Old Testament Ethics

MON., JULY 24, 1989, 5:53 AM
FARM, STUDY

You are not a good student of the Old Testament. I do not call on you to be such, but I do continue to urge you to more reading and studying in those ancient books. It is an interesting and somewhat relevant story of My relationship with a chosen people. On this summer morn I shall tell you something of the ethics of that encounter.

The creation stories and the flood story are obviously ways of expressing My power and dominance. Yet I did give some of that dominance to humans, establishing the ethic of stewardship. Yes, the price of sharing God’s dominance in the earth over other forms of life is the responsibility of tending the earth and maintaining healthy balances, even when such are not to the apparent advantage of humans. “Be fruitful and multiply” was a proper invitation, even command, when the human population was small. Now it increasingly conflicts with the stewardship ethic.

The basic ethical story began with Abraham. I invited him to come into a special, close relationship with Me, promising that out of him would develop a chosen people. However, I allowed him to have only a single child, a son. Then came the first test: I told him to kill that one son as a sacrifice to Me. It was an established ethic that it was right to sacrifice animals in worship. I seemed to be moving it to human sacrifice. (You did your best to find the right paper. Keep up the search. I’d rather have you here than waiting for the right shade. Now on with the story!) Abraham was willing to see My will and way above that of the current ethic. It was irrational to sacrifice the one son, from which the promised people would come, but the higher duty was to Me, personally.

I accepted Abraham’s choice and, of course, spared Isaac’s life. Then came the next generation of two sons. The ethic was that the older should be dominant, and Esau had come forth first. Again, it was to be My choice and My will, as Almighty God, rather than the established ethic. Rebekah’s trickery was acceptable, an unethical means to the proper end. Thus, Jacob received the blessing, and the tribes of Israel came forth from him. Hence, the ethics of the time were being by-passed to show the dominance of My will. Oh, I could have manipulated the birth so that Jacob came first, or I could have built the Hebrew nations through Esau, but I preferred the more dramatic challenge.

I was establishing the principle that My sovereign power is always above that of the ethics of a people. This principle has caused difficulties down through human history but it still holds true.

The story of Joseph being sold by his brothers shows that the leaders of this chosen nation of Mine were not perfect models. I used this incident, over a lifetime, to show forth My irrational ethic that the last shall be first, and the first, last. He who was the least became the powerful one who sustained the heritage.

Yet I allowed My people to be taken in slavery to the Egyptians. I was establishing the ethic that some suffering was essential to spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is always toward allegiance to Me and service as I direct. Suffering was necessary. But then came the Exodus, and I picked a shepherd and murderer to be the leader. The ethic of not killing humans (never an absolute) was pretty well shattered as Moses confronted the Pharaoh. The plagues that came upon the Egyptians and, finally, the crashing in of the Red Sea took many lives, but My will was accomplished. The lives of many of My people were lost in the wilderness, for I decreed that they must wander until My appointed time.