What a brief and to-the-point command. It's as if God did not to explain Himself - everyone knew exactly what He was saying. You don't look at someone and decide on your own that they don't deserve to live, so you kill them. It did not rule out things like capital punishment by an established group of human leaders, as other laws God gave spelled that all out. But it does reveal the potential darkness of the human heart. The real question is: "How is murder disobeying God?" Again, part of it goes back to Creation: He has made everything, so in a real sense, everything and everyone belongs to Him. Murder destroys one of His valued creatures. But Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount that there is something deeper, behind the act, that God sees. He sees the hatred directed at that person, and in a sense for the God to Whom that person belongs. It shows a lack of respect for God's gift of life. It is an attempt to be God, to be the one to decide who lives and dies. How dare we suggest we have the right as individuals to do so.
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