DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- THE FINGER OF GOD

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – THE FINGER OF GOD

"This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear." (John 8:6)

The Scribes and Pharisees had brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery. In the Mosaic Law, the penalty for anyone who committed adultery was death – both the man and the woman (Leviticus 20:10). God was very explicit: "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die – the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel" (Deuteronomy 22:22). So we have to ask, "Where was the man?" These hypocrites were not interested in justice. They just wanted to catch Jesus in a trap.  How would Jesus answer?

Well, He didn't. Instead, he stooped to the ground and wrote something with His finger in the dust. The normal question is: What did He write? Whatever words He wrote brought conviction to the hearts of these "righteous" men. When Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first" (vs. 7), they all, beginning with the oldest and down to the youngest, turned and left. It was apparent that none of them were without sin.

Another question remains: What words brought such conviction that they all backed away? Scripture does not say, but it has been suggested that he wrote the Ten Commandments, or at least some of them. This seems plausible because God's Word does convict us of sin. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "I would not have known sin, except through the law" (Romans 7:7b). God's law brings us to the knowledge of sin and brings conviction.

So perhaps Jesus wrote, "You shall not covet," and some of them would have to admit they had broken that law. Or if Jesus wrote, "You shall not steal," some of the men remembered shoplifting in the market place. Of, if Jesus wrote, "You shall not bear false witness," they remembered the many times they had lied.

Jesus wrote on the ground with His finger, and it is noteworthy that the Law of Moses had been written with "the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10), and Jesus was God. God puts His finger on our sin and convicts us of our failures. Some will turn away without repenting as the Scribes and Pharisees did. Others will receive the words of Jesus, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more" (vs. 11).

Love. Dad