21:13,14
Having said that I do not consider the death sentence to be immoral, nor not having a death penalty to be a sign of virtue, there are practical arguments against the death penalty. Here we find God giving some caveats and safeguards. V13 seems to say that if the one who killed had not set out to kill the man, the killing was accidental, then he is not to be put to death. Later on in the Law we will find the establishment of cities of refuge for such cases. 21:14 then considers the converse case. If a man has deliberately set out to kill the other, but then grabs hold of the altar, he is to be taken away from the altar and put to death. This is like saying that if someone sought refuge in a church, having deliberately set you to kill the man, he is to be dragged from the church and put to death. The church is not a place for harbouring criminals, though it absolutely should be a place for repentant criminals.
21:15-17
One of the ten commandments is to honour our father and mother. The commands in v15 and v17 stress the seriousness of this. Rom 1:30 cites disobeying parents as one of the signs of a rebellious age. “Striking” in v15 could mean “killing”, but may also apply to non-lethal hitting. V17 seems harsh to us, but cursing means wishing the downfall of the parent. These two commands are an indication of the importance of parents, of families, and our attitude towards them.
Sandwiched between these two commands is the prohibition of selling people as slaves. To put it in modern parlance, people trafficking is outlawed, and the seriousness of the matter is indicated by the punishment being the death penalty. Maybe such an approach would help us deal with the people traffickers of our day. Just a thought for consideration.
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