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Peter Barnes | Exodus 21:12-36
SERMON NOTES
CURBING VIOLENCE
Exodus 21:12-36
– Gen.3 leads to Gen.4; Prov.8:35-36. The news is full of violence: murders, wars, assaults, abortion and euthanasia.
1. Deliberate murder warrants the death penalty.
– 21:12; Gen.9:6; Rom.13:4. See Ex.21:13-14 and 1 Kings 2:28-34; there is room for some discretion e.g. David, Cain.
2. Manslaughter is not murder and criminal negligence is not quite murder.
– 21:13; Deut.19:4-5.
– criminal negligence can be like murder, albeit redeemable – 21:28-32; also Deut.22:8.
3. Kidnapping is a capital offense.
– 21:16; and enslavers in 1 Tim.1:8-10. No slave trade!
4. Unborn life is protected.
– 21:23-25; a miscarriage? More likely, a premature birth. Calvin: ‘the foetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being’. Exodus 21:22 – same word as ‘to depart’ (e.g. Gen.12: 4).
5. Criminal assault can be like murder.
– 21:18-19; different to 21:20-21, 26-27 (violence, but no intention to kill). Verse 15 is in another category. Lex talionis (‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’) is a framework for respecting human life.