Leviticus 20:10-11: If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death. If a man violates his father by having sex with one of his father’s wives, both the man and the woman must be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.
Have you ever read something in the Bible that made you begin to think? I’m not sharing this word today because of people living in adultery. But rather, to share with you something that was revealed to me the other day when I was thinking on the story of the woman that was caught in the act of adultery and was brought before Jesus. Before I go any further, let’s look at that story from John’s perspective.
John 8:2-6: Early the next morning [Jesus] was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them. As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with His finger.
While it was still early in the morning and not everyone had gotten up and out of bed, these self-righteous men apprehended a woman and brought her to the temple. They didn’t bring her into the temple because they were obeying the Law of Moses; their intended purpose was to tempt Jesus in order that they might find something to accuse Him. So you can plainly see that these so-called religious rulers were judgmental to say the least. In other words, they were just as corrupt as the woman that they were about to stone.
If you continue to read the story, you will see that Jesus doesn’t answer their question, but ignores them and begins to write on the ground. Many people, including myself, have preached on His writing; but all we have to do is look at the text for today’s word and know exactly what He wrote.
They only brought the woman; where was the man (adulterer)? Did they alter the Law of Moses that commanded them to stone both the man and the woman? If they weren’t altering the Word to accommodate the sin in their own lives, then why didn’t they grab the man out of bed and bring him to be condemned beside her? This is where we can see what Jesus wrote without being there. As He wrote the correct Law upon the ground, the men from the oldest to the youngest saw the truth written before their own eyes. Then Jesus made the statement that brought conviction on every one of the hearts of the men that were present. “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” When you look at the law in Leviticus and see the way these men went about serving justice—according to their own traditions—and Jesus’ question to them, you can see that Jesus turned the tables on these men, and they had to forgive, or they would be condemned for their own sin of violating the Law.
They had taken the Law of God and twisted it so that they could break the law themselves and not be condemned. Please pray for our leaders in the body of Christ that have altered the truth to fit their sinful ways and led innocent people astray. Jesus came to set the captives free, not to condemn us. Jesus did not come to condone sin, so neither should it be condoned in the body of Christ. —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US
