Numbers. Where do you stand on the death penalty? When you read about the Cities of Refuge, it was obviously very clear to them. I can imagine scenarios, though, in which someone fled to a City of Refuge just days or hours before the High Priest died. How much danger would that create if the person left the city? Jesus' teaching on forgiveness is a much higher and nobler law than this. Our revenge will never take away the pain in our hearts. The only way to heal those wounds is to forgive.
The Year of Jubilee was the great equalizer. No matter how much property someone earned, everything went back to the original family on the Year of Jubilee. This allowed people to work hard, manage well and enjoy the rewards without creating a culture of permanent rich people and permanent poor people.
The year of Jubilee reminds me of a paper I wrote in high school about the merits of socialism. Though, I distinctly remember getting my worst grade ever on it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am sort of in favor of the death penalty. But I think more for practical reasons than a strong moral stance.