ELUL DAY 15
POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER
- How does God feel about how we treat our parents? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What if you were born to very imperfect parents; is that an excuse to not honor them? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- How has God used your relationship with your earthly parents to teach you about Kingdom life? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What generally happens to nations that lose their concept of marriage and family? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Have you sinned by not honoring your parents? (Taking abuse is not honoring – just to be clear.) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Have you had a conversation with God and either thanked Him for your wonderful parents; or asked Him to help you to repair the broken relationship you have with them? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Do you ever think to pray for the elderly people of your community? Is there someone that you could “adopt” as second parents who need someone to love and care for them and to make sure that they have been provided for in their old age?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Old age usually brings wisdom and older people generally love to give advice to those who are younger and seeking wisdom on different matters. Have you ever thought about forming a group of elderly people who will offer to mentor the younger ones in your community that could use a little guidance and education on the important parts of life? If you feel called to such a mission, Elul is a great time to put forth that effort. Who knows how much turning could take place during this season if every community made such an effort. Can you think of other missions of the community that would be helpful to the elderly? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- If you are blessed enough to have your parents still with you on this earth; what has God shown you to do for them during the coming year? Have you prayed for God’s help in providing and caring for them in the best way that you can? If your relationship is not close; have you asked God how to improve that situation? What thoughts has God given you that you can put into action in the coming year? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELUL DAY 15 MEDITATION
THOU SHALT NOT MURDER
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Murder is a hard subject to cover. The sixth commandment, like all of the other commandments, has everything to do with the sacredness of human life.
God gave this commandment in Exodus 20:13 and when translated properly it reads “Thou shalt not murder.” The translations that say “Thou shalt not “kill” are mistranslated from the Hebrew into English.
DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN KILLING AND MURDER
There is a huge difference in the meaning of the word “kill” and the meaning of the word “murder.”
Killing is not premeditated or planned.
Usually it is more about self-defense and not about anger and hate.
This word has been used as a form of judgments demanding justice in extreme cases. Some are killed in wars. Many are killed as punishment when justice is rendered by the courts under law. Others are accidentally killed. This type of killing is not what the commandment is speaking of; though we can all agree that ANY ceasing of life is sad and disturbing.
Life is sacred.
It is to be honored in all circumstances.
Life is never to be taken for granted.
This sixth commandment is talking about cold-blooded, premeditated murder, the kind that comes from anger, hatred, jealousy, pride, lust and arrogance. It is when someone deliberately decides to take another’s life simply out of hate or anger or greed or selfishness.
ABUSE OF THE SACREDNESS OF LIFE
This physical life is simply the training ground for our eternal life.
God breathed life into each of us and gave us the gift of living. It is a most precious and sacred gift and God hopes to continue this gift for us throughout eternity.
Everything godly is about maintaining life.
Murder promotes death.
It is an ungodly act of the human will.
God wanted to make it plain to all humans while He was up there on the mountain with Moses that murder should NEVER happen among His people.
ONLY GOD HAS THE POWER TO GIVE OR TAKE LIFE
Only God has the power to take life and to give life.
He is the only One wise enough to make that important decision.
We must respect this and honor it by keeping the commandment worded “Thou shalt not murder.”
To decide to take another’s life is to put yourself in the place of God. That is yet another form of idolatry.
Most of us look at this commandment, cheerfully sigh a sigh of relief, and move on. We don’t consider it too long, and we are always telling ourselves that we at least don’t have to worry about violating this one commandment.
Most of us, though we know we are guilty of breaking the other commandments, think we are innocent of murder.
A FALSE ILLUSION
After all; we are NOT cold-blooded murders in the physical sense. But in reality, it just isn’t that easy when you look at the whole picture carefully.
Jesus explained this to us a little further than God did with Moses on the mountain, and when you consider what Jesus had to say; practically ALL of us have been guilty at one time or another.
I hate to bear the bad news to you; it is shocking but true!
Let’s just consider the spiritual intentions of the statements of Jesus in more detail and see if we all might need to take a closer examination of this sin in our day-to-day lives.
ANGER, VIOLENCE, ABUSE AND MURDER
Jesus encouraged us not to become angry without cause and not to become violent or abusive to others. We hear the words of Christ in Matthew 5:21-22. They bear repeating here as we consider the real meaning of the word “murder.” The scripture reads;
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment ‘ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ (the meaning of this word is “empty head”) shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says; ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
Of course we must note those little, seemingly skipped-over and insignificant-at-first words after ‘whoever is angry with his brother’ that reads ‘WITHOUT A CAUSE‘ because there IS such a thing as righteous anger, and righteous anger is not sinful unless it is followed up by unrighteous acts.
We see many incidents in the Old and the New Testament scriptures where either God or Christ show righteous anger. But then again; they ARE God! Their anger is different from ours. Their perspective is different from ours. Their hearts are pure; ours are not. That anger is always controlled and tempered with patience and mercy.
Even righteous anger must carefully exercise self-control and not always result in wrongful violence. We humans do not have the right to judge; therefore where God can bring violence in certain situations to render judgment, justification and punishment; that isn’t our role.
God is the ONLY judge of the universe.
We are to control our anger, even if it comes to us from righteousness and a clean and pure heart.
EXERCISING SELF-CONTROL
The self-control that must be exercised with anger (anger is not the sin; but the RESULTING ACTIONS of anger are actually the sin) requires more than just restraining from physical violence; it also requires that we be very careful with what we say and how we use our words.
So many are surprised and shocked to learn that you can commit murder simply by the wrong use of your tongue!
Are you surprised to hear that the tongue can be deadly?
This is how my own sins of murder have been committed. I have often prayed to God for forgiveness for things I have said that were wrong to others, and I’ve often asked God for help in overcoming this hurtful trait.
For many of us, murder with the tongue is like a generational curse that must be broken by a change of heart in the people of the present generation.
Can you recall times from your past when you have used your tongue to commit murder of someone’s spirit?
MURDER OF THE TONGUE
The tongue is a very dangerous weapon and mature Christians have to learn to use it wisely. The murders we commit by the use of the tongue usually stem from hate.
Whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15) and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We must get rid of the hate inside our hearts and replace it with love. This is the cure for spiritual murders.
When the tongue is spoken of in the book of Proverbs, it is compared to a little fire that begins to grow and grow until it burns a whole forest. So; be very careful how you use your tongue. Never start fires that cannot be put out without damaging results.
SPEAKING WRONG OVER OTHERS IS A FORM OF MURDER
Stop for just a moment and think of the wounds you have received in this life from wrong words of the tongue, many of these words that have held you back from becoming the person that God intended you to be.
How many of these injuries came from an insensitive person using their tongue to speak something wrong into your life?
Thus, through the wrong words of someone’s tongue, you were robbed of the abundant life that God created you to live. Someone’s tongue brought you death instead of life.
God has given us the power and authority to reverse this.
Try to forgive them and move on to a better and healthier life.
God does not wish for us to be living in negativity and condemnation; that is spiritual murder, and God has commanded that we do not murder.
SPIRITUAL MENTAL AND PHYSICAL MURDER
The tongue is probably the most used weapon for committing murder and this type of murder could be called murder of the spirit.
There seems to be three types of murder, physical, mental and spiritual.
All three are wrong in the eyes of God.
These three types of murder are typically carried out in one of twelve ways; by the tongue (spiritual), by hand (physical), by the mind through malice and hate (mental), by maligning another or wishing evil against them (spiritual) by use of the pen through the rule of unjust courts, rulers and laws, (mental and physical), through plotting and scheming against someone (indirectly physical and mental); by giving poison in a cup (physical), by witchcraft and sorcery (spiritual), by intending to kill whether or not you actually do (spiritual and mental), by being unmerciful (physical, mental and spiritual), and by not swiftly executing the law in a timely manner (physical, spiritual and mental.)
There are countless examples of such types of murders all throughout history and scriptural examples that can be studied and analyzed for each different type of murder.
Each story from the past has something to teach us about maintaining a godly character as we travel through time with the gifts of our sacred lives.
BIBLICAL LESSONS ABOUT MURDER
We can learn countless lessons about how to counteract murder from the lives of Joab and Abner, Pilate and Jesus, David and Uriah, Jezebel and Naboth, Herod and Christ, Saul and David, Saul and Stephen, and many, many more.
Stories of people committing different types of murder are sprinkled all through -out the scriptures. They are there to teach us the sacredness of life, so that we may not murder but live in peace and harmony with one another.
SOULS CAN BE MURDERED
Of all the forms of murder we could consider; perhaps the saddest form of murder is that of one who murders his own soul.
This can happen in many ways; people can disregard that there is a God or a future in the life to come and commit physical suicide; or they can remain living, yet let the things that murder their minds and spirits rule over them to the point that they do not really live anymore.
For some it is lust, hate, jealousy, bitterness; whatever the cause some people will allow things of the enemy of God to control them in such a way that they are completely robbed of the things that God gives them for abundant and joyful lives. This is yet another type of spiritual murder.
WHY NOT CHOOSE LIFE?
We all have our own choices to make.
God does not make them for us.
God allows us to choose the path that we will take.
Let us chose life in the fullest and that would be a life to give God glory!
Remember the sixth commandment and keep it with your heart and mind as well as with your hands.
Choose life!