[475 words]
A newspaper headline read, “Man Gets 176 years for Sex Trafficking.” The man pleaded guilty to 33 counts ranging from trafficking for sexual servitude to statutory rape. Such headlines are common today. Though they pale in comparison to the life sentence plus 1,000 years that Ariel Castro received for h.is unspeakable crimes of kidnaping and rape of three young girls, these reports remind us of how sick the world is.
As I read this story, there was something about the numbers that struck me: 176 years and 33 counts. My mind went back to a familiar number in the Old Testament: 40. That was the number of stripes that could be laid to the back of an offender under the law of Moses: “And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed” (Deut. 25:2-3). A rod was often used for this beating. “A rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding” (Prov. 10:13). A rod is “for the fool’s back” (Prov. 26:3). “Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools” (Prov. 19:29). Was this punishment effective? Did these beatings do any good? Solomon answers, “The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly” (Prov. 20:30).
The punishment for human trafficking and rape of an espoused woman under the law of Moses was death (Exod. 21:16; Deut. 22:25). If this penalty was in place today we would hear fewer stories about these heinous crimes. As the death penalty and other punishments are practiced less, however, such meanness will rise. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc. 8:11).
Aside from the question of executing criminals, consider what would happen if the punitive rod of the law of Moses were in use today. How many child molesters would think twice if they knew they might get forty stripes on their back with a rod or a whip? How many sex offenders would be afraid to take advantage of a child after they received such a beating? Common sense tell us what the effect would be.
Such punishment may sound harsh in a world that has gone soft, but physical pain is the only language some people understand. Our society has become too civilized and enlightened to tolerate capital punishment, corporal punishment, or even spanking children. We have turned away from common sense and the Bible, and that is why our world is becoming more dangerous.
Kerry Duke
West End church of Christ
Livingston,TN