A Pilgrim's Journal

Please keep in mind that this is only as far as I understand the law. I may be wrong in the details, and I encourage you to double check the Bible and correct me, preferrably with scripture, if I'm wrong.

Imagine for a moment that you are a rich judge, who loves equality and justice.

One day, two men come before your bench, and they are obviously angry with each other. One man is missing a tooth.

The man without the tooth holds up a video tape, and submits it as evidence, along with a number of witnesses. When you watch the video, you see clearly how the one man punches the other in the mouth for no apparent reason, and a tooth flies out.

You question the witnesses rigorously, and confirm that these two men are perfect strangers, and the puncher has an anger management issue and decided to take out his frustrations on the closest victim.

After hearing all the evidence, you clearly see that the one man is in the wrong, and the other is in the right. You feel some justice coming on! You feel righteous indignation in your belly! You are just about to open your mouth and pronounce the verdict when the strangest thing happens.

These two men start to argue right in front of you. Their voices get louder and louder, and soon the toothless man takes a swing at the offender. You personally hear the crack of a tooth, and the soft skittering sound it makes as it slides across the hardwood floor of the courtroom.

Your shoulders sag. Your work here is done. They have taken matters into their own hands, and justice is finished. There's no more you can do here, so you bang your gavel and yell, "Next!" The men slink away, somewhat embarrassed.

The next case is surprisingly the same. There was a fight, one man was blinded in one eye, there's a video showing the evidence, the case is crystal clear.

You start to feel that familiar feeling in your belly again. Justice is about to be served! Woe to the man who breaks the law and comes before you unrepentant! Just as you are about to open your mouth to pronounce the verdict, an even stranger thing happens.

The offender hangs his head and asks for permission to speak. You grant it, and he says, "Your Honour, I know I have done wrong, and will pay the debt, whatever you decide. I am very sorry for my behaviour. There is no excuse."

You take his statement into consideration. He is now repentant, so your wrath is now abated. But the injustice still stands, and the victim's eye still does not work. Justice must be served.

Then the man with the patch over one eye asks for permission to speak. You grant it, and he says, "Your Honour, I know this man is in the wrong, and he has damaged my eye, but I also know he is a poor man, and cannot possibly repay me. So I forgive him the debt, and claim no damages. Please do whatever you think is right."

Now you smile. This hardly ever happens. But it is as if the entire courtroom lights up with a heavenly light.

You examine the case again. The man was clearly in the wrong for having damaged his neighbour's eye. But the neighbour has forgiven him! Therefore, there is nothing you can do to the offender. Yet there is still an injustice. The man is still without a working eye. Since you can't punish the offender, there is only one avenue of justice left.

You reward the victim.

Since you're a rich judge, you pay for the treatment yourself. You add extra for pain and suffering, and for any lost work that was incurred because of the incident. The men leave, both very happy.

This is why I love this law. For I believe that if the law works in one direction, that is, in the direction of death, then I believe it should also work in the other direction, the direction of life.

We, as men, see this law, and start breaking teeth out of the offender, since that is all we can do. But God can look at this law with the bountiful riches of His grace, and restore what was broken.

Indeed, if the other laws are anything to go by, where the offender is ordered to pay double or even 4 times the amount stolen, then perhaps God will even restore double the teeth, and double the eyes, to His children who have suffered wrong.

And what will such children do with an extra tooth? Why, give it back to God, and to someone else who may need it.

Over and over we are told in the Bible that God loves justice and righteousness. Over and over we are given examples that God is a very careful accountant, and keeps things equal in His dealings with man. And over and over we are told that God expects the same of us.

So that's how I view the "eye for an eye" law. It is a law of equality. A law of justice. If a wrong has been committed, it needs to be made right. As men, we can either take matters into our own hands, and effect justice in this life, with human methods. Or we can do good to the offender with the view that God will reward us later with even better riches.

But either way, we can be sure that God will make things equal and just in the end.

I've been studying various aspects of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. I've been wrestling with the idea of non-resistance, or in the words of Tolstoy: "non-resistance of evil by force."

I'm not sure I agree with everything Tolstoy writes, but one thing I have found insightful: when resisting evil using force, we are returning evil for evil.

It's that Old Testament law coming into play again. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. And while I love that law for heavenly reasons (I'll have to explain that later), when it comes to the Law, it is hard for people to look at the Old Testament and the New Testament and see the same God at work.

In some cases, "eye for an eye" seems harsh. Can't we all just get along? Can't we show each other some mercy? Can't we rehabilitate the poor law breaker? This all sounds so uplifting and enlightened, and we happily nod our heads in agreement with the New Testament.

That is, until we are wronged personally. Then we want justice! How dare my neighbour steal my car! How dare he trespass on my property! How dare he knock out my tooth! Knock out his in return! It's only fair! I want justice, man!

In these cases we nod in agreement with the wisdom of the Old Testament. Justice is a good thing. God was right all along. We can't just let the wicked run free. And so goes the logic.

And so we are confronted, whether consciously or not, with the crux of the matter. It is a choice Adam made in the garden of Eden. And it is a choice we make every day.

When God first created the garden of Eden, everything was good. He called it very good.* What is interesting to note, is that this included the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was good.

This is confirmed by the verses afterward, where God says:

	And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us,
	to know good and evil:
	   Genesis 3:22a

So simply the knowledge of good and evil can't be evil if God also knows it.

So what was the problem?

The problem was eating its fruit. The problem was living on that knowledge. Living on the basis of the Knowledge of Good and Evil results in death.

In my mind, this resolves perfectly the apparent difference we see in God in the Old and New Testaments. For God was just giving us what we asked for. And woe to us when God gives us what we ask for, against His command for good.

So God setup a nation in the kingdom of earth, called Israel, and gave that nation a righteous law. He began by being the King for that nation, but the nation rejected Him as King, and so He gave them a human king, just as they asked for.

And the righteous law used evil against evil, to achieve justice.

The problem is that God had already told us that this would kill us. He told us this way back in the garden of Eden. The Law cannot save us, no matter how righteous it is, no matter how good it is. It cannot save us because we are living on the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When someone does evil, we do evil in return in order to "make it right." In order to balance the scales.

It is a race to the bottom. It is a race toward death.

So when Jesus comes along, declaring the Kingdom of Heaven, and preaches His Sermon on the Mount, He is basically asking us if we've had enough yet. And when I read His sermon, I notice something striking, which I should have noticed a long time ago.

He is preaching a Heavenly Law, for a Heavenly Kingdom, ruled by a Heavenly God, for a Heavenly People.

And nowhere, in the entire sermon, are we told to return evil for evil. In fact, we are told to "resist not evil." Just like Paul writes in Romans 12:

	17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in
	the sight of all men.
   
	18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
	with all men.
   
	19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place
	unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay,
	saith the Lord. [Deut. 32.35]
   
	20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,
	give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire
	on his head. [Prov. 25.21, 22]
   
	21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
   
	   Romans 12

This is the Heavenly Law! And there is not a trace of evil in it. The only weapon we have against evil is good! This is the restoration of creation, before the Fall. This is the heavenly life.

So when people scratch their heads, and wonder why it seems like God had a personality change between the Old and New Testaments, point back to creation. It is us that needs the personality change. God is right all along. And to prove it to us, sometimes He gives us exactly what we ask for. But even then, He is able to work things out to our good.

	3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God,
	command this stone that it be made bread.
   
	4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall
	not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
   
	   Luke 4

Let us believe every word of God.

* (footnote added on 2011/04/09) The declaration that God's creation was "very good" is in Genesis 1, while the garden of Eden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, is in Genesis 2. While the accounts are slightly different in these chapters, I believe that the "very good" declaration still applies.