Genesis 18:23-25
(23) And Abraham came near and said, "Would You also destroy the
righteous with the wicked? (24) Suppose there were fifty righteous
within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for
the fifty righteous that were in it? (25) Far be it from You to do such a
thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the
righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right?"
Is God fair in His dealings
with man? Consider this: Has God warned man what He is going to earn in
the way of a death penalty if he sinned? Consider this list. In Exodus
21, we are warned that striking or cursing parents will result in death.
In Leviticus 19, He says that if you desecrate a sacrifice, you are
going to die. In Leviticus 24, He said that if you murder somebody, you
are going to die. In Exodus 21, He says that if you kidnap somebody, you
are going to die. In Leviticus 20, He says if you sacrifice a child in
the fire, you are going to die. In Leviticus 24, He says If you take My
name in vain—if you curse Me, if your use blasphemous statements about
Me—you are going to die.
In Exodus 35, He issues the death
penalty for breaking the Sabbath. In Leviticus 20, He issues the death
penalty for consulting mediums. In Leviticus 20, He says that if you are
practicing homosexuality, you are going to die. In Leviticus 20, if you
practice incest, you are going to die. In Exodus 22, if you practice
bestiality, you are going to die. In Deuteronomy 22, He says that if you
rape somebody, you are going to die. In Deuteronomy 13, if you give a
false prophecy, you are going to die.
In Exodus 22, if you
practice sorcery, you are going to die. In Exodus 22, if you sacrifice
to a false god, you are going to die. In Leviticus, if you commit
adultery, you are going to die. In Numbers 4, if you desecrate a holy
thing, you are going to die. In Numbers 16, if you disagree with God's
judgment, you are going to die. In Leviticus 21, if you are a priest's
daughter and you play the harlot, you are going to die.
I have
only given you a partial list. God has clearly made known the penalty to
mankind. Is God acting fairly? The penalty for some of these offenses
really sounds harsh to modern minds. Death for a false prophecy? Death
for committing adultery? Death for bestiality or homosexuality? All of
these penalties are given in the Old Testament. By contrast, there is no
corresponding list of penalties in the New Testament, which misleads
some who are close to being biblically illiterate into thinking that
they prefer the God of the New Testament to the God of the Old
Testament. But the God of the New Testament is exactly the same Being as
the God of the Old Testament; He says, "I change not" (Malachi 3:6).
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Those of us who are living under the New Covenant need to begin to
think seriously about the way we conduct our lives, and especially in
reference to our own relationship with God. We cannot deny that the New
Testament list of capital offenses would appear to be a dramatic
reduction from the Old. What we fail to consider is that the Old
Testament list above is a massive reduction from what appears at the
beginning of the Book, as in Genesis 18. The list, mainly out of Exodus,
Leviticus, and Numbers, represents an astonishing measure of grace from
how things began.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
