March 11

“Do not pervert justice or show partiality.” Those words appear often in scripture (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19). Solomon was considered wise by God because when given the opportunity to choose whatever he wanted for his life; Solomon didn’t choose long life, great wealth, or the death of his enemies. Instead, Solomon asked God for the wisdom to rightly administer justice to God’s people (I Kings 3:11-14,28). It was important to God that His people be judged fairly and without partiality.
Capital Punishment for the murder of another human being was commanded by God since the time of the flood (Genesis 9:5-7). “Murderers must always be put to death........for murder pollutes the land” (Numbers 35:31,33). Remember, humans were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26&27). God was very pleased with how He made us (Genesis 1:31). He breathes a part of Himself into each and every one of us (Genesis 2:7). Only God has the right to decide when and how human life should end. And because that is true, justice demands when we take that responsibility into our own hands by murdering someone, we must pay the penalty for doing so. It is God who has determined the punishment for murder, not man. Man only carries out what God has told us to do (Romans 13:1-5). But, in order to make sure that innocent people were not unjustly accused and sentenced to death for something they didn’t do, or even some-thing they did accidentally, God called upon the Israelites to designate six cities where those who had taken someone else’s life could flee to for refuge and safety. It would be in that city of refuge where a trial would take place and a person’s guilt or innocence determined (Numbers 35:6-34). Murder was such a serious offense and the punishment for murder was so final that God had this special rule, “All murderers must be executed, but only if there is more than one witness. No one may be put to death on the testimony of only one witness” (35:30). Why is that? Because, there are reasons where people might conceivably lie. And God did not want any innocent person losing their life to capital punishment. God is Just and He will not have anyone perverting His justice by unfairly judging someone created in His image.