Judgment About Killing or Avenging the Death of a Loved One

You can learn a lot about how God sees things by reading the Old Testament, in this case Numbers 35 in particular.

For example, you learn that if someone kills one of your loved ones (even by accident!) the Old Testament law basically states that you have the right to kill the person who killed your loved one.

Now I don't think, with the revolution that Jesus brought about loving one's enemies that this is still in effect, plus it is against the laws of this world.  I don't think people should go around avenging the deaths of loved ones by killing the perpetrator- particularly when we have a perfectly good legal system for dealing with this.  

HOWEVER, what this DOES teach is that God sees things VERY differently, in some ways than you or I.  We assume that killing is killing, and that each death should be basically considered equally.  Now truth be told, I think juries tend to look at someone avenging the death of a loved one differently than the original murder, but it should be clear from Numbers 35 that God himself sees it much differently.  In the Old Testament, God doesn't even see the avenger as a murderer.  I think we should be careful how we look at people who kill people who have killed the first person's loved one.  That is different to an extreme degree.  I don't know what to say.  I was raised that basically to kill anyone, even if the state did it to a murderer in the form of the death penalty, is wrong, and should be avoided.  Now I'm not so sure.  Honestly I thought the death penalty should be reserved for extreme cases, such as serial murderers- now I'm not so sure.  Also, this changes how we look at people who attack people who are committing crimes against them.  It does somewhat justify some of the self-defense laws on the books, as far as how God sees them.  If you really are defending yourself, God sees that much differently than how he sees the perpetrator.

I realize that some people may not find this interesting.  Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, at least everyone else that wasn't raised Mennonite.  To me though, this was revelatory.  I don't read scriptures very often that have a profound impact on how I see things.  This scripture did, however.  I'll never look at killing people the same again.  If the Bible teaches in the Old Testament that a man has the right to kill someone who killed a loved one, how much more should we be cautious over judging a prechristian over the killing of someone who killed their loved one?  Food for thought.