Today I read Joshua 20 where the Lord has Joshua choose six cities for refuge of the accidental murderer. This is a concept that was previously laid out before Moses that when a person accidentally commits murder, with no intent and no maliciousness on their part, there needs to be a refuge for them to hide from the family of the deceased because they are not put to death the way the person who murders with intent is.
This gives me hope. It tells me that to Heavenly Father, intent is just as important as the act itself. If murder was murder no matter what, then God would not have commanded that there be cities of refuge. He would have commanded that the accidental murderer be put to death just like the murderer with intent is. This to me indicates that when such a person stands before Him at the judgment seat, he will be held blameless before God. Or at the very least will not be held as a murderer.
Now, of course I do not intend of murdering anyone, on purpose or otherwise, but it gives me hope that perhaps other sins are not as clear cut as we think they are. If intent is just as important as action, then perhaps we are better in our standing before the Lord than we thought. Of course we will not know for sure until we stand in His presence, but we can have a good idea of how our standing before Him is just based on how we feel about things of the Spirit. Do we embrace the commandments and going to church, or do we shun church under pretenses of being offended or other lame excuses and break the commandments rationalizing that they are not meant for us? Our mental attitude says a lot about us, more than we would like it to. Until tomorrow.
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