“take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.”
~ Deuteronomy 17:5
Hi James and Ellen,
What are your feelings or thoughts about capital punishment? What do you feel or think should happen to a guy or gal who deliberately murders a guy, gal or kid? Do you feel or think that a guy or gal who has been proven guilty of murdering a guy, gal or kid should die with a lethal dose or in an electric chair or shot by a firing squad or hung? Do you feel or think that a guy or gal who through a premeditated plan or voluntary action intentionally ended the life of a guy, gal or kid should be given a pass – that the guy or gal does not have to face a consequence for what he or she has done? What did God want His specially chosen guys and gals to do with a guy or gal who purposely chose to ‘thumb his or her nose’ at Him by willfully disobeying one of the laws that He passed on to them through Moses? God – in Deuteronomy 17, tells Moses exactly what to do with a guy or gal who knowingly decides to flout Him or consciously opts to defy Him in how He expected His specially chosen guys and gals to solely and completely live their lives for Him. God’s ‘never to do or else’ commands for His special chosen guys and gals included not worshipping lifeless manmade gods that have been carved out of wood, chipped from rocks, molded from wet clay and hammered metals, not bowing down to the sun and/or moon and/or stars and not offering animal sacrifices – such as sheep and oxen, to Him that have a defect or flaw. God made a covenant with His specially chosen guys and gals – who were the Israelite people group guy and gals, which He unequivocally expected them to totally heed and completely keep or . . . this exclusive and privileged covenant was a promise that God explicitly made to His specially chosen guys and gals. God was this elite covenant’s ultimate judge. God delegated to Moses, priests, Levi tribal clan guys and elected acting judges among His specially chosen guys and gals the authority to enact the punishments that He designated. God required at least two or three witnesses independently agreeing that a fellow Israelite people group guy or gal committed a covenant violation before going through with the designated punishment. A single Israelite people group guy or gal who purported or alleged a covenant violation by a fellow Israelite people group guy or gal could not have his or her charges heard. God allocated towns where courts were to be located and where bloodshed, lawsuit and assault cases among His specially chosen guys and gals were to be heard.
What do you feel or think that God wanted done with a guy or gal who deliberately opted to oppose Him or knowingly decided to challenge Him by ‘turning his or her back’ on the requirements of His covenant that He gave through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals? After hearing the verbal report of two or three witnesses and after a careful and thorough investigation by the guys having to make the decision of what to do next and if the guy or gal is found to have done or to be doing a detestable thing – which was doing something that was not in complete compliance with God’s mandates to only worship Him, verse 5 says, “take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.” The first rock was to be thrown by the first witness who had come forward to report the confirmed misdeeds of the guy or gal who was to be stoned to death. God expected evil to be purged from among His specially chosen guys and gals by having the guy or gal who was proven to have done or is doing an evil thing be stoned by rocks until he or she is dead. God’s rationale for using stoning as His capital punishment was that the guys and gals among His specially chosen guys and gals would hear what happened and that they would become afraid and that they would not do contemptuous things against Him – because they would not want to suffer the same fate as that of an Israelite people group guy or gal compatriot when he or she was stoned to death for rebuffing Him. How do you feel or think about having a guy or gal lynched who has libeled another guy or gal or stolen something from another guy or gal or who has with intent hurt another guy or gal? Guatemalan guys and gals use lynching – by first beating up a guy or gal and then burning the guy or gal, as their way to execute a punishment on the guy or gal for doing what was perceived by a mob of guys and gals as being something wrong to do. Mob action scares your grandpaa. Eyewitnesses and court venues assured the Israelite people group guys and gals that only the guilty guys and gals would be killed with rocks. Even though your grandpaa is an advocate for capital punishment, your grandpaa does not believe that capital punishment actually deters a guy or gal from killing another guy, gal or kid. God’s designated punishment ‘of stoning until dead’ was not a deterrent from stopping His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, from worshipping manmade inert wood, stone, clay and metal idol gods, from worshipping celestial bodies and from not following His sacrificial norms.
Why do you feel or think that an omnipotent Supreme God does not enforce His unambiguous life rules and religiosity laws? Your grandpaa does not know why God is not more proactive in stopping evil but . . . there is a sense though that God wants all guys and gals to know life’s dark side so that those bad experiences will give all guys and gals a clear comprehension of the gigantic gap between good and evil. Paul ended his apologetic by saying that God has bound, imprisoned, enslaved all guys, gals and kids to disobedience so that He might show His mercy on all. James says that a guy or gal is to be thankful when God has him or her go through difficult times because he or she will through his or her faith find that patience and endurance has led him or her to mature and to lack nothing.
Deuteronomy 17 (671)