John 8:7 What Did Jesus Write?
There has been much speculation about what Jesus wrote in the dirt when a bunch of Pharisees brought to him a woman who was caught in an act of sexual sin. The law called for her to be stoned – killed by them throwing stones at her until she died. They wanted Jesus to condemn her so that they could blame him for her death.
He silently began writing in the dirt with his finger. Then He looked up and said that whoever was without sin should throw the first stone. This caught them off guard, for none of them could claim to be without sin. Starting with the oldest ones, these men walked away.
This had obviously been a set-up to trap Jesus. For one thing, the man who had been involved in the sexual sin was not brought – only the woman. The woman must have been shaking in fear, knowing that she very well could be killed and that the Pharisees were bent on getting Jesus to speak words of condemnation to her.
In John 8:7, we see His silence. He did not speak her death sentence. Perhaps he was only making marks on the ground. But it’s quite possible that he was writing a list of sins that the accusers had committed. Or perhaps he was even writing their names and the names of women with whom they had committed sexual sin. We are not told and can only imagine. But the result was that the woman was left there with Jesus, and the accusers were gone.
Jesus’ simple words to her were, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She answered, “No one.”
Jesus’s great compassion and mercy showed as he said, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The awesome thing is that He’ll say those words to us too if we come to Him to ask forgiveness. No matter what sin, mistakes, rebellion, and unbelief we’ve had, those simple words will set us free. He will enable us to leave our lives of sin and become new people who walk in the joy of knowing Him.
The answer is in a prophecy from Jeremiah
JEREMIAH 17:13
O Lord, the hope is Is’-ra-el, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
May the God(YHWH) of Israel bless the readers
I would like to shed light on what I think the spiritual meaning of the woman caught in adultery and what Jesus wrote on the ground. It was as if Jesus was again presenting His case to us about His unfaithful wife as He did in Hosea, Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23; well actually mostly the whole Bible.
For the probable answer , you would have to turn your Bible to Roman 2:1-3… 1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
The Jews were frequently disobedient to God’s laws (unfaithful to God), in an unholy union with Satan; therefore she (the Jews) was labeled by God as a spiritual adulterer, a harlot and a prostitute. Jesus had caught His wife- the Jews, in the act of spiritual adultery. The Jews were prostituting themselves with idol worshipping, and with the false doctrines and practices of Egypt, Babylon, and so forth. Although she at this time fasted, kept the Sabbaths and feast days, her harlotry was she was only going through the motion to be seen and praised or for some other type of evil gain. Her “heart” just wasn’t in it because it was after all, only business as usual. Israel did not know or love her heart-broken husband, Jesus. Jesus sadly caught her in the act. Roman 2:22 says…Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Of course the answer was yes.
Usually when God is sitting in the bible He is judging, so using the finger of God (Jesus) bent to write on the ground, therefore forced to judge the Jews (His wife) the accusers first– of her unrepentant “caught in the act” adultery and then afterwards He judged the repentant woman and told her to go and sin no more.
God calls to us (reflected in the Three Angels’ messages) to “come out of her”, don’t be deceived- like Eve, and like His unfaithful wife of the past- do not get marked with a whore’s forehead or the mark of the beast in the hand and become caught in the act and naked. He is warning us not to unite (fornicate) with the kings and merchants of this lawless world by selling His truths and buying and spreading the lies of Satan through false teaching.
Bridget Snowden