SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2016 11:08 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: His Wisdom
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:3-8
Message of the verses: “3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a
woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they
said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very
act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You
say?" 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have
grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on
the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and
said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to
throw a stone at her." 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.”
When we
read through the Synoptic Gospels we see “The scribes and the Pharisees” many
times, but this is the only time this is seen in the Gospel of John. Usually when you see these two groups of
people together it meant trouble for our Lord as it does in this section as
they stop the teaching He is doing to bring a woman who they say was caught in
the very act of adultery. I think that
this is a preview of the trial that these two groups of people will soon have
for Jesus, as that will be just as phony as this is.
The scribes
were sometimes called lawyers in the Scriptures and they were supposed to be
experts in the Law of Moses. John
MacArthur writes that “they were usually, but not always, Pharisees, who along
with the Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes were one of the four major religious
sects in the first-century Judaism. The
Pharisees were noted chiefly for their strict adherence to the Mosaic Law and
their oral traditions. Though few in number
(about 6,000 at the time of Herod the Great according to the first-century
Jewish historian Josephus), they were the dominant religious influence among
the Jewish people.
“With the
exception of Nicodemus (3:1ff. 7:50-51; 19:39-40), the Pharisees are always
hostile to Jesus in John’s gospel.
(Later, some would come to believe in Him [cf. Acts 15:5]—most notably
the zealous Pharisee [Acts 23:6; Gal. 1:14] Saul of Tarsus.) The Pharisees viewed Jesus’ popularity with
alarm. They feared both losing their
influence with the people and retaliation by the Romans if Jesus’ followers
started a revolt (John 11:47-48; cf. 6:15).”
Now we want
to get into the mail part of this text, however it is doubtful that we will
finish it in just this one SD. Now we
see that these Pharisees and Scribes break up the teaching that Jesus was doing
and bring this woman to Him citing that she had committed adultery, but as I
mentioned in an earlier SD there was no man, so we can see from the beginning
that these are trumped up charges to try and trick Jesus, however these men had
no idea who they were dealing with at all.
I want at this point to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the
gospel of John as he deals with this question about what happened to the
man. “The scribes and Pharisees knew
where He would be, so they hatched their plot together.
“They would
not be likely to catch a couple in the ‘very act’ of adultery; so we wonder if
the man 9who never was indicted!) was part of the scheme. The Law required that both guilty parties be stoned (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22) and not
just the woman. It does seem suspicious
that the man went free. The scribes and
Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they
interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman into the midst of the
crowd.
“The Jewish
leaders, of course, were trying to pin Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. If He said, ‘Yes, the woman must be stoned!’
then what would happen to His reputation as the ‘friend of publicans and
sinners’? The common people would no
doubt have abandoned Him and would never have accepted His gracious message of
forgiveness.
“But if He
said, ‘No, the woman should not be stoned!’ then He was openly breaking the Law
and subject to arrest. On more than one
occasion, the religious leaders had tried to pit Jesus and Moses, and now they
seemed to have the perfect challenge.
“Instead of
passing judgment on the woman, Jesus passed judgment on the judges! No doubt He was indignant at the way they
treated the woman. He was also concerned
that such hypocrites should condemn another person and not judge
themselves. We do not know what He wrote
on the dirt floor of the temple. Was He
simply reminding them that the Ten Commandments had been originally written ‘by
the finger of God’ (Ex. 31:18), and that He is God? Or was He perhaps reminding them of the warning
in Jeremiah 17:13?
“It was
required by Jewish Law that the accusers cast the first stones (Deut.
17:7). Jesus was not asking that sinless
men judge the woman, for He was the only sinless Person present. If our judges today had to be perfect, judicial
benches would be empty. He was referring
to the particular sin of the woman, a
sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (Matt.
5:27-30). Convicted by their own
consciences, the accusers quickly left the scene, and Jesus was left alone with
the woman. He forgave her and warned her
to sin no more (John 5:14).” I want to
quote Jeremiah 17:13 “O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be
put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they
have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD.”
We will
continue to look at this passage in our next SD, but I thought that Warren
Wiersbe’s words were worth reading as the always seem to me that they are.
I find it
interesting that as I have been thinking about John 7:46 “"Never has a man
spoken the way this man speaks,"” that perhaps the very same men who sent
the temple police to get Jesus were not the same ones listening to His words
and they too had no answer to give.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I
am asking how can I know Jesus better from this passage as I look at some of
the attributes of His here. I can see
the Lord’s compassion or grace and mercy for this woman. I can see His wisdom in how He took care of
this situation. I can see His true
judgment for those who brought her to Him.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To continue to get to know my
Lord better and better, to do as Moses did when he said to the Lord, “Show me
Your glory.”
Memory verses for the week: 2 Corinthians 12:7-8 “Because of
the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from
exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.
8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave
me.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “He that doeth the will of the Father will
enter the kingdom” (Matthew 7:21).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘"It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your
God.’”
Answer in our next SD.
5/23/2016 12:16 PM
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