Morals Blog: MoreWorked Examples from Exodus

'No Murdering' explained ... in the rest of Exodus

Exodus 22: 2 “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 3 but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.

This is a really interesting example. I assume that, before the advent of electric light the essence of the event being at night or after sunrise is one of visibility. I don't think I am stretching things to say that in one case the defender had plausible grounds to fear for their safety or the safety of their family but in the other case the intruder was only trying to steal.

So on one hand this excuses killing in self defence where, to use modern idiom, a 'reasonable person' would have thought their own or family's life was in danger. And subsequent information showing that the defender's belief was in fact incorrect does not destroy this excuse.

On the other hand it makes the act of killing a thief merely to protect one's property “murder”.

At the time of writing this there was not so long ago a controversy in the U.S. on this topic. Roughly stated a man shot a teenager inside a gated community. His defence was that he challenged the youth whom he suspected of being there with intent to steal. He then thought his life was in danger from the youth and shot him dead. The teenager was unarmed and allegedly just taking a short-cut on his way home. The controversy was about the so called “right to stand your ground” and use lethal force rather than retreat in the face of threatened attack.

I don't want to join that controversy. But it illustrates that we do encounter modern situations where 'right' and 'wrong' need to be discerned. One can see that this example from Exodus could help us in this particular case.

Exodus 23:7 Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.

“judicial murder” is the modern term, and unfortunately history is replete with examples! Later in the Bible there is the classic case of Jezebel arranging for the false accusation, rigged trial and execution of Naboth in order to take possession of his vineyard. It is nice to see that God promises to avenge these abuses of justice.

So I draw two conclusions from these examples in Exodus:

1. God understands both the subtleties and also the harsh realities of the situations people face in this world. Sometimes killing a person is the 'right' thing to do. Sometimes it is an unfortunate accident. Sometimes it is an “accident” due to culpable negligence or criminal disregard for human life. Sometimes it is what we would term “first degree murder”.

2. Here following the Ten Commandments where there was the terse “No murdering!” there are worked examples to help us apply this. I think we will find in other parts of the Bible more information yet. I think that all in all we will continue to find that God is a great deal smarter than we give him credit for! Humans will over history face new moral horizons. A set of laws – as we have in most countries would be out of date in no time. Indeed parliaments spend their days modifying, updating and making new laws for just that reason. God has instead given us a way of understanding underlying principles so that we have the essentials to enable us to work at solving each new problem ourselves.