The Grammar of Guilt: When Killing is Murder Text: Numbers 35:16-21
Introduction: Justice is Not Squeamishness
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has mistaken a queasy stomach for a tender heart. When it comes to the hard edges of God's law, particularly the parts that deal with blood guilt and capital punishment, modern Christians are often the first to blush and stammer. We have been catechized by the spirit of the age to believe that the ultimate virtue is a kind of indiscriminate niceness, and that the God of the Old Testament, with His sharp-edged laws, is an embarrassing relative we would rather not talk about at our sophisticated, modern dinner parties.
But the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He does not change. His character is the foundation of all justice, and His law is the expression of that character. To be embarrassed by His law is to be embarrassed by Him. And when we jettison His standards for justice, we do not get more justice; we get less. We get the perverse situation we have today, where murderers are kept alive in concrete boxes for decades at taxpayer expense while the unborn are butchered by the millions with the full protection of the state. Our society does not oppose the death penalty; it has simply changed who gets executed. It is, as always, not a question of whether, but which.
The passage before us in Numbers 35 is a foundational text for understanding the biblical category of murder. It is not a dusty, irrelevant legal code from a primitive society. It is the application of God's unchanging moral law, first given in Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man." This is pre-Mosaic. This is a creation ordinance. God takes the shedding of innocent blood with the utmost seriousness because man is made in His image. To murder a man is to vandalize the icon of God. And God, in His justice, has established the civil magistrate as His deacon, bearing the sword to execute wrath on the evildoer (Romans 13:4).
Here in Numbers, God gives His people the case law necessary to distinguish between tragic, accidental death and high-handed, malicious murder. He is teaching them, and us, how to think about guilt, intent, and the appropriate penalty. This is not bloodlust. This is the grammar of a just society. Without these distinctions, a society cannot remain sane or stable. It will either become barbaric, executing the innocent, or it will become decadent and effeminate, refusing to execute the guilty. We, to our shame, have managed to become both.
The Text
‘But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he would die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he would die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him. And if he pushed him of hatred or threw something at him lying in wait and as a result he died, or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
(Numbers 35:16-21 LSB)
Defining the Deed: Means and Intent (vv. 16-18)
The first section of our text establishes a crucial legal principle. The nature of the weapon used reveals something profound about the intent of the heart.
"‘But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he would die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he would die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death." (Numbers 35:16-18)
Notice the repetition. Three times we are given a class of weapon: iron, a lethal stone, a lethal wooden object. And three times the verdict is the same: "he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death." The law is not complicated here. The principle is one of evident premeditation. A man does not accidentally go about his day carrying an iron spear or a club fit for killing or a stone of a size that could crush a skull. The use of such an instrument is what the lawyers would call prima facie evidence of malice aforethought.
If two men are arguing in a field and one picks up a small stick and swings it in anger, and the other man has a thin skull and tragically dies, that is one thing. The law makes provision for that elsewhere with the cities of refuge. But if a man comes to that argument with an axe in his hand, or a large rock he brought with him, the situation is entirely different. The instrument itself testifies against him. It screams intent. It shows that he came prepared to inflict lethal force.
This is a foundational principle of biblical justice. God is concerned with the heart, but He teaches us to judge the heart by the evidence of the hands. We cannot read minds, but we can read actions. The choice of a weapon is an action that reveals a murderous heart. The law assumes that a man who uses a deadly weapon intended the natural consequences of that action. This is not primitive; this is common sense. It is the basis of our own legal distinctions between degrees of murder and manslaughter, though we have often muddied the waters considerably.
The penalty is also clear and repeated for emphasis: "the murderer shall surely be put to death." This is not a suggestion. It is not a maximum sentence. It is a divine command. The life of the murderer is forfeit because he has stolen the life of a man made in God's image. To refuse to execute the murderer is to leave the land polluted with innocent blood (Numbers 35:33). It is an act of profound injustice not only to the victim but to God Himself.
The Agent of Justice (v. 19)
Verse 19 introduces the instrument of this justice, a figure that makes moderns uncomfortable: the blood avenger.
"The blood avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death when he meets him." (Numbers 35:19 LSB)
The "avenger of blood," or go'el haddam, was typically the nearest male relative of the victim. Our first reaction is to see this as a primitive system of personal vendetta. But that is to read our own chaos back into God's order. The blood avenger was not a vigilante acting on personal rage. He was a recognized officer of the court. He was the agent of civil justice, tasked by God with carrying out the sentence of the law.
Remember the context. The elders of the city would first hold a trial to determine if the killing was murder or manslaughter (Numbers 35:24-25). If the man was found to be a murderer, he was handed over to the blood avenger for execution. The avenger was acting as the state, as God's minister of justice. This system personalized justice in a way our anonymous, bureaucratic systems cannot. It placed the responsibility for executing justice on the family, the community, who had suffered the loss. This was not about satisfying personal revenge; it was about satisfying God's demand for justice and cleansing the land of bloodguilt.
In the New Testament, this role of the magistrate as the bearer of the sword is affirmed. Paul tells us the civil ruler "is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4). The principle is the same, even if the specific agent has changed from the next of kin to the state executioner. The state, when it executes a murderer after a fair trial, is acting as the blood avenger on behalf of the whole community and before God.
The Heart of the Matter (vv. 20-21)
The text then moves from the evidence of the weapon to the internal disposition of the killer. It describes the heart behind the murderous act.
"And if he pushed him of hatred or threw something at him lying in wait and as a result he died, or if he struck him down with his hand in enmity, and as a result he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him." (Genesis 35:20-21 LSB)
Here the law makes the issue of intent explicit. Three conditions are described that define a killing as murder, even if the weapon used was simply a hand. First is "hatred." This is a deep-seated, settled animosity. Second is "lying in wait." This is premeditation, ambush, a planned attack. Third is "enmity." This is hostility, a state of being an enemy. These are matters of the heart that manifest in the action.
This shows that God's law is never merely external. Jesus expounded on this very principle in the Sermon on the Mount, teaching that the command "You shall not murder" extends even to the anger and contempt in our hearts (Matthew 5:21-22). The outward act of murder is simply the rotten fruit of a murderous heart. The Israelite courts had to look for evidence of this internal state. Was there a history of hatred between the two men? Did the killer hide himself to attack his victim? Was there known enmity?
Even a blow with the hand, which might otherwise be considered manslaughter if done in a sudden quarrel, is redefined as murder if the motive is enmity. The motive is central. This is why justice requires wisdom and discernment, not just a checklist. The judges had to weigh the evidence to determine not just what happened, but why it happened.
And again, the sentence is unwavering. If hatred, ambush, or enmity is proven to be the cause, "he is a murderer; the blood avenger shall put the murderer to death when he meets him." There is no alternative. God's justice is not negotiable.
Christ, the True Blood Avenger
As with all of the Old Testament law, we must ultimately read this passage through the lens of the gospel. This law, in all its severity, drives us to Christ. It shows us the depth of our own sin. For who among us can say he has never hated? Who has never felt enmity? As John tells us, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15). Judged by God's perfect standard, we all have murder in our hearts. We are all guilty.
The law demands death. Justice must be satisfied. And it was. At the cross, the ultimate act of murder took place. The Son of God, the only truly innocent man, was struck down with iron nails and a wooden cross. He was pushed out of hatred, ambushed by those lying in wait, and killed out of enmity by the rulers of this age.
And in a glorious, divine paradox, Jesus Himself becomes the ultimate Blood Avenger. The Hebrew word for avenger, go'el, is the same word used for the kinsman-redeemer. The go'el had two duties: to avenge the blood of his kinsman, and to redeem his kinsman's property and person from debt or slavery. Boaz was the go'el for Ruth.
Jesus, our great kinsman-redeemer, our Go'el, came to avenge and to redeem. But He does it in a way that turns the whole economy of justice on its head. To satisfy the claims of justice against us for the murder in our hearts, He takes the penalty upon Himself. He absorbs the wrath. He allows Himself to be executed in our place. He pays our debt with His own blood.
And in His resurrection, He acts as the Blood Avenger against our great enemies. He crushes the head of that ancient murderer from the beginning, Satan (Genesis 3:15). He executes justice on sin and death, disarming them and making a public spectacle of them (Colossians 2:15). He comes not as a minister of wrath against us who believe, but as our champion, our Redeemer, who has satisfied the wrath of God for us.
Therefore, we uphold the justice of God's law. We insist that our civil magistrates take murder as seriously as God does. But we do so as those who know we have been rescued from the penalty we deserved. We were guilty, but our Kinsman-Redeemer has paid the price. He has cleansed us from all bloodguilt, and He has brought us out of the city of refuge and into the city of the living God.