Innocents

There is a judgment that follows the shedding of innocent blood. The ground becomes defiled by the curse of the innocent blood. Let us look at the scriptures:
"...keep all these commands and do them...lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you...but you shall put away (to burn, remove, consume, be kindled-as in purge) the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you."  Deut. 19:10, 13
"They gather together against the life of the righteous, and condemn (be guilty, act wickedly, to do wrong) innocent blood."  Ps. 94:21
"They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters..and the land was polluted with blood." Ps. 106:37-38
"Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood...whoever takes that way shall not know peace."   Isa. 59:7, 8 (excerpt)
"Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place...Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence."
                                                                                                            Jer. 22:3, 17
"...do not consent if they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol..."  Pro. 1:10-12
"These...things the LORD hates...hands that shed innocent blood..."  Pro. 6:16-17

In this nation, and perhaps in your nation as well, there has been a long history of the shedding of innocent blood. Whole peoples were killed because their land was coveted. People were murdered for racial or cultural reasons. We have seen murders of people because of the faith they follow. During this present generation, millions of unborn children have been murdered, principally because of the inconvenience of their birth. Every day, the news is filled with individual and mass killings committed for no rational reason at all. Our land is awash in innocent blood. The land becomes defiled, polluted, cursed as a result.
There was a King of Judah, Manasseh, who flooded Judah and Jerusalem with the blood of children who had been sacrificed to idols and demons at his command. The LORD executed judgment and justice for the innocent killed:
"So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies...because they have done evil in My sight."... Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD...And the LORD sent...them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servants the prophets...this came upon Judah to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon."   2 Kings 21:14-16, 24:2-4
Innocent blood cries to the LORD until the LORD gives justice. We see this from the very first recorded murder, which was the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain:
"Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?...What have you done? The voice (call aloud, bleating, cry, lowing voice, thundering) of your brother's blood cries (call for help, clamor, to be summoned, cry aloud in grief) out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand..."    Gen. 4:9-11
Also, cries from those who have been killed for their faith in Christ sound before God:
"...And they cried with a loud voice saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"   Rev. 6:10
Imagine the cries that continually sound before God from the blood of the millions of innocents killed in our nation during its relatively short history? Like Jerusalem under King Manasseh, our land is filled with shed innocent blood "from one end to another". How long, do we suppose, the LORD can delay the judgment and justice that this blood demands? This has been very much on my mind recently, because I think that the time is drawing very near. The LORD said to Noah:
"Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man."   Gen. 9:5-6
I am praying for God's mercy. I am praying that He can change our hearts. Scripture says, "For with God nothing will be impossible." (Lk. 1:37).
King Manasseh, who was responsible for the murder of many innocents, and had drawn all of Judah into the same evil, was dragged away from his kingdom in Jerusalem to Babylon in nose hooks and chains by the invading Assyrian army. In great affliction, "...he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God." (2 Chron. 33:12-13). Upon his restoration, Manasseh also brought Judah back to the worship of God by command. Although Manasseh was restored and Judah returned to the worship of God, Judah was still later carried away into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. The only thing that would cleanse the land that had been cursed by the shedding of innocent blood was enforced years of Sabbath rest for the land.
The shed blood of the innocents is crying out to God for justice. How then can our land be cleansed from the curse? Scripture says that if the people of God will humble themselves, pray, recognize and turn from the wickedness in our own hearts, and seek God's face of mercy and truth, God promises us that He will hear, forgive, and heal our land (2 Chron. 7:14). Jesus redeemed us from the curse, having been made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). Can you imagine Him carrying the crushing weight of this terrible curse upon Himself? We who believe must humbly apply this redeeming sacrifice of Christ to ourselves, and to our land.
If we truly understand the seriousness and the urgency of this issue, perhaps we will do it. I very much love the people and land that God has given to us for a nation. Because this has been very much on my mind recently, and in my prayers, I have written about this to you.

Our Father hears the cries of the blood of the innocents.