Wow God really let people play it fast and loose back then huh
Basically as long as you didn’t eat certain apples or kill your brother, you were ok! Simpler times…
Seriously though, even when God does intervene to keep Sarah from being defiled (not like Abraham was going to do anything in that department), it is stated that the sin would have been on the ruler, even though he had NO IDEA that she was married! Meanwhile, Abraham is standing on the sidelines like “Whew! That was a close one! I could have been killed!”
I have to give it to Sarah. She was pretty understanding and talk about taking one for the team! If my husband tried to pull that I’d be more than a little ticked off.
If you read Genesis, it becomes evident that the people most closest to Creation (Adam, Eve, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Methuselah, etc) lived very long lives. I always thought that this was just a metaphorical way of writing, but there is a certain point In Genesis where God decides to shorten the lifespan of man from hundreds of years down to the modern duration of about 120 years:
“Yahweh said, ‘My spirit must not for ever be disgraced in man, for he is but flesh; his life shall last no more than a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth at that time (and even afterwards) when the sons of God resorted to the daughters of man, and had children by them. These are the heroes of days gone by, the famous men.”
Things worked a little differently during those times and although God never changes, God gets to set the rules and the framework for their application. Following the Fall, God had to slowly reeducate and discipline Man as to the proper course. He did this little by little, watching how Man responded to His commands. The Old Testament can seem unfair at times, as God singles out some people for favors and others for punishment, but the theme that I see developed in the Old Testament is one of God’s perfect Justice and Mercy. God is disciplining His Creation in order to put it back on the path to its original state before the Fall. God does not annihilate that which He creates Good. He tries to restore it and for that He needs the cooperation of Man who. following the Fall, needed discipline and reeducation.
I think Ecclesiasticus 16:4-15 sums this up:
“One man of sense can populate a city,
but the race of the lawless men will be destroyed.
My eyes have seen many such things,
my ears have heard things still more impressive.
Fire will be kindled in a community of sinners;
the wrath was kindled in a disobedient nation.
God did not pardon the giants of old
who, confident in their strength, rebelled.
He did not spare the people with whom Lot lived,
whom he abhorred for their pride.
He had no pity on that people doomed to destruction,
who were wiped out in their sins,
nor on the six hundred thousand men on the march
who banded together in their obstinacy.
Had there been even only one stubborn man,
it would have been astonishing if he had escaped unpunished,
since mercy and wrath alike belong to the Lord
who is mighty to forgive and to pour out wrath.
His mercy is great, but his severity is as great;
he judges every man as his deeds deserve:
the sinner shall not escape with his ill-gotten gains,
nor the devout man’s patience go for nothing.
He allows free play to his mercy;
yet every man shall be treated as his deeds deserve.”
