Ten Keys to Your Salvation - Part 6 - You Shall Not Dash

Who wants to live well? Well, I do. Imagine you do as well. Living well means to be a capable person, perhaps successful in our own mind, by our own value, perhaps appreciated by other people, loved. Now, who wants to have that erased? To have that dashed? To take a life that is full and has been lived or is being lived and just trash it? The sixth commandment is also the sixth shortest verse in the Bible. Just four words. In Exodus chapter 20 and verse 13, God says, you shall not dash. The Strong's word, 7523, the Hebrew word, rahtzach, that's translated kill, has a primary meaning in Strong's, which is to dash. For instance, to dash into pieces, to obliterate, and that's what happens when a person dies. Various elements of the body and the body processes get dashed. But God cares about you. He cares about humans. He cares about your good qualities. He cares about your potential. God cares about your capabilities. And He has built you with an infrastructure mentally and physically where you are capable. You can contribute to your life and others' lives around you. God is also involved in blessings. And those blessings build part of who you are. It's the complete you. You also have service. You have feelings. You have family. You have relationships. Those are good things about you. Now, to help protect you from others, God gives us this commandment, telling all of us, you shall not dash. And this sermon is titled, 10 Keys to Your Salvation, Part 6. You shall not dash. Humans seem to dash each other a lot. You stop to think about it. Sometimes they dash each other's parts, pieces. Sometimes their bodies. Sometimes their things. Sometimes their families. And then there's retribution for having received that dashing from someone. And the payback kicks in with retro dashing. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Sometimes they dash others' vital organs, sometimes to the point where they get killed.

The Hebrew definition of Rotsack through Thayer is to kill, to slay, to murder, whether it's premeditated or an accident or whether it's revenge. So we should not kill, we should not slay, we shouldn't murder. Even by accident, we should not do those things, let alone things that fall short of killing someone. You know, breaking an arm or harming somebody, taking out an eye, disabling them. You know, the first person that was fully killed in the Bible was a man's brother. It was a man who was doing right, striving to be good in God's eyes. His name was Abel. And if we look at the account in Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 14, we'll find that part of the human mindset of that day was killing one another, was maiming one another, hurting one another. You might say, dashing one another. In Genesis chapter 4 and verse 14, Cain here responds to God and says, Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive in a vagabond on the earth. Now notice, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. Anyone who finds me will kill me. That indicates that people of his day were killers. The word kill in that verse is a different word. It's the Hebrew word harag. It means to kill, to slay, to murder, to destroy.

And in verse 15, the Lord said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, slays, murders, destroys him, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. That's interesting, this last word that God uses. When he put a mark on Cain, anyone finding him should kill him. That word kill is yet another word called naka. And it means to strike, to smite, to beat, to hit, to slay, and to kill. But primarily, this mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him would strike him, would smite him, would beat him, would hit him, or slay him, or kill him. See, there's a vengeance there that humans have, or some sort of a sense of things that humans do to each other that violates their physical state. And so, we are told not to dash someone, even by a strike, or a smite, or whatever.

Interpersonal smiting like that can escalate from a single individual to groups. You can have bands of people who go out and smite or destroy others. Groups can grow large into national armies. When you think of an army, what are the hallmarks of human history? Well, they're endless battles of military. People train to harm others. They're professional dashers.

What is a military? Well, if you look at the military, you'll find it's a dasher of things and people. If you think of anything the military does, do they go out and build? Do they construct? Do they enhance? Or do they destroy? And do their armaments have destroying capabilities?

When you consider that people involved in warfare often shoot things at each other or drop things on each other that explode, you get maximum destruction like bombings of cities. We've all seen videos of, say, bombings in World War I in the trenches firing things back and forth. In World War II, it's like the Battle of Britain and dropping bombs on Germany and various countries. Today, there was a World War II bomb, 75 years old, that was found in Exeter, England, next to a university, and it was detonated. And when you see the video, you see the earth blowing way up into the air, and all that that does is destroy. And the intent was hopefully to destroy people and things made. The result of war is that participants in the warfare and the populations around them get dashed, and then their survivors feel dashed, and so they become intent on smashing and dashing better next time. And that's what our current world status is today. We have, you know, thousands of nuclear bombs and everything in between, and this acceleration in weapons that will smash and dash and kill and destroy. Humans are ready to dash everything and everyone. There's been a question among anthropologists, especially social anthropologists, as to whether humans have a propensity to kill other humans. And there's a debate about this. People tend to look at the good side of human nature, the loving side, and think, well, maybe killing all this dashing is not really germane to the human mind. There's an interesting research paper that was published by a team at Granada University in Spain, and it looked at the deaths of millions of humans. Now, these humans then were compared to mammals, and the mammals, which, if you believe in evolution, are part of, you know, the human sort of genome, and they lump them all together. But they found, in studying 600 human societies from the ancient past to the present, and comparing them to mammals, they found in all the other mammal species, only 40 percent of mammal species even kill fellow mammals. And of the 40 species that do kill fellow mammals, they only average 0.3 deaths out of a hundred fellow mammals of their kind. Less than one, like a third of one in every 100. When we look at this time where Cain and Abel are, and a little bit later than that, in the pre-Flood era, archaeologists have looked at the results of the exhumations and findings of societies, and back in the pre-Flood period, research says that 10 percent of humans were killed by other humans. So what we just read there in Genesis shows and indicates that being what science has found, about 10 in a hundred humans were killed by fellow humans. Now if we come forward a little bit to Abraham, and we look at the 3,500 year period between Abraham and the fall of Rome, right about there, that includes the New Testament period, that number went up to 15 percent, or 15 people in every 100 people were killed by another human.

So you see, even in the Bible it talks, those within your gates. Cities had gates for protection against invaders who came to kill and steal, and against warriors who came to conquer. You can read in Jeremiah, for instance, chapters 40 and 41, and you can see the sense there of what was going on in the region, and that blood lust coupled with dominance and theft. And that 35 year period extended through Jesus Christ's time, the Apostle's time, when 15 out of 100 were being killed. So let's ask the question, why do humans kill other humans? Well, an easy answer is in competition for resources. When you had hunting and gathering societies that did not grow their own crops, thus they were basically nomadic, they would follow the herds, wherever you have those, there was a competition for resources such as food and status and other things. An example of this is in the Bible in Genesis chapter 13 and verse 5 through 9. You'll remember the story about Lot and Abram. In Genesis 13 and verse 9, Lot also who went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. Verse 6, Now the land was not able to support them, so there was competition there between their animals to live on the land, that they might dwell together. For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. Verse 7, And there was strife between the herdsman of Abram's livestock and the herdsman of Lot's livestock. So this give and take you can see down through time, you can see it with people invading indigenous peoples, lands, even up to the current day. You can see it with nomadic peoples who range around and live off the land, coming in, clashing with others, perhaps trying to do the same thing. But now Abram applies the principle of the sixth commandment, you shall not dash. He tells his herdsmen there, don't dash each other, don't go in there and strife and fight. In verse 8, Abram said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me, between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me, and if you take the left, I will go to the right, or if you go to the right, that I will go to the left. So we see a great application here of the sixth commandment by the one who became father of the faithful. Now that study from the University of Granada in Spain has an article written about it in the Independent, and in the Independent it says, Societies can modify our innate tendencies. See, we do have this loving side, and societies can modify this killing tendency. It goes on to say that societies that have police forces, legal systems, prisons, and strong cultural attitudes that reject violence are 200 times lower than the predictions of that study for the human state of nature. So moral laws do affect moral behavior, and God gave us the sixth commandment, and we can apply it if we want to. For instance, among the many laws that developed out of a very lawless people that became what we know as Britain today, as it grew and developed laws and began to abide by its laws, the death rate, when you compare it to the 15 in 100 that appeared through the end of the Roman Empire, the death rate dropped to one of the lowest rates of killing on earth. It's less than one in 100. It's less than one in a thousand. It's less than one in ten thousand. Of one million Britons, only nine people get killed today. Versus in the Apostles' Day, in one million citizens, 149,999 were killed.

So God's ways work, God's laws work, when people apply them. Now, let's ask again, why do people kill people? Well, we can see from James chapter 4 and verse 1 the answer that the self-focused competition for me incites a dashing of other people. In James chapter 4 and verse 1, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that Warren, your members, you less than do not have, you murder, you dash, you covenant and cannot obtain, you fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask and you do not ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures, your desires. Now, the end result of that then breeds a culture of dashing, as it says in chapter 3 and verse 16 of James, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Self. Self breeds contempt for others and we start then dashing those things verbally, physically. But God's Spirit leads a person to honor others. When you look in the Old Testament and you think, oh yes, well God had Israel go in and kill off those people that were godless and had them take their land. Well, that's true, but you'll also notice at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, God said, I did not put a spirit in them where they could have their eyes open, their ears open, where they could obey from the heart. But he has given us that in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, we have God's Holy Spirit leading us and we are to have this wisdom from above. In verse 17, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. It's peaceable. That Iranian word means harmonious. It stitches together. It's unified and gentle, willing to yield. You saw Abraham put that spirit into practice there. Full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So what about you and me? Do we have a propensity to dash others? That's a good question. We don't have to rely on anthropology to ask it for us. We could look in the Scripture, then, as we just have, and say, all right, do I have a propensity to dash others? We ought to pause and consider that. If we go up to verse 5 of James chapter 3, it says, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Well, so there it is, a world of iniquity. Sin. Sin is breaking the commandments. Six commandments killing others. So my tongue tends to have a propensity to dash. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. And it is set on fire by hell. Verse 8, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. So we see those words deadly poison, and we think of dashing or killing or hurting someone. Yeah, we do have a carnal propensity to hurt others if we're led by the wrong spirit, if we're part of this world, you know, part of the society that is gearing up to get what it wants for self. Now let's take a look at what Jesus teaches us in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 21.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 21 and 22, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, you shall not dash, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother, Adam Clark says that word angry means an anger which leads a man to commit outrages. You know, it upsets me, the self, and therefore I'm going to say negative things or do negative things. Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. He goes further, whoever says to his brother, you worthless one, you know, you're worthless. Wait a minute. You know, you take all that you have become in life, you take the blessings that God has given you, the efforts you have made, the relationships, the skills that you have, and someone dashes you into a condition called worthless. It's just essentially killed your value. And so Jesus said, whoever says you are worthless shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of the lake of fire. The one who says you're just, you know, absolutely a fool. That's all you are, and says it to others and makes people think that you are that. He has essentially given you an assassination by character. Gossip falls into this category. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 13, we see a statement here about people, and he's talking about people who attend church. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 13, besides, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but gossips and busybodies, busy in other people's business, judging, criticizing, saying things which they ought not. Now, we all do this. It's not limited to one group of people. We get a little tidbit of information or a thought about somebody, and we build an entire case, and it's typically negative about the other individual. Thus, we take them to our little court, and we try them, and we convict them, and we sentence them, at least mentally and maybe verbally. It forms a character assassination, a murder, a dashing of another's worth. And while it may seem like a very small thing to the one doing it, it has a profound effect of making one feel like they're essentially done. Their great life is over, at least as much as they can perceive it at that point. And so, the sixth commandment is telling us, refrain from that. You shall not dash. And as we see here in the New Testament, it's not just murder, it's not just physical. It's a lot of mental dashing. Even malicious thought towards another falls into the category of violating the sixth commandment. Why is that? Well, it hurts. It dashes. It breaks into pieces. In Zechariah chapter 8 and verse 17, it says, let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor. Now, consider that. Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor, and do not love a false oath, for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord. Now, when we think about things that God hates, we don't want to be one of those. And doing things God hates, certainly, is not what we're trying to do to, you might say, impress God or gain entry into his kingdom, gain his favor.

In James chapter 4 and verse 11 and 12, we find the same thing expounded by Jesus's brother. James chapter 4 verses 11 and 12, do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother judges his brother. What that means is, we speak evil of him. We have become the judge. We've taken the case. We try the case. We convict them, guilty, and now we punish them with our mouth. He speaks evil of the law and judges the law, which says, do not dash.

Now, we find if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. You say, oh no, but it's good for me to dash. I think this is better than God. Verse 12, there is one law-giver who is able to save and destroy. Who are you to judge another? Don't let yourself be in God's place of judging and condemning. Otherwise, you'll be judged with the same type of judgment that you make on others. But God, on the other hand, is about loving and rescuing helpless sinners. Yes, people make mistakes. Yes, people aren't perfect. That goes for the governor, that goes for the king, that goes for your neighbor, that goes for yourself. But we find in John chapter 3 in verse 16 and 17, God loves all of us very, very much, and He is not here to dash. Jesus did not come to condemn and trash people. It says in John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. Jesus did not come here to verbally or literally kill us or dash us or condemn us as the judge. But that the world through Him might be saved. So we need to reverse our thinking, and instead of dashing, actually be honoring and hoping the best and believing the best about everyone, seeing the good things that people do, looking for them. You know, when you look in the New Testament, there's probably no comparison between what went on there with 15 out of every 100 people being killed, murdered, and what we see today in a somewhat peaceful time when it's only nine in every million get killed in the British Commonwealth. When we consider what the apostles and Christ were seeing, why don't we see any dashing in Scripture? Why don't we see how bad the Caesars were? Why don't we see how horrible the people that didn't like the apostles and the disciples and didn't, you know, like the church and persecuted the church, why don't we just have those people just thrashed in Scripture? We don't. It's because God's law is about love, promoting love and respect for others. Remember the two great commandments. Love God with your heart, soul, and might. Love your neighbor as yourself. There's no room for dashing there. Not even dashing yourself. There's no room. God says, love your neighbor as you love yourself. We should be living in a way that we can respect ourselves, and nobody should be condemning or dashing us. Not even me. And if there's a time when it's not respectable, then you and I need to repent privately. As God's children, representatives of his family, we are to model the love and concern that God has. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 as we begin to wrap this up. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8. And we'll go through verse 13. Finally, all of you be of one mind. All of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love as brothers. Be tender-hearted. Be courteous. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for revival, reviling. But on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are called to this. See, this is our calling to return blessing for reviling.

That's our calling. That you may inherit a blessing. Verse 10. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking to seed. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So let's stop dashing other people. Let's start criticizing. Let's stop punching and hitting and tweaking and maybe injuring their reputations, trashing their character or physically hurting them. Don't take a life. Don't dash a life. Don't hurt a life. But bless all lives. Respect all lives. No matter how they look, who they are, how they're dressed, what they do, what they believe. Find something to respect. If nothing else, respect the potential that God has that they will one day be right in his eyes and will be in his kingdom. So I think a good question for us to ask is, am I a dasher of lives? You know, you might stop and consider something. It's a little off topic, but maybe not so much. Do you dash bugs? Flies. I grew up doing that. I spent most of my life doing that. If something flies by, I'll try to swat it, hit it, kill it. Until I began to realize, you know, as a pilot, I can't even fly. I can do this, but I can't get off the ground. But these little bugs, they can. And the more you look at them, and some of them are really, really tiny. Some of those have a brain, a heart, lungs, a digestive system, a reproductive system that will fit on the head of the pen. How do I know this? Because the whole little bug will fit on the head of the pen. That is incredible! Something God made. Why not take that outside and let it go? Why not open a window and let something out? Now, that's just a little critter. But they're amazing critters that God made. They don't have to all be dashed. If we have respect for God's physical creation, what about people? Do we casually just smack or dash them? Especially if we see a defect, or someone in society, or something that doesn't let us have maybe the freedom that we would like? Or do we honor them? Do we love them? Do we help them? Do we serve them? Would we sacrifice ourselves for them? That's what God tells us. He sacrificed Himself for us. In 1 John 3, verse 16, He says, we ought to lay down our lives for others.

So, in conclusion, as we live God's way in our life, we look forward to the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. We look forward to being there as the bride of Christ and helping out in this wonderful millennial thousand-year reign. Let's conclude by looking at the hallmark of that coming age of peace. It's found in Isaiah 11, verse 9. Isaiah 11, verse 9, And they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So, brethren, strive to be more like our Father in heaven by loving others and dashing no one.