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Liberty & Justice for All

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INTRODUCTION

Part of the advantage of taking larger sections together is seeing how seemingly different laws actually fit together. Here, we have a passage that begins with worship, flows out into criminal justice, and concludes with Israelite economic policies. The overarching point is that justice and economics are always thoroughly theological matters. We are always appealing to God or some god, when we adjudicate crimes, buy, sell, lease, or forgive. There is always an ultimate standard. It is not whether but which.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beat for the light…” (Lev. 24-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

God reminds His people the covenant with Him is their light and life, and so they were to picture that continually with candles and bread in the holy place (Lev. 24:1-9). Because God’s covenant is the source of light and life, His law prohibits blasphemy, and therefore, depending on its severity, can be a capital crime because it is an attack on life itself (Lev. 24:10-23). Related to this principle, was the requirement of sabbath years where fields were left fallow, culminating in the fiftieth year of jubilee (Lev. 25:1-12). In the year of jubilee, rural lands and houses were returned to their original owners, creating a fifty year lease/rent cycle, with the Levites and cities excepted (Lev. 25:13-17, 29-34). God promised that obedience to these laws would cause the land to be blessed, and that Israel would dwell in safety (Lev. 25:18-22). These sabbath years also included the forgiveness of debts and the release of debt slaves (Lev. 25:25-28, 35-46). But debt slaves could always be redeemed by their close relatives (Lev. 25:47-55).

OIL & BREAD, BLASPHEMY & JUSTICE

Jesus said that He is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12) and He is the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:48). In Him is life; and the life is the light of men (Jn. 1:4). But this is not merely a “spiritual” or “religious” fact. He made all things (Jn. 1:3), and therefore it applies to all things. His light and life show the way to the Father, and that fellowship is light for the world (cf. 1 Jn. 1:7). His light and life are for justice, economics, finances, debt, planting, harvest, restitution, redemption, safety, and blessing.

We noted previously that murder is the one mandatory capital crime in biblical law but a possible maximum penalty for other crimes. That principle is underlined here, since they needed to inquire of the Lord to see what the appropriate penalty would be for the blasphemy (Lev. 24:12). The following verses, reinforce the lex talionis (“eye for eye”) principles of restitution, prohibiting all personal vengeance, and applied equally to all (Lev. 24:17-21). Between the blasphemy and physical altercation, this crime amounted to murder, and was not just a casual taking of the Lord’s name in vain. It was high-handed covenant treason. We see the results all around us of not learning the lesson here: you cannot have life, liberty, or justice for all apart from honoring the Triune God who is their source. Blasphemy laws are inescapable; it’s not whether but which.

SINS, DEBTS, & LIBERTY

When men reject the living God and His Word, sin does not go away, it merely gets renamed and new (false) gospels are invented to pretend to deal with it. Freud taught that since sexual sin caused guilt and shame, people should be free to do whatever they want so they don’t feel bad and do bad things. Secular statists believe that people commit crimes because they are poor or don’t have equal opportunities, therefore, the state must provide universal basic income and enforce equal opportunities, including things like abortions, universal day care, parental leave, social security, and reparations. Related is voting to legalize sins and crimes to try to make everyone feel better. The problem with all of this is that it doesn’t work. Giving into sin/approving sin never actually deals with sin. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, but it must be the blood of perfectly pleasing sacrifice (Heb. 9). And the blood of babies, broken families, and other victims cannot take away sin. Government programs are not real grace. But it is true that real grace deals with real sin in the real world and it affects everything from public policy to taxation to inheritance laws and restitution.

CONCLUSIONS

Jesus came proclaiming “the acceptable year of the Lord,” the great Jubilee (Lk. 4:18-19). He came doing this centrally through proclaiming the forgiveness of sins that He was about to accomplish in the Cross. This is not because He didn’t care about poverty or injustice but because He knew that sin/guilt is at the root of all of it. Remember that the seventh month was the month of the Day of Atonement/Feast of Booths, and the seventh years and jubilees (with their trumpets) were echoes of that. All liberty and justice flow from the Great Atonement in the blood of Christ.

This freedom and justice begin at the Cross restoring fellowship between God and man, but it flows out into the world. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is a prayer for Jubilee. Do you want liberty and justice in the public square? Then practice it in your heart, in your home, in the church. And remember that the foundation of it all is forgiveness and release.

Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer, our Great Boaz, who has paid all our debts and set us free, and He has set us free so that we might do the same for others. Practice forgiveness/grace. Practice sabbath and diligence in your work. Keep the light and life of Jesus central. He has purchased us and the ends of the earth for His possession. We belong to Christ, and He will keep us safe.

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The Feast of the Lord (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

Food is right at the center of world. When God created man in His own image, He put him in a garden full of food with a Tree of Life in the midst of the garden. And the recurring picture of salvation and redemption is a feast: “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees. He shall swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces…” (Is. 25:6-7).

The Bible closes with John’s vision of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). And at the center of the Christian life, Jesus has given us a meal, a feast of life and joy and rest.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying… concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts…” (Lev. 23:1-44)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Never forget that God brought Israel out of Egypt so that they might feast with Him (Ex. 5:1, 24:11). The Peace Offering was a regular sacrificial feast that Israel was invited to celebrate, but God also established an annual festival calendar. The first and foundational feast was the weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23:1-3). The Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread was in the first month commemorating the Exodus (Lev. 23:4-8). The Feast of Firstfruits was at the very beginning of the Harvest (Lev. 23:9-14). And the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost) came 50 days later at the end of harvest, remembering the poor as they did so (Lev. 23:15-22). On the first day of the seventh month, there was to be a Feast of Trumpets, preparing for the Day of Atonement 10 days later, the one day of affliction and (presumably) fasting in the Israelite calendar (Lev. 23:23-32). Five days later, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) began, a full week of feasting in makeshift tents, also at the end of harvest (Lev. 23:33-44). Finally, we should simply note that throughout these feasts are “holy convocations,” worship services, where Israel gathered together to hear Scripture, to sing, to pray, rejoice, and remember.

REJOICE IN THE LORD

Christians have frequently embraced a less than biblical understanding of joy. The foundation of Christian joy is the forgiveness of sins, and that is a joy that can never be taken from you. But then what do you do with that joy? The Bible requires us to rejoice always (Phil. 4:4). And in the same place, Paul says that he has learned in whatever state he is in to be content (Phil. 4:11-12). “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast” (Prov. 15:15). And we should note that this rejoicing and contentment is what Paul is talking about when he says he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him (Phil. 4:14). So God commanded Israel to keep these feasts throughout the year so that they would “rejoice before the Lord” (Lev. 23:40, cf. Dt. 12:7, 12, 18).

So this is also why when God delivered the Jews from the plotting of Haman, they established the feast of Purim, “a day of feasting and gladness” and giving gifts as a memorial throughout their generations (Esth. 9:17-28). Memorials are reminders in space or time, and memorial feasts are reminders to rejoice always. Later, in the intertestamental period, the Jews took back the temple mount from their enemies and rededicated it, establishing the Festival of Lights or Hannukah, which Jesus participated in (Jn. 10:22). While we are certainly not bound by the Old Testament calendar (Gal. 4:9-10, Rom. 14:5-7) and the kingdom of God is not in meat or drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), God wants us to rejoice in Him and mark that joy with feasting.

A BRIEF CASE FOR A CHRISTIAN SABBATH

While celebrating Sunday as the Christian Sabbath is not something Christians should quarrel about, a strong case can be made for the practice. First, we should note that God rested when He created the world, before there was any sin in the world, establishing a one day in seven rhythm that is embedded in the nature of the world. In the first giving of the law, this is the pattern that Israel was to follow keeping the seventh day as sabbath (Ex. 20:11). In the second giving, Moses appealed to the Exodus (Dt. 5:15), not because remembering creation had ceased, but because now there was more to remember, and the central command in Sabbath-keeping is to “remember.” Specifically, as Israel went into Canaan, they were to remember that they had been slaves with no days off, but God had made them His free royal sons who would now work for Him and celebrate a weekly holiday.

Isaiah prophesied that in the New Covenant all flesh will worship the true God “from one sabbath to another” (Is. 66:23), and Hebrews explicitly says that a “rest” remains for the people of God, and the word there is “sabbath” (Heb. 4:9). So the question that remains would be why do we believe that the Christian Sabbath is Sunday instead of Saturday? Given all of this, it actually makes tons of sense that Christians would immediately begin celebrating a weekly Sabbath feast and holy convocation on the day Jesus rose from the dead and remade all things (1 Cor. 16:2, Rev. 1:10). The resurrection marks the new creation and the new Exodus, and if God’s people celebrated the first creation and the first exodus as free sons with a weekly festival, why would we do any less?

CONCLUSION: JESUS, LORD OF TIME

Part of what we proclaim when we say that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, is that He is the Lord of Time. He is Lord of our calendars. People always keep time by their gods because our lives are timebound (e.g. ‘Sun’-day, ‘Moon’-day, Thors-day, etc.) and so we mark those things that seem most important and those memorials in time in turn shape us into certain kinds of people. This is why culture wars center on battles over the dictionary and the calendar (words/definitions and time). What is true? What must we remember and celebrate?

The gospel is gloriously historic. Jesus created the heavens and the earth in six days, and in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem us from the curse of the law. Jesus was born in time, on a particular day. He lived for about 33 years, and He was crucified, and on the third day, He rose from the dead. He was seen by many for 40 days, ascended into Heaven, and on the 50th day, He sent His Holy Spirit on the Church.

While the Roman Catholic calendar got overly crowded and burdensome during the middle ages, we stand with the historic church and the Reformers in wanting our lives to be shaped by Christ in time and so we celebrate the Five Evangelical Feast Days (Christmas, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost), the central events in the life of Christ, with the Lord’s Day as our weekly rhythm of rejoicing at the center. We work hard because we rest in Him.

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The Priesthood of Christ & All Believers (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

The central message of the Bible is God’s victory over death through resurrection. As the ministers of God in the Old Testament, the priests of Israel were required to picture God’s coming victory over death in a number of ways. While some of the particulars have changed in the New Covenant, the principles really have not. What the Old Testament pictured, Christ has accomplished as our High Priest, and He has made us a holy priesthood for God.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel…” (Lev. 21-22).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

These instructions are given to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and they begin by forbidding touching dead bodies and being defiled and imitating the mourning practices of the pagans (21:1-6, 10-12). Their marriages were to be pictures of purity, and their children were to be faithful (21:7-9, 13-15). Priests who served in the sanctuary were to be physically whole (21:16-24). The priests were to honor the ceremonial cleanliness laws and follow the purification instructions just like the rest of Israel (22:1-9). The privileges of the priesthood belonged to the priest and his household, not visitors or daughters who married out of the priestly tribe (22:10-13). Accidental profaning of holy things required restitution with 20 percent added to it (22:14-16). All offerings were to be males without obvious reminders of the curse of death – no blemish, bruise, spot, or deformity (22:17-25). God required His people to practice a measure of compassion and reverence for new life and motherhood even with animals, permitting newborn animals to be offered only after a week old, and a mother and baby could not be offered on the same day (22:26-28). Sacrifices of thanksgiving were to be offered and eaten on the same day because God is holy and He brought Israel out of Egypt (22:29-33).

DO NOT SORROW LIKE THOSE WITHOUT HOPE

What the priests were required to practice in the Old Testament with regard to death really is wonderfully fulfilled in Jesus and the principles that continue to apply to us are glorious. The central application of these laws to the New Testament Christian priesthood (all Christians) is that we may not sorrow over death like pagans, like those who have no hope: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (1 Thess. 4:13-14). The death and resurrection of Jesus has radically altered the world and death itself.

This language of “sleeping” is also related. After Jesus conquered death, those who die in Him are not said to really die anymore, only sleep (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:6). Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn. 11:26-27, Jn. 6:40-58). When Jesus came to the house of the little girl who had died, He said, why are you making such a commotion with all your weeping, she is not dead but only sleeping (Mk. 5:39). Then putting everyone out of the house except her parents, he took the little girl by the hand and told her to arise (Mk. 5:40-41). Did Jesus, our Great High priest touch a dead body? No, because in the presence of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, His touch is life. To Him, and to all who are in Him, death is merely sleep. So neither do we defile ourselves when we are in the presence of those who die, and we do not mourn as those without hope. We may certainly weep as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus, but it is not a grief of hopeless despair. And our memorial services do and should reflect that. Because Jesus had not yet come, the priests were required to keep themselves from dead bodies (Lev. 21:1-5, 10-11), and all that resembled the curse of death – those with diseases and deformities could not serve in the tabernacle (Lev. 21:17-23). But now in Christ, those born with disease or deformities are reckoned whole in Him and therefore most welcome in worship and in the worshiping community.

ONE BAPTISM & ONE SACRIFICE & ONE PRIESTHOOD

In the Old Covenant, there were many baptisms (Heb. 9:10). In fact, that was how you became ceremonially clean, you had to be baptized repeatedly, every time you became unclean before coming to the sanctuary for worship (Lev. 22:6). This is part of the glory of “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). And Hebrews says that it wasn’t just the washing that purified but it was also the offering (Heb. 9:13). This is why the offerings of the Old Covenant had to be without blemish (Lev. 22:19-25), but if God accepted the blood of bulls and goats without blemish as faint shadows for purification, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13-14). Jesus is the priest, and Jesus is the sacrifice.

CONCLUSIONS

And notice what you need to be cleansed from: dead works. Dead people do dead works. Outside of Christ, people are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1-5). Outside of Christ people are not sick, not merely confused, not merely on life support. Outside of Christ, people are dry bones scattered on the ground (Ez. 37). But people do not think this is what they are since they can still go to church, sing in the choir, vote conservative, and lead small groups. But what they are offering is their own dead works full of blemishes, spots, bruised, crushed, broken, and cut (Lev. 22:24) because they are dead themselves. And therefore, your works will not be accepted by God. This is why you often need to be forgiven for what you think of as being your virtues. Even your righteousness is like filthy rags, full of death (Is. 64:6). You must be raised from the dead and cleansed from your dead works.

Many people have pointed out that Jesus never did funerals. Jesus attended or showed up in the midst of funerals, but they never stayed that way. Whenever Jesus shows up in the gospels where someone has died, death never has the last word.

In the New Covenant, all Christians are priests, and we all offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1-2). And what you do all week long is what you are bringing to offer, and that will either be the perfection and purity and resurrection life of Christ or else dead works. What do you have? What is in your hands? What is in your heart? If you call on the Lord, you will be saved.

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A World Without Roe

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INTRODUCTION

On Friday, June 24th, the United States Supreme Court handed down its Dobbs v. Jackson decision reversing the 1973 ruling Roe vs. Wade. In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court had claimed that a woman had a constitutional “right to privacy” which included the right to abortion up to the point of viability (the baby could live outside the womb). While constitutionally and morally States had an obligation to ignore and defy Roe, they did not, and this led to one of the most permissive cultures of abortion in the world, rivaling communist countries like China and North Korea.

The Dobbs case originated in Mississippi with a 15 week ban, directly challenging the “viability” standard. Justice Alito’s majority opinion argues that there is no right to abortion in the Constitution and therefore, the issue must be decided by the states. This is a most welcome reversal, but for Christians, it is not yet the full-throated defense of pre-born life we are working toward. The constitution and declaration of independence everywhere assume the right to life granted directly from God, and therefore, it really should not be a matter of democratic vote. But we rejoice in this great deliverance, and we look to Christ to drive this bloody scourge fully from our land.

THE TEXT

“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Ex. 21:22-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

While there is some ambiguity in the text, this biblical law is not ambiguous about the fact that the child in the womb is endowed with a right to life and protection from its Creator (21:22). There are a couple of questions: in the first scenario the child is born, but does it live or die? Jewish tradition takes it to be an early miscarriage, and the Septuagint furthered that interpretation by translating it as “unformed child.” The other question is who/what does “no mischief” refer to? If it refers to both the woman and the child, then it could mean that the child is born healthy and there is no serious harm done to either one, and therefore the fine imposed would be for minor medical costs or loss of time. If the correct interpretation is an early miscarriage, the fine is imposed because it wasn’t obvious that the woman was pregnant. Greater knowledge implies greater responsibility.

In the second scenario, serious harm has come to the woman or the child, and the potential punishment ranges from life to limb to wound to stripe (Ex. 21: 23-25). Again, here, the Septuagint refers the harm specifically to a “fully formed child.” Some modern commentaries try to translate this law as though it is only talking about harm done to the woman (but then why bring the child up at all?) or else try to argue from the Greek translation, that the law is only protecting fully formed babies and somehow allows early abortions for an “unformed child.” But the fact that a fine is imposed even in the case of an early miscarriage demonstrates legal protections from the earliest days of life, and if the principle is knowledge, how much more culpable is a modern person, taking some hormonal forms of “birth control” or morning after pills designed to prevent implantation of a newly fertilized egg?

Commenting on our passage, John Calvin wrote: “…the unborn, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is an almost monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his most secure place of refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy the unborn in the womb before it has come to light.”

THE SANCTITY OF GOD & THE RIGHT TO LIFE

Properly speaking, we do not believe in the “sanctity of life,” as though life all by itself is sacred. We believe in the sanctity of God and the holiness of His Word, and because we hallow the Triune God and His Word, we are duty bound to protect the right to life of every human being according to God’s Word. But it is this same standard that permits the wise and judicious taking of animal life for protection, food, and as consistent with taking dominion of God’s creation. It is also this same standard that requires the death penalty for murder and allows for it in some other cases, when due process has been followed (Gen. 9:6, Dt. 19, cf. Lev. 20).

There is a fundamental divide between those who believe that certain rights are directly bestowed by God and those who believe that the state gives and takes those rights according to its own whims. The founders of our nation believed the former: “… all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…” (Declaration of Independence). “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” (Ninth Amendment). Securing fundamental rights is not at all the same as creating them or bestowing them. We are in struggle over this fundamental issue, and it extends from life to the nature marriage, parenthood, family, private property, and from there to all of society.

SCATTERSHOT POINTS & OBJECTIONS

Never forget that we confess the beginning of life at conception every single Sunday when we recite the Apostles’ Creed “… conceived by the Holy Ghost…” When did God become man? When He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the virgin Mary. When did Jesus begin to exist as a human being? When He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. That is when human life begins.

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, some pro-aborts have been weeping and gnashing their teeth saying that the next thing on the chopping block is birth control. If by that they mean chemicals designed to prevent and disrupt implantation, yes, those are abortifacient drugs that should be outlawed. While the Bible says nothing about other faith-filled planning for children in order to maximize fruitfulness, Christians should reject all laws/rulings that divorce fruitfulness from marriage, as though you might enter marriage planning to be sterile.

Some, desperate for a text, have said that Numbers 5:11-31 allows for abortions. But Numbers 5 is a jealously rite that God allowed Israel to perform when a husband suspected his wife of adultery. Despite one bad translation, the text says nothing about causing abortions, only that in the case of a guilty woman, God will cause the woman to become barren (Num. 5:27-28).

You have no doubt heard by now that you cannot be pro-gun and pro-life at the same time. But this is nonsense. This is about as logical as saying that you cannot be pro-surgery and pro-life at the same time. The accidental or intentional misuse of something is not at all equivalent to the intentional murder of an unborn child. Related to this objection, is the occasional comeback that if you are pro-life, you must support every state-funded program the liberals have ever dreamed up. But that’s like saying that if you object to the thugs killing, you must at least hire them to take care of you. Absolutely not. If a lifeguard saves somebody from drowning, he doesn’t owe them food, housing, clothing, and a college education. We cannot get tired of insisting that health, welfare, and education are the primary responsibility of the family, and where there is no family, the church is the backstop, not the state (Eph. 5-6, 1 Tim. 5).

Incidentally, you’ve probably also heard lamentations about Christians not caring for orphans, but the stats prove that Christians are routinely twice (or more) as generous in charitable giving, and more likely to participate in foster care and adoption than unbelievers. And do not forget the thousands of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that have popped up over the last 50 years. Not ready for this moment? Not hardly. God has made us ready.

The common exceptions you will hear are for rape or incest or the life of the mother. We should outright reject the first two since we should never punish an innocent party for the crimes of another. And like other hard providences, God can bring blessing out of great tragedy and hardship (this same point applies to babies with disabilities). With the life of the mother, Christians need to be very careful since it can sound correct and be used for evil. In the very rare instances of an ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilized egg has actually implanted in the fallopian tube, procedures to remove the implanted egg are not an abortion since the goal is not to kill the child, even if we do not yet have the medical technology to save the life of the child. Therefore, we do not support abortion in cases where the life of the mother is threatened since we must always do all in our power to preserve life, and never take it intentionally.

CONCLUSION

We do not take this Supreme Court decision as proof that America has repented. No, that clearly must still take place, but we should take this decision as a demonstration of God’s power and goodness. We should be sitting on the edge of our seats, eager to see what God will do next, redoubling our prayer, singing, giving, voting, and sharing. And above all else, we should be rejoicing in the Lord. Those Christians who cannot or will not rejoice are not looking to Christ, but at men. We do not trust in horses or chariots, politicians or voting or judges, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Remember, at root, the unbelieving heart hates Jesus, and therefore we will also be hated. But we must not fear this sharp divide; this is where the light of Christ shines the brightest.

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Death Penalties & the Cross

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INTRODUCTION

Modern man prides himself in not being violent and savage, and yet we have butchered 60 million babies and counting. We have high rates of drug and alcohol and porn addiction, suicide, incarceration, and so on. We sacrifice babies to our Molech, and we sacrifice millions more in the slow cooker of government programs and prisons. We have rejected Jesus and His easy yoke, calling it harsh, and we have demanded the demented yoke of humanistic hubris and tyrannical government. And the only way out of this mess is through the Cross of Jesus.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel, whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death…” (Lev. 20:1-27).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The text opens with a prohibition against offering children to Molech and against turning a blind eye to it, as well as all idolatry, since the people are to be holy and keep God’s statutes (Lev. 20:1-8). Seven crimes are listed with death penalties (20:9-16), and five additional sins are listed, with the community sanctions of being “cut off from among their people” and “bearing their sin” (Lev. 20:17-21). “Dying childless” could imply the possibility of a civil penalty, but it is probably a direct sanction from God since it identifies one of those instances as being “unclean,” which is a ceremonial status (20:21). God reminds His people that He is giving them life and blessing in a good land through His law, which is why they must remain separate from the other nations (20:22-24). The daily sign of the distinction was their diet (20:25-26), and that was to remind them to remove all idolatry out of their midst (20:27).

COMPARED TO WHAT?

“Molech” is related to the Hebrew word “melech” which means “king.” The fires of Molech are most likely a generic reference to the various cults of the nations. Dedication of children to Molech seems to have included both child sacrifice as well as temple prostitution. And right on schedule our nation is actually debating the appropriateness of Drag Queen story, so-called gender “transition,” and the furies are out in full force demanding abortion as “health care.”  This is nothing short of the new dedication of children to Molech.

You can always tell the god or gods of a culture by where coercion and violence are accepted and obedience and submission are required. Even in relatively conservative churches, if a woman says she must obey her husband, she will sometimes get concerned looks and questions about whether everything is OK (same with obeying a pastor or elder). But if you mention a court order or taxes (with threat of violence/prison), the assumption is that you better just submit. The fact that many modern Christians are embarrassed that God would require death penalties for certain crimes but just shrug when our civil government sends thieves to prison for decades, tells you who our god is, who we see as holy.

In these laws we see God’s requirement that we hallow Him particularly in our families and sexuality. Over the centuries, acts of treason and desertion from an army in time of war have been punished with death, subtly insisting that civil loyalties are the most sacred. Instead of accusing God of harshness, we ought to assume that He is warning us and the world about the potency and sacredness of marriage and family (Heb. 13:4). Jesus also makes it clear what cursing father or mother looks like: “For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightiest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother” (Mk. 7:10-12). Jesus is clearly implying that certain forms a high-handed neglect of elderly parents are the kind of cursing of parents that might be tried as form of murder.

CRIMES & SINS & JUSTICE

This text distinguishes between crimes that require a civil penalty (20:9-16), and sins that require a ceremonial or familial penalty (20:17-21). The distinction between crimes and sins designates different jurisdictions: the state, the family, and the church. Sins are to be adjudicated and addressed by individuals, families, and churches as appropriate, while crimes have civil penalties and are the proper jurisdiction of the state. God has given the civil magistrate the sword of vengeance, which means that the state is only good at violence and coercion (Rom. 13). This is why the Bible requires a fiercely limited civil government. In a Christian land, all crimes would also be sins, but not all sins are crimes. In a pagan land, it’s more of a Venn diagram, and not all crimes are really sins.

It’s worth noting that only murder required a mandatory death penalty; all of these death penalties are maximum sentences (Gen. 9:6-9, Dt. 19:11-13). We can see this in another law regarding Sabbath breaking which also called for a death penalty (Lev. 24:11-22, cf. Num. 15:32-36), however in the days of Nehemiah, he suppressed Sabbath commerce but didn’t institute a death penalty (Neh. 13:19-21). We see something similar with the death penalty for homosexuality in our text (Lev. 20:13), but the good kings Asa and Jehoshaphat exiled the sodomites from the land (1 Kgs. 15:12, 22:46), and Josiah tore down their houses of prostitution (2 Kgs. 23:7).

CONCLUSION

In the New Testament, we do not see the apostles lobbying for death penalties. What do we make of that? Paul does say after listing a number of crimes and sins, “that they which commit such things are worthy of death” (Rom. 1:32), and elsewhere he says the law is good, so long as it is used lawfully, to prevent lawlessness and everything that is “contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel” (1 Tim. 1:8-11).

Therefore, we conclude that the law (with its death penalties) remains the perfect standard of justice and reveals God’s wrath against our sins and crimes. We affirm the goodness of the law for public policy and all morality, but we affirm it first and foremost as that which drives the world to Christ and His glorious gospel. There is no life outside of Christ, and all who hate His wisdom love death. The world says believe in yourself, re-invent yourself, find yourself, and the end of that road is nothing but sadness and death: rage and shame, sickness and scars, mutilation and murder. And the law drives sinners to despair.

The law drives sinners to the cross, to the place of execution and there the gospel proclaims: Christ died for guilty sinners. Christ died for lawbreakers. Christ died for the unclean, the profane, the obscene, the sodomites, the pedophiles, the prostitutes, the liars, the idolaters, the proud, and all who have dishonored their parents. The law cannot save, but what the law is powerless to do, God has done by sending His Son. Christ has received the death penalty for us. And this is why it is only those who know their guilt who are the ones who are in.

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