The "Stoning" Verse

If there is found among you, in any city that ADONAI your God gives you, a man or a woman who does what ADONAI your God sees as wicked, transgressing His covenant by going and serving other gods and worshipping them, the sun,the moon, or anything in the sky- something I have forbidden- and it is told to you, or you hear about it; then you are to investigate the matter diligently. If it is true, if it is confirmed that such detestable things are being done in Israel; then you are to bring the man or woman who has done this wicked thing to your vita gates, and stone that man or woman to death.

-Deuteronomy[D'varim] 17:2-5

Have you had this verse thrown in your face before?

it's a verse that God mockers(Atheists/Agnostics)

love using. it's suppose to make God look cruel and at the same time make His word(The Bible) look like a "Contradiction"(trust me I know, I use to do the same thing they do with certain verses) 

Claiming that The Bible is a "Contradiction" only comes when one is lacking of understanding, and doesn't understand the context of the scripture they claim is a "Contradiction". I'd say 90% of the time "contradiction" comes up when it has to do with Torah(Old testament) and this stoning one is a perfect example, it comes around because most people fail to realize what God was doing with His people. 

BUT, before I get into that, lets just think logically for a second(something the atheist/agnostic throwing this verse in your face claims to do nothing but)

Lets imagine God is exactly who He says He is, crazy I know, but try to stay with me. So, God is one(Echad)

there is NO other, He is creator of all, the potter who can mold and destroy as He wishes. He demands, doesn't just ask for, but demands Holiness and worship of ONLY HIM, remember the 1st and 2nd commandment? they pretty much make that absolutely clear. So does...

Exodus(SH'MOT) 34:14 

because you are not to bow down to any other god; since ADONAI -whose very name is Jealous -is a jealous God.

So, as He is molding His people, there comes one person who decides he/she will ignore all God asks and worship creation rather than creator. Now this ONE Holy perfect God is suppose to do what? tell His jewish people;

"Oh…that man or woman worshipping what I told you NOT TO, just ignore them, it's all good."? 

This man/woman wouldn't just be effecting themselves, they are living in Gods Holy Land which He gave to His people, this person would corrupt others and lead others to do such wickedness. God isn't going to bless you if you completely ignore His mitzvot(Commandments) and He was blessing His people by giving the land He promised them. So God said get rid of the wickedness from you before it corrupts you all, provided there is two or three witness's to attest to the fact that the person is indeed worshipping a false god. (Deuteronomy[D'varim] 17:6)

God was establishing a Holy people & nation, He chose a people who were lesser then others, He showed His grace to the Jewish people by saving them out of Egypt! they did nothing to deserve saving from slavery, and did nothing to deserve Him choosing them as His people.

Now all God asks from them( and us by the way) is to put Him first, and that we don't worship His creation or false gods. What a cruel God to ask for such a thing! what a cruel God to show grace and only ask we acknowledge Him as ONE!(that's called sarcasm kiddies incase you missed it)

Now if you would say this to a person who throws the "stoning verse" in your face, what will they say next?

 well, they will absolutely ignore all the "babble" about God being ONE and Holy and demanding we surrender to Him completely and they'll either go off into some other tangent or say something like;

"Ok…so then your "God" gives you permission today to go and stone people who don't believe like you."

Again they will ignore the fact that God was establishing His people in the Holy Land and thats who the verse was directed too. The fact is..NO that verse isn't for today, and no that doesn't mean God has changed in His Holiness or jealousy or that He still doesn't demand us to worship ONLY HIM nor does it mean that God doesn't still want us to be Holy. NONE of that has changed, the reason killing someone who ignores the truth has changed is because the promised Messiah/Prophet/Lord of Lords and King of Kings has come! Yeshua Ha Mashiach! (Jesus The Messiah/Jesus Christ) Moses talked about Him in 
Deuteronomy [D'varim]18:15

"ADONAI will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him,just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested ADONAI your God, 'Don't let me hear the voice of ADONAI my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!' On that occasion ADONAI said to me, 'They are right in what they are saying. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him. Whoever doesn't listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, will have to account for himself to me.

What Yeshua says is from Abba, and Yeshua paid the price we couldn't, the Prince of Peace our High priest who intercedes for us! Hallelu et ADONAI!(Praise the LORD)

Yeshua's yoke is easy, but His words and following Him isn't. 

Deuteronomy[D'varim] 19:21 says;

Life for life,eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. 

As human beings wretched and wicked as we are that is probably the easiest thing for us to follow, HOWEVER Yeshua says;

"You have heard that our fathers were told, `Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you not to stand up against someone who does you wrong. On the contrary, if someone hits you on the right cheek, let him hit you on the left cheek too! If someone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well! And if a soldier forces you to carry his pack for one mile, carry it for two!  When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something from you, lend it to him.- Matthew(Mattityahu) 5:38-42

You see, Yeshua doesn't destroy the law but fulfills it, He doesn't make it ok to worship other gods or to sin, He makes it so we can be forgiven of such wickedness, so those chains can be broken and we can be a new creation, and be Holy as God called us to be! All Glory to HIM! Holy Holy Holy is the one who was and is  and is to come!

A Gentile asks Forgiveness

You know what I find interesting….Acts 28:28,

now you may be asking yourself why is that interesting?

or actually probably not, because I mean it does state that the salvation of God(keywords salvation of God)

has been sent to the gentiles and they will hear it!

Amen..right? Gentile of course meaning anyone not jewish. But this is not why I bring up the verse, you see Paul being the apostle of the gentiles(a jew himself) is speaking about salvation to the gentiles has come, and he is saying this to jewish leaders in Rome. I want you to go read Acts 28, the whole chapter, I want you to notice this, these jewish leaders listened to Paul, some agreed with what he was saying about Jesus, and others disagreed but they all departed after Paul said one thing.

Now they had a disagreement amongst themselves about this Jesus Paul was speaking of but they didn't all leave until Paul said "Salvation of God has been sent to the gentiles" that was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back. You see back in that time the jews didn't understand how or why God would want to give salvation to gentiles, to them, they were very unclean ungodly people..heck they were not even circumcised. This is even a dispute in Acts where certain gentile believers are troubled by certain jewish believers telling them they must be circumcised and keep the law:

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"*—to whom we gave no such commandment—

Acts 15:24

My point is this, certain jewish believers were disgusted with the thought of Gentiles being brought into God's good graces, they would force their laws and traditions on a converted gentile believer, or at least try to. It seems today however, things have flipped…I mean obviously back then the majority of real believers in Yeshua(Jesus) were Jewish, all the apostles were. But now in 2012…would you say that's true? of course not…the majority of believers in Christ are gentiles, and I'm not saying anything is wrong with that. But you see, like the certain jewish people who were trying to force gentiles into being jewish to earn salvation, now we as gentiles have forced ourselves on the jew's saying they must become like us for salvation. Don't get it twisted…YES

a jewish person(or gentile for that matter) must recognize Jesus Christ(Yeshua Hamashiach) as LORD and savior to be saved..

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Romans 1:16

HOWEVER, we don't then say they must become as gentiles too. Just like a believing jew doesn't tell a believing gentile he must adopt his customs. What we as gentiles have done through the years is curse the natural branches..

And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Romans 11:17-18

Us being the unnatural branches(gentiles) we have taken promises that God has given to His chosen people, we even dare say things like we are the real Israel or we are the real chosen, like God has taken His hand away from those He promised to bless and, His chosen, and He has cast them aside all for our glory.

We get puffed up against jewish believers and we ridicule them, some even going as far as despising and cursing them. Then we wonder why they refuse to hear about Yeshua(Jesus)? 

I wrote the following a month ago after reading

"Our Hands are stained with blood" by Michael Brown.

It has everything to do with this subject.

Abba forgive me, I apologize for what has been

done against your chosen people in your Holy

name. Those who claim to follow Yeshua(Jesus)

The Son, have risen up to destroy your first love…

As gentiles you grafted us into the tree, like a poison

we have decided to destroy the roots of the seed.

Gentiles stealing your promises for your chosen,

and making it all about them. As if Israel and your Jewish people you no longer love, in the name of Christ we've trampled them down, instead of asking for your love in them to abound.

From people like Luther who wanted to see Jews burn, to Christians today claiming to be your new chosen. So much injustice we have brought into the church.

In your Holy name we reject them, say that you yourself have rejected them, and not even Jesus can save them.

in effect we curse the natural branches, the ones to whom you have made promises! Lord forgive us of this treason, and let us instead proclaim Yeshua to them our roots of our faith, our brothers and sisters who were never taken from the covenant to never return again.

O LORD fulfill the promises you made them, bring them into Your glorious Kingdom recognizing Yeshua Hamashiach for who He is, and as gentiles and jews let us stand together as your sons and daughters.

Happy Easter!

Easter is this sunday, and most people know

the importance of it, and of course there is no harm

in reminding ourselves that it isn't about a Bunny

that lays eggs or something or other.

Easter weekend to me... is the most important

weekend out of the year. For Easter weekend

is about our Lord and savior Jesus Christ's

crucifixion and resurrection, thus fulfilling the

self sacrifice that was written centuries before

in the book of Isaiah. I think most of us know

the scripture in Isaiah 53:5 right?

"But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon him,

and by His stripes we are healed."

Isaiah 53:5

Obviously that verse is about Jesus Christ,

again written centuries before Jesus was even born.

There's more then just one verse in Isaiah that refers

to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...

There is the talk about "The Servant of the Lord"

in Isaiah 49:1

"Listen, O coastlands, to Me,

and take heed, you people afar!

The Lord has called Me from the womb;

From the matrix of My mother he has made

mention of My name.

And he has made My mouth like a sharp sword;

in the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,

and made Me a polished shaft;

In His quiver He has hidden Me.

And He said to me,

'You are My servant, O Israel,

In whom I will be glorified.'

Then I said, 'I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing

and in vain; Yet surely my just reward

is with the Lord, and my word with God'

And now the Lord says,

Who formed Me from the womb to be

His servant, to bring Jacob(Israel) back

to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him

(for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,

And My God shall be My strength),

Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing

that you should be My Servant To raise up

the tribes of Jacob(Israel), and to restore the

preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You

as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be My

salvation to the ends of the earth' "

Isaiah 49:1-6

Who is the truth? who is the light?

from who does salvation come from,

Even to us Gentiles? Jesus Christ...

who died for US....SACRIFICED HIMSELF

FOR US! because there was no other way...

someone had to pay the price for our wickedness,

and it should of been US!

A new covenant had to be made with the Jewish people,

they could not follow the first covenant, the Old testament

shows plenty of proof of that. God promised he would

bring upon them a bran new covenant, and he did so

through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ

hope was also brought to the non-Jewish..

I know there are so called "Christians" out there

that hang on to this anti-semetic bull about how

"The Jews Killed JESUS!"

No moron...WE ALL KILLED JESUS,

nobody snuck up on Jesus and stabbed him in the back,

Jesus knew what he had to do, He knew he was on this earth

to be the sacrificial lamb for ALL OF OUR SINS.

Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him,

hence why he said "Go do what you must do.."

He willingly gave himself up for all of our iniquities

lest we be chained to our sins for eternity.

" He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before it's shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison to judgment,

and who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He

was stricken. And they made His grave

with the wicked- But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;

He has put HIm to grief.

When you make His soul and offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous servant shall

justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And He was numbered with the transgressors,

and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession

for the transgressors. "

Isaiah 53:7-12

Isaiah says it all right there, a guideline a glimpse

on just what the Messiah would be like.

On how the Messiah would have to suffer,

would have to die for our sins, and He would

be that intercessor for us. There is nothing we can ever

do to ever even come close to equaling what Christ

did for us, what God has done for all of us.He freed us

from the chains, from the slavery of SIN through

pain suffering torment and DEATH, all because

he loves US...THATS IT! THERE IS NO CATCH...

This is what EASTER is about! and obviously

not just about the suffering Christ went through, out of

LOVE for us, but about the glorious resurrection of CHRIST!

FOR HE LIVES!

Here is an interesting fact about the resurrection,

all the gospels agree Jesus was raised from the dead

on Sunday( which thus means the crucifixion happened

Friday ) and they also agree that it was Mary Magdalene

who first witnessed the empty tomb, and more then likely was

the first one to witness the resurrected Christ.

Big deal right? WRONG...you see back then a testimony

of a woman had no legal value whatsoever,

so surely if early church writers invented the story

of the resurrection they wouldn't have emphasized

Mary's account in the story. Useless fact? I think not..

So we celebrate this weekend!

We give glory, we praise God,

and we show respect for the price that was paid,

and we celebrate that our SAVIOR LIVES!

and we await his glorious return!

HAPPY EASTER! and to God be all the glory!