Daily Service: I Got no stone to Throw

Posted on January 17, 2020 by brucesbiblepage

Daily Service: I Got no stone to Throw

Revised and updated from Daily Service 5

I know I have used this passage before. I’m pretty sure I’ve poste on this topic before. The woman taken in adultery. This might even have been Mary Magdalene; commentaries differ on the point. Anyway, I’ve been talking about love a lot lately. Trying to make this point: Your job is to get people to see Jesus as savior, not as judge. Specifically, the Bible tells us not to judge, but to love.

John 8:3-12 (NKJV) Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

Here’s some facts from Mosaic Law:

It would have been a sin to throw a stone, because they would be breaking the law. If there was one without sin, he would have become a law breaker by throwing a stone.

The law required both the man and woman caught in adultery to be stoned Leviticus 20:10. There also had to be witnesses. Deuteronomy 17:6.

On top of all that, the witness had to throw the first stone in Deuteronomy 17:7. Since both adulterers were not present, it’s a given that the witnesses were already breaking the law and could not throw a stone.

It’s just a guess, but perhaps what Jesus was writing in the dirt is the applicable laws?

Where was the man? Why didn’t the witnesses identify the man? This woman was totally and unlawfully set up to trap Jesus.

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.