Scripture~
Numbers 35-36, Psalm 80, Acts 3

     As much as we call ourselves ‘civilized’ I wonder how different our society would be if old testament law prevailed. Reading in regard to the cities of refuge and the avenger of blood. That a man should die by the measure in which he killed. Today we’re so worried about the humaneness of our execution system; but we pay no attention to the humaneness in which the victim was slain. A person could be tortured for hours, stabbed in non-life threatening manner 20 times, have their fingernails pulled out, raped, sodomized, beaten, and then strangled to death . . . and we worry that their murderer might feel pain as he is being put to death. They get to lay on a table and go to sleep. No real pain, just . . . go to sleep. Now there are those who state that simply because the know they are going to die it’s inhumane to use the death penalty at all. How fewer crimes we would have if the punishment truly fit the crime? If the punishment were made public, so people would know what happens to those who murder, rape, and abuse.
     I’m quite excited about seeing Peter as a preacher. While I have read parts of the New Testament before this is the first time I will have read it all the way through in it’s entirety. This is great stuff from Peter though, not his normal reactionary self, but well spoken; case bringing pleading. How difficult it would be to preach to the very people whose words spoke the death of his friend and Lord Jesus. Yet here he is, preaching in the synagogue just like his master.