Out Our Way: Along the Covenant Trail with Goliath

Out our way, folks who work with horses know every horse has two sides and, in a sense, two brains. When I was teaching Goliath to yield by pulling his head around to touch his right side, I also had to do the same exercise with his left. In working on his leads I had to ride him clockwise and and later ride him counterclockwise, for horses need to be trained on both sides. So every exercise on one side of the horse has a flip side - a training for the other side.

I was thinking of old Doc as I was pondering the 10 Commandments, for, like horses, each commandment also has a flip side. Although many of the commandments are written in the negative - You shall not do thus and so - each commandment also has a flip side - an expectation that you shall do something else. For example, the Sixth Commandment, usually translated as "you shall not kill," has the flip side, "you shall revere and respect life."

You begin to understand this when you take a closer look at the commandment. Although it is usually rendered "you shall not kill," that is actually something of a mistranslation. Clearly, the Hebrew killed animals, both for food and as sacrifices at the altar. It is clear that some crimes carried the death penalty as we can read in the Torah, Hebrew for "The Law," which refers to the first five books of the Bible. And, obviously, the various battles as Israel claimed the Promised Land and later defended herself against her enemies demonstrates that some forms of killing were considered necessary, and that is the key to understanding this commandment correctly.

The Hebrew uses a specific word here that literally means, "You shall not take any life unnecessarily." And it does not limit itself to human life, but to the wanton destruction of any living thing without a cause. To kill a deer and eat the meat is one thing - to simply kill it and leave the carcass to rot is quite another. No true hunter would approve of that. To kill an enemy in battle where it is kill or be killed is not a sin, but to kill an unarmed prisoner or a noncombatant who poses no threat is not a war, but murder. Many of us recall the disgust and sense of shame we felt when the My Lai massacre in Viet Nam was exposed. Even the staunchest "hawks" condemned it. So the commandment refers to wanton slaughter that is killing for the sake of killing.

But now look at the flip side. If I am not to kill without cause, that tells me that life is precious and, indeed, sacred. Again, look at the source of life! In the account of the creation of the human being, we are specifically told not only that God created people in His image, but also, after doing so, He breathed life into them. The Hebrew word for "breath" is also the word for "wind" - but also the word for spirit. In short, to the Hebrew, every human being lives by the spirit of God. As a wise man once noted, "Since we do not have the power to give life, we must be extremely cautious about taking it."

All life, human, plant or animal, comes from God and is sacred. Therefore, taking any life is an act never to be taken lightly or without good reason.

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John Bruington and Old Doc serve Havre at First Presbyterian Church.