only the sole legislator, but the sole
administrator of law.
The second
restriction guards human life. The shedding of human blood is sternly
prohibited. "Your blood of your
lives." The blood which belongs to your lives, which constitutes the
very life of your corporeal nature. "Will
I require." I, the Lord, will find the murderer out, and exact the
penalty of his crime. The very beast that causes the death of man shall be
slain. The suicide and the homicide are alike accountable to God for the
shedding of man's blood. Man must not take away his own life. Our lives are
God's, and we must only give them up when he pleases. If we in any way hasten
our own death, we are accountable to God for it. When God requires the life of a man
from him that took it away unjustly, the murderer cannot render that, and
therefore must render his own instead. The penalty of murder is here
proclaimed - death for death. It is an instance of the law of retaliation. This is an axiom of moral equity. He
that deprives another of any property is bound to make it good or to suffer the
like loss. But there are those who are ministers of God to protect the innocent,
by being a terror to evil-doers, and they must not bear the sword in vain, Ro 13:4. Wilful murder
ought always to be punished with death.
The Basis of Human
Government vs 5
1. Look at these
verses again . . . 5Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; . . .
2. When a man or
woman’s blood is spilt and a life is taken, God demands a reckoning, an
accounting.
a. there must be an investigation to determine the cause.
b. and if it’s a case of murder – then the guilty party must be
punished. . . . from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the
hand of man.
3. If an animal has
killed a person – that animal must be executed.
4. If another man or
woman is to blame, they must be put to death. From the hand of every man’s
brother I will require the life of man.
5. God is here
entrusting the task of pursuing justice into the hands and authority of the
murdered person’s relatives. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood
shall be shed;
6. After giving the
specifics in v. 5, God now lays down the principle of capital punishment.
a. when there’s been a murder, it becomes the duty and responsibility of
other men to execute the murderer.
b. this is nothing less than the original mandate of God for human
government.
1) these verses form the core and nexus for our understanding of what
God intends in civil government.
2) the reckoning he demands in v. 5 speaks of a justice system.
3) and the authority to execute murderers establishes and authorizes a
law enforcement system.
7. Please take careful
note of this – God’s mandate for human
civil government is based on what principle? The value & sanctity of human
life.
8. But this sanctity
isn’t just snatched out of thin air. It’s based on the last words of v. 6 - For in the image of God He made man.
9. There you have it –
The sanctity, the specialness of human life that frames the basis for all human
government is based on the FACT that Man is created in the image of God!
10. And it’s precisely
at this point that we run into problems in our modern age.
11. But before we get
into that, we need to see how what God says here develops and grows through the
rest of Scripture.
The
Development of Capital Punishment
1. Later on in the Law
of Moses, God refines and clarifies the basic mandate given here.
2. He gives guidelines
for dealing with those who take another’s life.
3. As He here says that a reckoning must be
made, He gives insights for that reckoning.
a. a distinction between killing and murder is made.
b. not all killing is murder.
c. there are some cases where there’s just cause for killing;
1) self-defense is one,
2) capital punishment with the due process of law, the very thing
demanded here, is another,
3) a just war is a case of permissible killing,
d. God also called for
recognition that some cases of killing are accidental.
1) when the Jews entered into the Promise Land at the end of the Exodus,
God instructed them to establish cities of refuge throughout their territory.
2) these were special places
where those who’d accidentally killed someone could flee for safety from the
hand of the one who came after them to exact revenge.
3) the elders of the city of refuge would sit in judgment, listening to
the refugee’s side of the story and then to the avenger’s evidence.
4) if the elders ruled it was an accident, then the refugee was
permitted to remain in the city and live there the rest of his life.
The New Testament also upholds the authority of governments to impose
the death penalty. In Romans 13:1-4, Paul, living under Nero’s
violent reign, argues that Christians must be subject to the governing
authorities, because they are ordained by God to avenge wrongs and bring wrath,
including the sword, upon the one who practices evil. Paul himself told Festus
that if he had done anything worthy of death, he was willing to die for his
crimes (Acts 25:11).
If you take away the
death penalty, murdering someone becomes insignificant. But it is also sad if a
truly repentant person is executed. Reason why the law must be fair and just
with all proves and evidences. Moses’ murder of the Egyptian could be argued to
be in defense of another person. God is concerned about justice, and the death
penalty should be applied evenly (not along racial lines) after a fair trial
and convincing guilt.
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