Today’s Reading, Numbers 35-36
Focal Scripture: Numbers 35:33 “Do not defile the land where you live, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.”
God is gracious. He continually works with people who make mistakes. He gave Adam and Eve hope after they disobeyed. He saved Noah. Called out Abraham and made him a mighty nation. He chose Moses after being a murderer. God looks at the broken and helps them in that state of despair.
This truth is revealed in today’s reading. God provides a way for people who commit accidental murder to go to a city of refuge. However, near the end of that chapter he explains that bloodshed is not good. It defiles the land. Atonement is very difficult and the one who sins will be the one who needs to be held accountable.
The application for today is profound. We do not need to be a people who commits bloodshed. We have heard many reasons why it’s ok to take another persons life. Biblically, the only reason to take a life is to protect yourself or someone else whether personally or in war. Bloodshed is rarely the right answer.
How we view this topic reveals much about our hearts. I have been around people who justify bad behavior and the thought of bloodshed on others. I have witnessed a father say that his son needed to have a bullet in his head because of struggling with drugs. No compassion and no brokenness over the one who is struggling. An attitude of bloodshed. An attitude or judgement and not love.
My challenge for you today is to look at your heart. Do you defile the places you go because you have a heart of bloodshed. Do people know you to be a person of mercy and grace or a person of retribution and punishment. This type of attitude spreads the mindset of bloodshed.
Our heart must be to be in a position that is counter cultural (Matthew 5). So ask yourself how would people define you? Are you a person of love and grace or a person of bloodshed. Make no doubt people have made a decision about you.
Our job is to be a people who does not defile the land.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Deuteronomy 1-2
