Series Theme:   Judgments of God

This Page: Part 4: Studies 4.1 - 4.5  -  Judgments in Exodus & Leviticus

PART 1: About God

1.1 God's Loving Forgiveness

1.2 God's Loving Goodness

1.3 A Perfect God

1.4 God's Love and Anger and Judgment

1.5 The Throne of God

1.6 God's Will & Purpose

1.7 God's Bench Mark

1.8 A Hard-nosed God?

1.9 The Testimony of the Bible

1.10 The Glory of God?

1.11 Balance

PART 2: About Judgments

2.1 The Concept of Indirect Judgment

2.2 Judgments – involving Satan

2.3 Judgment. Was it God?

2.4 The Corrective Elements of Judgments

2.5 Discipline = Correction & Change

2.6 Corrective Warnings & God's Reputation

2.7 General Warnings

PART 3: Judgments in Genesis

3.1 Adam and Eve

3.2 Cain and Abel

3.3 The Flood

3.4 Canaan Cursed

3.5 The Tower of Babel

3.6 Abram and Pharaoh

3.7 Sodom and Gomorrah

3.8 Er and Onan

3.9 Famines

3.10 Genesis Recap

PART 4: Judgments in Exodus & Leviticus

4.1 The Exodus

4.2 To Sinai

4.3 The Golden Calf

4.4 Casual Priests

4.5 Casual Blasphemy

Part 5: Judgments in Numbers

5.1 Casual Sabbath Disobedience

5.2 Grumblings about Hardships

5.3 Miriam's Leprosy

5.4 The Rejection of Canaan

5.5 Korah's Rebellion

5.6 More Foolish Grumbling

5.7 Grumblings get to Moses

5.8 Judgment of Snakes

5.9 Folly with Moab

  

Part 6: The Struggle for Canaan

6.1 Origins

6.2 Instructions

6.3 Reasons

6.4 Take Possession Gradually

6.5 Take Possession – Completely

6.6 Take Possession – Completely (2)

6.7 Take Possession – Completely (3)

6.8 Hardened Hearts

6.9 The Fear of the Lord

6.10 Miracles of the Lord

6.11 Incompleteness

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 4.1 The Exodus

Ex 4:21-23 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt , see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, `This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "

The Exodus is both one major judgment and a number of lesser judgments all at the same time. To get the full picture you need to read chapters 5 & 6 for preliminaries and then 7 to 12 for the actual plagues. Let's simply observe them and then make comment:

Now first, the cause. At first sight it is simply a judgment on a despot who refuses to heed God's call to let His people go, to let Israel go. It is that simple and that call comes again and again and Pharaoh's refusal is a demonstration of a hard heart and a pride that goes with it. However, when one considers the state of Egypt we find that not only was it ruled over by an all-powerful despot, but it was incredibly superstitious, worshipping ‘gods' of all kinds and some suggest that the plagues attack the fundamental believe in the (occult) powers of these ‘gods' and included in that might be the belief in the deity of the Pharaoh.

We may be able to suggest, therefore, that the Lord was bringing judgment on each of these things and specifically used the presence of His people in Egypt as the stumbling block over which Pharaoh would fall. In that case it was a plan that had been made known over four hundred years earlier when the Lord spoke to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (Gen 15:13,14) This was no accident, something that caught the Lord by surprise. The Lord never made Israel stay in Egypt and in their early years there they could have easily returned to Canaan but perhaps their prosperity and wellbeing in Egypt kept them there psychologically.

The biggest two things to note about these plagues is that a) they were clearly spelt out to Pharaoh and his people and b) there is a gradual intensity in the power and effect of each developing ‘plague'. This has got to be the greatest example in history of God giving opportunity after opportunity to a people to repent. It is probably also, therefore, the greatest example in history of the crass stupidity of the despot and his people and may speak to the slave mentality that occultic activity and sin produces.

It underlines the Lord's heart revealed through Ezekiel, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ezek 18:23) and “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:32) and “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel ?'” (Ezek 33;11) A threefold declaration through the prophet! The plagues of the Exodus reveal a God who holds back and holds back destruction. He could have given one warning and then killed Pharaoh and then sent a plague to wipe out the rest of the country, but instead He chose to give them opportunity after opportunity to repent and be saved while Israel left them.

Listen to God's intent: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” (Ex 6:6,7) Note the words, “Then you will know”. At the end of this there will be no grounds for doubt. God wants His people to know! (also 7:17, 10:2)

But there is more: “But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt , he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it." (Ex 7:3-5) By the end of all of this the remnant that is Egypt will also KNOW! (see also 8:10,22, 9:14,29, 14:4,18)

Again and again in Scripture we see that the Lord's intent is to reveal Himself through these things, so that people will know and turn to Him. His desire is to draw all men to himself in order that they may receive all of His blessings.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 4.2 To Sinai

Ex 14:10-12 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt ? Didn't we say to you in Egypt , `Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Coming out of Egypt, Israel enter into a number of trying situations and to save time we will summarise them in the following table:

Now we mention these ‘difficulties' that occurred on the way from Egypt to Sinai because of the absence of judgments! Yes, indeed, because at first sight this may appear quite surprising. Putting aside the attack of the Amalekites (because there was no indication that this was a disciplinary act of the Lord), let's look in a little more detail at what took place in each case.

Our verses above record the panic that the people of Israel felt when they found themselves hemmed in by sea on one side and Pharaoh's approaching army on the other. To all intents and purposes they were doomed. What is interesting is that the verses tell us that “they cried out to the Lord” AND they berated Moses for getting them into this apparent mess. Moses responds in faith: “ Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Ex 14:13,14) The Lord's only negative response, if you can call it that, is to gently chide Moses: “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me?” (v.15) and He then tells Him what to do and what will happen,. Deliverance comes as the seas part, Israel pass through, Pharaoh follows and is then drowned as the seas pour back. A miraculous deliverance to finalise the Exodus.

The second incident involves grumbling because they have come across water but it is stagnant: “ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Ex 15:24,25) Note again that there is no rebuke from the Lord, only a word of wisdom to Moses and then what has to be a miraculous cleansing of the water.

The third incident involves more grumbling but now it is because of lack of food: “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt ! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." (Ex 16:2,3) Yet again, quite remarkably, the Lord does NOT chide them but allows His glory to be seen (Ex 16:10) and then provides quail (Ex 16:13) and then the Manna (Ex 16:14,31) which required a faith response in collecting it. (And twice they failed to do that – see Ex 16:19-20 – keeping manna over night, and Ex 16:27-30 – going out in seventh day to collect it)

The fourth incident was over lack of water: “The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin , traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Ex 17:1-3) The Lord does not chide them but enables Moses to produce water from a rock, clearly another miracle (Ex 17:4-7).

The fifth difficulty they encounter is different in that they are attacked by the Amalekites. We have seen reference to this incident previously in the study on the throne of God. Moses intercedes while Joshua leads the people to fight and then overcome. We simply mention this incident because it was a difficulty they encountered in the desert and the Lord did enable them to overcome it.

With the first four of these incidents there are several commonalities: 1. A difficulty arose, 2. The people grumbled over the difficulty, 3. The Lord did NOT judge them for their grumbling and 4. The Lord provided for them in each instance – deliverance, cleansed water, food, and then water. To that we may then add, deliverance from an enemy.

Now why are we even doing this study if there are no judgments involved? The answer is exactly because of that, because after their encounters with the Lord at Sinai, suddenly it is very different and the Lord DOES hold them responsible for the way they then responded. We will see this in detail in a later study but for now we need to note the Lord's forbearance with this embryonic nation who have not yet learned to trust the Lord. They have been distant witnesses to the plagues but now they have had their own dealings with the Lord whereby He clearly allowed (if not led them into) difficulties so that they might learn that He is there for them. Their personal dealings with Him have so far been very limited and so we must assume that for this reason the Lord simply provides for them again and again and takes no action against the grumbling.

The lesson must be that the Lord tolerates those who are young in their faith and does not discipline; that comes later and seems to accompany revelation. The more we know of the Lord, the more He seems to hold us accountable. Challenging!

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 4.3 The Golden Calf

Ex 32:27,28 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel , says: `Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

As we come to this particular judgment we have to acknowledge from the outset that this must be one of the most terrible judgments we have seen. It is one thing for a flood to kill people or for a plague to kill people, but for people to kill their own brothers, friends or neighbours is horrendous. To try to make any sense out of it we must consider their recent history and, indeed, long-term future history.

First of all the facts of what has recently occurred – recent in terms of the last few months. Israel have been recipients of freedom as God judged Egypt. They were witnesses to His incredible power and destructive potential through the ten plagues and then in the Read Sea . They have witnessed His grace as when a number of times they grumbled over difficulties while travelling through the desert to Sinai, and the Lord simply provided for them again and again. There was no judgment involved.

When they arrived at Sinai they witnessed God's presence on the mountain or at least signs of it – thunder, lightening and black cloud and trumpet blast (Ex 19:16) but that was only after the Lord had offered them a covenant relationship: “if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'” (Ex 19:5,6) and when Moses presented them with this, “The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said.” (Ex 19:8). This was followed by a call to consecrate themselves (v.10) and by warnings not to go on the mountain on pain of death (v.12), a sense of God's holiness was being created.

We then see Moses going up and down the mountain a number of times, it seems, to meet with the Lord and in that he receives not only the Ten Commandments but a series of laws which Moses wrote down and which became the basis of the covenant (Ch.21-23) and we find, “When Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do ." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. … Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, " We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." (v.3,4,7) Three times now they have declared their acceptance of the covenant with God.

We then find, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel . Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.” (v.9-11) This is amazing and we tend to forget that 74 Israelite leaders were given a unique revelation of the Lord – and lived! This was the first and last time such a thing would happen – but bear in mind, in what follows, this incredible experience.

Then Moses is told to leave the others there and go up the mountain (v.12) to meet with God and receive the previously given ten commandments but now on tablets of stone that are to be a lasting reminder for Israel – and there he stayed for forty days. Now presumably the other seventy three (Joshua went at least part of the way with him (v.13) went back down the mountain to the people and no doubt told what they had seen.

This is where the crass stupidity of human Sin makes itself known. The days pass and Moses does not come down. Eventually the people tire of waiting and we find, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt , we don't know what has happened to him." (Ex 32:1) Now you would have thought that Aaron and the other seventy two would have reminded these people of what has only recently happened and the incredible revelation they received but one way and another this either didn't happen or it did happen and was rejected, and so Aaron gave way and the end result was a golden calf to be worshipped as an idol – and then Moses returns (Ex 32:2-8,19) and we have this terrible command to execute large numbers of Israel.

Now the problem is that we don't have a reason given why ONLY 3000 people died and we don't know how the Levites decided who should die. Although it is not stated I believe it is a fair assumption that the people killed were the ones who had been joining in the orgy of the golden calf. There is no other logical possibility or way they could have decided and the fact that they ONLY killed this relatively small number presupposes this was their way of deciding – the guilty will die.

Now we need to look at the big picture. In an earlier study we considered the glory of the Lord and said that one of THE most important things that Israel had to do in their role as God's people was reveal the Lord to the rest of the world. They had to reveal the fact that idols were simply man-made images and worthless and just superstitious rubbish, and the only One worthy of worship was The LORD, the I AM.

What we have here, as hard as it seems, is a people who at least three times committed themselves to the Lord and to the task of revealing His uniqueness (holiness) to the world and yet who, within just over a month reverse or forget those commitments and, even worse, set up idol worship, there on God's doorstep, so to speak. It was the greatest insult and rejection possible and therefore the remedy had to be absolute if this people are to start off their life with God on a right footing. The whole of their future ‘ministry' is at stake here. A devastating judgment and yet tiny in comparison to the large number of Israel (somewhere between 1 and 2 million people), and a lesson that should be held on to, to help them keep to their role and task.

An area that we have not looked at is what would have happened if judgment had not been brought over this incident.   I leave you to think about the ongoing rebellious attitude of a number within that camp and the effect they would have on the rest and the potential future for Israel , and as for the name of the Lord??? Seriously, think what alternative there was to this course of action and what harm to the ongoing wellbeing of this people would result if this hadn't happened.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 4.4 Casual Priests

Lev 10 1,2 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Now we move on from Exodus. There we saw two ‘judgments', the first in all the things the Lord brought on Egypt and Pharaoh, and the second the judgement brought on those who worshipped the Golden Calf. The first judgment was brought directly by the Lord, the second administered by men. When we come to Leviticus, a book full of ceremonial law, we might be surprised to find two judgments in the midst of the law, and again the first is directly from God and the second administered by man.

And so we have, very simply and directly in the record, the death of two of Aaron's sons. Fire comes from heaven and kills them both. It is that simple. To understand it, we need to pick up and reflect on some of the things we started saying in the previous meditation and which started off in an earlier meditation on the glory of the Lord. Let's examine the facts of the circumstances first.

First of all note the sons of Aaron: “ Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.” (Ex 6:23). They all became priests with Aaron: “Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu , Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.” (Ex 28:1) After this terrible event the record stood: “The names of the sons of Aaron were Nadab the firstborn and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Those were the names of Aaron's sons, the anointed priests, who were ordained to serve as priests. Nadab and Abihu, however, fell dead before the LORD when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before him in the Desert of Sinai . They had no sons; so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.” (Num 3:2-4) Eleazar went on to become a leader: “The chief leader of the Levites was Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest. He was appointed over those who were responsible for the care of the sanctuary,” (Num 3:32) and after Aaron's death he took over as chief priest (Num 20:28, Deut 10:6) referred to simply as ‘the priest'. Ithamar's role appears to have been to oversee the manufacture of the Tabernacle (Ex 38:21) and manage those who moved the Tabernacle (Num 4:28, 33, 7:8) The record of the death of Nadab and Abihu carried on in Scripture – Num 26:61, 1 Chron 24:1,2.

Next look at this particular role of the priests. Aaron's role was “to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die.” (Lev 16:11-13) The use of the censer was thus a particularly holy thing, going into the Holy of Holies, and the was no mention of anyone other than Aaron dong it. It appears that these two did this with no reference to either Moses or Aaron and so from the outset this was an independent act of these two young men that flouted or disregarded authority and specifically disregarded the sense of the holy in everything to do with the role of the priesthood.

Now in the previous study we saw that Moses was called to take up the mountain with him (Ex 24:1) seventy elders, Aaron AND Nadab and Abihu, so they had been privy to the amazing revelation of the Lord (Ex 24:10) They should have had an amazing sense of the holiness of God. It is possible that they did not use the prescribed incense (Ex 30:34-38) and it is certainly sure that they were not doing it as part of the authorized worship of the people. Thus the condemnation is that “they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command.” i.e. they were doing their own thing and utterly disregarding the Lord. In the New Testament, people were dying because at the Lord's Supper they appeared to be doing exactly these two things (1 Cor 11:29,30) In the light of the instructions that were given shortly afterwards,(Lev 10:6-10) one wonders if they did this without wearing the proper ceremonial robes and maybe even intoxicated. One way or another, they were right out of line!

What is incredible is that in the verses immediately preceding these of their sin and destruction, is a record of how fire came from the Lord to burn up the burnt offering that was being made as part of the procedure for ordaining the priesthood. This was holy fire which is fire from God and it should have created in them an even greater sense of awe. Instead it simply makes their activities even more clearly acts of self-centred folly and of utter disregard of God. Everything in the preceding two chapters spoke of how the priests could only operate in God's presence in God's way and recognising the power of the cleansing by blood as part of the ceremonies. These two men were completely insensitive to all this.

Now bear in mind all we have said previously about Israel – and its leaders – representing God to the whole world and revealing Him to them and again we come to a corrective judgment that not only punishes the godless sinner but sends a clear message to the rest of Israel and, indeed, the rest of the world who might hear about it. You are dealing with The One and Only God who is holy, utterly different from any man-made ideas about deities. He has established the world and knows how He has designed it to work best, and all of His laws given through Moses reflect that and show them a better way to live than that which they see in their neighbours. When it comes to the priesthood and the ceremonial laws, they are all designed to reveal this ‘otherness', His holiness.

Failure to deal with this casual, self-centred and godless behaviour would open the way for a casual, half-hearted approach to God and the start of a downward spiral in their relationship with the Lord. As it was, history shows that Israel had a terrible record in respect of their obedience / disobedience in respect of the Lord but they could never say that the Lord did not warn them and do everything possible to clarify their role as conveyor of the news about the One Creator God who is Lord of all.

Meditating on the Judgments of God: 4.5 Casual Blasphemy

Lev 24:13,14 Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him.

From our ‘superior' position in the twenty-first century (as we so often see it) the laws of Moses requiring the death penalty seem particularly harsh, especially as we have done away with the death penalty, but here we have this instance in Leviticus where specific lawbreaking resulted in death by stoning. Let's look at the details.

In the Ten Commandments we find, “ You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Ex 20:7) As we read through the Pentateuch one thing you notice is that there is a focus on God's name, e.g. “Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name ….. You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name .” (Deut 16:2,5,5)

THE name of course, which is what the capital letters spelling LORD in your Old Testament refer to, comes from Exodus 3:14 “God said to Moses I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE” but then carries on “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.' " and you will find a note saying, “The Hebrew for LORD sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14.”

This name of God who has simply described Himself as, "the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." (Ex 3:6) is “the I AM”. Wherever He appears in time-space history He is “I AM” or, to put it another way, ‘the Eternal One'. He is always ‘I AM' and in that He is unique, there is no other like Him. Now remember what we have said a number of times about Israel 's role in revealing the Lord, especially in that study on The Glory of God, and therefore any descriptions of God and, even more, any names given to Him, are vitally important.

Again and again in the laws, the big issue is the name of the Lord, a name which must be represented accurately, a name that must not be associated in any way with the gods or idols of the world, hence, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” (Lev 18:21). Indeed His name is the vital link to all the laws of Moses; they mean nothing without being linked to who He is. For instance the Ten Commandments start with, “I am the LORD (the I AM) your God, who brought you out of Egypt , out of the land of slavery.” (Ex 20:2) They have encountered Him in this most incredible of experiences and all His instructions to them (the laws) are to be seen in that context. He, the lawgiver, is the one who has delivered them from slavery and shown Himself to be the all-powerful Lord. Likewise later on we find this same thing reiterated: “Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. Do not profane my holy name . I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD." (Lev 22:31-33)

Thus when the priesthood ministers they are to be representatives of this holy One who is unique: “Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God . Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy.” (Lev 21:5,6) No wonder, as we saw in the previous study that Aaron's two sons ended up dying. Thus likewise we find, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” (Lev 19:12)

Which finally brings us to this historical incident where, in the heat of a fight and argument, one of the combatants we might say, ‘looses his cool' or ‘blows his top' and in so doing abuses the name of God. Now in the twenty first century we have so much blasphemy or negative use of God's name on films and on TV that, sadly, we have almost grown accustomed to it, but that merely says something about how low we have fallen. The period of time we are considering is Israel in embryonic stage and therefore it is vital that they do not cross any wrong boundaries and portray God exactly as He is, the unique One, the holy One, the One who is like no other and against whom no other can be compared, the Creator of all things who is perfect. In conveying this, ‘the Name' was all important.

Now this was not a judgment of God sovereignly but was an execution to be carried out by the people in the most gruesome of manners. Each person was to take a pile of stones and throw them at the man who will appear first bloody, then tottering, then falling but still moving until those closest aim for his head and there is no doubt left, he is dead. The one thing I know about that is that many of you are going to have bad dreams for a long time. There will be an awful sense of quietness around the community: “We have decimated this man's body; we have taken his life.” But there's also something else I know about it, and that is that every one involved in it will go away saying to themselves, “I will never do that again, we must never let that happen again, we must ensure these laws are never again broken,” and they will become the most law-abiding people on earth, holding firmly to these rules that we have described as God's laws to comply with how He has designed us to work best.

We have so blurred the boundaries today between what is right and what is wrong that these things no doubt shock us, but they were so effective that it was only the passing of time blurring memories or another generation coming along for whom it was no longer vivid, that permitted any breakdown. This was a community that had entered into a covenant with God – obedience will bring blessing, disobedience will bring curse – and who thus should have been portraying the wonderful possibilities of a glorious relationship with Him to the world. Failure to uphold these things at this stage would have undermined the whole basis of the Law of Moses and Israel would have slipped (even faster) into becoming the same of as pagan nations with their terrible practices. Each of these incidents acts as a brake on that happening and allows more time for Israel to reveal the glory of the Lord to the world. Terrible certainly, but tragically necessary.