Exodus 4:24-26 The Deadly Circumcision

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Exodus 4:24-26 involves a circumcision that happened under pressure from the threat of God’s judgment. It seems God was willing to kill Moses right after calling him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Why would he do that, even after he told Moses that it had to be him when Moses asked him to send someone else? This incident seems to imply a failure to circumcise in Moses’s family. Since circumcision was a part of the requirements for the Abrahamic covenant and Moses was leading the Israelites, it was important that he at least kept that rule. 

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Adultery and the Death Penalty

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Are all adulterers supposed to die in the Bible? When looking at Leviticus 20:10 and Deut 22:22, some people assume this means that ALL adultery is punishable by death. The story in John 8:1-11, about the woman caught in adultery being judged by Jesus, is usually what comes into the modern mind. However, there are alternatives to death based on the conditions in which the adultery is discovered. 

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Stoning in the New Testament

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Are people supposed to be getting stoned to death in the New Covenant? The Moral laws of the Old Testament still apply because they preexisted in the Sinaitic covenant (law of Moses). Adultery, murder, stealing, etc, were sins in Genesis, so rather than being specific to Israel, these laws apply to all people, through the Adamic (Adam’s) and Noahide (Noah’s) covenant. However, it was only after Noah that murder was punishable by death. Furthermore, the laws given to Moses, which required stoning for various violations, could only be executed within the nation of Israel, as those rules were given directly to them only at Mount Sinai. However, under the New Covenant, judgment for moral laws is reserved until final judgment (Matt 13:24-30). This is why Jesus didn’t engage in immediate supernatural judgment (such as calling fire from heaven) when the Samaritans rejected Him in the first century, even though James and John suggested it (Luke 9:51-56). Christians don’t stone people in the New Covenant because Jesus will judge them at the end; until then, they have time to repent and get saved by receiving the Holy Spirit.

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