In the midst of a pressure packed public situation, Jesus set his own pace and wrote in the dust on the ground – the only record of him writing during his time on earth. The questions is – just what did He write?
Perhaps He wrote so the breathless crowd could see. Perhaps He would write something today to you.
“But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.” John 8:6b
In the midst of a pressure packed public situation, Jesus set his own pace and wrote in the dust on the ground – the only record of him writing during his time on earth. The questions is – just what did He write? The trap his foes were using was around the Law – what is the place of mercy – what is the place of justice? Jesus knew intimately about this challenge – after all, He wrote the Law! “When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God” Exodus 31:18. The Law was given to lead to mercy but here it was being used as a way to trap Him.
So He wrote in the dust. Perhaps He wrote to the men pressing him for an answer. Maybe a list of the sins they were willing to personally commit and gloss over. Remember that God did this with Belshazzar the night he was killed. The finger wrote: “you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.” It’s interesting that the oldest men went away from Him first. They may have been like Nicodemus who after years of rigid adherence to the Law realized that he would never please God that way. Perhaps He wrote to the woman. Her life was at stake after all.
Perhaps He wrote so the breathless crowd could see. Perhaps He would write something today to you. My brother was chatting with his son who was nine at the time about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and encouraged him to listen to what the Spirit had to say. At bedtime my brother encouraged his son to pray quietly, asking the Spirit to speak. He did so for a bit, then opened his eyes wide and said: “I am His child!”
Why not take some time and ask the Spirit to write something to you – conviction of sin, message of mercy, letter of love.
Pastor Leon Throness
