We again look at the ten commandments, and the sixth commandment “you shall not murder.” How does that apply for instance to capital punishment? Or how do we apply that to war, for instance? We need to look at these topics today and of course murder is a controversial subject in South Africa and around the world today.
A woman by the name of Juvita, ministered on behalf of our church, to prisoners in our local prisons, visiting them, sharing the good news of Jesus with them, as well as taking them things to help them while they were in prison. She started this ministry when she was a court interpreter and began visiting those that she got to know through their court cases. Two or three weeks ago, two men broke into her apartment, injured her and she died from her injuries. Her situation has now become a murder and those two young men face life imprisonment.
Life imprisonment has become even more controversial in our country. When we became a democracy in 1994, we had just over 400 people serving life sentences. In our prisons now there are over 17 000 people serving these sentences. The whole issue of murder is fraught with emotion and controversy in our day and age. We need to look at the subject again and see what God has to say to us. He says that He made you and me in His image and He knows what is best for us and He knows what's best for society and for our country.
Let us then go back and study the Bible. God's book is more than simply a devotional guide. It's there to guide all of life, all of society, all humanity for all time and we need to find God's answers to shed some light on this very sensitive subject. We need to review defining our terms. If you missed last week's message on the first part on this commandment “you shall not murder,” then go back and watch last week's YouTube on this topic.
As we define the terms again, may I just remind you that this sixth commandment basically says, “you shall not murder.” The old translation in the King James was, “you shall not kill or do not kill.” The question arises - is it to kill or is it to murder? What about in war situations? What about in self-defence situations where our lives are threatened? What about when we kill somebody accidentally whilst driving and they walk in front of us when they are drunk?
The word that's used in the Hebrew is the word “rasah” and it is that rare word which means to kill somebody violently in an unauthorized way. Usually this is in the sense of killing a personal enemy, and that is why the word “murder” is a good translation of this Hebrew word. The Bible gives different responses to accidental killing, and to premeditated killing.
God basically looks at our motives when He gives us commands. He accepts that accidents happen, but despite all the accidents where people are killed, He still forbids murder. God says that in the case of manslaughter for instance, where there is an accidental killing, the killer in biblical terms and in the biblical days of the Old Testament, was to flee to one of the cities of refuge.
There in the city of refuge, there was to be a court case, where, if he was found innocent of pre-meditated killing and murder, then he was to serve his time for that accidental killing in that city perhaps for many years. In that city he was protected from the dead person's family and from any revenge attack. If he was found guilty of premeditated murder or planning to kill someone and he had killed them, then the murderer was to be put to death. He was to be put to death though stoning and he was to be put to death by the community. In those days, they would take great big rocks, drop them on him and kill him by stoning.
The first person to throw the first rock or throw the first large stone was to be the closest family member of the deceased. Why did God say that? Remember that He had said in Genesis 9:6 that whoever sheds human blood, by that person should his blood be shed again. Why does God say that? God made us as human beings, male and female, in His image. He made us in His image and so life is so precious that it costs a life when we take that life in pre-meditated murder.
This taking of a life is limited. It is limited to clear-cut cases of murder and it's a limited to a just legal system within society. We need to remember that God has set in place that we can't pay a fine for somebody's life. We should not even be doing life sentences for pre-meditated murder. We need to be very careful to trust God and do what He says.
What does God say? Capital punishment is God's solution to pre-meditated murder. What if one person murders another human being, what then should happen? The very next chapter of Exodus in 21:12 follows on from these ten commandments saying that anyone who murders should be put to death. Throughout the Old Testament, God said that the killing of a human life was justified in the interests of legitimate punishment and social justice.
Clear-cut murder means that life is so precious that it costs a life when there is murder. In the Bible, murder (was not only limited to capital punishment,) but it included child sacrifice. Furthermore, capital punishment was also applied to the negligent keeping of dangerous animals. A capital punishment was also meant to be applied to the giving of a false witness in a capital charge. So if you lied in a case and accused somebody of murder when they didn't do it, you then paid their penalty. It was applied, interestingly enough, to abortion. Capital punishment also applied to kidnapping and the killing of parents. It applied to adultery and incest, to rape, to witchcraft and to idolatry and a number of other cases too. Why is that?
God takes human life seriously. He views your life and mine as something of great value. All this capital punishment was always to be exercised in very strict judicial frameworks and laws. For instance, there is a very clear and repeated command that somebody could only be sentenced to death and by capital punishment (for murder) on the witness of a minimum of two witnesses. If somebody has a grudge against another person and trumps up a charge like they tried to trump up charges against our Lord Jesus in court, and they couldn't get two witnesses to agree, then that court case was supposed to be thrown out as illegitimate.
The problem is that when we apply that law of a minimum of two witnesses to the South African situation, we need to know that our legal precedent in our South African law was compromised in the 1980’s. That law was compromised in the ruling of the “Upington Six” when there was a murder trial and the murderers were sentenced to death on the witness of one witness alone. When that one witness was accepted into our legal system, injustice was built in, and that has created a problem within South Africa long before the new democracy came about.
If two witnesses were required in the Old Testament, the whole concept of “without a shadow of doubt” was meant to be there. The concept of an appeal process was meant to exist. In the Bible there was also the situation of extenuating circumstances, which were all to be considered in a capital crime. Capital punishment was and should be a last resort in a just legal system where there is true justice.
We have murder cases like Cain in the Old Testament or like Moses or like David who murdered somebody and escaped capital punishment. They then carried the consequences of their crime in other forms of punishment. The reality is that where there are no extenuating circumstances and where there is a legal system that is just, the concept of capital punishment is God's intention, because life is so precious that it costs a life.
We read in the New Testament that there were some exceptions, for instance, when that woman was caught in adultery and brought to Jesus. He released her because of the injustice of the situation. There was no male wrought with her and her partner was somehow left out of the equation. This turned out to be a trap of the Pharisees. Jesus granted her forgiveness on condition of no repeat offenses. We must remember that in our modern society, God has given the state the responsibility to carry out justice and to carry out capital punishment if necessary.
We read in Romans 13 a very clear statement that the state is to exercise the sword of justice. That means that we are not to get involved in vigilantism. We are not to take the law into our own hands. We are not to kill somebody whom we think is guilty of a capital crime. We are to trust God to work in this world, and if He has allowed a system which is not what it should be, then we are to trust Him even in these days.
God has given us structures and He gave to the governing authorities that prerogative and responsibility of exercising capital punishment. That is why the Bible consistently says “yes” to capital punishment within proper legal conditions. That means that those legal conditions mean that the punishment must fit the crime. Today somebody can commit a murder and although we do not have capital punishment, they are sent to prison for life. If they are a young person in their twenties, they can end up in prison till they're 80. Even when they're 50 or 60 and no longer a physical threat to society, they are still locked up.
There should be a certainty of guilt, and the Bible is very clear on this. We must not send innocent people to the gallows. There needs to be a clear understanding of intent. Was it the intent of the person to murder? Due process is something else the Bible requires of a legal system. There needs to be a fairness to all economic strata, whether rich and poor.
We see in the United States for instance, a great injustice between mostly poor African Americans who are make up 80 percent of people on death row, while only 60 percent of more affluent white Americans are on death row. Even in pure statistics, it seems to be an injustice. It seems then that capital punishment is permitted by God. Capital punishment must be guided by considerations such as whether it will be a deterrent to others. Other considerations also need to guide this - will it prevent the murderer from committing murder again and thirdly is it a just retribution in that case.
The danger lies in the fact that capital punishment is an irreversible punishment - it cannot be undone once it's executed. We read for instance, in the Old Testament, that the nearest male relative of the murdered person was to be the avenger of the blood, he was to throw the first rock. In the case of capital punishment now of course, if we apply that in our context would you or I agree to press the button on the electric chair? Would we agree to pull the lever on the hangman's noose? All of those are questions that we need to grapple with when we talk about capital punishment, and we need to understand that God values human life very highly and we must never forget that.
Furthermore, you might ask the question, what about killing for instance in the war situation or killing in self-defence or killing to defend our country? Should a Christian go to war? There are debates between pacifists who say “no” to any wars or joining any wars and pacifists of course claim that you shall not kill in the context of war (Old King James version) It is not “thou shalt not kill” but “thou shalt not murder” which is the better translation, and they then use “thou shall not kill” as a justification to be a pacifist.
It's interesting that pacifism is not the position of Jewish believers in the Old Testament. It was the position of early Christians in the church. After the first 300 years of Christendom Augustine, the great theologian, came along, and he was the first to propose the concept of a just war. They were legal wars that were to put right large-scale injustices. The just war concept was developed where a war was to fight for the justice of a particular situation.
Later theologians like John Calvin pointed out that war can be an act of retributive justice, where things are put right. An instance is the Second World War where the allies fought the great evil of the Nazi system in that day. According to Calvin a similar situation is where a civil judge imposes a capital punishment, or penalty and a punishment upon a clear-cut case of injustice.
Where there is murder of course, then the pacifist on the other hand quotes Jesus who said in Matthew 26:52, “all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” When we read that passage carefully the word “draw” means to draw without warrant. In other words, using weapons where there's no reason to use them. That verse might be a good reason for the anti-gun lobbyists who are on the side of the pacifists.
However, the pacifist cannot use that verse to say “no” to war because just earlier on, Jesus had said to His disciples - who of you has a sword? Peter said he had one. They had one or two swords among them. That's where the sword came from, that cut off the servant of the High-priest's ear. In that context, Jesus said to Peter: “but listen don't bring that sword out here.” We need to again read those verses in the context of the scriptures. A just war concept does not glorify war but a just war concept sees war as a tragic necessity and then accepts the duty to strive for justice on more than a personal scale.
In the modern world with atomic bombs killing people in mass, with men, women, children, civilians and combatants alike, the whole idea of a just war is called into question. Just on the issue of chemical weapons and nerve gas; the Americans have nerve gas at a level within their armoury that can kill every single human being on this planet eight times over. That's a case of overkill from nerve gas alone never mind all the other weapons. There has been a statement that there are so many weapons that there are about 10 tons of weaponry per person in a combatant situation.
All this calls into question the idea of a just war and we need to grapple with all these subjects in the light of God's word to carefully understand what God says to us. Capital punishment has a place. There is also a place for a just war, but it always needs to be in a proper legal framework. So life is so precious that it costs a life and if we accept that fact then you and I need to start with working towards a just society. We need to seek to reform and improve the justice system in our own country and around the world.
Capital punishment should only be applied for the guilty and not for the innocent. Just wars must be as a last resort after all attempts at Christian reconciliation fails. There is a place to start addressing all these issues in our own hearts. As Solzhenitsyn said, “it's not a case of evil people out there and good people here. No, the line between good and evil as runs down the middle of each one of our hearts and we need to understand that and deal with the sin in our own lives.”
Yes, you can be angry with another person but in your anger do not sin. When you wish that they would just disappear, when you wish that they would go away, or you could ignore them or ghost them, or if you wish they were just dead, then you have hated and murdered them in your heart and then you need to run to Jesus. If you wish you could kill them then you are a murderer in your heart and you need a heart change.
You need the Greatest Surgeon and Physician of all, to come into your life to forgive you of all your sin. You need to ask Jesus Christ the Saviour not only to forgive you, but to transform you and take out that bitterness and give you a heart of flesh, and not a stiff-necked heart. He can fill you then with the power to do good even to your enemy, to turn the other cheek and to be a peace maker in a world of conflict and hatred where you pray for the one that is threatening you, rather than resist with more anger and more violence, bigger bombs, and more chemical warfare.
Pray for those who are in authority within our country. Pray for those who are leading our country, that we might live peaceful lives. As the Bible says, may His word go out that all might be saved and that none be lost.
Modern war, the way it is being fought these days, is not the answer. We need to pray for an end to the hostilities in the Ukraine and pray for the leaders of all countries involved, even our own country. We need to realize that the problem is the war in our own hearts. That's where we need to take God's word seriously and as we trust God we need to turn to Jesus Christ.
May He grant us forgiveness and pour out His Holy Spirit upon us. May He empower us, to love and not to hate, because life is so precious that if we take it, it will cost us our lives. God is a just God. We need to trust Him and leave vengeance with Him and do what is right in His sight.
So, let's seek God now in prayer, shall we pray. “Oh, Father in heaven, help us when we recognize that the battle is fought in our own hearts. Help us to turn from all hatred and all evil, all anger and strife and to cry out to You Jesus – “save us.” Change us. Fill us with concern and practical care for our neighbours. May we love even our enemies that we may do good and not harm. May we return good for evil as we encounter it day by day. Lord, we can only do this if You change us one by one, individually, and then as a whole human race. May we truly be what You created us to be. Jesus change us we pray. In Your precious name I ask this. Amen.
May God help you now to live your life to His glory. May this prayer be true in your life. May you bring honour and praise to Jesus, who has given you life and says your life is valuable. May you treat all others as valuable too and love them as Christ has first loved you. May God bless you.