Bearing witness: Around 1,000 people gathered
in the scorching Washington heat to watch the four conspirators hanged to
death; reporters and military personnel can be seen in the background
|
Capital
Crimes and Punishment
“You shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death” (v. 31).
Since the
Mosaic law orders the death penalty for crimes such as cursing one’s parents (Ex. 21:17),
Sabbath-breaking (31:14), and homosexuality (Lev. 20:13),
we might think that judges in ancient Israel executed everyone who worked on
the Sabbath, dishonored their parents, or committed sexual sin. In turn, this
makes us prone to believe the new covenant use of God’s law is incongruous with
the old covenant. After all, we do not execute people for many of the crimes
that merited death before Christ came.
Knowing
that premeditated murder was the only crime for which capital punishment
was always required helps us better understand the Mosaic law. Aside from
capital murder, it seems death was the maximum sentence when it was prescribed
in the law, not necessarily the required one. Judges were to weigh the
circumstances of each offense and consider the offender’s hard-heartedness
before wisely applying the standards of the Mosaic law. The law’s structure
confirms this. For example, Numbers
15:32–36 records the case of a man who gathered wood on the Sabbath. God
had earlier revealed death as the penalty for Sabbath-breaking (Ex. 31:14),
but the people still asked the Lord what to do. If judges had to execute all
Sabbath-breakers, the inquiry would have been unnecessary. From the hesitation
to apply the death penalty without further revelation, we may infer that
Israelite judges could sometimes impose a penalty besides death for
Sabbath-breaking. Since God ordered execution in this specific instance, the
man gathering wood must have been especially bold and impenitent in
his lawbreaking.
Case laws
in the Mosaic code also support our thesis. Life is complex, with no two moral
or legal dilemmas being exactly the same. To help His people apply His statutes
properly, God gave examples of particular situations that illustrated how His
law was to be used (see, for example, Ex.
21:28–32). The Lord did not directly address every possible life situation,
for then His law code would have been infinite in length and impossible for
human beings to master. Yet principles can be drawn from the case law for every
situation, and judges were to apply these principles wisely whenever they heard
a case.
Although
first-degree murder is not the unforgivable sin, those who commit it forfeit
their right to physical life in every instance. The careful application of the
death penalty indicates that we consider life to be as precious as
God does.
Coram Deo
Many
people accuse Christians of being inconsistent in our stance against
homosexuality because we believe it immoral, like the Old Testament, but,
unlike the Old Testament, we do not call for the death of those who commit
sexual sin. This charge falls flat, for it assumes what must be proven, namely,
that God’s law requires
the death penalty for every crime that it connects to capital punishment. If we
know how God’s law works, we can answer those who try to trip us up.
Passages for Further Study
Deuteronomy 19:1–13Joshua 20:1–9
Matthew 22:1–14
Revelation 9:13–21
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