According to the Police Gazzete, there are approximately 2,500 police dogs, many of them bloodhounds, in the police force of the United Kingdom. Trained as puppies, most take their retirement at about 8 years old. Each dog holds a special operational license, just like any human officer, and is known as a full-fledged constable with its own collar identification number as a badge.
One of the realities of dog officers is that a trained dog’s testimony is valid in a court of law. What’s more, dogs have been used in several instances to track down suspected killers, dating all the way back to 16th century Europe. Bob the bloodhound is puffing his chest out right now… and is now flopping down to take a nap. As cool as it is that dogs can bring a helping presence to a police force, it’s sad that we need them at all for crimes committed against others because one life lost, is one too many.
Murder has been around ever since the first killing of another human being by Cain against his brother Abel. Sometimes the ground is soaked with the shed blood of innocent victims. It is staggering to consider the incredible amount of killing that has taken place just in the last century. Over 50 million people lost their lives in World War II. In France, as a result of World War I, 20% of the adult male population was dead (that’s 1 in 5 adult males). Last year, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I (Tim) work, 120 homicides occurred. That’s down from previous years. In Chicago, Illinois, just a hop and skip from Wisconsin, 650 homicides were committed last year. When we go outside of the United States, the city of Los Cabos, Mexico has the highest murder rate in the world with 111 homicides per 100,000 people per year.
We live in a popular age of killing. I haven’t even mentioned the mass murders, school shootings, and multiple homicides which have been front and center of the news and a disturbing regular staple of events shaping our collective consciousness. What’s more, we live in a nation where abortions are legal. More than ever, we need to recover a sacred observance of the 6th command of God’s Ten Commandments: Do not murder.
Murder is first and foremost a sacrilege against God. Life is sacred. Humanity has been created in the image and likeness of God, and to take a life is more than an affront to God – it is killing a life which God has brought into existence with great forethought.
It seems like a simple command, right? Don’t kill, period. Yet, we have a staggering array of killing contained within the pages of Holy Scripture. Sometimes, folks feel as though they need to sugarcoat the Bible; so, they avoid the difficult passages about killing. Let’s face it: In the Old Testament, God condoned the genocide of Canaanite peoples by sending out the Israelites on a holy war; and, also instituted capital punishment in Israel. And, lest we think the New Testament is less violent, the book of Revelation has human carnage to the degree history has not yet seen.
Just as in our own language and society, there were different words for “kill” and various situations in which people lost their lives, so it was in the ancient world of the Bible. The word used in the 6th command specifically refers to a premeditated type of murder. That doesn’t necessarily make the rest of the killing in the Bible okay; yet, it does help to distinguish between the various kinds of death inflicted by another person, and death which occurred by the hand of God.
Murder and killing of one person toward another is much more easily explained as a violation of the 6th commandment. But it isn’t so easily understood when God dispenses the punitive justice. It seems to me that (without being too trite) God is God, and he is going to do what he is going to do.
We need to recover a solid theology, and a robust understanding of who God really is.
If we view God as just another person like us, it’s easy to see why one would challenge God on the whole killing scenarios of the Old Testament. Yet, on the other hand, if we discern God as a completely loving person who always does what is just, fair, right, and good, then we can entrust ourselves to him, even when we don’t understand what in the heck he is doing sometimes.
For example, I understand that the ancient Canaanites were crazy wicked. Their violent society included some horrific religious practices and ungodly treatment of others. It’s as if God looked at the collective situation of the entire culture and pronounced condemnation on them all; they must cease to exist. That seems extreme to me. I myself certainly wouldn’t make such a decision. But that’s the kick of it. I’m not God. I don’t get to make such decisions.
One of the problems we keep running into with history is people who claim a holy war. By invoking God’s name, killing and violence run amok. It happened not only with the medieval crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, but also with the American Civil War and the nations fighting in World War I. If people believe God is on their side, and the other side is evil, then justification for killing seems right and good.
We need to remember that we are not the ancient Israelites, and none of us live in a theocratic society established by God himself. Trying to build a case for any kind of killing, whether it is war, capital punishment, or personal protection with guns is dubious, at best. The Ten Commandments still stand as the moral and ethical will of God for people everywhere. Whatever else happens in Scripture doesn’t upend those few basic simple commands for everyone.
Wherever there is violence, there is death. Whenever people are desensitized to murder, killing is not far behind. Wherever and whenever a particular person or group of people are pegged and demonized as “those people” then mass murder is coming down the pike sooner than you think.
So, Bob and I are just going to say it outright: Do not murder. Don’t kill, period. End of story. Taking another life, no matter what form it takes, is not part of our job description. Most people are not cops or soldiers. Yes, sometimes killing happens and a situation can’t be helped. Yet, that’s rare. The common ordinary citizen doesn’t get to pull a trigger at someone else. And, we might add, no one gets to glorify violence and devalue life without having to answer someday to a holy God who does hold the final say about all of us.
The affirmative and positive way to state the negative command not to murder is: Value, uphold, and cherish all life.
So, how do we stem the tide of killing in all of its forms? How are we to practice decreasing murder in our cultures, societies, and nations? How are we to respond to the increased violence we see all around us? In what ways do we value and give respect to human life?
That is the subject of our next post, so stay tuned to the biblical answer from Jesus himself….
