SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6
Scripture: Exodus 20:13, Genesis 6:5-7, 38:6,7,9,10

In the sixth commandment God said, “You shall not murder.” There are numerous people in the Bible that God kills. Murder and killing are different. Murder is the shedding of innocent blood. Killing can be done as a righteous act as the appropriate penalty for those who murder. One of the foundational truths and boundaries of Scripture is that God created life and only God can take that life. God prescribes a penalty for people who shed innocent blood and that penalty is destruction. A murder-trial case is called a ‘capital punishment’ case. Capital punishment is based on God’s Word. If the death sentence for the shedding of innocent blood is what God prescribed, then the guilty person incurs the death penalty. So capital punishment cases have always been based on the Biblical truth of what God set in place when people cross the boundary by shedding innocent blood. In Genesis 6:5-7 God was grieved that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thought of man’s heart was only evil continually. So the Lord said that He was sorry that He made man on the earth and He was grieved in His Heart. This passage in Genesis says, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” The very first mass murder in Scripture was concerning the issue of wickedness and God destroyed everyone in the flood except for one family because Noah found grace in God’s sight. In a different passage we discover that God destroyed people for their evil and their wickedness. When they crossed over the boundary of wickedness God intervened and destroyed them. Genesis 38:6,7 says, “Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him.” In verses 9-10 of this same chapter, “But Onan knew that the heir would not be his and it came to pass when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. And the thing that he did displeased the Lord; therefore He killed him also.” Throughout Scripture we discover that God is an Executor of those who are wicked and evil. One of the very first categories for which God executes people is for the shedding of innocent blood. All those who support abortion sow mass murder into their culture. All those who support the shedding of innocent blood without repentance guarantee judgment. When fullness of iniquity rises over the shedding of innocent blood, then we see an escalation of mass murder. Are we seeing that now? Of course we are. The murder of innocents has been sown by the culture and we are reaping the murder of innocents!