25.1
Introduction
Since
originally completing the first layout of this book, I have received
questions on my blog that made me rrealise there was yet more to be
added. This is the first of those additions. More will follow.
One
of the subjects raised by those who would deride a God of love in
the Old Testament is that of the death penalty. Surely, says our modern
interrogator, a God of love would not condemn people to death for
some of the mundane things that appear in the Old Testament?
If
we are to give this more than a cursory shallow thought, we need to
consider the following in some depth:
1.
The Causes for the Death Penalty given in the Old Testament
2.
General Thoughts about Capital Punishment
3.
The Background and Environment for the Giving of the Law
4.
Reviewing the Laws
It
is possible that you may wish to scroll down to the end to see conclusions,
but if you do, please go back and see the detail on which the conclusions
are built, for perhaps, this subject more than most has a number of
underlying premises that need to be understood. Without them, you
will simply make baseless accusations founded on ignorance. Please
don't.
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25.2
The Causes for the Death Penalty given in the Old Testament
We
need to identify the exact commands that are being referred to that
are found in the Law of Moses. Here is a list from Exodus through
to Deuteronomy, which we will categorise later on:
1.
Ex 21:12 “Anyone
who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death.”
i.e.
murder
2.
Ex 21:15 "Anyone
who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death .”
NB.
‘attacks' implies kills parents
3.
Ex 21:16 "Anyone
who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he
is caught must be put to death.”
i.e.
for kidnap (also Deut 24:7)
4.
Ex 21:17 "Anyone
who curses his father or mother must be put to death.
i.e.
for bringing destruction on parents (also Lev 20:9)
5.
Ex 21:29
“ If,
however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been
warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman,
the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death.
i.e.
Strict liability law
6.
Ex 22:18 "Do
not allow a sorceress to live .
i.e.
witchcraft
7.
Ex 22:19 "Anyone
who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.
i.e.
bestiality
8.
Ex 22:20 "Whoever
sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed
i.e.
idolatry
9.
Ex 22:22 -24
Do
not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. 23 If you do and they
cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused,
and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows
and your children fatherless.
i.e.
God's vengeance on the heartless
10.
Lev 20:1,2 `Any
Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives (sacrifices) any
of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the
community are to stone him.
i.e.
child sacrifice
11.
Lev 20:10 If
a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his
neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
i.e.
adultery (also Deut 22:22
,23)
12.
Lev 20:11 `If
a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father.
Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will
be on their own heads.
i.e.
incest
13.
Lev 20:12 `
If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law,
both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion;
their blood will be on their own heads.
i.e.
extension of adultery
14.
Lev 20:13 If
a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have
done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will
be on their own heads.
i.e.
homosexual practice
15.
Lev 20:14 If
a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and
they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among
you.
i.e.
wrongful bigamy
16.
Lev 20:15 `If
a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death,
and you must kill the animal.
i.e.
bestiality
17.
Lev 20:16 `If
a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill
both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood
will be on their own heads.
i.e.
bestiality
18.
Lev 20:27 A
man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to
death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.'
i.e.
mediums
19.
Deut 13:1-6 If
a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces
to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of
which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow
other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship
them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or
dreamer. The LORD
your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all
your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD
your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands
and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer
must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD
i.e.
false prophecy leading away . (also 18:20)
20.
Deut 13:6-11 6
If your very own brother, or your
son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly
entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods"
(gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 gods of the
peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land
to the other), 8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no
pity. Do not spare him or shield him. 9 You must certainly put him
to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and
then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death, because he
tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out
of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 11 Then all Israel
will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil
thing again.
i.e.
rebels leading away from God
21.
Deut 13:12-15 12
If you hear it said about one
of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in 13 that wicked
men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray,
saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods you have
not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly.
And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing
has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all
who live in that town. Destroy it completely, A both its people and
its livestock
i.e.
corporate rebellion
22.
Deut 17:2-7 2
If a man or woman living among
you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in
the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and
contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them
or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky, 4 and this has
been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly.
If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has
been done in Israel
,
5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate
and stone that person to death. 6 On the testimony of two or three
witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to
death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses
must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all
the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
i.e.
established idolatry
23.
Deut 17:11,12 Act
according to the law they teach you and the decisions they give you.
Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the
left. The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who
stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death.
You must purge the evil from Israel
.
i.e.
abusing court authority
24.
Deut 21:18-21 If
a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father
and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his
father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders
at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, "This
son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is
a profligate and a drunkard." Then all the men of his town shall
stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel
will hear of it and be afraid.
i.e.
ongoing, unrepentant, rebellious son
25.
Deut 22:20:21 If,
however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can
be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father's house
and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done
a disgraceful thing in Israel
by being promiscuous while still in her father's house.
i.e.
Promiscuity before marriage
26.
Deut 22:25 But
if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married
and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.
i.e.
rape
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25.3
General Thoughts about Capital Punishment
Without
realising it most of the time, many of us have a slightly hypocritical
view of capital punishment. To be liberal, reasonable, caring Westerners
we haven't arrived at our feelings about capital punishment by careful,
logical and well thought through ideology. We have simply taken on
board what has been fed us by the media and political leaders.
According
to one well known and respected web-site, there were 757 murders in
the UK
in 2008, down from 1200 in 2002. Graphs for the decade or so before
then indicate a steadily rising number of deaths each year.
On
a debate Internet site we find, “The rate for unlawful killings
in Britain
has more than doubled since abolition of capital punishment in 1964,
from 0.68 per 100,000 population, to 1.42 per 100,000. Home office
figures show around 300 unlawful killings in 1964, which rose to 565
in 1994 and 833 in 2004.” .
All
of this becomes academic when we have our home broken into, our daughter
raped infront of us, and our son and partner shot dead infront of
us. At that point, most people change very rapidly from anti-death
penalty to pro-death penalty. This suggests that our views are more
likely formed one way or the other depending on how close to violent
crime we have been. This moves us from thoughts of deterrent to thoughts
of either revenge or justice. Sometimes the two can be very close
together.
Whereas
the death penalty may not be a deterrent for a minority, we would
suggest it is for the majority.
I
have sometimes thought that we will only appreciate the deterrent
factor if we take on board some of the key instructions given to bring
about capital punishment in Israel
through the Law. Although it
is only spelled out once or twice, it would appear that for these
laws to be applied they required:
•
at least two trustworthy witnesses
to be able to testify to a misdemeanour,
•
an investigation by local leaders
to confirm without doubt that this was the case, and
•
the local people to be the ones who
carried out the execution by stoning.
I
would suggest that if or when it did happen, it would be very rare
because:
- the act of stoning someone until
they fall down totally bloodied and to finally have their skull
crushed by stones,
- would create such terrible nightmares
for weeks to come,
- that everyone involved would determine
they would be vigilant and work to ever prevent such a cause for
an execution to occur again in their village.
Indeed
some of the laws speak of the very fear of this created by this form
of execution. It is probable, that mostly virtually never happened
and that life in the Israelite society was typified by peace and harmony.
When some course of behaviour has such horrifying consequences, you
don't even think about going there and life is better for it. Our
danger in reflecting on these things is to consider them the norm.
They would not be. The norm would be the opposite – peace and harmony
and real community, things that are sadly lacking in today's modern
western world.
When
it comes to criticism about the reasons for capital punishment as
seen in the Law of Moses, some critics would concede that death for
murder and maybe even rape would be acceptable. The points of debate
therefore come down to the remaining reasons for these laws, and to
discuss these intelligently and without emotional knee-jerk reactions,
it is necessary to study
a)
the period in which these laws were instituted,
b)
the unique position of Israel
,
c)
God's role and God's intention for Israel
and for the world.
These
things we will study in the next section, and they really are important
to understand if we are to understand the Law given through Moses
by God.
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25.4
The Background and Environment for the Giving of the Law
a)
The period in which these laws were instituted
In
many ways the period of history during which Israel
came into existence could be
characterized by:
i)
‘dog eat dog'
ii)
superstitious, occultic, pagan idolatrous worship.
To
illustrate “dog eat dog” we only have to read the first twelve verses
of Genesis 14 to see the tribal kingdoms fighting each other. ‘Might
is right' often ruled. This was especially seen in the first twelve
chapters of Exodus when Pharaoh shows us the power and authority given
to kings of large countries in those days. The warlike nature of many
nations is revealed in the book of Judges when, time after time when
Israel drifted away from the Lord and He left them to their own devices,
they immediately became vulnerable to attacks by their neighbours
who were out to destroy them.
Superstitious,
occultic, pagan, idolatrous worship prevailed in one form or another
in most countries 1300 years before Christ. While we may be casual
about such things, that is probably only because of our ignorance
of them. Fear predominated and it wasn't unusual to sacrifice children
to appease the ‘gods'.
It
is into this environment that Abram comes, followed by Isaac and Jacob
(Israel), men who find themselves having a living relationship with
Almighty God, described as the Creator of all things (see Gen 14:18-22).
In previous chapters we have gone to some lengths to show how He was
revealed in the Old Testament and then the New – a God who is love.
To see something of His objectives, we need to examine what the Old
Testament reveals of Israel
at this time.
b)
The Unique Position of Israel
The
uniqueness of Israel
has already been hinted at. Genesis chapter 12 onwards show us God
entering into a relationship with Abram, Isaac and Jacob. Exodus shows
us how that relationship was developed in a corporate sense to include
the whole of what became the nation of Israel
.
Until
the time of the Exodus, God had imposed no rules upon them, but had
simply encouraged them as individuals and individual families by promising
them His blessing. Good would come to them because they were relating
to Him. While in Egypt
they grew in excess of a million people (possibly double that) and
so when He delivered them from Pharaoh's slavery, they were more of
a nation than a bunch of families and it was on this basis that the
Lord dealt with them, and this was unique in the world.
As
they come out of Egypt
and prepare to enter into their new land ( Canaan
), Moses explains something of
their uniqueness. Read though the following verses carefully and see
his structured argument:
Deut
4:32-37 Ask
now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God
created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.
Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like
it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God
speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried
to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings,
by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your
God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these
things so that you might know that the LORD is God;
besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice
to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you
heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your forefathers
and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt
by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations
greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to
give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.
He
asks:
•
has any other nation had this experience
of God?
•
has any other nation heard from God
like they had?
•
has any other nation been delivered
from slavery in the way they had?
And
the reason for it? So that:
•
they might learn who God was,
•
they might realise they have been
called by Him with a purpose, and
•
all that had happened so far was just
the early part of that purpose.
c)
God's role and God's intention for Israel
and for the world.
In
chapter 9 we went to some lengths to show some (not all) of the indications
in the Old Testament that God wanted Israel to be a light to the rest
of the world, to reveal Him to His world. Now that purpose had some
very clear specifics what come out in the text. We start with what
happened at Sinai as they are being constituted a nation with God.
Note the details:
Ex
34:10-16 Then
the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your
people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the
world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work
that I, the LORD, will do for you. Obey what I command you today.
I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites,
Hivites and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those
who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare
among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and
cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the
LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. "Be careful not
to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute
themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you
and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their
daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves
to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
Note:
- God
is entering into an agreement (covenant) with them. For it to work,
He will do some things and they need to do some things.
- He
is going to give them the land of Canaan , but as with so many other
places, as we noted above, it is inhabited by a people who are warlike
and who have superstitious, occultic, pagan, idolatrous worship
which means fear, child sacrifice and many other things that were
far from God's design for mankind.
- Whatever
else happens, Israel are NOT to take on board any of the practices
of that land, they are to be quite different for, as we've noted,
they are to reveal another way to the world (which is why Chapter
9 is so important – if you haven't read it, go back and take it
all in.)
- In
addition to that they must not marry their girls because they will
only persuade the Israelite men to follow their pagan practices
and Israel 's uniqueness will soon be evaporated and they will no
longer reveal God and His goodness to the rest of the world. This
is critical to much of the thinking behind the Law of Moses we are
considering.
Perhaps
we need to paint a little of the bigger picture at this point, and
for ease of understanding put it as key points:
1.
God is Designer-Creator of all things.
- The Bible clearly shows Him as this
and if it is so then He would know how He has designed us and the
world to work and would know how we ‘work' best.
2.
The ‘Fall' necessitated a ‘rescue plan'
- Having given us free will He knew
we would exercise it and basically reject His guidance of our lives,
and become godless and self-centred.
- His plan, before even the Creation,
the Bible tells us, involved drawing Abram etc. into a relationship
with Him and showing them a better way, the right way, the way according
to His design, to live.
- All along the way was God's recognition
that we would still get things wrong and so He incorporated ways
for reconciliation with Him after failure (the sacrificial system).
A
new way of life involving relationship with God,
guidance and help along the way , and a means
of dealing with failure , are all the key elements of what
we find in those early books of the Bible.
We
must emphasise that He is creating a different people who live in
a different way from the war-mongering, superstitious occultic ways
of other nations. Thus we find the warning coming through Moses:
Lev
18:3 “You
must not do as they do in Egypt
,
where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land
of Canaan
,
where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.”
But
the encouragements that came from the Lord as Israel
prepared to enter the new land,
weren't merely negative warnings , they also encouraged
by the promise of the goodness of the land they
were about to enter, for example:
Deut
6:10,11 a
land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled
with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not
dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you
eat and are satisfied
Deut
8:7-9 For
the LORD
your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and
pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land
with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil
and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack
nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out
of the hills.
Summary
To
summarise these things, and they are vital to understanding the severity
of these particular laws, note the following:
1.
God has a plan to reveal Himself to the world through Israel.
2.
Key things He needs to reveal are His love and His goodness.
3.
Those will be revealed by the nature of the life of Israel which
will be as different from the surrounding nations as chalk is from
cheese.
4.
It is thus vital that they:
- reveal His design for us to ‘work
properly' and
- do not diverge by becoming like
the surrounding peoples.
We
cannot over-emphasise the importance of these things.
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25.5
Reviewing the Laws
Very
well, the ‘capital punishment laws' indicate the extreme importance
that God gives to the above items. Thus we will categorise
them as bringing the greatest awareness possible to the two things
in the fourth point in the Summary above.
a)
His Design for Mankind to ‘work properly'.
This
is indicated in the greatest deterrent possible being applied
in respect of:
•
Respect for human life
•
no murder Ex 21:12
•
no kidnapping Ex 21:16
(& Deut 24:7)
•
no rape Deut 22:25
•
no carelessness resulting in loss
of life Ex 21:19
•
no heartless disregard for the weak
Ex 22:22-24
•
no disregarding authority Deut 17:11,12
What
is God's alternative, His original ‘design' for us? It is respect,
love and acceptance of every person, never harming them by word or
deed, but being caring, compassionate and considerate.
•
Respect for God's design
for family life at the heart of society life
•
no threats to parents Ex 21:15
,17 (Deut 21:18
-21)
•
no degenerating into mere sexual animals
Ex 22:19
(& Lev 20:15 ,16)
•
no adultery Lev 20:12
, 19 (& Deut 22:22
,23)
•
no incest Lev 20:11
•
no homosexual practice Lev
20:13
•
no wrongful bigamy Lev 20:14
•
no promiscuity before marriage Deut
22:20,21
What
is God's alternative, His original design? It is for stable, loyal,
harmonious family life (who could want anything other than that????)
where sex is an expression of love between members of the opposite
sex within a committed, loving, lifelong relationship which creates
a stable and secure environment in which to raise a family.
b)
His Intent for Israel
not to degenerate to the level of surrounding pagan nations.
This
is indicated in the greatest deterrent possible being applied
in respect of:
•
Maintaining their relationship
with Him
•
no false prophets enticing them away
Deut 13:1-6 (& 18:20 )
•
no influential person to you enticing
you away Deut 13:6-11
•
no group making a breakaway that might
influence the rest Deut 13:12-16
•
no tolerating idolatry springing up
Deut 17:2-7
What
was God's alternative, His intent in establishing a relationship with
Israel ?
It was to be available to them to bless them and guide them, provide
for them and protect them, so that they may reveal His love and goodness
to the rest of the world.
Did
it happen? On rare occasions! In reality they showed that even with
all these advantages, sin within them led them into self-centred godlessness
which weakened them and made them vulnerable to surrounding enemies.
Only God's help, time and again, saved them.
•
Avoiding copying the practices
of other nations and becoming like them
•
no witchcraft Ex 22:18
•
no mediums Lev 20:27
•
no idol worship Ex 22:20
•
no child sacrifice Lev 20:1,2
What
was God's alternative, His means of communicating with His people
to help achieve all the above things? He would speak through His prophets
or His leaders – which is how the Law came to be in the first place
– and would encourage or correct them as necessary, to help them stay
on track.
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25.6
And to Conclude
If
we hold a godless, self-centred attitude then nothing on this page
will mean anything to us. If we are seeking truth and are open to
consider the possibilities then I believe the content here is logical
and straight forward.
For
us to grasp the full significance of it we will need to see:
- the importance of adhering to the
design and plan of God revealed here,
- the
threat of the pressures to conform to the ways of other nations
that Israel
had to resist.
Again
we might suggest the full import of it can only be grasped in the
light of the times when Israel
were in a good relationship
with the Lord, especially in the reigns of King David and then King
Solomon. At those times we see the fullness of God's plan for them
producing great prosperity and well-being.
A
concluding observation that perhaps we should make is that these particular
laws were given to a particular nation who lived in relationship with
God. In modern Western society the majority are godless (God just
doesn't feature in their lives) and self-centred (that's all you are
left with). Social commentators often bewail the breakdown of society.
Few
recognise that an underlying cause is because we have abandoned God
and His design for mankind and so have no absolutes by which to judge
what is right or wrong. We thus have flexible ethics. It is for this
reason that even within the police force, the media are often reporting
less than ethical behaviour, and with that loss of trust, seeking
to apply capital punishment laws today, for whatever cause, would
be questionable; the number of ‘unsafe' court decisions in recent
years affirms this. Tragic!
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