Picture this. You’re minding your own business, driving to work, jamming to some tasty tunes and then you see him in your rear view mirror. A speedy little red sports car that just doesn’t have time to wait on anybody or anything. He’s driving like a maniac, weaving in and out of traffic like Jeff Gordon on a Sunday afternoon. A deadly combination of impatience, selfishness and recklessness. You see him make 15 consecutive dangerous decisions as he speeds ahead. What do you automatically think to yourself? Be honest, we all think the same thing. “Where’s a cop when you need one?” I mean come on, if anybody has ever deserved to be pulled over and given a big fat ticket, it’s this jerk. I’ll even admit it, Marge has on occasion heard this tirade from me, “they should cut up his license and let him walk.” Wow, that’s tough Dan. Pray for me.
We love justice. Those three little words couldn’t be more true. You can simply flip through a few channels on TV to see the truth of this. Courtroom dramas, police shows, crime scene mysteries and yes even shows like Judge Judy. Internet news and newspapers are filled with horrible crimes and we read about them and in our minds, we judge the guilty, just like we did the speedy red car guy. The oddest thing about selecting a real judge that sits behind a big desk in a black robe is how they picked just one. I mean seriously, every single person on this planet is pretty good at judging others, right?
As self-appointed judges, we love the term “don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” We love to see guilty people get what’s coming to them. But something odd has happened to our justice system in the last 50 years. It’s gone soft. The first death penalty was carried out in America in 1608, as Captain George Kendall was tried and convicted of being a British spy. Capital punishment was a foundational part of America’s justice system just as we’ll see today in Leviticus 20 that it was the backbone of God’s justice system. As the U.S. states grew to number 50, they all incorporated the death penalty. If you did a crime that was harsh enough, it cost you your life. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. (Lev 24:19-22) But as the years wore on in US history, we see a repeat of history. Man knows better than God. Today 30 states still sparingly exercise the death penalty, while 20 interpret it as “inhumane.” Man’s interpretation of God’s Law. But folks, if you want the perfect interpretation of God’s Law, you only need to turn to the true lawgiver, God.
We saw yesterday in Leviticus 19, a laundry list of no-no’s, most based in and around the Ten Commandments. But what we didn’t see yesterday was any mention of the punishment for committing those crimes. If you have a few years under your belt and maybe some silver at your temples, you’ve learned one truth in this life, you will pay for your crimes…eventually. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Gal 6:7
We don’t have to go very far to find God wrapping up the no-no’s with what will happen as a result, the reaping ensues. And folks, let me just say that God is an enforcer of the death penalty. Out of the 16 crimes mentioned in chapter 20, God declares the death penalty for 10 of them. That’s a pretty stiff legal system considering today you can kill somebody and get parole. Any form of incestual sex? Death for both people involved. Acts of homosexuality? Death for both involved. Bestiality? Death for the man or woman and the animal. Necromancy, (communicating with the dead), witchcraft or sorcery? Death. Cursing your father or mother? Death. And of course taking another’s life in malice? Death. To most that have been indoctrinated by our current system, this list sounds, harsh, brutal, unforgiving and well, just not like a loving God. But in order to better understand this punishment, you have to better understand God.
Nowhere in the Word of God is punishment given for the purpose of reforming a criminal. That was not the objective of punishment from God. Punishment of a crime was for the moral good of the people. Think remove the cancer to save the body. Punishment of a crime is a deterrent to that crime. It will cut down on the crime rate for that crime. If you don’t believe this, then just pull all the traffic cops off the highways and watch what happens. It will become like a Mad Max movie in a matter of hours. You see, strict laws that are properly enforced is the basis of any society. The question is, who makes the laws, who interprets the laws and who enforces the laws?
Let me clear it up for you, God makes the laws. Out of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) it exclusively deals with God’s Law. In fact, did you know that the Jewish root word for Pentateuch is ‘Torah’ and that word means law? Right out of the gate we see God's Bible giving the Law to the world through Moses, then carefully explaining it in books like Leviticus and Exodus. We also see the punishment for rebelliously breaking God’s law in chapters like ours today. When a society greatly strays from the basis of the truth of God’s law and deviates into a man-made, man-interpreted and man-enforced law system, society delves into insanity.
Regardless of how you feel about capital punishment, you must sit down and focus on Leviticus 20 and the reality of what God thinks about the rebellious breaking of His Law. Does it really matter what we think about God's law? I can only imagine me getting drug into court for stealing somebody’s car and as I argue my case to the judge I simply say, I don’t like your law and I don’t think people should have to do it. I would get laughed out of the court…in cuffs! Folks, God’s law is not open to interpretation. I’m sorry if you don’t like it but that doesn’t change a thing. God wraps up the chapter with a powerful summation that should define a life, a people, a society and a world today.
“ You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” Lev 20:26
You see, God loves you so, so, deeply. In fact, so much, He sent His only Son to die for your sins. You see without Jesus, lives will suffer the ultimate death penalty. An eternal death completely separated from the goodness of God. A forever in Hell. Folks, don’t make the horrible mistake of self-interpreting God’s law for eternity. You can’t just make your own stuff up concerning the way to Heaven. You don’t get to Heaven because you lived a pretty good life. You don’t get to Heaven because you believed God existed. You don’t get to Heaven because God is love and somehow has to send everybody. And folks you don’t get to Heaven just because you die. God’s law is crystal clear on the one and the only way that anyone can ever hope to get to Heaven.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Call upon Jesus today and follow God’s way to Heaven. The only way.
This is the good news of Jesus Christ, share it with with the world today.
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