Speaking of God's laws, an eye for an eye, fairness, etc...I was watching news a little while ago and today another cop was shot and killed near Chicago and I began to think it is time for my younger brother to retire from being a sheriff’s deputy. Then my mind took a stroll as I imagined how different things would be now if the church had stood strong, abiding by God’s statutes for punishment throughout the centuries. There would have been no Ferguson Missouri, no Baltimore, no death of an innocent little 9-year old girl hit by a bullet fired outside as she sat on a bed doing homework. It is getting worse by the day and yet I have had conversations where people say I am cold-hearted for being in favor of the death penalty. That is their privilege to tell me I am cold-hearted, but it is also mine to point out the short-sightedness of our justice system, completely overlooking the major purpose of the seemingly harsh laws God gave so long ago – the deterrent of knowing what the punishment would be and knowing it would be carried out. And I muse…maybe my son would never have never broken the law and been sent to prison if God’s instructions were followed today…and just maybe my other son would still be alive…if the church body, and better yet, the community, was governed God’s way.
Read these two small passages and really think about what they say.
Exodus 21:20-27
20 "If a person beats his male or female slave with a stick so severely that he dies, he is to be punished;
21 except that if the slave lives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his property.
22 "If people are fighting with each other and happen to hurt a pregnant woman so badly that her unborn child dies, then, even if no other harm follows, he must be fined. He must pay the amount set by the woman's husband and confirmed by judges.
23 But if any harm follows, then you are to give life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, wound for wound and bruise for bruise.
26 "If a person hits his male or female slave's eye and destroys it, he must let him go free in compensation for his eye.
27 If he knocks out his male or female slave's tooth, he must let him go free in compensation for his tooth.
Deuteronomy 19:11-21
11 "However, if someone hates his fellow member of the community, lies in wait for him, attacks him, strikes him a death blow, and then flees into one of these cities;
12 then the leaders of his own town are to send and bring him back from there and hand him over to the next-of-kin avenger, to be put to death.
13 You are not to pity him. Rather, you must put an end to the shedding of innocent blood in Isra'el. Then things will go well with you.
14"You are not to move your neighbor's boundary marker from the place where people put it long ago, in the inheritance soon to be yours in the land ADONAI your God is giving you to possess.
15 "One witness alone will not be sufficient to convict a person of any offense or sin of any kind; the matter will be established only if there are two or three witnesses testifying against him.
16 "If a malicious witness comes forward and gives false testimony against someone,
17 then both the men involved in the controversy are to stand before ADONAI, before the cohanim and the judges in office at the time.
18The judges are to investigate carefully. If they find that the witness is lying and has given false testimony against his brother,
19 you are to do to him what he intended to do to his brother. In this way, you will put an end to such wickedness among you.
20 Those who remain will hear about it, be afraid and no longer commit such wickedness among you.
21 Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
