Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - "Do Not Murder" – The Bare Minimum? | Torah | Exodus 20:13, 21:12-14, 18-25, 28-35

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

"You shall not murder" used to seem like the bare minimum commandment. But in light of the 20,000 plus murders in the U.S. every year, is that still true? In today's episode, Patrick discusses the sixth commandment and the hope that it brings (even in 2022). Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 20:13, 21:12-14, 18-25, 28-35 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. The morning after the Evaldi shooting, I couldn't stay focused on anything. My mind kept wandering back to a Facebook post written by Angel Garza. The morning before the shooting, he kissed his fourth-grade daughter, Amory Joe, goodbye. And he expected to see her later that day, like every other day. But he didn't.

Amory Joe never came home. Amory Joe was murdered in her. classroom by a demented gunman. After hours of waiting to hear if she was safe, Angel Garza got the worst phone call of his life. His precious, beloved daughter was among the victims. Thank you everyone for the prayers and help to find my baby. She's been found. My little love is now flying high with the angels above. Please don't take a second for granted. Hug your family. Tell them you love them. I love you, Amory Joe. Watch over your baby brother for me. A father should never have to write those words. I was thinking about this early in the morning, and so my mind kept wandering to my own

kindergartner, sleeping in the room right next to me, where I was trying to have a quiet time, but I couldn't focus. I just kept thinking, she'll wake up in two hours. We'll cuddle on the couch. I'll grab her breakfast and help her choose her clothes. I'll say, I love you more than any other girl in the world. I'll give her a hug and a kiss and watch her walk out the door on her way to school. And when she does that, I'll fully expect to see her at the end of the day, her full of life's smile, her full of joy laughter. Then I put myself into Angel Garza's shoes. And all I can feel is this awful, terrible sense of grief, a terrible sense of lament. And in my heart, I kept repeating the same prayer over and over and over again. Jesus, come back, set the world back into joint,

make the earth a place where this kind of thing never happens again. Today we're talking about the Sixth Commandment. It's only one verse. And in the Hebrew, it's only two words, Lothirza, which means you shall not murder. And in the past, when I taught this passage, I would always leap to the sermon on the Mount where Jesus expanse this command, and he explains that if we harbor hateful feelings or say unkind words, we've actually broken that commandment against murder. We've broken it in our own hearts. If do not murder is the floor of the commandment, the bare minimum of the commandment,

then loving others is the height of the commandment. That's the ceiling. And that's an important message that we all need to hear. But in light of Yuvaldi and Buffalo and the 20,000 murders that happen every year in the United States, I didn't feel prepared to talk about the ceiling. I felt like, you know what, we have to talk about the floor. 2020 saw the single greatest increase in murder rates in the United States in well over a century. More people died in 2020 than died in 2001, and that's including the 3,000 people who died in the September 11th terrorist attacks. And this has left me wondering, what's happening to our souls?

What's happening to our psyches? When more and more of our young men, especially, turn to violence to settle their anger, anxiety, and lack of meaning, what's going on? Where are the relationships and mentors that could name and help them process their pain? Where are the leaders and the guides who give direction and purpose to lives that have been lost so deeply to nihilism that all they want to do is destroy, to deconstruct, to tear down? I don't mean to be morose, but as a millennial, I've thought about my own generation's legacy. We're mentally damaged by a recession in 2008, followed by a terrible job market and a housing market that was awful. And all that means that we'll probably be the first generation in American history to have less earning power than the generation before it. But far more important than our money is that we've lost faith in our institutions.

I fear that our generational legacy will be one word, deconstruction, demolition, tearing down. We think we demolish things for the good. And maybe we do, but all that's left behind is rubble. And the institutions that once guided us, that once gave us community, that once embedded us in deep, rich, long-term relationships, the exact place where humans found meaning and purpose, they're all left in ruin. So now we're living with the psychic trauma of what we've done. We've fallen into the pit that we've dug.

We tragically turned our back on the king in whose hands are living water that flowed to eternal life. I'm sorry. I know this episode's a downer, but sometimes we just need a downer. Sometimes we just need to sit down and mourn. You only have to say, do not murder, to a society where murder isn't ordinarily a possibility. And yet, perhaps that's where we can find hope. God didn't give laws to Israel merely to separate good from evil. He didn't give it to them so that they would just know the difference between right and wrong. He gave them laws as part of their national constitution to shape a particular kind of society. More importantly, he gave this to them as part of a covenant. A covenant's a weird word, but a covenant is simply a lasting relational promise. It's a deeply relational commitment to stick together for good or ill. And it's important that God did not look at Israel and say, you're so sick. You're so far gone psychologically that I've given up on you. I won't even tell you not to murder because there's no hope. He didn't give up on Israel. In Exodus 19, he says that he rescued them. He bore them up on eagle's wings.

He brought them to himself to transform them into a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. In other words, God is committed. God is committed to renewing society in his own image. He's committed to giving us life, life in himself, life with one another, life so powerful that the dark powers that drive us internally and externally to do insane, evil things, eventually lose their strength and influence. King Jesus hasn't given up on his people. He hasn't given up on this country.

He hasn't given up on any country, not on China, not in South Africa, not anywhere. Jesus can renew. Jesus will renew. But today I hope you can simply join me in grieving reality as it stands. Come, Lord Jesus, put your world back into joint. We need you. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every one.

Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.