Just when you thought the brutality of ISIS couldn’t get any worse, I came across a story in the New York Post, “Woman stoned to death by ISIS militants and her own father” in my social media news feed. We have witnessed the untold horrors of innocent people being beheaded by ISIS militants and now we read about a woman being stoned to death for accusations of adultery. Whats worse is her father is one of the executioners.

Here is a excerpt from that story.

As a cleric rants and accuses her of adultery, the woman begs for forgiveness from her father, who is too busy tying a rope around her neck to hear her desperate pleas. When he finally acknowledges her, it is to tell her not to call him Father. Then he leads her to a hole in the ground in the barren countryside, pulls her in and orders the attack on his own flesh and blood to begin.

“Don’t call me Father,” he tells his daughter, who responds by asking him to pray for her.

As she crouches in the pit, the veiled woman can be heard praying as she is pummeled with rocks until she is still.ⁱ

Accused of adultery this woman, covered in a brown veil, is led to a hole in the ground by her father as she pleads for her life. Could you imagine doing this to your own daughter?

If the betrayal of her own father isn’t enough, the cleric at the scene tells the woman to be “content and happy” because her stoning death has been ordered by “God.” What?!?!? Really?!?!?

Clearly this is not the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. This is not Yahweh (YHWH), the God of the Israelites! This is not the one true Living God!

As the militants rain down rocks on the defenseless woman, her father steps forward and picks up the largest rock before using it to strike and kill his daughter.ⁱⁱ

Fade to black…

Remember another story of a woman accused of adultery that took place some 2000 years ago?

This time the accusers were the the religious Pharisees instead of ISIS militants. The God in this story turns the whole scene upside down as Jesus steps onto the scene. Jesus, knowing the corrupt hearts of these self righteous men does this according to John’s account in chapter 8; “Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground”

Jesus responds to the situation by saying “He who is without sin cast the first stone.” This is brilliant!

The people begin to put down their stones and walk away and the scene is left with this woman and Jesus alone in the town square. She is wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. Jesus says “did they not condemn you?” “No, none of them Lord,” she said. Then Jesus says, “Neither do I and go and sin no more!”

Did Jesus pick up the largest rock to and execute her like the father in the New York Post story? Of course not, He brought her to her feet and forgave her. What an awesome scene!

I wonder how the story of the ‘woman caught in adultery’ would have ended if Jesus didn’t bring grace into her circumstance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFyymEvM6Dw

You see Jesus didn’t just see her for what she was in that moment. Jesus saw her for who she would become some day. That day Jesus became her Savior, her Rescuer, her loving and caring Father that she so desperately cried out for. In that moment she didn’t need a judge and a jury, she needed Jesus!

What a stark contrast to the man in the New York Post story who said to his daughter, “Don’t call me father!”

Does this mean that Jesus condones adultery? Absolutely not! Right after Jesus brings her to her feet, He confronts her about the deeper issue by telling her to “Go and sin no more!”

Also, for those who would be quick to bring the Old Testament into the narrative, the religious leaders were more interested in trapping Jesus than learning from Him. When Jesus responds with, “he who is without sin” their sin and partiality were exposed. They only brought a woman whom they claim they “caught” in the act of adultery, not the man. Clearly they were not seeking justice at all.

Carefully read Leviticus 20:10. THEY are caught. BOTH are to be put to death. There is to be no partiality.

Here is whats really awesome, Jesus not only works within the Law by not contradicting it, He takes it a step further – He perfected it by forgiving the woman. In Romans 8:3 we read, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh”

So in matters of adultery, Jesus – 1 and ISIS – 0.

Who do you want dealing with your sin?