Eye For An Eye?

I am amazed at how many fundamentalists, literalists, or legalists who still live by the antiquated Old Testament rules and laws. And especially the Leviticus 21 chapter that demands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth which if applied would leave our world blind and toothless. Maybe that’s why we are blind- in a spiritual sense as we war religion against religion, doctrine against doctrine, and denomination against denomination.

At the root of this principle is the belief that one of the purposes of the law is to provide equitable retaliation for an offended party. It defined and restricted the extent of retaliation. I could only kill your wife if you killed my wife. And this is equitable?

Didn’t Jesus come to reveal the truth and reality of God? Can you say GOOD NEWS?

How many times do you read in Matthew 5 Jesus saying something different than what the Old Testament dictated? The New Testament is about GRACE! The New Testament is about FORGIVENESS! The New Testament is about LOVING our ENEMIES. And yet we still have the fundamental legalists proclaiming such silly rules like we should not eat pork and so on. Come on! Come out of the ancient history and into His wonderful NOW LIGHT!

But even the Old Testament, from the early get-go of Genesis was sending us a message of protecting those who sin and loving them back into relationship instead of killing them. Grace is sprinkled throughout the Old Testament sending us a precursor and forerunner to the message of Jesus.

When’ the last time that you read about Cain and Abel?

Cain kills his brother, so get out the spear and kill Cain. Right? Wrong! Cain is forced to face the consequences of his sin. There are ALWAYS consequences from this world. Bank it! However, there was none from God. We who want the wrath of God to kill the ungodly and unrighteous to protect our righteness (which isn’t), simply are not going to be satisfied. Why? Because GOD IS LOVE!

So, instead of killing Cain, God places a “mark of protection” on him and leads him into a new land. Fear based religion no longer works- as well as it used to.

That hacks a lot of self righteous and profoundly religious people off really really good- or bad! But, the God I know of and serve doesn’t destroy people. People do a good enough job of destroying themselves. They need no help fom God. We need to get back to the foundation of GRACE which modern day theology speaks about but then acts the opposite.

Hey, even before Cain’s problem there was the Adam & Eve mess up. But once again, while put out of the garden, they were “covered” by God. How do we miss this stuff? Could it be because the church majors on sin management rather than grace offered?

For my God, the God, there is no eye for an eye. Instead there is a laying down of our life for another, esteeming others greater than ourselves- even those who we know are much less righteous than we. Or, so we surmise!