81_The value of human life Ex 21:12-14 “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. 13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. 14 But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. Gen 9:5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. After a storm, a young boy was walking along a beach littered with thousands of stranded starfish. One by one, he picked them up and tossed them back into the ocean. An older man approached him, pointing out the futility of the boy’s efforts. “You know, there are tens of thousands stranded like this on beaches all along this coast. You can’t save them all. You aren’t really making much difference.” Undeterred, the boy picks up another starfish and replies, “But it makes a difference for this one,” before throwing it back into the sea. This simple, heartwarming story reflects the value God places on each human life. This truth permeates Scripture, as in Exodus 21:12-14, where God’s laws emphasize the preciousness of human life and how seriously he regards murder. The regulations in Exodus 21 address personal injury of three kinds: injuries resulting in capital punishment, injuries not resulting in capital punishment, and injuries caused by or to an animal. These laws reveal God’s justice and mercy, His respect for human dignity, and His high regard for life as a reflection of His image. Unlike all other living creatures, man and woman are made in God’s image, a truth that survived the Fall and the Flood. In Genesis 9, God underscores this in his emphatic declaration that those who take human life will lose their own lives, because they have destroyed God’s image. This is the foundation of all human dignity. This is the reason why we were created, to bear his image. And this is the reason why we were redeemed by the blood of Christ our Lord, that we might reflect his image and glory. This foundational truth must inform how we view ourselves and others. It is a truth that gives worth and dignity to the lowest and vilest, the poorest and most ignorant. Exodus 21:12-14 begins with the gravest offense: premeditated murder. The deliberate destruction of life to please oneself forfeits the murderer’s own life. The value of a man’s life is so great that even the holy sanctuary offers him no shelter from justice. Nobody who has shed innocent blood may claim refuge at the altar of God. In a world increasingly numb to violence, where murder is often reduced to a statistic, this divine viewpoint is startlingly relevant. All premeditated