Who Wants To Throw The First Stone?

As noted previously, the Old Testament has a wide variety of crimes that may be punishable by the death penalty. To some modern thinkers many of those laws seem grossly extreme and harsh. Therefore they reject and condemn them as the self-centered and narrow-minded ideas of heartless rulers. For instance, how could a rational person in 21st century America support the idea of the death sentence for a rebellious son who is a glutton and a drunkard (cf. Deut. 21:18-21)? The same thinking applies to that woman caught in adultery in the story found in John 8.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women (Lev. 20:10). So what do you say?" - Jhn 8:2-5 ESV

Of course the whole thing was a trap by the scribes and Pharisees. They wanted to discredit this so-called Rabbi-Teacher who talked so much about the love and mercy of God. So what do you say? What does any follower of Jesus say about such laws? No doubt we need to do some sorting. Let's start by reviewing some basic assumptions about God's revelation of Himself and His will in Holy Scripture.

1. All Scripture is either the Law of God or the Gospel, as John's Gospel teaches:"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."- John 1:17 ESV
2. In the Law God commands all men to obey Him in thought, word and deed. So the first and basic commandment is that you "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The second great commandment flows from the first: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:28-32; Deut. 6:5, 10:12; Lev. 19:18). 
3. Fallen, sinful men do not and often will not accept these commands of God. Driven by their passions and self-centered desires they do whatever they want rather than submit to the will and plan of God for their lives (1 Tim. 1:8-10). 
4. To curb and control such sinful outbursts God has given us governments and rulers who make and enforce laws. These governments—when they do their work properly—are God's good gift to us all. They protect us from the chaos of sinful men and promote peace and harmony in the land. So we have the duty to support them and obey the laws that they set up (Rom. 13:1-7). 
5. Such rulers "do not bear the sword for nothing" (Rom. 13:4). Ultimately they have the God-given authority to enforce their laws by the punishment of death! 

Back then to the adulterous woman. Note that Jesus does not attempt to discredit the law that condemned adultery. Instead he turned the law back on those who were gathering stones with which to kill her. Note also that nothing is said in that story about the man with whom she had committed her crime, despite the fact that the law said both the adulteress and the adulterer were to die (Lev. 20:10). There were obviously some very self-righteous men standing there with stones in their hands.

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. - Jhn 8:6-9 ESV

This is a vital lesson we all must learn as we prepare to condemn sinners in our midst, whether they are guilty of adultery or any of a hundred other things.

More next time on Jesus' comments to the woman left alone with him.

Forbidden Sexual Relationships and Marriages

My friend and fellow pastor, Rick, wrote to me after the last post to ask the following questions. 

I have had a question with regard to the man of Corinth marrying his father's wife. Was the father dead?  Was it because he broke the Levitical law? If so, can a man marry his brother's wife, if he has passed away or if they are divorced?  Does the Levitical law still apply? I had a similar case in Lake City.  They attended our church, but did not join.  Some Lutherans in our area said it was wrong for the man to marry his brother's wife.  His brother had died.  What say you?  Are we still under the Levitical law?

The question of who may marry whom is complex and has been frequently discussed by the Jewish community (cf. Yibbum or levirate marriage). The Torah (Moses' Five Books) forbids marriage with a brother's widow (Leviticus 18:16; 20:21). The general rule is this: "None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness" (Leviticus 18:6). The exception is when a brother dies fatherless. In that case his brother is to marry the deceased brother's widow in order to produce children and preserve the family. The first born son of this new marriage will thus perpetuate the dead brother's name (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Read the links above to understand further how the Jewish community handled this law and deals with it still.

The Leviticus 18 passage goes into further detail about forbidden sexual relations with close relatives, with those of the same sex and with animals. Even non-Christians understand the Torah's reasons for prohibiting adultery, pedophilia, incest and bestiality. We all understand the havoc, pain and harm such acts produce. It has become much more difficult to support civil laws that prohibit sex and marriage between homosexuals or a brother and his widowed sister-in-law. In American culture there is no longer a commonly accepted source of authority in these matters. The Bible certainly is not. Consequently there are many divergent opinions. The general rule that seems to prevail is this: if two people are mentally competent adults, all our culture needs to permit their sexual relationship and/or marriage is mutual consent. In other words, consenting adults are free to do whatever they want as long as the interests and well being of others are not harmed.

We must set aside the widespread confusion about sex and marriage in American society in general in order to focus upon the Christian community and my brother-pastor's question: Are we Christians still under the Levitical law? To answer this we must turn to Holy Scriptures to do some sorting.

One time the Sadducees challenged the Lord Jesus to explain His views about the resurrection in light of the Mosaic command that a man must marry his brother's childless widow in order to produce a male offspring (Deuteronomy 25:5-6; Matthew 22:23-33). Jesus did not reject their make-believe example of seven brothers marrying the same widow and each dying childless. In theory at least this was permitted. The Sadducees' confusion had to do with the Biblical teaching about the resurrection of the dead.

A few verses later we read about the Pharisees testing Jesus' understanding of the Law. What's the purpose of the Law? Why did the LORD God give us His Law? To this Jesus quoted two passages that summarize the two tables of the Law: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all our mind" (Deuteronomy 6:5) and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40).

The primary purpose of the Law therefore is to show us how and where we have failed to love our God with all our being and how and where we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Note that the summary command to love your neighbor follows in the next chapter after the Leviticus 18 chapter about forbidden sexual relationships. Leviticus 19 continues to give one example after another about how a person may fail to put the needs and concerns of his neighbor on a par equal to his own. "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself : I am the LORD" (Leviticus 19:18).

The answer to my brother's question about the Levitical Law is simply yes! That Law serves to reveal our essential and natural sinful nature. When the world around us duplicates at least some parts of that Law in its civil laws, it shows that this Law is written on the very hearts of men (Romans 2:14-15). We sin in our sexual and marital relationships. For these sins we must beg God's forgiveness and flee to the cross of Jesus to obtain it. Once again this is why meditation upon the Word is important in the Lenten season before us.

Having said that, I realize I have not discussed those other parts of the Law that command various rituals and requirements about sacrifices, washings and the observances of days, weeks and months. I shall come back to that another time. For now consider what the apostle writes in Colossians 2:6-23.