Discover The Word

Thursday, July 17, 2008, Part 1

“They were put to death by stoning” (Hebrews 11:37).

IDEA: The most inhumane thing about capital punishment is not capital punishment but the process that takes the lives of innocent people.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see the terrible injustice when something mandated to punish the guilty is used to punish the righteous.

Do you identify with the discussions that have taken place in recent years about capital punishment?

Isn’t the factor that has called it into question not capital punishment per se, but taking the life of an innocent person?

I. The Old Testament had capital punishment for serious crimes such as the taking of life.

It was carried out by stoning. Why stoning?

As you read the Old Testament, was it carried out very often? Perhaps the threat of stoning served as a deterrent.

II. The Old Testament put fences around capital punishment to keep it from taking the life of an innocent person.

The person could be put to death only after a thorough investigation and on the testimony of at least two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:4).

The witnesses were the ones who actually carried out the punishment.

III. When the writer of the letter to the Hebrews talks about godly people who were “put to death by stoning,” he is writing about a great perversion of justice.

It was used against prophets, not to punish them for crimes they had committed, but to keep them from speaking out against unrighteousness.

2 Chronicles 24:20-21 reports: “Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah, son of Jehoida the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says, ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’” But they plotted against him and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.”

Evil is never more evil than when it uses a tool of justice to kill the innocent.

Many African Americans were hanged though they were innocent. It’s terrible to murder, but it adds depth to iniquity to hang an innocent person when hanging was used for capital punishment of the wicked.