Exodus 20:13 You shall not kill.
Exodus 32:27 He said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbour.
One of the Ten Commandments is the command against murder. But isn’t it contradictory that the Lord who gave the command also instructed the same people to kill their brethren? Is killing a sin, or not?
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THE MEANING:
Exodus 20:13 is a direct command against murder. This means that you are not to carry out an unlawful premeditated killing of another person.
1 John 3:15 says: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.
From this, we see that hating a brother is equated with murder. So, Exodus 20:13 is one of the Ten Commandments, where God prohibits unlawful killing, that is, murder that arises from personal hatred or violence.
In Exodus 32:27, we see an event where the Levites, following Moses’ command, killed those who had worshipped the golden calf and were rebellious against the Lord. 3,000 Israelites were killed that day due to a specific judgment commanded by God as a response to the sin of idolatry by the Israelites, breaking the first and second commandments given by God. The context of this passage is that the killings were a form of punishment, rather than personal or arbitrary murder.
READ NEXT: BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS (PART 7)
FIRST LEVEL CONCLUSION
Therefore, the two passages are not contradictory but reflect different situations: one forbids unjust, malicious, personal killing, and the other describes a specific divine judgment for an offence against God.
In the next part, we’ll think some more about killing—erm, sorry, murder. No! We’ll talk some more about …, erm, erm, – about people dying? Oh my. Let’s talk again next week about something!
What do you do when your spouse is not treating you right? Get your answer in this episode.
