“he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.” Numbers 35:17b
In these final 3 Chapters of Numbers, God gives Moses direction regarding the boundaries of Canaan and how it is to be divided once they conquer it. He also gives instruction regarding the Cities of Refuge; where they are to be located, their number, but most importantly, their “Why”. They are provided as a Safe Haven to an individual who may have accidentally killed another Israelite from the victim’s “Avenger”. God illustrates this several ways in this Chapter where he identifies an act of striking an individual with “an iron object”, “a stone in the hand”, or “a wooden object” and killing them, as Murder! He then contrasts this happening using the terms “without malicious intent”, “without looking”, and “he was not his enemy” as Manslaughter instead.
This is the context in which Today’s Verse appears. God has created a distinction between Accidental Death and Premeditated Murder. The Innocent has the City of Refuge, but the Guilty has an Impending Death Sentence. God makes His Seriousness regarding this abundantly clear where He speaks in the Bible about “the blood”; from Abel’s crying out to Him in the beginning of Genesis, to here in the closing Chapters of Numbers. He declares unequivocally, “you shall not defile the land in which you live; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it”. So apart from an Accident resulting in death of another, ALL other Deaths were classified as Murder where the perpetrator “must be put to death”.
So now the Question: What is “your” view of Capital Punishment? Are you for it, or against it? My purpose in asking is not to convince you one way or another, but to ask another question; Why? What determines what you believe? Is it your Parents; your Spouse; your Friends? Is it Society; Culture; the Church? I believe the answer should be the Bible! So, is the position on Capital Punishment (or any other Major Life Issues) you hold derived from another source (see sentance above), or from the Word of God? How much of your World View is shaped by it? These are Questions that “need” Answers,…if you are to live consistently in line with Scripture!!!