HAUNTED SOULS

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Deuteronomy 21:1, 6-9 NIV

[1] If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was, 
[6] Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, [7] and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. [8] Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, [9] and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord. 

¶How many ghost stories have we heard, centered around the return of the shackled soul, bound to the place of their offense, unable to release the guilt of their unsolved murder, roaming about creating fear and havoc? How many of us wander about like ghosts, unable to let go of the offenses we perceive others have committed against us? Sin has spiritual as well as physical consequences, requiring reconciliation, not only horizontally, in relation to each other, but vertically, in relation to God. Even when there is no possibility of restitution for crime, or rehabilitation of the  criminal, there remains the rupture that crime creates between God and man. For this God provided a cure, the means to procure it, and  the grace to receive it. God provides the blessing of field and fold to all people, but to this one people He has made covenant, and provides covenant-keeping grace. If there were a way in to that kind of grace, please, God, I would like it. Give me Jesus.

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