Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:36 — 12.2MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I am so excited that we are less than a month away from football season, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
I have to admit, one of the leading motivators for me bringing back SILY was the opportunity to share stories and lessons stemming from my Christian faith. In addition to that, my hope was that these stories would bring in sincere questions from listeners that would in turn bring about a deeper understanding of Christianity, the Bible, and what it means to live in this culture as a Christian both for myself and all of those listening. Put another way, I hoped questions would come in that would lead to spiritual growth for both myself and other listeners.
Today’s Monday Mailbag episode will be entirely devoted to a contribution that I received via YouTube. Here’s the question from Wishyouwerehere435:
Hi and thanks for the video. As I want to be Christian I wanted to take you up on your offer to discuss context on a troubling Bible verse. I want to be clear that I am being very honest here. There are many verses that are difficult for me and have caused great division in my family. I have listed a few and would greatly appreciate a response. Thank you in advance.
Exodus 35:2
Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
Matthew 10:34
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
Psalm 137:9
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Deuteronomy 32:42
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Luke 19:27
But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’
There is a lot to reveal in each of these verses, and it’s clear why these verses could be viewed as difficult or toubling. Due to time constraints, I’m only going to address the first three verses in this episode. Please leave me a comment if you’d still like me to address the other two verses in a future episode. So let’s dig into that first verse.
Once again, Exodus 35:2 says, “Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.” There’s a lot to explore in this verse, so let’s dive in.
When I look at this verse, I find it difficult to understand why God would command capital punishment simply because someone chooses to not keep the sabbath. Put differently, why would God kill someone just for not taking a day off?
There’s certainly more to it than that. First, the context here is the Israelites had just escaped from Egypt where they had been slaves for hundreds of years. That means that not a single Israelite had ever known what it was like to be free. These were people that while they maintained some level of separation from the Egyptians and maintained some of their own culture, it was not like things were before they were slaves.
When they left Egypt they began a time of being in the wilderness. Several times throughout their wilderness journey they wanted to go back to Egypt where they had abundant food and other provisions. This time in the wilderness was a time of God changing their mindset and their culture. They needed to understand how to depend on God and God alone. Put another way, they needed to be wiped of their slavery mentality and establish a kingdom mentality. They were to be unlike any other nation on earth.
One primary way God did this was by establishing various laws, rituals, and protocols. We see these established throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. For the most part, these were laws only for the nation of Israel during that time in history. Notable exceptions are when we see God judging other nations for violating certain laws. In those cases, we can derive that those laws are for all people, not just Israel. We can also look to the new testament to see which laws are to be maintained today.
In this old testament time, another piece of context is that God was taking his plan for redeeming mankind to the next step. Many of the rituals and sacrifices are in place to point to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus would make which would be the final sacrifice for all mankind for all time and would put an end to the need for the old testament sacrificial system.
There is much, much more that can be said on this, and I do plan on covering the types of old testament laws in a future episode because it is often misunderstood in our culture.
Before I get back to the text in question, let me also point out that the sabbath had been established by God from the beginning of creation. Genesis chapter 2 tells us “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
The word translated as holy there is the Hebrew word “qadash” and it means to be set apart or separate. That is, the seventh day, or sabbath day, was not like any other day. It was to be different, and God established that from the very beginning. You can look at this as God simply foreseeing that we like to be busy and we like to work, so God was simply forcing us to take a break, refresh, and get rejuvenated before starting the next week. But it was more than that.
God led the Israelites through the wilderness to the promised land. But when they got there, they did not have the faith that they could conquer the land, largely due to their slavery mindset. So they wandered the wilderness for 40 years until that entire generation died. God, judging the Israelites for not putting their faith in him, told them that that generation would not enter the promised land, a land which he called his rest.
However, even after Joshua led the next generation into that land, they failed to finish the work of conquering the land, therefore they still failed to fully enter God’s rest. Hebrews is a new testament book that was written to Jewish people to help them understand how Christ’s life, death, and resurrection changed the paradigm, brought about a new covenant with God, and brought ultimate fulfillment to the old testament system.
In chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews we learn about how Christ fulfilled the sabbath and rest. Chapter 4 tells us, “God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath:‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”
The sabbath, like the old testament sacrificial laws, points us to Jesus. His rest, or the promised land, ultimately points to eternal fellowship with him in heaven. That is, His ultimate rest is found in heaven through Jesus. In Matthew chapter 11 Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So, why was the sabbath so important? Because from the beginning of the world God established it as something that would point to the atonement work of Christ. If the Israelites didn’t understand the sabbath, they wouldn’t understand how Christ became the ultimate sabbath. Therefore, keep the sabbath. In it rest is found.
It may still seem harsh that failing to keep the sabbath brought about capital punishment. For a better understanding of how capital punishment was used in old testament culture, an entire study is necessary. But suffice it to say, just like a crime today can carry with it various levels of punishment, up to and including capital punishment for some crimes, so it was in the old testament. Sure, we don’t see that taught here, so that’s why a broader study is needed. However one quick verse gives us an example and great insight.
That passage is Numbers 15:32-36 which says, “While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
This passage shows us that if a person was found breaking the sabbath, he didn’t immediately get stoned to death by those who discovered him. Nor did he get taken to the authorities where they immediately put him to death. Instead, that person was brought to authorities so it could be determined what the right course of action was for his specific situation. In this case, after seeking God, the man was stoned. We see other cases in the old testament where a capital offense did not lead to death and other punishments were suitable.
In this case, we don’t know why the man was gathering sticks. One might assume he was gathering sticks to build a fire. Why would he build a fire? To cook a meal? He certainly needed to eat. To warm himself? He certainly didn’t want to freeze. Maybe he wanted to get a jump start on the chores of the following day or perhaps he was going to build a fire to make a sacrifice to another god.
If it’s the last option, it’s clear to see why God would punish that by death. But even the others are not as innocent as we may think. His need for food and warmth had already very specifically been taken care of in full by God. If he was gathering wood for those reasons, it was if he was thumbing his nose to God and rejecting God’s provision. If he was trying to get ahead for the next day, that was like telling God that he knew better and taking the day off was not as good as getting ahead. Therefore, in all cases he was actively rebelling against God’s provision.
One more thing, and this one may be a bit harder to conceptualize. But we must realize that God taking a life is not equal to us taking a life. God is the creator and giver of life, we are not. When we take a life, we are putting ourselves in the position of God and acting as judge, jury, and executioner. We are taking someone from this life without authority. That’s not to say there aren’t reasonable times when taking a life is acceptable. Killing is not always equal to murder. That is also an entire episode of its own.
But as the creator and giver of life, as one who is outside of time, God does have the authority to end one’s life here. After all, God is not killing someone, he’s moving them from earth to eternity. God has that right. We do not. God killing someone or ordering the execution of someone doesn’t necessarily mean that person is damned to hell either. It means he is moving them from earth to eternity.
Okay that was a lot and a very long answer! I hope it helped. Let’s move on to the other two verses, which will be much quicker.
The next one is Matthew 10:34 which says, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” When Jesus says “do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth” his point is to draw attention to his origin in heaven and his mission on earth. He’s not your ordinary prophet. He has come from outside earth, outside the world system, and the message he brings is going to cut like a sword. It’s going to be divisive.
When he says that he will bring a sword, he immediately adds context and meaning in the next verses when he says, “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” He’s telling his audience that a paradigm shift is coming. Even today we see that when someone puts their faith in Christ, and they are from a family that has a differing religion or worldview, it causes division. This was especially the case in first century Israel when you’re dealing with highly devout Jews who have family suddenly change their religious practices to start following Christianity.
That’s the picture Jesus is painting here. Families will be divided because of Jesus. It’s just a fact of what will happen as a result of his work. When that division comes, the easy route is to do whatever you need to do to make your parents happy or appease those in your family who are not happy with your conversion. But to do that would be saying that your relationship with them is more important than your relationship with God. That’s the wrong priority.
Other passages in the new testament help us understand how to handle these difficult family dynamics, but Jesus is in no way calling for violence here. In fact, earlier in this chapter he warned his disciples that they would be victims of violence due to following him. He tells them to endure that persecution. Never does he call them to violence. Jesus told his followers to love their neighbors, love their enemies, and to pray for those who persecute them.”
Okay, now let’s wrap up with Psalm 137:9 which says, “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” First off, to look at this verse by itself is to take the verse out of context. This verse is part of a nine verse prayer. To understand this verse, we need to start by reading the entire prayer:
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
This prayer was written after the Israelites had been defeated by and taken captive by the Babylonians. In that process the Edomites had also destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Now in Babylon, the Israelites are being humiliated and taunted by their captors.
The Israelites were captured by the Babylonians due to them falling away from God and ignoring warnings of His coming judgment. However, the Babylonians were not innocent here and the Israelites knew it. They recognized that one day the shoe would be on the other foot and the Babylonians would get their own judgment.
In this context, the context is quite relatable. I know that in my own life, I’ve been wronged by someone that hurt me deeply. In my time of despair, frustration, and longing to right what was wronged, I’ve certainly hoped that the person who wronged me would get his just desserts. I think most of us can identify with that.
The word translated as blessed here in the Hebrew word esher (eh-sher) and it means happy. In many translations you’ll see happy used here instead of blessed. It’s different from a more common word, barak (baw-rak) which means to kneel and bless.
In this way we can see that the writer is saying that one day his captors will be the captured and on that day the people who do that to them will be happy about their victory, even killing their children just like the Israelistes had their children killed.
This verse is not an endorsement for killing children or inflicting violence on children. Rather it’s simply a lament from the broken heart of Israel, understanding that one day those who are laughing at them now will have their own day of defeat and they will be mocked by those who do it.
Thank you Wishyouwerehere435 for sending in these verses and I hope that exploring them today has helped bring clarity that will ultimately mend relationships within your family and bring you to faith in Christ.
This Monday Mailbag has been very rewarding for me as it’s led me to dig into the Bible and do a deep study on these passages. When I take time to do that I’m always rewarded, and I know you will be too if you’ll do the same. Be like the Bereans from the book of Acts and examine the scriptures to see if what I’ve said is true.
The next Monday Mailbag is heading your way on September 30th! Monday You can be like Wishyouwerehere435 was today and send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, or you can send in a story of your own that you think will benefit others. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page at goldenspirlamedia.com/feedback.