The Biblical distinction between Manslaughter and Murder...

This week we are addressing the issue of capital punishment. Specifically, we are asking and answering the questions “What policies would Jesus promote when it comes to the issue of capital punishment? Why would Jesus take the position that He would take?"

Yesterday, we looked at the current conversation in our culture when it comes to the issue of Capital Punishment. At one end of the conversation when it comes to the issue of capital punishment are politicians and others who advocate for capital punishment. Those who advocate for capital punishment use several arguments to support their position. At the other end of the conversation when it comes to the issue of capital punishment would be politicians and others who oppose capital punishment. Those who oppose capital punishment use several arguments to support their position.

We then began to look at what the letters that make up the Bible reveal about capital punishment by looking at an event from history that has been preserved and recorded for us in a section of a letter that is found in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua records the efforts of the Jewish nation to restart their lives after forty years of wandering in a literal desert of hurt, pain, and failure.

After forty years, after an entire generation of Jewish people died in the desert as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, a man named Joshua led the next generation of the Jewish people into the land that the Lord had promised them. After taking control of the land that the Lord had promised them, the Lord, through Joshua, began to establish how the Jewish people were to live in the land that the Lord had promised them.

In Joshua 20:1-3, we see the Lord command Joshua to designate cities of refuge. These cities of refuge were designed to be a place where a person could seek asylum while awaiting trial for their actions that resulted in the death of another person. We talked about the reality that the letters that make up the Bible makes a clear distinction between killing and murder. From a biblical perspective, there is a significant difference between a person whose actions accidentally cause the death of another, which is defined as killing, and a person who plots and plans to take the life of another, which is defined as murder.

In addition, the letters that make up the Bible is also very clear about the consequences that should occur when one human being acts on a thought out plan to murder another human being. In the first book of the Bible, called the book of Genesis, we see God provide clear instructions as to the consequences that the person who had committed murder was to face. We see these consequences revealed for us in Genesis 9:6:

"Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

God’s consequence for willingly and thoughtfully taking another’s life was death. Murder, was to receive a punishment that matched the crime. Today, we call this capital punishment. As we talked about earlier in this series, notice who is responsible for carrying out capital punishment? Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

You see, the Lord was not going to carry out the consequence of capital punishment. Instead, other men, as His representatives, were to carry out the consequence of capital punishment. And it is this verse that we see the foundational principles for the establishment of government. Here we see the Lord delegate to human beings throughout history the responsibility to carry out the punishment of evil and to protect the common good of society.

Did you also notice the reason why God calls for the death of the person who willingly and thoughtfully took another person’s life by committing murder: “for in the image of God He made man”. The Lord here is echoing back to something that He had said earlier and that we have looked at repeatedly throughout this series, which is found in Genesis 1:26:

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

As we discussed throughout this series, every human being bears the thumbprint of God. We were created in God’s relational image to experience a relationship with God vertically and relationships with one another horizontally. In addition, as a result of being created in the image of God, we are created to rule over the earth as God's representative here on earth.

And as part of that representation, humanity possesses a moral, spiritual, and ethical nature that does not exist among the rest of the creation. Humanity has been divinely designed by God in His image and is of greater value than any other animal. Every human being on the planet has been woven together with a personality and a moral, spiritual, and ethical nature from the moment of conception.

And throughout the pages of the letters that make up the Bible, we repeatedly see reinforced that humanity has been divinely designed with a dignity of life and humanity has been divinely designed with sanctity of life. And because of that reality, the Lord forbids that any human being willingly and thoughtfully take another’s life. We see this reality in Exodus 20:13:

You shall not murder.

You see, the Lord established capital punishment to demonstrate how much He values life. God cares and values life so much that He demands the life of those who would willingly take another’s life. Let me say that again. Because mankind is created in the image of God; because mankind was designed to represent and reflect the nature and character of God on earth; and because God values all human life; He demands the life of those who would willingly take another’s life by the act of murder.

In the book of Joshua, at this time in history, how the Lord demanded the life of those who took the life of another through the act of murder in the Old Testament was through the avenger of blood. The avenger of blood usually was the closest male relative of the one who had been slain. The avenger of blood was responsible to seek retribution, or justice, and not vengeance, for the death of a member of the Jewish people.

The avenger, however, was not expected to make the distinction between murder and an accidental killing; he was simply the instrument to execute justice and punishment upon the murderer by killing the murderer. So because of the distinction that exists between killing and murder, there needed to be these cities of refuge that would provide the opportunity to be able to determine the motivation behind the actions of the accused in the death of another human being.

Friday, we will discover the process of how this distinction was to be made and the role that the cities of refuge played in making that distinction...