MIGHTY IN BATTLE

by Bill Somers

This Document last revised on September 28, 1999.
We are reposting it this week because of it's timely nature. The original story took place during the Feast of Tabernacles.

The episode of the Woman Taken in Adultery in one of the most dramatic of all Jesus' encounters with the Pharisees. Yet it is also one of the most mysterious as well. Here is the text.

This commentary hopes to remove some of the mystery and share some exciting things the Lord has shown me regarding this passage. I have gone over this text many times in its preparation. I suggest that the reader will get the most benefit by going over it more than once.

The idea of a spiritual meaning behind this passage came to me several years ago while listening to a tape by Bob Jones, one of the Kansas City Prophets. Brother Jones explained that the woman is a type of the Church, and that the story is prophetic of her redemption. That is, just as the woman is caught in her adultery and has her sin openly exposed, so the Church is about to have her sin exposed and to be accused, of all manner of things. As the woman in the story repents and is set free, the church also will go through a similar experience that will lead to revival. [Some are now prophesying this in terms of a Civil War.]

Therefore this text has a special prophetic significance. As it says in 1st Corinthians 10:11 "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

There is a pattern in this story; a pattern of revival, specifically of end-time revival. The church is about to experience a severe attack of the enemy. This will in fact be a judgment from the Lord. (...Judgment must begin at the house of God.... 1st Peter 4:17) This in turn brings the Church to the place of Repentance. Revival will take place, which will include Divine commissioning, a mandate and an anointing that empowers her to complete the Great Commission and bring in the Harvest.

There is another pattern here found widely throughout scripture: An Encounter with The Lord, in which He reveals Himself for Who He is.

This encounter produces several results that are typical of revival. (After all, isn't revival the result of a meeting with the Lord?) The one having the encounter receives the Fear of the Lord. They become very meek and humble. They worship the Lord. They receive new revelation knowledge from the Lord. Then they are used by the Lord. (Where before they could not be used because they lacked these things.) This happens to greater or lesser degree depending directly upon the degree to which God reveals himself.

This is true of almost all major characters in the bible. Consider the degree to which He revealed Himself to Saul of Tarsus, and the thoroughness of his dramatic conversion to Paul the Apostle. (Another story typical of revival.) Another way of describing an encounter with the Lord is this: The Revelation of Jesus Christ! Which is to say, Revival is the Revelation of Jesus Christ! And this is seen in the very next Verse (12) which says "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world:"

Let's go back to the text.

First, notice that Jesus has come down from the mountain. He went up to the mountain; so, reading between the lines, to get to the temple, he had to come back down.
This speaks of his coming down from heaven. "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple." (Mal. 3:1) We see this scripture from Malachi fulfilled several times in the Bible. Indeed this has been the pattern of Divine visitations throughout our history in the Great Awakenings and world wide revivals. "He came again." Suddenly the Lord Comes AGAIN and visits his people in judgment and blessing!
And now we see Jesus, sitting in the temple. Or in other words we Behold The Lamb Upon The Throne. The Lord God, the King of Israel reigning in Zion. The scene is a shadow of the throne room in heaven! Note also that with Jesus sitting there we have an illustration of the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is born out, as we see, since He immediately has a case brought to Him to judge.
Since he is in the Temple, He is among His people for the people are the Temple and the Temple is the people. The Lord indwelling His people also speaks of revival.

Verse 2 also mentions that he taught the people - a mark of revival. On first reading this text it is easy to assume that while He was teaching, the Pharisees and Scribes came and interrupted him. We are not told what he taught them, but the text shows us. For you see the incursion of the Pharisees & Scribes was not an interruption of the lesson, it was the lesson!

The Bible says that "The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee is Mighty!" (Zephaniah 3:17) We see this demonstrated here as Jesus, the Captain of the Host, reigning in the midst of His people, is about to do battle with his enemies.

The scribes and Pharisees speak of ruling principalities and powers, demon princes, the rulers of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). First they were over the people. Their social position speaks of a higher spiritual position. Second they are accusers (v. 4). The bible describes Satan as the accuser of the brethren. Third, they are enemies of the woman (the church), seeking to steal, kill and destroy her (v. 5). And fourth, they are also enemies of God seeking to accuse Him, or catch him in a contradiction (v.6). Thus showing the enemies of the church to be enemies of God. Because for Him to deny His Word would be to deny Himself meaning He would cease to exist.

This shows the seriousness involved in Satan's challenging the Word of God. The entire scene reminds me of Job chap 1 and 2 where the sons of God came and presented themselves and Satan came amongst them to accuse Job, and to challenge God Himself. There is an even greater resemblance to the scene in Psalm 82.

There we see God confronting his enemies, just as here in John 8, when we see him pronouncing judgment on them. "Ye shall die like men."

Now back to our story.

The pharisees have brought in a woman taken captive. ("For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, .... ", 2 Timothy 3:6). Who is this woman? Don't imagine that this is some errant young girl who was unlucky enough to get caught fooling around! No way! These Pharisees are naturally going to bring in a common prostitute of Jerusalem, someone that everybody knows is a whore and has no doubt as to her guilt.
Who is this woman? none other than the town whore! So that in the eyes of the spectators (the world) she is not worthy of any sympathy whatsoever! And why is this? Because they want to put all the pressure on Jesus. So here we have them bringing in the town whore. Who is this woman? She is someone that everybody hates. As all the world hates the church, she is a type of the Church. Isn't this an accurate picture of the Church's present condition? (Notice she (the church) does not come to the place of repentance on her own, but only by the doings of the enemy!) She began silently to pray. She prays somewhat in the spirit of the following verses; perhaps even quoting parts of them. To understand what happens here we must visualize the scene as in a drama on a stage. This scene is illustrated by a painting in some editions of the bible. It shows the woman, lying at Jesus feet, weeping. However the text does not mention this. Only that at the end she is found standing. She may well have initially fallen at His feet but at some point He must have bid her to rise. ("Shake thyself from the dust; arise, ...O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.") (Isaiah 52:2.) First because he has answered the above prayer for mercy. It doesn't take long at all for God to hear and answer prayer. "...as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth...." (Isaiah 66:8) Second because he will need room on the ground in front of him for what he is about to do next. Now in verse 5, the accusers attribute a certain command to Moses, that the woman should be stoned. "but what sayest thou?" they add. Some commentators point out that this is a ploy to entrap Jesus. If he agrees, he puts himself at odds with the Roman rulers who alone held the right to condemn someone to death. If he disagrees, he contradicts the Law of Moses. (But John 3:17 says "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.")

At this point the Pharisees are thinking that after all their attempts they have finally gotten something on Jesus. They tried to trick him with the Roman tax coin, they tried to trap him with the question about the Baptism of John, and other such questions. So many times they have tried, but this time they're sure they have him. They are so confident that they come against him right in the very Temple and in front of all the people. (But Job 20:5 says "That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?")

At this point things have suddenly become deadly serious. I can just imagine the spectators sucking in their breath as the tension mounts! "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?" (Isaiah 49:24)

Now it is thought that by saying nothing in answer to their accusation, he avoids the trap and puts the burden of executing judgment on them. "...and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

But there is much more to it than that. Let's look at three elements here. What did He write, what was he doing as he wrote, and why did He write it instead of saying it?

What did Jesus Write?

First of all, it is significant that Jesus wrote WITH HIS FINGER. The finger of God. (Always keep in mind that Jesus is God.) He said in Luke 11:20 "But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." Here he casts out the scribes and Pharisees, stand-ins for devils! 'The finger of God' therefore speaks of the Law and Judgment. The finger of God wrote the Law upon the stone tablets of Moses. A tablet or table is nothing more than a flat surface. So is the floor of the temple. The same finger of God produced the famous "Handwriting on the wall" in Babylon. (Daniel 5) It's the same finger that writes His Law in our hearts.
The accusers stated that Moses commanded that she should be stoned. Here is where the Holy Spirit prompted me with a pointed question:

What exactly does the Law say?

And in the process of finding this out, He led me to two key verses in the Law of Moses. Then I began to receive deep insights into the whole passage. Because when you check out what the Law says you see that THE PHARISEES LIED! What they claimed Moses said is not what the Law says! So to demonstrate that; when Jesus wrote on the ground, HE QUOTED THE LAW! And He quoted it correctly, exactly as it was given to Moses. (After all He was the one who gave the law in the first place!)

The first thing he wrote was Leviticus 20:10.

Not only did this "ignorant carpenter" confound them by quoting the law exactly, He wrote it out perfectly, upside down and backwards so that all who were facing Him could plainly read it! The power of this rebuke has stood as an indictment of man's hypocrisy down through the ages. Regardless of what Jesus wrote, you can see that it broke them, totally shattering their unity. With one stroke they went from being vicious accusers to being helpless sinners facing the judgment of an angry God.

The bible says "let every word be confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses." (2nd Corinthians 13:1) So now Jesus writes out a second scripture. This time it was Deuteronomy 22:22.

Notice that in both of these scriptures the man is mentioned first and that both parties are guilty of death! Also note that stoning is not mentioned. That's where the Pharisees lied!

At this point, we recall that the scribes were those whose task was to copy out the scriptures. So they should be expected to know what the Law said. The Pharisees were especially noted for memorizing the five books of Moses. But what have they done here? They have shown themselves to be liars, and incompetents in front of all the people. First of all they were liars for misquoting Moses whose disciples they claimed to be. Experts in the Law who don't even know what the Law says?

And then they show themselves to be incompetent to rule over the people by not bringing in both guilty parties! They claimed to have caught her in the very act, so they must have caught him as well! Even though they had taken captive a prisoner who was known to be guilty, they let the other guilty party go free! So there was no way for them to execute judgment or even to make their accusation stick according to the law of Moses!

Now after Jesus spoke the words "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" He continued to write. While that was sinking in, the second scripture completed the proof that none of the accusers were without sin! Perhaps there was an element of sarcasm in his voice as he said it! As if to say, 'here by quoting the law, I have exposed your sin. Now which of you has the nerve to claim he is without sin?' In other words Jesus has exposed their sin and they could not stand before God with sin.

Let's look at one more aspect of this. Speaking of witnesses and the sentence of death consider this passage from Deuteronomy.
 

Deuteronomy 17:2-7
2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
3  And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4  And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
5  Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
6  At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.
[Here we note that the context is speaking of those who go to serve and worship other gods, i. e. spiritual adultery.]
What this tells us is that those who witnessed the crime must be the ones to "first cast a stone at her". These Pharisees have told Jesus that "this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act." So Jesus Challenges them, saying, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."  What this does is call for two or more of them to come forth and claim to be witnesses of the act. If they come forth with such an accusation, it becomes obvious that they know the identity of the other guilty party in the adultery. And as we noted above they have failed to accuse the other party, knowing full well who he is, having witnessed the act themselves. So if they claim to be witnesses they are not without sin, having failed to deal with both guilty persons. The result is that the accuser of the brethren is automatically guilty of sin!

Here is the prayer of the woman at this point.

You will notice that the prayer shifts to imprecation, calling for judgment on one's enemies. And that's exactly what Jesus accomplishes in verse 9. It's no wonder they all left, after being rebuked and corrected in matters of the Law. They were utterly embarrassed! And when they were convicted of sin, they were unwilling to repent before the only one who had the power to forgive sin. "Who is this that forgiveth sins...?!" (Luke 7:49) They left one by one, showing that their unity was shattered. The eldest left first. The leaders were first to realize that they had just made total fools of themselves.

What was Jesus doing as he wrote?

He was fighting his battle and he was revealing himself. Since God's throne is established on Mercy and Judgment, Jesus was demonstrating His Lordship! How so? Jesus wrote in the dust before all the people to pronounce judgment and to show mercy at the same time. In doing one He was able to do the other, for as the accusers were judged, the woman received forgiveness! (Psalm 9:16 says "The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands." Since the Lord is know by the judgment he executes, this is one way He reveals Himself for Who He is!)

Now besides that, what Jesus did was to use the law to convict them of sin. Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.) shows the purpose of the law was to convict of sin. Here the Pharisees not only made fools of themselves, they are guilty of breaking the very law they are trying to use against the woman. Why? Because that law applied to them! The prohibition against adultery applied to the woman. There was no question about her guilt. The entire dispute is over the penalty for sin. The law proscribing the death penalty for the two parties involved in adultery was binding on them. The judges of Israel were required to carry it out. Doesn't the law speak to them when it says "... so shalt thou put away evil from Israel." This they clearly failed to do; it was never even their intention. They could not even come close since they had let one of the guilty ones go free. "How long will ye judge unjustly, ..." was the rebuke he gave in Ps. 82:2, it is equally descriptive of the situation here.

Now moving along, note also that it says "Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst" and in verse 10, "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman". In the natural sense of the text it is understood to mean all the accusers had left. But in the literal sense it says all the people had left as well. (This is one of those cases, where something that does not quite make sense in the literal, that just doesn't add up, is used to point to a spiritual meaning.) When the accusers were driven back, Jesus was alone with the woman. What about the people? Symbolically the people are part of the woman. There are no neutral spectators in this situation. You are part of the woman or your part is with the enemies of God. The people are the temple, the temple is the church. The church is the woman, the woman is you and I. And we are the bride; and Jesus has eyes only for his bride, he "saw none but the woman". And when Jesus arises again, on the last day, at the sound of the last trumpet, it will be to gather his bride to himself with great rejoicing!

And so we need to consider this from the point of view of the accused woman, not that of a spectator. Our position is that of the accused; we the church are guilty as charged and her prayers, all of them, shall be our prayers. So we note that she is humble and repentant, and thereby able to remain standing when others are driven back. As 1st Peter 5:5 says "...and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."

Why did Jesus write out the Word instead of speaking it?

Again there is a combination of mercy and judgment.
By not exposing the full extent of their sin out loud and in public, he was in effect letting them off the hook. The pharisees knew He could have made it far worse on them if He did. And it would perhaps have angered them to the point where they would try to kill him before his time.
But He also did it to illustrate two amazing points from the scriptures! It was not for the benefit of those on the scene at that time. It was for our benefit as readers of the bible. How so? We must visualize the scene, and be open to the Lord's sense of humor as he makes a play on words.

There are two amazing points that are made by visualizing the scene. First by stooping down to write, He had to rise up again. "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman,"
This is an illustration of a scripture. It's an exact visual demonstration of Psalm 68:1! "LET GOD ARISE; LET HIS ENEMIES BE SCATTERED!" Hallelujah! When God Arose all his enemies were on the run! And that's exactly how it is when Jesus moves on your behalf!

The second play on words in even more interesting. Picture Jesus standing in the center of the scene. About three or four feet in front of him is the accused woman, facing him, repentant and broken. The accusers have left and the people are standing around watching. Between them, written 'in the dust of the earth' as one translation puts it, are the scriptures Jesus has just written out. Now Jesus speaks. "Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?"

At this point something happens. The woman reacts by turning completely around. Now with her back to Jesus, facing the same way he is, we see her taking two or three steps backward in astonishment and joy that her accusers are gone! "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing...." Ps. 126:1,2. A perfectly natural and obvious reaction by anyone in these circumstances!

And here is the woman's prayer at this point.

Now once this happens, consider the position of the woman when she confesses Him as Lord. She has drawn closer to Jesus and is now standing on the very spot where Jesus wrote on the ground! In other words, she is standing on the word of God and seeing things from His point of view! Since she has stepped backwards, she has now drawn closer to Jesus. In fact she is now standing in His shadow! Then, once the woman, (the church) turns about to face her enemies, and takes her stand on the Word of God, she lifts up her eyes and finds that Jesus has already fought the battle and won the victory for her!

Recall the scene in 2nd Chronicles 20...

We saw above that the Church's enemies are also the Lord's enemies; note that 2nd Chronicles 20:15 says "the battle is not yours, but God's."
So the battle is the Lord's, and He shows Himself strong on behalf of His people; Mighty in Battle!
And how does He fight? Revelation 2:16, says "...I will ...fight against them with the sword of my mouth." We find this point demonstrated here also. That is exactly how He fights! He fights with the sword of His mouth, and destroys his enemies with the Word!

Now Jesus steps forward and lays a comforting hand upon her shoulder. (Draw close to God and He will draw close to you!) And, while also standing on His Word, says "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." Notice His two commands; GO, and sin no more. These are the same for any Christian; but speak especially of the Church in Revival. The 'Go' is the power and the anointing, the 'sin no more' is the requisite holiness to move in that power.

And This is how you get the victory.
First be willing to come before the Lord in repentance.
Second let the Lord fight the battle for you!

"There is therefore, no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus." {Romans 8:1)

Now the final prayer of the woman would go something like this from Luke chapter 1: (Where it is spoken by another woman who is another type of the Church.)

The Other Guilty Party
Some have said that the reason all the Pharisees left the temple was that they themselves were among those guilty of committing adultery with the harlot. The text viewed from the natural does not support this, but viewed as types it does.

If this scene represents Satan accusing the church of spiritual adultery, isn't he the other guilty party? We have seen that the Law requires that there be two guilty parties and that both be put to death. So cannot the Lord reply 'well tell me Satan, just who is the other guilty party? Exactly who have my people been unfaithful with?' So the effect here is to illustrate yet another scripture: as it says in Psalm 64:8 "So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves...."

The relationship between God and his people (Israel and/or Church) is one of betrothal of marriage. They are legally married but not yet fully united. One thing this accomplishes is to protect them, to a degree, from the accuser when they are unfaithful. Since the accuser is the other guilty party in the adultery. So to bring the full accusation of adultery against them would rebound against the accuser as well. The other thing is that eventually the church must be willing to accept the sentence of death. Ps. 110:3 "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power...." And in that day the Lord will use it to destroy the enemy!

Now to summarize:

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Bill Somers

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