Life Is The Price For Life
For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.
When God established His covenant with Noah after the Flood, He first laid this charge upon Noah: he who takes the life of a man will by men have his life taken.
Even before God gave Moses the commandments on Mount Sinai, and centuries before Jesus established the New Covenant on the Cross at Calvary, God gave Man this simple rule: life is the price for life.
The reasoning is clear and simple: each of us is cast in the image of God. In a fundamental and profound way, God is in each of us. How then can we attack one another without attacking God?
As we would not, if we are faithful, attack God, we should not, because we are faithful, attack each other. If we do, then we will ourselves eventually be attacked. If we kill, we will ourselves eventually be killed.
Even before the Mosaic edict “Thou shalt not kill”, God tells us not to kill. Life, God warns Noah, is the price for life.
Yet God takes this even further, for it is upon this edict that He makes the Covenant with Noah, that never again will God wipe out all humanity—wipe out all life—with a flood. God claimed the lives of all men during the flood, and in the Covenant with Noah God pledged never again to demand such a reckoning from man. God’s Covenant with Noah is itself a fulfillment of this simple rule: Life is the price for life. Man having paid that price in the flood, was promised life by God. By establishing the Covenant with Noah God establishes also the reckoning.
This simple rule is always at the foundation of God’s Covenants with Man. In every iteration, from Noah to the Cross at Calvary, the rule is present: life is the price for life, and when life is taken, a reckoning must happen.
As the rule is simple, it is equally simple to avoid the reckoning—do not take life.
Do not attack, if you do not wish to be attacked.
Do not shed blood, if you do not wish blood to be shed.
Do not choose war, if you do not wish war.
Do not kill, if you do not wish to be killed.
From that negative, we also can derive the positive—that which we must do, and which we are called to do.
If we desire life, we must cherish all life.
If we desire peace for ourselves, we must seek peace for everyone.
More so than any other calling we might have, we all are called to this much.
From the very beginning, God’s Law for mankind has been simple: peace.
From the very beginning, God has told us this.
From the very beginning, God has warned us that there will be a reckoning for those who reject peace.
From the very beginning, God has made it plain that life is the price of all life.