It is interesting to me that God explicitly says that if someone murders another person. The definition of murder in the Bible is essentially the same one we use today. This is because the Bible is the basis for the Western justice system1. In this particular passage — Numbers 35 — we deal with the death of one person at the hands of another and how that is to be handled.
Someone could only be convicted of murder if there were at least two witnesses. No one dies on a he-said-she-said. And then, if someone was convicted of murder, the victim’s nearest relative would be responsible for carrying out the execution. And God was very clear, no murder can be allowed to live2.
But in the case of an accidental death, God gave the guilty (yes, they are still guilty, just not of murder) party the Cities of Refuge in which to flee. This is interesting to me. The Israelites do not have prisons per se, but God has created these sort-of minimum security towns where the guilty can serve out their “sentence”. Away from their tribe, their family, and their friends. They will live among the priests for a time. But with a very serious caveat. If they LEAVE the City of Refuge, they are now guilty of murder and are subject under the law to death.
God was deeply concerned with His people taking death seriously. We are made in the image of the almighty. We cannot allow ourselves to be flippant about this fact. Image-bearers of God should be respected and treated with all due care. What image-bearers do we not care about as a society? As individuals?
Numbers 34-36 | 070/365
- https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2541&context=lawreview ↩︎
- This would be vociferously attacked by some today. God is perfect and holy. Not capricious and random. We cannot out-justice, out-mercy, or out-love God. ↩︎