given to us in His Word, is the short est of all we have studied thus far in this series of messages on the Deca logue. The four forceful and emphatic words are, “Thou shalt not kill!” First of all, let us look at the basic Commandment in Exodus 20:13, “Thou shalt not kill.” This command immed iately brings us to the subject of capi tal punishment — one of high con troversy. But we must be governed in our reasoning by the fact that it is not what we may think — rather by what the Word of God says. Marginal notes in your Bible will probably give the translation, “Thou shalt do no mur der.” Now the word for kill in the Hebrew, implies the violent, unauthorized, pre meditated taking of life. Actually, there are several words in the Hebrew which are translated by our one word kill. The first word is “ratsach,” which means to murder. The second word is “harag,” which means to slay. Here in the Sixth Commandment, we have thou shalt not “ratsach” or murder. In such portions as Deuteronomy- 13:9, dealing with capital punishment for the various types of offenses — God in scribes, thou shalt surely kill or “ha rag.” You see, there is a difference be tween the two. Doubtless all of us have heard folk arguing on the subject of capital pun ishment. Some persons have used as their reason against it, the fact that this specific Commandment declares we should not kill. But regardless of what our personal belief might be, we must understand, from the original. lang uage, that while all murder may be killing, yet all killing is not murder. But let us go back further. Predating the Ten Commandments by hundreds of years, was another law instituted by God upon this earth — a law which has never been set aside, abrogated, or done away with. This law is found in Genesis 9:6 where we read, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Could God’s words be made clearer? If someone has premeditatively taken life, he must similarly forfeit his own 30
AUGUST RAD IO MESSAGE/ THE TEN COM M AN DM EN T S
T wo pse u d o - s o c iet y women were dis cussing a controversial subject of the day — they were trying to decide whether capital punishment is right or wrong. So the one woman asked her friend, “What do you think about cap ital punishment?” Without too much thought the friend responded, “Oh, I suppose I am for it, just as long as it isn’t too severe.” Now let us have a better understand ing of that which is before us as we look at our subject of discussion. The Sixth Commandment, which God has
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