A Slight Distraction

Sometimes we can't get past the obvious questions. A few weeks ago, our men's group discussed John 8 and the story of the woman caught in adultery. We asked where her lover was. If she was caught in flagrante and in situ, he had to be there and must have been caught also. Why wasn't he being punished for adultery (Leviticus 20.10)? And then we got to the age-old question of wondering what Y'shua was writing in the dust.

There have been plenty of commentators and speculators. Let me be added to the list.

I told the group, who tries to hold ourselves accountable to overcoming temptation of sexual sins and controlling anger, that knowing this group was probably just like most men that I have two ideas:

• he was writing about adultery and lust. He may have been inscribing his words from the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5.28: "...anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery..." Or he was copying Job 31.11 ("For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished").  Many of these guys may have had affairs themselves, may have been with prostitutes. Certainly their forefathers had as recorded in Genesis. Many of these guys may have been lusting after her as they dragged her before Y'shua. "I wish I had known about her before we caught her. I might have had some fun." Y'shua caught them and revealed their hidden thoughts and sins. He didn't have to go to far in outlining their sins as many commentators think; he just needed to know where men's minds go around a beautiful or promiscuous woman.
• he was writing about pride. Y'shua chastises the attitude of a Pharisee who thanks God for not making him like the tax collector and other sinners (Luke 18.14). It's our pride that allows us to think we're better than others. We can chastise others who do despicable sins like adultery, murder, stealing. But we ignore our own respectable sins (a'la Jerry Bridges' book) of anger, irritability, discontentment, anxiety, unthankfulness, etc. Y'shua by pointing out their hypocrisy and pride may have been writing Proverbs 11.2--"Pride leads to disgrace,but with humility comes wisdom." Or its sister verses like Proverbs 29.23, 16.18 or Psalms 73.6 ("...clothe themselves with cruelty...").

We don't have to speculate that Y'shua was writing down the group's secret sins by name. He easily could have been writing about two of the most common sins known to man-kind: lust and pride.