Brutality… really?

Deuteronomy 13:6-11 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

This part of the Old Testament is a very difficult piece of scripture. How do you reconcile it to the loving God you know that was made manifest to you by the Holy Spirit?

Jesus’ own words summarize it well. In Matthew 18:7 we read: “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!

I am guilty of violating this very tenet! Woe to me for enticing others to sin! How are we to endure, then?

I will look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. So if this is common to man, what comfort is there to me?

It is the final cry of Jesus before He gave His life! IT IS FINISHED!

Why are these words so comforting to me?

All of the work Jesus did is now done! Nothing else needs to be done. I can do nothing to gain or retain my salvation… so it could be said; I can do nothing to lose my salvation!

In the initial verse from Deuteronomy above, the intimacy of the words is offset by the brutality. The warning was provided to judge your own self. If you were truly and objectively looking at yourself through the lens of the revelation of God, you would see your error and correct it before you were guilty of spreading unrighteousness. In times before the incarnation of Jesus, everything was judged by the law. It is evident when Paul writes in Romans 1:18: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Paul explains it further… For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:19-23)

I would have to say, that this is because of the serious tone God wants to convey. We know that God is a loving God, but how many remember that God is also called el Qanna, or in English, a jealous God. Do you understand what that means to you?

We have our own understanding of jealousness, but God, in His zeal for us, will rise up to keep sin from its destroying us from within. Yes, the very moment we are tempted! 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Do you see how this “jealousness” works with His others attributes of faithfulness and love?

It was and is simple, God was only instructing every man to keep HIMSELF upright, lest he be given to denying God and spreading idolatry. And by spreading idolatry, Paul further elaborates the outcome in Romans 1:24-25: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

We do know now, that man in his own power cannot keep the law. That is why Jesus came and gave His life on the cross. It was because we are all found guilty by that very same law! But in connecting it through the whole perspective laid out in the Bible, it is those words Jesus said… “but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” It is woe to the ONE by whom temptation comes.

The woe, by the finished work of Jesus, is to the Tempter, Satan. He is also called the accuser.

Dear ones, let us keep in mind what we do everyday, but know this: if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1) 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sin, he (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

So if in unrighteousness we suppress the truth, how can it not be that in righteousness truth is proclaimed!

Praise God for that!

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Posted by arielsadmirer

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