Unrequited Blood Defiles A Land

Series	Location	Subjects	Takeaways	Sermon Link
-	Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church	abortion	-	-

💡Big Idea

Takeaways and Next Steps

📖Bible Passage

Gen 9:5-6

I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image. [[Gen-09#v6|]]

Points

• abortion is the murder of a child before their birth.
  • On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and returned power to the states on the issue of abortion.
  • Colorado recently enshrined in its laws that pregnant individuals have a fundamental right to continue their pregnancy or to end it prematurely through abortion.
  • On Nov 5, 2024, the people of Colorado voted to add to the Colorado constitution a right to abortion.
    • 1.8 M people voted for this
    • 1.2 M people voted against this.
• For the sixth year in a row, more people died from abortion than any other cause.
  • More than cancer, and smoking.
  • More than 78 abortions every second.
  • 42% of all deaths around the world are from abortion.
  • It is difficult to even comprehend the scope of this death.
• There are no disposable people. Every time a person is aborted, it is premeditated murder.
  • Every person is fearfully and wonderfully made.
  • As of this month 13 states have a complete ban of abortion with few exceptions.
• Righteousness is the basis of bringing glory to God, but sin is a reproach or disgrace to any people or nation.
  • Righteousness exalts a nation, but pervasive sin lowers a people before God and men, and brings that nation down to ruin.
  • Not the past memory of past righteousness, but a present and current righteousness.
• God’s primary word toward our nation is a rebuke for our pervasive national sins, and second a call to repentance.
  • If these sins are not averted then they will inevitably bring about our destruction.
• Our nations sins:
  • Putrid moral degeneracy
    1. the unrequited blood of the murdered multitudes
       • What does unrequited blood mean?
         • unrequited: not paid back in kind
         • It means innocent blood that has been wrongfully taken but has not been judged.
  • Sinful apostacy

the unrequited blood of the murdered multitudes

• the first murder: Cain and Abel
  • Cain was jealous of his brother Abel and killed him.
  • God, asked Cain where was Abel.
  • Abel denied any wrong doing.
  • Gen 4.11 Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
    • God reveals to us in this verse that whenever innocent blood is shed, that blood cries out for justice.
• God teaches Noah that the life is in the blood
  • Gen 9:5-6 I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image. [[Gen-09#v6|]]
  • Here God institutes capital punishment, the death penalty.
    • Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Why? Because God requires it.
      • Because man is made in God’s image.
• God reveals what is right in His Law
  • His law speaks extensively of what to do in cases of murder, death, and manslaughter.
    • In Numbers 35: God shows what to do in cases of accidental killing (not murder).
      • Takeaway: Blood pollutes the land: Num 35.33 “‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.
    • In Deut-19:
      • Deut 19:11-12 But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. [[Deut-19#v12|]]
      • Many may think this passage is uncaring, but it is the most caring thing the elders could do, because otherwise the blood would pollute the land.
    • In Deut-21:
      • Here God shows what to do if a slain man is found, but it isn’t known who slayed this man.
      • Here God shows a very real present need. This slain man needs to be avenged. His blood cries out for justice. Deuteronomy 21 shows God’s people what to do requite the blood of the innocent.
        • God teaches us this principle: a life must be taken for life or else the land is polluted
    • In Romans 13 God teaches us that this power of requiting blood is given to the state, to rulers.
      • Rom 13.4 for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.
        • The civil ruler is commanded by God to requite the blood. They are a minister of God to bring about vengeance upon him who does evil.
      • This passage also teaches us that vengeance belongs to God not to me. And God distributes that vengeance through the rulers. Therefore, it is wrong for me or any Christian to take vengeance into my own hands.
      • The blood of Jesus that purifies the sinner does not purify the land.¹ Though the sinful murderer may be forgiven by the grace of Christ, but this does not satisfy the blood’s call for justice and the need to requite the blood.
• Our nation calls abortion euphemism’s such as a woman’s choice. But this is not what God calls it. It is murder and it must be paid for.
  • We live in a culture and generation that outcries when an animal is wrongfully killed, and yet is silent when an innocent child is killed in abortion.
  • We have long since exceeded the death and scope of the Holocaust.
  • Ps 9:7-8 But Yahweh reigns forever. He has prepared his throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness. [[Ps-09#v8|]]
  • Rev 6:9-11 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course. [[Rev-06#v10|]][[Rev-06#v11|]]
• ⭐: Murderers can be forgiven. Paul was a murderer and yet was forgiven by Jesus.
• Allison: I do not fear the multitude of nation’s militaries set against us. I fear the God who sees our sin, who hears the cries for justice from unrequited blood, whose very wrath stands against our nation.

Application

---

Further Study

---

💬Discussion Questions

Footnotes

Footnotes

1. I don’t fully understand this point and need to revisit it in the recording. ↩