Whenever we hear of or see innocent people suffer or die at the hands of the ruthless, our sympathies trigger grief for them and deep ire for the perpetrators. We know it isn’t right. We feel the injustice in our bones. We long for order to be restored by the assailant paying for his crime. But why? Why do we have this deep sense of the need for justice and, therefore, hatred of the suffering and death of the innocent? We long for justice and hate the destruction of the innocent because we are the image of God who hates hands that shed innocent blood.
In Proverbs 6, Solomon describes a deformed, decaying body, a body that is the object of God’s hatred. This body can be an individual who embodies all of these sins in his own person, or it can be a body-politic, a society, a world-within-the-world that is disordered and is in the process of being de-created. The son being instructed is to be transforming his own body and bodies-politic into the kingdom of God. To do this, he must avoid allowing the corruption of these seven abominations to control him or those bodies he reigns.
After moving from the eyes to the mouth, Solomon focuses on the hands. Our hands reflect something in God himself that he calls “hands.” God has a “mighty hand” (cf. e.g., Ex 3.19-20; 6.1; 7.4-5; Jer 21.5), a heavy hand (Ps 32.4), a right hand at which David’s Lord sits (Ps 110.1). His people are engraved in the palm of his hand (Isa 49.16). The creation is the work of his hands (e.g., Pss 8; 92.4; 102.25; 138.8; 143.5). The five-digit organ at the end of an arm is the creaturely reflection of God’s hands.
Hands take hold of things for the purpose of transformation. They exert power, whether physical strength or authority, in order to create, form, and fill, taking dominion over creation. To be given into the hand of another is to be under his power or authority (cf. e.g., 2Kg 18.30; 19.10). Laying hands on an animal or man in certain contexts grants authority to be used for a special purpose (cf. e.g., Ex 29.10; 1Tm 4.14). Hands are God-given power over the creation that are always to be governed by God’s commandments (Dt 6.6-9). We all have hands, some level of power or authority, that God expects us to use within the limits he has imposed on us.
When our hands shed innocent blood, we are grasping authority that is not ours. Innocent blood is life that God has not authorized you to destroy. God is not against all taking of human life. You are authorized to defend yourself (Ex 22.2-3). Governments are authorized to engage in just warfare and capital punishment (cf. e.g., Rom 13.1-7). God has put boundaries on human authorities authorizing us to take life in some instances and not in others. When we violate those boundaries, we are shedding innocent blood.
God hates the shedding of innocent blood because it is an assault on his lordship over life, an attack on his life, and, thus, an overturning of righteousness/justice. God is the giver of life and, therefore, is the sole Lord of who lives and dies. Because he shares his life with us–in him we live, move, and have our being–when we attack another life, we are attacking him through his image. All of this seeks to overturn his justice, the way the world must be ordered in order to share life with him.
There are obvious ways in which innocent blood is shed. Wherever there is the intentional, premeditated taking of a human life without authorization–murder–that is the shedding of innocent blood. This involves everything from drive-by shootings to abortion, suicide to unjust wars.
The shedding of innocent blood does not have to be done with one’s own physical hands to be condemned. Those who authorize taking the life of the innocent through murder for hire, legislation, or being a false witness are all murderers. A person can try to use the courts to do his murderous deeds by fabricating lies that would have the government take a life. If we lived in a just society, the perjurer would face the fate he wished for his victim (Dt 19.15-21).
“Life” is more than having a beating heart and synapses firing in the brain. When you take away a man’s means of providing for himself through slander, for instance, you have taken his life. Leviticus 19.6 makes a close association between slander and blood: “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the blood of your neighbor: I am Yahweh.” Years ago, Richard Jewell’s life was ruined by the media condemning him as guilty for planting bombs in Centennial Park in Atlanta. Jussie Smollett tried slandering an entire group of people by fabricating an attack on himself. Some studies show that up to 50% of rape claims are false. Men’s characters are assassinated. Lives ruined.
We must take all precautions to avoid shedding innocent blood even accidentally. God does not approve of lazy negligence or carelessness. This means that we must be careful in activities such as driving. We need to be able to make sober judgments and avoid as many distractions as possible. We also need to be careful with the words that we speak about another person whether to others directly or in online venues. Character, someone’s life, is difficult to revive even after unintentional assassination.
At the heart of shedding innocent blood is a heart of hatred (Lev 19.17) and anger (Mt 5.21-22). Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and doesn’t have eternal life (1Jn 3.15). God hates murderers (Ps 11.5).
The good news is that Jesus’ innocent blood was shed by the hands of lawless men by the predetermined plan of God in order to cleanse our innocent-blood-stained hands. He provides forgiveness and repentance so that our hands can take up the transformative mission he gave us. Through his work, the work of our hands is established so that it has everlasting value (Ps 90.17).
