When ancient Israel entered the promised land of Canaan, they were told that God would drive out the Canaanites before them and that the Israelites were to destroy any who remained.
The Bible tells us that this judgment was delivered on the Canaanite people because of their extreme depravity. The Canaanites would sacrifice their children – putting them to death in order to gain some advantage for themselves, to make their lives better. The Israelites were warned time and again not to follow that way (Leviticus 18:21, 24 and Deuteronomy 18:9-13).
In the past, some skeptics challenged whether such a horrible practice could actually have existed in ancient Canaan; yet actual evidence of child sacrifice by the Canaanites does exist. Several ancient Egyptian wall reliefs carved in the temples of Karnak and Luxor, actually depict the abominable practice (A. Spalinger, “A Canaanite Ritual Found in Egyptian Reliefs,” Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 8 [1978]:47-60.).
If we fast forward to today’s world it is sad that so many cultures have chosen to go that same way in what has become a genocide without borders – the abortion of countless unborn babies. Today abortion is viewed as an acceptable sacrifice – for some, even up to the time of the birth of a child – to personal convenience. The usual rationale, of course, is that before birth babies are not people. Biblically, however, it is clear that life begins before birth, and the Bible gave clear laws to protect the life of the unborn (Jeremiah 1:5, 20:17; Exodus 21:22-23, etc.).
But even though many people do not know or accept the biblical view of life before birth, it may be surprising to learn that widespread abortion is something that a majority of people do not accept or want. According to a recent national public opinion poll conducted in the United States by the highly respected Marist Institute for Public Opinion, eight in ten Americans support “substantial restrictions” on abortion. In fact, a majority would limit abortion to cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother – or would prefer not to allow it at all. In fact, only one in ten Americans say they would prefer no restrictions on abortion while most Americans – feel abortion is “morally wrong.”
So if most people in our democratic society feel they would like to limit widespread abortion, why is nothing done to restrict it? The answer may lie in the fact that many people say they feel afraid to speak out on the topic because people who do so are so mercilessly attacked by the minority of people who want unrestricted abortion. It has become not politically correct to even mention abortion, but fine to practice it. So, we have a tragic disconnect in our society – between what many people believe deep down and the fact that they feel unwilling or unable to do anything about stopping what they believe is wrong.
Whatever nation we live in, whenever we have an election it is our choice that will determine whether we begin to limit abortion or reinforce and expand the practice. It is a choice we cannot sidestep by not voting, and the words of famed theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in the Nazi Holocaust, are relevant: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil … Not to act is to act.” Choosing one way takes us along the path of humane love for the vulnerable and defenseless unborn – the way of parental acceptance or adoption. Choosing the other path takes us yet further into the ways of the Canaanites who sacrificed their children in order to gain some selfish advantage or convenience for themselves. We vote with our hands – and the lives of millions of unborn children are in our hands.
An old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip showed Calvin’s mother telling the grubby youngster to go and get into the bathtub. The next frame showed a grinning Calvin sitting in the empty bathtub fully clothed and saying “I obey the letter of the law, if not the spirit.” Like Calvin, most children can be very good at obeying the letter of the law – its exact literal meaning – while avoiding the command’s spirit – its underlying intent – but as adults we don’t always grow out of that approach.
An example of this can be seen in the way in modern Israel some landowners keep the letter of the Old Testament law by not farming their land in the seventh year to let it rest (Leviticus 25:2–4), but they lease out the land for the year and let someone else work it – while they “keep” the law by not working the land. Calvin’s attitude may be true of all of us at times, but we should never underestimate the Christian responsibility to obey the spirit of the law.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus interpreted the law of Moses according to the spirit of the law, rather than the letter. While the Mosaic law said we must not murder, Jesus said that extreme and disparaging anger can make us guilty of breaking that law, because it is the same attitude that produces both anger and murder (Matthew 5:21–22). While the Mosaic law said we must not commit adultery, Jesus said to look on a woman lustfully is to commit adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:27–28).
So keeping the letter of the law, but not its spirit and intent, is expressly forbidden by Christ. Most believers understand this basic principle of Christianity, but how do we apply it – how do we know, for example, what other ways a given command of Jesus should be applied in order to keep its spirit and intent? The answer is surprisingly simple.
We should realize that the wording of a law often does not fully cover every possible way in which it should be applied, and we must be willing to look for its intent – the spirit of the law. For instance, as one of the laws given in the Old Testament book of Leviticus states: “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God” (Leviticus 19:14). Although this law literally only forbids cursing the deaf and causing the blind to stumble, if we think about it, we can see almost endless possible ways in which the spirit of the law can be applied.
The intent of this particular law is not to do anything that takes advantage of, or makes life difficult for, those already dealing with disabilities. For example, the spirit of this law would forbid us to sell inferior goods to a blind individual that we know we would not be able to sell to a sighted person. If we take a little time to think about this law, we will soon see other ways in which it can be applied that fall within the spirit of the law even though they are not included in its literal wording.
This brings us to the simple way in which we discover the spirit of a given law – we must think about it! While that may sound just too simple, it is nevertheless true. That is the difference between Bible reading and meaningful Bible study – between just getting through the Bible as opposed to getting the Bible through us.
We have all read some of the many instances in the Psalms where David speaks of meditating on God’s law (Psalm 1:2; etc. ) – and this is what we must do if we are to ever see its spiritual intent. It is not a question of which laws or commands we must or must not keep today – it is the only way in which we can come to deeply understand the way to truly keep the intent of the whole law, as Jesus said, by loving God and loving others.
We do not try to keep God’s law of love in order to earn salvation, and we will never be able to keep it perfectly in this life – in letter or in spirit (Galatians 5:5). But the more we think on the principles behind the laws of the Old Testament and the standards of behavior that Jesus gave his followers, the more we will see the spiritual intent behind those laws and commands, and the better we will be able to love God and love others as ourselves.
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