Tag Archives: Exodus 20:5-6

Torture, Part 4

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Suspecting that my antipathy (and objections) to Jonathan Edwards’ contention that God is the Superlative Torturer are rooted in my personal history, I need to revisit the long name of God for perspective.

The Long Name of God
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Exodus 34:6, 7a (NET)

 But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 34:7b (NET)

Intellectually, I can see that the things I’ve been looking into in Revelation fall under the heading of not leaving the guilty unpunished.  Rationally, I can see that this long name is an accurate description of who God is, one unified God.  But I don’t know the One who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation, not experientially.  I deserve to know Him that way.  I’ve earned the right, so to speak.  But I don’t know Him like that.  I know the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Asaph[1] apparently knew God as the One who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished.  I suffer all day long, he wrote, and am punished every morning.[2]  Of course he acknowledged that he felt that way when: my feet almost slipped; my feet almost slid out from under me (Table).  For I envied those who are proud, as I observed the prosperity of the wicked (Table).[3]  And I most felt like Asaph as “a philosophical and legalistic young man fighting my way back from atheism,”[4] obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.[5]

I don’t think I was particularly obsessed with money.  I was giving money and continually amazed that I always had enough.  I wanted some fame or power or prestige or position, and thought that “obeying” God by striving to keep the law, or the love that is the fulfillment of the law[6] as if Paul’s definition were a list of laws, was a means to that end.  I was “punished” constantly then.  But all I really meant by God’s “punishment,” or his “blessing” for that matter, was how things worked out according to my hopes, my dreams, my plans or my schemes.  When things went my way I was “blessed,” and I was “punished” when they didn’t.

This wasn’t always the case, however.  Though I didn’t think in these terms then, at seventeen He who by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation was the One I worshiped and loved as much as it is possible to love such a One.  Punishment is the currency of childhood.  It’s how one pays for what he wants.  I didn’t actually know this God in any experiential way.  I believed in Him.  He made sense to me.  I claimed to believe in Jesus’ salvation.  And I suppose I did to some degree, but that was heaven.  Heaven was as far away as Disneyland.  And my family couldn’t afford Disneyland either.

I don’t recall knowing the long name of God, but I knew the Ten Commandments: I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me [Table], but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments [Table].[7]  I had no clue that the ones who loved Him and kept his commandments were the ones He had shown mercy.  If you had told me it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[8] I wouldn’t have believed you, not by seventeen.  I “knew” I didn’t love God enough or keep his commandments enough to “earn” his mercy.  That’s why I trusted Jesus for a place in heaven rather than in hell.  But as for the rest of it, I “knew” I would pay in punishment.

At seventeen I don’t think I knew the law that reads, If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife.  If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins.[9]  I would be hard-pressed to confirm that anyone I knew had ever heard of this law.  We believed in the sin of premarital sex.  I knew the law about rape (Deuteronomy 22:28, 29 NKJV).

If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out [Table], then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days [Table].

This law was impossible to avoid.  I read it on different occasions in anti-God and antinomian polemics.  I even checked the reference in the Bible to see if it was true; that is, that it was actually in the Bible as the polemicists claimed.  One might argue that I should have inferred the former law from the latter.  I can’t disagree.  I wrote[10] that I had a “philosophical bent of mind.”  While true, it doesn’t mean that I was any good necessarily at doing philosophy.  I was embarrassed and frustrated by this law.  Why did God force women to marry their rapists?!  But neither my embarrassment nor my frustration raised a single question in my mind regarding the validity of the sin of premarital sex.  I believed in the sin of premarital sex with all my heart, the laws of God notwithstanding.

Such was the state of my “faith” when my highschool girlfriend and I fucked[11] for the first time.  I don’t use the term fucked to be insulting, demeaning or derogatory but in the hope of finding a word in English that will carry the weight of eros in Greek.  Sexual intercourse is about inserting an erect penis into a vagina and thrusting and relaxing to stimulate the nerves in the head of the penis and the clitoris until an explosive pleasure sensation called an orgasm is achieved.  What I mean by fuck, fucked or fucking has everything to do with sexual intercourse, and nothing to do with it except as an entry portal or an ongoing celebration of a wondrous and unimaginable relationship with another person of the opposite sex, a relationship that artists have spent their lifetimes attempting to capture, celebrate or recreate in music, dance, art, sculpture, poetry and drama.

Before we fucked, my girlfriend and I were two teenagers too shy to remove our underwear as we crawled under the covers.  Afterward in the bath together a Bible verse came to mind, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.[12]  I felt like I understood that verse for the first time.  But it didn’t dissuade me that I would be punished for the sin of premarital sex.

I had some very specific punishments in mind.  Pregnancy was top of that list.  Obviously children were God’s primary punishment for fucking.  My Dad had warned me to watch out for women who would trick me into caring for their children.[13]  Protestants were a little wishy-washy on the sin of birth control as a way to avoid God’s punishment for fucking, but Catholics were strong and on target on this issue.  My girlfriend and I were well-versed in the “Brave New World”[14] and had our Malthusian drill[15] down pat.  We never fucked without at least one method of contraception, and often two.  The idea that a couple might become so impassioned they forgot their Malthusian drill was inconceivable to us.

Venereal disease was number two on God’s list of punishments for fucking.  But we were both virgins when we started fucking.  I had the desire to expand this fucking relationship to others, until I actually tried to initiate it.  Though I didn’t know the law about seducing virgins intellectually, I felt that law written in my heart when I attempted to fuck another virgin.  “I returned to [my girlfriend] quite contrite actually, confessed my sin and asked for her hand in a much more traditional marriage.”[16]  But even that didn’t alert me that I might not be punished for the sin of premarital sex.  I really don’t think I recognized my aversion to committing adultery as God’s law written in my heart anyway.  I probably just thought it was my idea, or that I “loved” my first girlfriend more.

Finally, death was the punishment I thought most likely for the sin of premarital sex, given that we had outsmarted God twice before.  I didn’t think God would, or maybe could, kill me outright.  Miracles, God breaking the laws of science, were kind of a sketchy issue in my thinking at the time.  But Vietnam was a very real possibility.  And it would be quite easy for Him to kill me there.  When the draft lottery all but guaranteed that I would never be drafted, I still didn’t suspect that God had no intention of punishing me for the sin of premarital sex.

One more opportunity comes to mind.  Every time we fucked in my girlfriend’s bedroom she put three albums on the stereo: Every Picture Tells a Story,[17] Rod Stewart; Who’s Next,[18] The Who; and Aqualung,[19] Jethro Tull.  I tolerated Rod Stewart because I loved her.  Secretly, I called the album “Every Picture Tells a Story Donut,” after the repeated line in the title track.  Who’s Next became more important after she left me for someone else.  Aqualung made a deep and immediate impression.

The song “Wind-Up” spoke particularly to me.  I learned years later that the only required subject in English public schools was the Bible.  That explained why British progressive rock was obsessed with biblical themes.  It also made more sense to me why Ian Anderson[20] left school with “their God tucked underneath my arm.”[21]

So I left there in the morning
with their God tucked underneath my arm —
their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.
So I asked this God a question
and by way of firm reply,
He said — I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares):
before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers —
I don’t believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong —
He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.

Looking back now, I clearly had everything “all wrong.”  I remember entertaining the notion that God was trying to communicate to me through the words of this song.  I even went back to the Bible to see if I could find what I had gotten “all wrong.”  But the Bible said the same thing to me it always said: “God’ll getcha if you don’t watch out!”  I decided that there was no way anyone who looked like Ian Anderson could possibly know anything that could stand up to two thousand years of Christian theology (no matter how catchy the tune).  And there was no way I was going to get out of being punished for the sin of premarital sex.

Nothing could persuade me otherwise.  Even when I wasn’t punished for the sin of premarital sex, nothing clicked, no light bulbs went off.  Instead, I felt rationally obligated to become an atheist because God would have punished me for the sin of premarital sex.

[2] Psalm 73:14 (NET) Table

[3] Psalm 73:2, 3 (NET)

[5] 1 Timothy 6:4b, 5 (NKJV)

[6] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[7] Exodus 20:5b, 6 (NKJV)

[8] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[9] Exodus 22:16, 17 (NKJV)

[12] Genesis 2:25 (NKJV)

Fear – Exodus, Part 1

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In Egypt the Israelites were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.  Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power over Egypt.[1]  The new king feared that the Israelite people might join with his enemies in time of war.  So he put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor.[2]

When he was brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams Joseph acknowledged, It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.[3]  And it was through God’s Spirit that Joseph interpreted the dreams and warned Pharaoh of seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine.  But I think I’m safe to say that Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh was not of God, because its execution differed so dramatically from the economic system God ordained for Israel in the law.[4]

So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt…he should appoint officials throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.  They should gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming…This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt.[5]

It seemed like a good idea to Pharaoh and his officials, so Joseph was put in charge:  I am Pharaoh, but without your permission no one will move his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt,[6] Pharaoh said to Joseph.  When the seven years of famine came Joseph sold grain back to the people.  Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment for the grain they were buying.[7]  Later Joseph said, “If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.”[8]  When their livestock was gone the Egyptians said, Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become Pharaoh’s slaves.[9]  So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh,[10] and, Joseph made all the people slaves from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.[11]

The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, the Lord said, for you are foreigners and residents with me.  In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land.  If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.  If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption, he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property.  If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the jubilee year [every fiftieth year], but it must revert in the jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.[12]

If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, the Lord continued, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.  Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you.  You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit.  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan – to be your God.[13]

If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, the Lord added, you must not subject him to slave service.  He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.  Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale.  You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God.[14]

So when a new king put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor it sounds like karma, what goes around comes around.  Karma is never mentioned by name in the Bible, but one can certainly find it there.  What I recognize as karma is codified in the law: I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me [Table], and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments [Table].[15]  I want to address it directly here because I’ve confused karma for justice, and have thought at times that God was beholden to, rather than the dealer of, karma, whether good or bad.

I don’t suspect Joseph of any particular malice.  I’m sure he thought he was doing a good job for Pharaoh.  It was just good business.  But I believe now that he was wrong, just like I was wrong to confuse the tit-for-tat of karma for justice.  The law according to Jesus was about justice and mercy and faithfulness[16] and love for God.[17]  And though visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations,[18] sounds like bad karma to me, Yahweh is the One who looked my idea of karma right in the eyes and declared, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.[19]

And so I’ll amend my original statement that Joseph’s advice was not of God.  The Egyptians were not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting to do so.[20]  Perhaps it was part of their karma from the hand of God to be enslaved by a Hebrew slave.  I don’t know.  But it came with a price for Israel, too, or an opportunity to walk a mile in the Egyptians’ shoes.  But clearly God is not beholden to karma.  To break the wheel of karma one need only look to the One who said I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.[21]

The new king of Egypt hoped that hard labor would kill the Israelites off and diminish their population.  But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread.[22]  Instant karma.[23]  So he made their service harder.  And, The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live.”  But the midwives feared (yârêʼ) God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.[24]

I was actually surprised that the rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐφοβήθησαν (a form of φοβέω)[25] here.  I suppose I expected something that was more clearly reverence for God.  The next occurrence of ἐφοβήθησαν in the New Testament was in response to Jesus’ telling the chief priests, elders and Pharisees that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (καρποὺς, a form of καρπός).[26]

For me that is a sobering statement.  Am I allowing Him to justify his word in me?  Is the fruit (καρπὸς) of [his] Spirit which flows so graciously into me, flowing out in worthy proportion as his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control?[27]  The chief priests and Pharisees had a different reaction.  They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) of the crowds, because the crowds regarded him as a prophet.[28]

I doubt they wanted “to reverence, venerate, to treat [the crowds] with deference or reverential obedience.”  I suspect that they feared or hesitated “to do something (for fear of harm).”  That may be what the rabbis had in mind concerning the Hebrew midwives’ motives.  Perhaps they hesitated (or feared) to kill baby boys because they thought that God would, or could, visit them with worse karma than the new king of Egypt.

And because the midwives feared (yârêʼ) God, he made households for them.[29]  Good karma followed upon their fear.  Here the rabbis chose ἐφοβοῦντο.  Jesus said, The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.[30]  His disciples did not understand this statement and were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντο, another form of φοβέω) to ask him.[31]  It was a fear that seemed like respect, but lacked the knowledge or the faith of reverence.  And the Hebrew midwives I think also exhibited that kind of fear.

Fear – Exodus, Part 2

Back to Fear – Genesis, Part 6

Back to Jephthah

Back to Romans, Part 41

[1] Exodus 1:7, 8 (NET)

[2] Exodus 1:11 (NET)

[3] Genesis 41:16 (NET)

[5] Genesis 41:33-36 (NET)

[6] Genesis 41:44 (NET)

[7] Genesis 47:14 (NET)

[8] Genesis 47:16 (NET)

[9] Genesis 47:19 (NET)

[10] Genesis 47:20 (NET)

[11] Genesis 47:21 (NET)

[12] Leviticus 25:23-28 (NET)

[13] Leviticus 25:35-38 (NET)

[14] Leviticus 25:39-43 (NET)

[15] Exodus 20:5, 6 (NET)

[18] Exodus 20:5 (NKJV) Table

[19] Exodus 33:19b (NET) Table

[20] Genesis 43:32b (NET)

[21] Matthew 11:28 (NET)

[22] Exodus 1:12 (NET)

[24] Exodus 1:15-17 (NET)

[26] Matthew 21:43 (NET)

[28] Matthew 21:46 (NET)

[29] Exodus 1:21 (NET)

[30] Mark 9:31 (NET)

[31] Mark 9:32 (NET)