You shall not murder. (Ex. 20:13)
The build up to understanding the spiritual intent behind God’s law and order has progressed in fascinating fashion. As you look at the Ten Words there is a distinct pattern and process. It’s understandable why the Lord who saved the people from slavery and potential ethnic cleansing would prioritise His relationship with them. It is interesting, however that the sanctity of life in this Word comes after honouring father and mother. Yet even here the thread of the theme can be detected.
Identity is the issue. In the world where independence is valued highly and the ability to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps is commended any sense of relying on others maybe perceived as weakness. On the other end of the spectrum such might be the pull of a cultural identity that it might be at the cost of any sense of who you are to conform to the requirements of the larger community. It is not just in political philosophy that this tension is waged, but in other aspects of life when you’re involved in a group or seen as maverick who prefers to blaze your own trail.
Understanding our true source explains this issue and brings a semblance of balance when tit is the true source. That’s why reverence for parental figures and those who have contributed to the society around you is so crucial. Yet as discovered in the last Word the physical parentage acts as a link to the divine parentage – the divine source. When we thus recognise that our identity is dependent on God – we are not our own, we are not the masters of our own destiny – this puts a significant spin on how we see everything else.
No wonder the first port of call in how this realisation affects how we live is life itself. We did not bring ourselves into the world and to a large extent for all the fitness regimes we put ourselves on, mental exercises and diets sustaining life itself is not wholly down to ourselves. It follows then that the end of life is not something that should be down to us either. As Jesus would highlight later on, that which motivates murder requires disassociating ourselves from the godly source. In this mind-set we no longer honour the Source from whom life flows and we take it upon ourselves to exercise the ultimate end.
Right there is the key to the spiritual intent that motivates living to this Word – it is that mind that reminds ourselves that we come from God – good, bad and ugly. As long as we are human in form the ‘made by God’ label is attached and in touching the person we touch that which God has made. Also as Jesus pointed out this Word is not about prohibiting the physical cessation of the breathing faculties, it is about where the heart is in regard to our desire for others. As the Word set us free and established to be His people there is a requirement that like Father like Son – if He is love then there is the deal that love should be the key component of the child and like His people. Such a heart does not wish ill on anyone and so can do that hard thing of loving enemies and praying for those who despitefully use. It is intrinsic to the nature and thus anathema to even consider murder.
This Word remains a powerful one in not just what it prohibits but what it promotes, what it refers to as the nature of those in a loving relationship with the One who rescued them from death. Such is the gratitude that it looks to promote life, however hard that maybe in the most trying of circumstances. This is not a weak and soppy cop out from exercising justice where it is required. This is the strength of a child of God who like His father is eager to rain and shine on the just and unjust and exercise mercy even as one who is a great recipient of mercy. It is the heartbeat of a people inches from death and given new life who want others to join them just staying alive.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
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