Deeper Still

And if the people of the community ignore those who offer their children to Molech and refuse to execute them, I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community. This will happen to all who commit spiritual prostitution by worshiping Molech. [Leviticus 20.4-5]

In continuation of what I began to discuss yesterday (Diving Deep), it stands out to me again today that "punishment" is something God does and that He prescribes His people to do. If we will see it in today's context, there are instructions for the people to execute punishment (chapter 20, verses 9-16 in particular), and there are also indications that God will execute punishment (chapter 20, verses 20-21 in particular). These passages are only representative of numerous passages throughout the Bible about punishment coming from either God or man or both. Let's look deeper...

“Anyone who dishonors father or mother must be put to death. Such a person is guilty of a capital offense. “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. “If a man has sex with his daughter-in-law, both must be put to death. They have committed a perverse act and are guilty of a capital offense. “If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense. “If a man marries both a woman and her mother, he has committed a wicked act. The man and both women must be burned to death to wipe out such wickedness from among you. “If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed. “If a woman presents herself to a male animal to have intercourse with it, she and the animal must both be put to death. You must kill both, for they are guilty of a capital offense. [Leviticus 20.9-16]

Here we see that certain offenses require the people to execute punishment. There is no mistake that God prescribed capital punishment and the people were to carry it out. However, if we look at other passages, we see something different:

“If a man has sex with his uncle’s wife, he has violated his uncle. Both the man and woman will be punished for their sin, and they will die childless. “If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has violated his brother, and the guilty couple will remain childless. [Leviticus 20.20-21]

In this case, the offenders are punished by God in that He renders them sterile. There is no indication whatsoever that the people had anything to do with it.

Through today's and yesterday's OYCB readings there are mentions of being "cut off from the community." The context actually explains this as something God would do, but also something the people were to do. Look at this verse:

“If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a shameful disgrace. They must be publicly cut off from the community. Since the man has violated his sister, he will be punished for his sin. [Leviticus 20.17]

Again, if we will see it, there is distinction between the people cutting the offenders off from the community, and then the fact that the offenders "will be punished" as if by God. Relative to verses 20-21 of this same chapter, we see childlessness - a punishment only God can control - as the punishment.

This verse also describes something only God could do:

“You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home will vomit you out. [Leviticus 20.22]

The land "vomiting a person out" sounds very much like the inescapable and overwhelming physical, material, and emotional loss described as punishment in Deuteronomy 28.15-68.

The point is, bad things do not happen to good people as some have erroneously implied. Bad things happen because of faithless disobedience. Any person who subscribes to the idea that bad things can happen to good people has arrogantly put himself in the position of God to judge what only God can truly know. Remember Job was, by all accounts, upright, but God's questioning of Satan ultimately revealed that Job had pride issues that only God could have known about thus justifying Job's punishment.

God gave Deuteronomy 28.15-68 for the specific purpose of clarity when it comes to understanding if people have sinned or not. Physical, material, and emotional loss are described at length there in Deuteronomy and, for any person to deny that those curses are resultant to anything but faithless disobedience is to flagrantly deny God's Word. Modern science's explanations, although well-meaning, mean nothing spiritually.

People today "Google it" when they need to know what caused something and how to fix it. Deuteronomy 28 has long pre-dated Google in offering a clear definition of cause and effect concerning physical, material and emotional problems. All the curses found in Deuteronomy 28.15-68 indicate without exception that faithless disobedience is the cause of all sorts of problems. Only repentance is the fix.

"If what you say is true," it might be argued, "people would be repenting all the time!" And I would answer, "...and that is bad thing because of.... ?????" The pandemic of physical, material and emotional suffering across the earth should tell us one thing: people need to repent! Why?

There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. [Luke 24.47]

Father, forgive us. We are so far from You and Your Word - so indoctrinated with the the world and its science - that it seems hopeless that repentance will ever again be seen as the solution to mankind's physical, material, and emotional loss. Send more workers into Your fields empowered with the message, "There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent!" And may those workers demonstrate, as did Jesus, that that forgiveness of sins miraculously changes their circumstances.