Romans 8:20 For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope … AMPC

Let’s look at the word intentional here and see if anything can be gained.

In a criminal investigation motive is one of the elements that a prosecutor wants to establish to ensure a conviction. Often times the charges brought before the court are based on intent. First degree murder can be reduced to manslaughter if criminal intent cannot be proven.

The premise of intent goes back to Old Testament law.

Deuteronomy 4:41-42 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising; That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:

The setting aside of three cities where the killer should flee sounds like escaping justice. It is not. The killer goes alone, giving up his living, his property, his family ties and is known in these cities as an offender. He cannot return to his former life until the avenging family members of the man he has killed are all dead.

But how does this relate to our spiritual life?

Matthew 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

OK, but does this implicate us in the death of a man unawares?

Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

You were not aware that Christ died for your sins, until you did. He did and now you are aware, and now you flee and leave everything behind.

Acts 2:45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

1 Corinthians 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

If you think I have gone too far in connecting these verses, then I must ask you this…

Of all the transgressions worthy of punishment in the Old Testament, why is it that this and only this judgment takes into account intent?

Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

One of my earliest memories is of a family gathering with the wives in the hot kitchen cooking. The men were drinking in the living room ranking on one another. Ranking is a verbal abuse game which is meant to be funny but can get brutal. As a small child perhaps four or five years of age, I wandered out of the hot kitchen into the fire of the drunken mix. I instantly became the target.

I wish I had been raised in a household which feared God and nurtured me in the Word, but I was not. I was raised to toughen up, get some thick skin, and “be a man”. The problem was I didn’t want to be the kind of man that picks on kids.

I got over it. I finally healed those wounds. I did it this year more than sixty years later. Sadly, I didn’t raise my young children as I should have. I wasn’t a drunk, but that didn’t stop the pain of my past from leaking out into their lives. I wasn’t as tough on them as the men before me, but I wasn’t as tender as my Lord would have me be either.

This is not an apology nor is it a confession. It is both a warning and an encouragement to break the cycle of abuse of the past and raise up Godly children who hear the Word in their homes and see Godly behavior exampled in their daily lives.

Psalm 12:1,4,5 Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.