Murder, the Sequel
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall he shed, for in the image of God He made man.” Genesis 9:6
Image of God – Walter Kaiser makes the point. There is no possible ransom for murder because the murderer owes his life to God. Punishment for murder does not balance the books for loved ones, for society or for moral justice. The debt that is owed is a life, and only God is the One Who holds life in His hands. Capital punishment is not primarily about sending a message to society. It is about paying God what He is due.
The idea behind ransom is the debt settlement between two parties. So, if I steal your donkey, the debt settlement requires that I repay what has been stolen, plus punitive damages. That usually amounts to about twenty percent. The injured party’s possession is restored. Who is the injured party in murder? Well, who owns life? God, of course. So, God’s possession must be restored. But how can that happen? How do I restore a life? By giving my own in its place, that’s how. What I take, I must repay.
Contemporary culture cringes over this kind of logic. We don’t understand how capital punishment (which takes another life) can balance the books for a life taken. We think it is just more cruelty. That’s because we sit on top of a Greek worldview that attempts to derive its ethics from human reason. If it doesn’t seem reasonable to us, then it must not be right. We immediately forget that the biblical perspective is not about what human beings think is right or wrong. It is about a holy God Who determines through His own counsel what is right and what is wrong. We are not called to voice our opinion about His decisions. We are called to obey Him.
This verse, coming hundreds of years before the Law was given on Sinai, tells us that God’s opinion about the sanctity of life never changed. The reason why there can be no exceptions granted by men is that murder destroys God’s image in His creation of human beings. It obliterates the selem elohim (image of God). Ah, but did you think that all this means is that the physical body of the human being is rendered lifeless? No, God’s image is not the physical representation of the body (although it is worth noting that Man is properly both male and female). Hebrew culture suggests that the image of God is found in the relationship of dialogue. That is to say, Man is God’s conversational partner. Man is, in fact, the only entity in all creation that is in dialogue with God. And the rabbis considered this dialogue the very essence of what makes us human.
So, murder is inexcusable because it destroys the dialogue between God and the individual. There can be no ransom because one of the partners essential to the conversation has been made incapable of speaking. Murder shuts off the victim’s conversation with the Creator. And that God will not overlook.
Just think about it. God is in constant dialogue with each of us. That dialogue moves us along the path He has chosen for us. That dialogue is making us human, bringing us to the destiny God has chosen for us. Even if we are not talking, He has not stopped speaking. When someone is murdered, the conversation stops. Further movement toward true humanness is abruptly ended, preventing the development God intended. Do you now see how serious this is – and how the offense is an offense to God Himself? Murder ends the call of the shema. Therefore, the end of one conversation requires the end of another.
Topical Index: Commandments, Murder
