No excuse

DEVOTION

EXODUS

NO EXCUSE

Ex 21:12-14

12 "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. 13 However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. 14 But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.

NIV

Two cases of murder are given to us, the schemed and the unintentional. There seems to be no room for any misinterpretation of the fact if someone killed another because of malice or it was preplanned, he was to be put to death. This is capital punishment and not the harshness of confining a murderer for the rest of his natural life, at the expense of all others. Somehow in our society today many feel the death penalty is too harsh, and lifelong confinement shows mercy. This narrative also gives us the very first sanctuary cities for those who accidentally kill another. We are not sure how this accidentally or unintentional taking of another’s life would happen. Certainly not because of DUI. Nevertheless there must have been circumstances where an accidental killing took place. When we look forward in the scriptures we see places where Moses designated three cities and in other places the Levites were designated forty sanctuary cities. We have those today in some states for the purpose of giving refuge to illegal aliens. Yet what we are learning here is about the taking of another’s life. It would seem this has little bearing on our lives as we would never even consider such a heinous crime. However, as with one of the Ten Commandments which prohibits murder, Jesus expanded this to include much more than taking another’s life.

Matt 5:21-24

21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

NIV

Here Jesus not only expands on the theme of murder, but also deals with this issue of being taken away from God’s altar. In the past when a man committed such a crime he might take hold of the altar of God, finding refuge at the altar. There is even cases within the Old Testament of men taking hold of the horns of the ram on the altar to escape justice. We find that today some people are of the impression that taking refuge in a church prohibits the law from taking them into captivity for a crime. Jesus tells us that we are to leave the altar of God if we have the slightest of ill feelings toward another. We cannot find sanctuary in God, if we are harboring any ill against another. If we think we are alright, being in right fellowship with God and we have anything but love and acceptance of others, we are deceiving ourselves. If we have envy or jealously, or unforgiveness, or a judgmental attitude in any way, we need to rid ourselves of it in order to be in right relationship with God. How can we stand in church and act all spiritual when there is the slightest of bad relationships within our circle of family and friends, and even among everyone we know and are known. Jesus not only expanded this about how we feel toward others, but how they feel toward us. We cannot rightfully enter the sanctuary of God, if we know someone has hard feelings about us. Even if we inadvertently caused them to feel badly toward us and we find out about it, we need to settle it, go to them and ask forgiveness. This comes right back to loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, spirit and body and loving our neighbor as ourselves. There is simply no room for anything else. No fudge room, no excuse, no justifiable reason, period.