Rev. Don Campbell
PURYEAR PROCLAIMER
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 25, 2019
“O YOU WHO LOVE THE LORD, HATE EVIL!
(Part 3)”
This is our third installment by the title “O you who love the Lord, hate evil,” which is an exhortation given in Psalms 97:10. In Proverbs 6:1-19, we find that there are seven things God hates:
There are six things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.
In this installment, we look at “hands that shed innocent blood.” The law of Moses provided for six cities of refuge to be established to which one who had killed another without, as we would say, “malice aforethought” (See Numbers 35:6-13, Joshua 20:2-9). Those who intentionally and willfully shed innocent blood were to be executed: “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you” (Deuteronomy 19:11-13).
If God hates those who shed innocent blood, what is his attitude toward those who fail in their responsibility to shed guilty blood? Paul said that rulers are God’s servants to carry out wrath on wrongdoers. That this includes execution is clear in the words “he does not bear the sword in vain” (Romans 13:3-4). The sword was an instrument of death.
More innocent blood has been shed at the hands of abortionist than has ever been shed by rogue police, vigilantes, or a criminal justice system in which righteous judgment is perverted. Since Roe vs Wade (1973), the war on the womb killed sixty-one million, five hundred forty-one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two babies. All were innocent. During that same period, there were 1501 executions and 156 death-row inmates exonerated. If my calculations are correct, that means that for every person executed, 406,666 babies are killed. The number of babies killed every two years is more than the total number of soldiers who have died in all American wars combined. God hates hands that shed innocent blood.
