Why God Established Capital Punishment | Genesis 9 Explained

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Good evening, and again, it's good to have everybody back, and we're going to pick right up where we left off. So, if you'll be turning in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 8, and we'll be ready to go into chapter 9. And while you're finding that, I'd like to say a word to our people watching on television, that in case you've tuned in after we started in November, and you'd like to get caught up on everything that you've missed, you can receive these programs by videotape, and I've put our 800 number on the board. Mark it down, give us a call, and we'll get back to you what they cost and how we can arrange getting them to you. Also, we'd appreciate any comments on the program. We'd like to know if you're listening, if you're enjoying it, and if you'll just give us a call on the 800 number, we'll appreciate it. All right, let's turn to Genesis chapter 8, and in just a few words of review, you remember that from Adam until the flood was about 1,650 years. It's a long time. And in that 1,650 years, we come from the perfect couple all the way down to a planet filled with people. And I'm of the opinion that there were probably as many at the time of the flood as there are on the planet today, possibly even more. They had a tremendous technology, but you want to remember in that 1,600 and some years, there was no civil government, there was no organized worship, and as far as we can see from Scripture, there wasn't religion. Now, I think most people realize I don't like that word, but sometimes we have to use it for lack of a better one. But as a result, then, of no civil law per se, no government to maintain law and order, and no system of worship to really maintain a relationship with God, we find that by the time you get to Genesis chapter 6, the earth is filled with violence. It's corrupt. It's rotten to the core. And God sees there's only one remedy, and that is to just utterly destroy them. But then we found that God's grace was still evident. There were eight souls that He was able to save and bring to the other side of the flood, Noah, of course, and his three sons and their wives. Now, that's quite a commentary on how far the human race can remove themselves from any relationship with God, even in a period of only 1,650 years. And I think we're seeing much the same thing taking place in our own day and time, how rapidly we're seeing the human race, and we're seeing the very fabric of what we call Christian society falling apart. And even as Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah, so it would be at the second coming. And for those reasons, plus many, many others, we certainly do feel that we're approaching the end time rapidly. And then in our last study, remember, we explained that the flood was not just a simple rising of rainwater and that it was a quiet flooding of everything, but rather it was tumultuous, it was cataclysmic, it was so fantastic that the whole planet erupted instantaneously to such a degree that all of the evidence of that pre-flood civilization has been all but totally removed. Now, we have the fossil record, of course, but other than that, it has been completely removed from the scene. And then as we saw, the floodwaters last week begin to recede, and finally new life appears, and God instructs Noah now to leave the ark. And remember I told you they didn't go out the door. The door had been shut previously by the Lord Himself, and so Noah removed the roof or the covering of the ark, and they went out through the top. And then as we round up our last half hour, in the final verse of chapter 8, we see that now it's a completely different earth. It's a different climate. And rather than having one climate of one spring-like temperature with no weather, and the beautiful environment of that pre-flood civilization, now it's a complete change. And the earth is now going to come under weather. It's going to come under climatic changes, as we understand now the four seasons. And I think possibly from a scientific point of view, that's when the Lord instigated then the tilting of the earth as we go through our seasonal changes from spring to summer, and so on and so forth. That's only speculation, of course. The Bible doesn't tell us, but it does tell us that now we're going to have, without ceasing, we're going to have seed time and harvest, verse 22, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. And that has continued, of course, right up to our present time. Now we come into chapter 9. We want to keep moving on as quickly as we can. And yet I always like to explain to people the reason that I take Genesis so slowly and so in detail is that if you have a good, solid understanding of the book of Genesis, then the whole New Testament is more readily understood. Now, we're living in a time when we've got all these various groups, and when they've all got their various ideas and their various doctrines. And many times I've told people, well, analyze what you believe. Does it fit all of Scripture, or are you just taking a verse here and a verse there and then building doctrine on it? Because if you're going to have a doctrine that is true to the Word of God, it has to fit from cover to cover. We have absolutely no options that we can pick and choose. And that's what I try to show people as I teach, that we're using the whole Scripture and making it fit, and that nothing is out of place, hopefully. But whatever, we're going to take our time, and we'll still be in Genesis for a little while. In fact, a class that I started just exactly a year ago, last night we just finished, or Monday night, we just finished the book of Genesis. So it was 12 months with two-hour classes once a week to go through the book of Genesis. So I think here on this program we're doing quite well, and of course it's because we're not being interrupted with questions, although I miss that. I like, and those of you who are in my other classes, you know that we love to answer questions. And again, I can direct that to our TV audience. If you have questions, we would appreciate hearing from you. And I always tell my classes, I've never had a dumb question. If it's a question on your mind, then it's a good one, and it's worthy of time to answer. So for those of you out there who may have questions, feel free to call us or write us, and we'll either answer it here on the air, or we'll be back in contact with you. All right, now in chapter 9 it says, God blessed Noah and his sons, and he said unto them, Be fruitful, multiply, and ... what's the word? Replenish. Now, you remember way back in Genesis 1, and this is where I like to compare Scripture. Come back with me again, if you will, to chapter 1 in verse 28. In Genesis 1, verse 28, and this, of course, is just after Adam and Eve have been created and placed in the garden, and they too are given a like instruction. Genesis 1, verse 28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and ... what's the word? Replenish. And are you getting the drift? Just as surely as Noah is now coming on the scene and filling up the planet that had been filled once before. That's why I feel that Adam and Eve also then were coming on a scene and refilling the planet, not that had been habitated by humans previously, but evidently by an angelic kingdom, but Adam also was told to once again fill up the earth or the planet. All right, now if you're back in Genesis chapter 9 now then, this is also the instruction to Noah, the three sons, and of course their four wives. Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. Fill it up again. Verse 2. Now, I've got to emphasize this is going to be what we would say in today's vernacular, a whole new ballgame. This is going to be totally different than it was back before the flood. And if you'll remember, we could have said the same thing when Adam and Eve came out of the garden to the existence out of the garden. It also was a whole new ballgame, something totally different. All right, here it is again. Now he says to Noah and these sons, we're going to set down a whole new set of rules and regulations, a new criteria. And what is it? The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air and upon everything that moveth upon the earth, upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand, he says to Noah and these three sons, into your hand they are delivered. Verse 3, every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you. Now the King James uses the word meat, but it would be better translated food because the word meat in the Old English meant your general diet of food, not just meat as we understand it. So everything in God's creation, God is now giving permission to be food for the human race, but He's going to put a stipulation on it. And here it is in verse 4. The flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood, you shall not eat. Now there is a strict command of God to the human race that even though He's given permission they can eat of anything and everything, they were never to partake of blood. And that has never been rescinded. That is still just an anathema even in the New Testament. Now it's interesting to note that like almost everything else that God commands in one direction, the powers of Satan always come back and say what? The opposite. Now here is a good one. It'll make you think. God has commanded that the human race never ingest blood of anything. And yet you get into the Satanic cults and Satanic worship. What's one of the first things they demand? Drinking blood. That's part of their ritual. And that just should wake people up that that is in direct opposition to the command of the Creator. All right, now I want to skip back to a little bit. I'll get back to a little bit. I skipped back there in verse 3 that emphasizes the change. Now they can eat of meat animals. And you remember before the flood they never had that permission. Again, let's go back to chapter 1, I think it is. Chapter 1. See, we got to compare back and forth. It's the only way you can learn to study. And as I've told my classes over the years, the only reason I go to all the trouble and take the time to teach is to show people how to study. I'm not a proselyter. I have never tried to convince someone to move from one group to another or from one church to another. That's not my business. But what I do try to do is get people into the book and show them how to study on their own. All right, back in chapter 1 now then by comparison with Genesis chapter 9, God told Adam and Eve, verse 29, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food. Verse 30, And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food. Now, what was the diet then of every living thing including man? Those things that grew naturally, the herbs, the fruits, the nuts, the grasses, the forages. There was no indication here of anything having the freedom to kill and eat. Now, in chapter 9, this is all part of this whole new program. Now it's just the opposite. God says, anything that liveth, you are free to kill and use for food with that one restriction. You cannot have the blood of it. All right, the reason behind it, of course, is as the Bible knew way back here in medical science really didn't get the impact of it until World War II. If those of you are old enough to remember that even as World War II began, what did they use in badly wounded troops? Well, not blood transfusion, but what? Plasma. And then all of a sudden they began to realize that life was in the blood. I always like to remind people as well, you go back to even the early days of our country. What was the number one way of treating most disease? They would bleed them. In fact, someone told me, I don't know how much truth is in it, someone said that was really what caused the death of George Washington. He had gone to what we now call barbershops. You remember, that's why you got the red and white pole out in front of a barbershop, because that was part and parcel of their trade. They would bleed people, hopefully, to bring them back to health. And evidently, according to, like I say, I don't know how much truth is in it, but someone said that this is what happened to George Washington. He was sick and someone just bled him a little bit too much. But anyway, medical science didn't pick up on this until our generation, that life is in the blood. And now, rather than take blood from a sick person, we transfuse them with more blood. And all that just to show that the Bible is so scientifically correct. Correct. So God says the life is in the blood. And then verse 5, He continues why He's putting this stipulation on this. And surely your blood of your lives will I require. At the hand of every beast will I require it, at the hand of man, and at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso, or whoever, sheddeth man's blood, or kills him, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. Now that puts man head and shoulders above anything else in God's creation is because we were created in the image of God and God so ordained that the life of this human being is in the blood. Now, of course, it carries through in all the animals and birds and everything, I know that. But God is putting a stipulation on the human being as not being cheap, but rather that this human being's life is of intrinsic value to God. Now, we know there are many areas of the world where life is cheap. They think nothing of killing people by the hundreds or the thousands. In fact, we've seen it quite profusely over the last several years, first in the Far East, the killing fields of Cambodia and Vietnam, and now we've seen it again in the Middle East. And this is nothing new, of course, to the human race. But this isn't the way God ordained it. God ordained that man was to be of intrinsic value, his life was not to be taken lightly, and if someone did take the life of a fellow human being, what was the stipulation? That individual also then must be put to death by his fellow man. Now, we call that, in the vernacular of Bible study, the instigation or the beginning of human government. In other words, before the flood, man didn't have this authority from God to control the behavior by capital punishment or incarceration in prison or anything else. But now God is instituting that man would have authority over fellow man, under God, and that if man was guilty of murder or of some other crime, then the authority of human government was to take that person and deal with them accordingly. Now, that particular aspect, and we call it capital punishment, has never been rescinded throughout Scripture. Now, there are some things, of course, that have changed, but this has never been rescinded. It still stands as God's law for the human race. And, of course, mankind, and if there are sociologists listening to me, they'll probably almost go into orbit, because, you know, they're trying to tell us that capital punishment is barbarian, and it's just not fit for civilized society. But what has caused our problem? Why is crime increasing every day? I just read in yesterday's Tulsa World that crime jumped, what, something like 27% again in the last year? Why is it jumping? Because we are not deterring it with a severe enough punishment. Now, in the few moments that we have left, let's go back to the New Testament, because, after all, this is why we study, is to compare, as I said earlier, all of Scripture with Scripture. Go back with me to Romans chapter 13. And now Paul, writing to the church, to the church at Rome in particular, but, of course, to the church down through the ages. Now, in Romans 13, Paul is laying out so clearly the role of government. We in America are blessed, aren't we? We think we have the best government that the world has ever known. And it's got its weaknesses. It has its problems, no doubt about it. But still, it's the best that the world has ever seen. And we're not to take advantage of it, but rather we're to recognize what a blessing good government is. All right, chapter 13 of Romans, beginning with verse 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. Now, that higher powers is not talking about God. It's talking about government, the authority over us. For there is no power, there is no government, except who puts it there? God does. There is no power, but it comes of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Of Sodom and Hosein? Yes. Why? Because certain things had to happen, and they have happened, because God has ordained it to come in the way it has. Personally, I think this war that has just ended, the hundred hours, might very well have been a fulfillment of Jeremiah 50 and 51, where the prophet describes the total annihilation of the nation of Babylon, which, of course, Sodom claims that he is, and he wanted to be another Nebuchadnezzar. But whatever, a Hitler, ordained of God? Yes. And I've always said, and you know, the German people got just exactly what they deserved. And now, horror of horrors. Maybe you saw it on the news this morning, and I read it in one of the newspapers yesterday. We're now circulating amongst the young people again of Europe. Did you see it? Videotapes. Videogames. Not tapes, but videogames, where the player of the game actually is the head of a concentration camp, and the game is registered on how they can put their subjects to death and how much they can make them suffer. You see, this is all getting the world ready again for some awful things that are coming upon human society. But whatever, the government has been ordained of God for the good of Christian people. Now, many times governments are not that. But again, like I've just said, nations get what they deserve. And if someday we lose our beautiful democratic way of living, it'll probably be because we've brought it on ourselves. But let's continue on in the few moments we have left. Verse 2 now. Paul writes, And whosoever therefore resisteth the power, that is, the government, whosoever resists his local government, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation. Verse 3. For rulers, government, are not to be a terror to good works, but to the evil. In other words, when you meet a local policeman, he shouldn't strike terror in the heart of the law-abiding citizen. Rather, he should be almost complimentary. But what should he be to the lawbreaker? Just that. It should make that lawbreaker just skip a heartbeat, because this is the reason that they're there. Alright, so the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Paul writes then to the believers of Rome, Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power, or respect it? Do that which is good, or which is right, and thou shalt have the praise of the same. For he, your local government, is a minister of God to thee for good. But if you do that which is evil, or you're a lawbreaker, you better be what? You better be afraid. That government should strike terror into the lawbreaker. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him, who what? Who does evil, or is a lawbreaker? And we've lost that. Our young people seemingly have lost that fear for the authority. Our criminals, they can let them out in a matter, I think I read again the other day, in an average of eight months. Some 70%, if I read correctly, are back in. Why? Because they have no fear of it. And this is the only thing that holds the fabric of society together. And this is what we call then human government. And if you want to go back to Genesis for just a moment, we have left. Human government was to maintain law and order. It was to protect the lives of the citizens, and the deterrent for crime and murder in particular, God instituted capital punishment. And any nation that practiced capital punishment had a real low crime rate until they removed it. And I think the last most visible example is the nation of France. Up until sometime in the 70s, France, believe it or not, still used the old guillotine to execute murderers. You know how many murderers they had in France? You could just about number them on one hand. But you see again, they said, Oh, that's barbarian, that's something from the Dark Ages. And so they outlawed it. And what do you suppose happened? Their murder rate went up just like everybody else's. So no one can tell me that capital punishment is not a legitimate deterrent to murder or to major crime. So again, come back to Genesis chapter 9, and see clearly and do not forget what the Word of God says on these things. Because the Word is true, and I stand on it from cover to cover. Make no apology for it. And so here it is again, the stipulation, that whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man, that is by man's human government, shall that person's blood be shed, he shall be put to death, for in the image of God he made them. That's why life is precious, and we're never to take it lightly, or to never reckon it as something cheap. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.