2004-12-31
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Repeatedly, I find these truths in the word of God: that we were “created in His image” [GN 1: 27]. He loves us so much that over and over again He is renewing us in His image, so that we can have a greater knowledge of Himself [COL 3: 10]. We are created “for His pleasure” [2 COR 5: 8-9; EPH 1: 4-5]. With all of these things in mind, we need to look at the true intent of His laws, so that we can do as LAM 3: 40 tells us to, “examine our ways and test them.” Our interactions with God and the measurement of our thought patterns and behavior against the standard He set for us in Jesus Christ need to be examined. This is not to be done with the intent of engendering guilt in us or being hurtful. Instead, it is to be done as a measurement against the foundational ethics that are in God’s word. If for one minute we feel that we don’t need to do this, then we deny the truth of RO 3: 23, which says, “We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.” That is why I now turn to MT 5: 21-48, Christ’s teaching about anger, adultery, divorce, vows, revenge, and loving one’s enemies. Naturally, I can’t cover all of this in today’s message. That will give us an overview of what will be covered in the next several messages.
MT 5: 21-22 begins the teaching on anger. “You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’ But now I tell you: whoever is angry with his brother will be brought to trial, whoever calls his brother ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Council [the Sanhedrin], and whoever calls is brother a worthless fool will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.” If we think about it, we find that these are words which certainly agree with the teachings found in the books of the Torah [first five books of Moses] in the OT and deal with God’s efforts to civilize mankind. This effort has been going on ever since the original sin [GN 3: 1-6] and the institution of human government in GN 9: 4-6. The latter passage reads, “The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. Man was made like God, so whoever murders a man will himself be killed by his fellow man.” EX 20: 13 are God’s words in the Ten Commandments on this issue. “Thou shalt not kill.” Had we read the word for “kill” in Hebrew, we would have known that it means “to murder intentionally.” It’s English transliteration is “ratsach”, pronounced raw-tsakh with the accent on the last syllable. Another way of stating this is “to dash to pieces,” a phrase found in some of the great classical music sung. I mention this so that we can understand that premeditated murder, that which our society calls “murder in the first degree” is the issue here.
God addresses Himself to the issue of accidental murder too. Look at what is said in EX 21: 12-14, “Whoever hits a man and kills him is to be put to death. But if it was an accident and he did not mean to kill the man, he can escape to a place which I will choose for you, and there he will be safe. But when a man gets angry and deliberately kills another man, he is to be put to death, even if he has run to My altar for safety.” God’s will in the matter of intent is made clear. By the way, those places God chose for those committing unintentional murder were called cities of refuge. The cities of refuge are first detailed in NU 35: 6, 13-15, “You are to give the Levites six cities of refuge to which a man can escape if he kills someone accidentally…Choose six cities, three east of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan. These will serve as cities of refuge for Israelites and for foreigners who are temporary or permanent residents. Anyone who kills someone accidentally can escape to one of them.” God’s direction on premeditated murder is repeated again in NU 35: 16-18. The cities of refuge and directives on who may stay in them is repeated in DT 19: 1-4. Here, the book of Deuteronomy lives up to the meaning of its name; it repeats a second time what has been said in a previous book of the Torah. The word “Torah” actually means “law.” You’ll notice here that I began with writing about what was already set down in the OT. In the next message, we’ll take a good look at more of Christ’s teaching and that of others in the NT on the subject of the taking of life by a person.
By now, you might be thinking, “I’m not a murderer, so why do I need to go over all of this?” We must remember that God’s will, as stated in JN 6: 39-40, COL 1: 20, and EPH 1: 5, is that as many of us as possible would be brought back to Him for eternal life by being in union with Jesus Christ. We also must understand that God doesn’t repeat something in the Scriptures, unless He wants to emphasize it and feels it’s important. None of us knows if we will ever be thrust into a situation where the following circumstances might happen. 1) We would be sorely tempted to take the life of another person. 2) We would become so angry, that we would suddenly make a decision to sin without taking the time to “examine our ways and test them” against God’s directives. 3) We might be put in a position where we would have to think on our feet quickly to prevent another person from taking a life. These are some reasons why our God, Who dearly loves each of us, wants us to spend daily time in His word and to pray, so that we have a firm foundation upon which to conduct our lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, a couple of weeks ago a group of faithful believers in Charis, the prison ministry of the Via de Cristo 4-day spiritual retreat program, went up to Sandstone Federal Prison in Rush City, MN to bring their faith to the inmates. The average sentence for these “insiders,” as they call themselves, is 10 years. Many of them are there even longer. About 90 “insiders” participated along with the team in this remarkable weekend. And yes, Lord, it’s entirely possible that some of them have taken a human life(s). You are a generous Lord, one Who through the Holy Spirit brings faith to those You have called and chosen. The Charis team has returned since them and will do so periodically. Numerous prayers are being sent to you by the Charis team, our church’s 165-person prayer chain, and others that You will choose to bring these men to life-giving faith in Jesus Christ and that those who come to faith will help bring other inmates who didn’t get to go to the Charis weekend to faith. This is one way that You help people who have committed heinous sins to learn to believe in You, come to love You, and eventually come to love and respect Your laws. When the Charis team came back from their first follow-up visit, their faith was buoyed by the positive response of some of the inmates with whom they were in contact. You are a forgiving God, and we know this from JN 3: 16, RO 3: 24-25, HE 8: 12, and 10: 10 among other places in Your word. Today, we acknowledge Your sovereign power, Your leadership in our lives, Your love and compassion, and Your majesty. We bow before Your throne in thanks and praise to You, for being the unparalleled and only God in Whom we believe. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Next week will continue looking at God’s word on the matter of anger from the NT and see how Christ’s teaching applies to our lives. What a wonderful God we have, a God Who bears our burdens, gives us our salvation, won’t allow us to be defeated, and is our Refuge in times of trouble [PS 68: 19; MT 11: 28-30; PS 55: 22, and PS 46: 1]. His direction in our lives allows us to open the narrow gate and walk the hard path that leads to eternal life with Him in joy and sweet fellowship [MT 7: 13-14]. Anger is an honest emotion, and the challenge we have when we become angry is to find a constructive channel for it. We can turn to God to get great advice for doing that. He will give it to us in prayer and in His word. Satan is stalking, waiting for every chance he gets to propel our anger into sin. But, we can thwart his attempts to do this by being well informed in the word, by believing it with all our heart, and by obeying God faithfully. Satan can and will be vanquished! Believe this, Dear Readers, and we will win the victory in Christ’s holy name!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn