Look if you would now at Genesis chapter 6.
So in Genesis chapter 4, first we see Cain kill Abel, then we see Lamech kill a young
man, and they're both claiming the same, you know, vengeance on anybody who slays us.
No death penalty.
By the time we get to chapter 6 verse 5, look what verse 5 says.
It says,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Look at verse 11.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
So why did God destroy the earth?
Why did God send the flood?
Well he says in verse 11 that the earth was filled with violence.
And then in verse 13, he says,
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled
with violence through them.
Now what does the word for mean?
Because.
So he says look, the end of all flesh is come before me because the earth is filled with
violence.
So we can see that a major reason why God is destroying the earth with the flood, the
main sin that he brings up twice here, and he says, I'm going to destroy it because the
earth is filled with violence.
So there was a lot of violence in the earth in the days of Noah in the days of the flood.
That's why he said he destroyed it.
And look, it's no coincidence that when we flip over to chapter 9 of Genesis, when Noah
then gets off the ark, it says in Genesis 9 verse 6,
Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.
For in the image of God made he man.
So do we see something new being instituted after the flood?
Oh yeah, this is new.
This is the first time God ever gave human beings the right to execute the death penalty.
Because before that they were told not to.
But the result of that system, in which murderers were not punished with the death penalty,
is that first one guy commits murder, then another, next thing you know, the whole earth
is filled with violence, people are killing each other left and right.
I mean you might not think about that, but that's what the Bible says.
That before the flood, people were killing each other left and right.
I mean that's what he means when he said it was filled with violence.
That's why he just randomly pulls out the death penalty.
As soon as Noah gets off the ark, he's like, okay, new rule.
You kill somebody, you're going to be killed.
And your blood's going to be shed by man.
There's no sevenfold vengeance, no.
There's the death penalty.
So in light of what I just explained there from the Bible, and if you would turn to Exodus
21, in light of what I just explained there from the Bible, why did God institute the
death penalty?
Basically to protect us.
To keep the peace.
To keep law and order, right?
Basically he instituted the death penalty simply to keep this world from becoming filled
with violence like it did before the flood.