This passage is one that I struggle with due to the presence of capital punishment. From my experience, most young people who grow up in politically-conservative, Christian homes grow up as proponents of the death penalty, and until recent years I was no different. I have come to the point, however, where I do not support the death penalty (for a number of reasons which I will not get into here) so this passage becomes more troublesome for me since God commands people to be put to death for various crimes.
One way that I reconcile my beliefs with the passage in question is based on the fact that not all of Scripture is normative, meaning that just because God commanded something from Israel 3,500 years go doesn’t mean that he expects it from us today. Israel was a theocratic government body, and neither the Church nor America falls into that category.
I also don’t have a huge problem with God commanding the death penalty for things like murder and rape — two of the most horrendous, violent things one can do to another person. What I struggle with is God commanding the death penalty for things like sorcery, worshipping false idols, and bestiality — serious sins without a doubt, but not sins that modern governments would consider killing someone over.
In that light, I wanted to share a passage from a book that has somewhat helped me to reconcile my pro-life, saved by grace, 21st century Christian way of thinking with a passage of Scripture that tells how my God not only allowed the death penalty, but commanded it. The book is What on Earth is God Doing? by Dr. Renald Showers (who spoke at our Prophecy Conference a few years back). I’m not saying that his view is definitely accurate, but it is at least thought provoking.
He writes:
Because Israel was to be the nation through which the Redeemer would come, it was essential that she be kept free from the apostasy and perverted lifestyle of other nations. In order to insure this freedom, God placed Israel under the Law. The Law was to be an external restraint upon sinful, apostate tendencies until the Redeemer would come (Gal. 3:15-4:5). In order to exercise such restraint, the Law required that those guilty of apostasy and perversion be put to death immediately (Ex. 21:2-17; 22:18-20). The coming of the Redeemer was more crucial for the benefit of mankind than was the life of an individual rebel or pervert. ..Whether or not Israel kept the Law, then was no idle matter.