Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy 19:21
This is the favorite and infamous accusation that is used against the Jews and against the so-called “cruel God” of the Old Testament by many people including a lot of Christians.
It is true that Yahushua himself gives us an apparently very different interpretation in the Sermon on the Mount, but which nevertheless remains identical to the original:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
Matthew 5:38-39
As we have repeatedly described, Yeshua took over from the people the right to judge and execute judgment. He thus ushered in the Age of Grace, which continues to this day. From now on, we must no longer react as before, but as disciples of Yahushua we must preach Grace even to our enemy since it is offered to everyone. We must love even our enemy and must seek only the protection of the Messiah avoiding to defend ourselves.
It is when we commit judgment and vengeance into the hands of the Messiah that this law comes again into effect according in its original interpretation. When someone’s grace period expires, or when someone endangers his disciples, Yahushua often frees them by smiting the enemy, as it had been repeatedly done with David, as described in the Psalms.
All of this will come to pass definitively when He returns to judge the living and the dead.
Indeed, he will demand compensation from the guilty for every eye, every soul, every leg and every other thing, and he will compensate the victims a hundredfold.
It is also for the fulfillment and the definitive execution of this Commandment that the martyrs of Yeshua cry out dressed in robes covered with blood in the book of Revelation chapter 6.
So here is once again a commandment that is still as valid today as ever and even more. But here again, the judgment is in the hands of the Messiah and we can ask him to apply it.
Until then, our duty is to suffer persecution for His Name, without any resistance or other human protection. If they slap us, let’s show them that we are even ready to go to death for Him. So they can continue to beat us, insult us, slander us, because someone much more powerful than us will take revenge on them for the suffering they have caused.
We don’t have to defend ourselves, because by mistreating us it is the Messiah they are mistreating.
If you retaliate or curse them back, it is the Messiah’s name you are trampling on before their eyes.
If we are attacked for the Messiah, the Messiah must be seen in us. This is possible by suffering what he also suffered before the scribes and Pharisees and then on the cross which means like a lamb going to the slaughter.
Our enemies on their part will have to make the choice: let the Messiah execute the judgment involved in this commandment during the time of grace in order to receive forgiveness and Eternal Life by the execution in them of their old man? Or are they going to keep on persisting in rebellion until the Messiah returns so that judgment overtakes them on a physical level as well, bringing about the second death, which will be final?
See also: Accusation without proofs, Death penalty (where life begins)
RichardSipos/Z.Shlomo/2022/09/04