A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 28: 17. "Bloodguiltiness"

Proverbs 28: 17     A man burdened with bloodshed will flee into a pit; let no one help him. (NKJV)

Proverbs 28: 17A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death; let no one support him. (NIV)

Proverbs 28: 17.  As a kid I hated it when people changed the rules in the middle of the game.  I still do. 

In the world of children’s play, there was the injustice of the kid with the ball claiming, “From now on that’s not your endzone.”  In the adult world of theology, it’s the practice of taking every verse in a passage at face-value until the commentator gets to a verse that he/she personally dislikes, at which point the commentator declares, “But this doesn’t apply to our culture and was probably inserted by a later author.”

You don’t just change the rules in the middle of the game.

I don’t like Proverbs 28: 17.  It seems to conflict with the basic workings of New Testament forgiveness and grace.  I’m tempted to just write off the verse as “Pre-grace Old Testament theology that no longer applies,” but I haven’t done that for any other passage in Proverbs.  So, we’ll do what we’ve done for the other Proverbs and see what the Holy Spirit has to say.

Proverbs 28: 17 tells us that there is a time to let go.  There is a point at which you stop defending them, quit making excuses for them, and refuse to come running to their rescue. 

You don’t hide the gun.  You don’t bury the bloody knife.  You don’t tell the police, “It was me” when it was them.  You don’t lie on the stand.  You don’t bribe the judge.  You step back and let justice take its course.

When the Holy Spirit spoke this Proverb to Solomon there had to have been some dialogue.  Solomon was a king.  He waged wars.  He approved executions, and he directed assassinations.      Solomon’s beloved father, David, had murdered Solomon’s mother’s (Bathsheba’s) first husband.

War and self-defense do not carry the same burden of blood guiltiness before God.  We’re free to defend the defender.

But murder crosses the line.  And as hard and mean and heartless as it seems, the Bible says clearly that we need to leave the murder over there alone with God.

In 2 Samuel chapter 12, Nathan (prophet, advisor, and friend to King David) delivered a parable of conviction against David’s murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah.   The prophet didn’t offer a sacrifice for David.  He didn’t present a defense.  He didn’t tell David that it was going to be all right.   David had crossed a line and he would suffer severe consequences for it (2 Samuel 12: 9-12). 

^                        … You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ^

Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ^ For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ”

(Now, had I changed the rules in the middle of the game we would missed the work of grace even among Old Testament kings.)

In 2 Samuel 2: 13^ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

David confessed. God forgave him, and by His grace delivered David’s soul from eternal condemnation.

But no human being could help David.  Nathan left.  Bathsheba was silent.  And God worked out His plan of justice AND grace.

2 Samuel chapter 12 contains gut-wrenching tragedy, inspiring spiritual submission, and soul-lightening joy--- including the birth of a son named Solomon.

Punishment.  Humbling. Submission. Redemption. Hope. Only God can bring all these in a case of blood guiltiness.  Our task is to move out of God’s way as He does.

Stepping back to leave them in God’s hands seems like such a cop-out, but it’s only a cop-out if you don’t believe that God can handle it without you.

------Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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