By the Finger of God

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. – John 8:6

For many years I got caught up in speculative games trying to figure out what Jesus wrote in the dust. Was He writing out the sins of the woman’s accusers? Was He, as Jerome suggested, writing Jeremiah 17:13, “Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust”? For some reason John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, decided not to tell us. It’s almost as if John is saying it’s not important what was written, but who was writing. Let me explain. John has already told us who Jesus is. He is the incarnate Word (1:1,14), the 2nd person of the Triune God in human flesh. So who’s finger is writing in the dust? It is the very finger of God. Maybe John wants us to pay attention to this.

As we read through the Bible the finger of God shows up from time to time. In Exodus 8 we read about when Aaron is commanded to strike the “dust of the ground” with his staff to unleash the third plague of gnats (vs. 16), Pharoah’s magicians, who up until this point had been able to replicate the plagues, now can’t. They attribute this power to the “finger of God.” Later in Exodus 31:18 we read that the “finger of God” carved the 10 Words into the two tablets of dusty stone. Maybe the most famous passage occurs in Daniel 5 during the feast of Belshazzar. There we discover Belshazzar is profaning the golden vessels of the Temple by using them in the praise of idols (5:4). Immediately, fingers appear and write on the wall, with the words illuminated by the lamp stand (5:5). What does the finger write? Mene, mene, tekel, and parsin (5:24). To which Daniel provides the interpretation. God has numbered the days of Belshazzar’s kingdom and it will be divided and given to someone else (5:26-27). The finger of God makes an appearance again in Luke 11:20, when Jesus says, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

I think these stories help to shed light on why John told the story of the woman caught in the adultery. Think about it. In John 7 Jesus compares Himself to Moses as one who brings the law of God (vs.14-24). Some in the crowd even suggest that Jesus is the promised (Deuteronomy 18:15) “Prophet” who would be like Moses (vs. 40). This leads directly into John 8 where Jesus writes in the dust, in the courtyard in the Temple, with His finger for the Pharisees to see. In vs. 12 Jesus refers to Himself as “the light of the world.” Chapter 8 closes with Jesus pointing out that Pharisees weren’t children of Abraham, but children of their father the devil (vs. 44).

If we’re not careful we can turn this passage into a story we use when we don’t want to own up to the wrongs we’ve done. Jesus won’t judge us and we shouldn’t judge each other, so we say, but an adulterous woman was judged that day. The irony of the story is that the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus to be condemned, instead He condemns them for their spiritual adultery. As the religious leaders of Israel, they had become like Egypt and Babylon, tying heavy burdens upon the people and misusing and abusing the temple of God. Because of this they had been numbered, weighed, found to be lacking, and the days of of their kingdom will soon be brought an end. It will be given to the greater-than-Cyrus (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Matthew 28:18-20).

While John 8 is a beautiful reminder of the mercy and forgiveness that Jesus brings, it is also a powerful warning about the dangers of misusing and abusing of the temple of God. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” I tremble when I read that passage. It means that the Christian brother and sister who sits beside you in the pew, in them the Spirit of the living God dwells. Do we believe that? If we did, wouldn’t it change how we treat them? Talk to them? Defend them? Would we dare to gossip about them? When they encouraged, laughed, and even wept with us, would we not see it as Christ in them? Later in chapter 6, Paul writes, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…. So glorify God in your body.” I tremble when I read that passage. It means that the Spirit of God dwells within me. It is a terribly serious and honorable thing to be the people of God. To say it another way, you are way more valuable than you think! May you live as if you and others really are the holy, sacred, honorable, and loved people Jesus says you are.