The Exception to the Rule

Humans are rule-breakers by nature. It began with Adam’s disregard for the one prohibition in the Garden. He broke it, and ever since, we have been prone to follow in his footsteps. The well-known proverb says that to every rule there is an exception. Perhaps that is just an excuse people use to cover their indiscretions, but it has the ring of truth to it. The Farlex Dictionary of Idoms says, “The saying simply means that real-life situations are messy. Policies often bend for special circumstances.” The Bible has plenty of examples of policies being bent by heroes and villains alike.

Abram told the half-truth that his lovely wife was his sister to keep himself out of the king’s sights – twice. Jacob and his mother, Rebekka, told a whopper to poor blind Isaac to cement Jacob’s inheritance over the rightful claim of his brother Esau. Afraid the lie would come back to bite him, he ran to his uncle Laban’s ostensibly to find a wife, but equally to hide from his brother’s wrath. He then proceeded to run a complex breeding scam on Laban to pay him back for his dastardly sister-wife swap with Leah and Rachel. His own sons told an awful lie after they disposed of their father’s very favorite son, Joseph. Joseph parried a lie of omission into the motivation to get his wayward brothers to bring the family to Egypt. Jacob’s son Judah produced a son from an incestuous relationship who would have a prominent place in the genealogy of the Messiah.

Speaking of the Messiah, Jesus did some rule breaking of His own; at least, that is what the Pharisees would have called His miscreant behavior. He regularly healed on the Sabbath; gasp! He led His disciples through a field where they “harvested” grain for their seventh-day meal. When the Pharisees brought Him a woman taken in the act of adultery, He skillfully defused the situation by questioning their motives. He became angry and drove the money changers and their beasts from the Temple with a whip He fashioned from cords. He intentionally withheld an important aspect of His mission from His followers for two years by omitting to say that He would eventually be executed and they would become hunted as heretics. In each of these instances, it was the Savior's love that grounded His actions.

All of this proves to me that although Yahweh is a God who is always truthful and makes rules for His people, He is adept at conforming our rule breaking into His ultimate plan for our good, even when that rule breaking is committed by the perfect Lamb of God – or especially where the Lamb was concerned. One cannot miss how grievously the Father broke His own rule about child sacrifice. The Sanhedrin heard a prophetic statement from its leader when he said, “It is profitable for you that one man should die for the people, and the whole nation not perish.” The immensity of this breakage is amplified by the knowledge that the Father and the Son knew this would be the outcome of their redemption plan hatched before the world began.

So, where does this leave us as mere humans struggling to trust and obey. I think it leaves us in a quandary. We know that God has given us His Word for adequate “doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.” However, the Word also says that the approved workman will “rightly [divide] the Word of truth.” (KJV) The literal Greek for that phrase is “straightening the Word of truth along a straight path.” In other words, an approved workman will not bend the truth for his own benefit. But it leaves open the interpretation that the “straight path” may require some “straightening” of the Word. I think the essence here is that we need to follow the spirit of the teaching and not necessarily hold to an ironclad literal application.

Well-meaning Christians in the antebellum South of this country straightened the Word to support their version of slavery. The abolitionists were appalled; we should be too. Degrading humans made in God’s image to less than human status was inexcusable. Paul’s advice to slaves was in a context far different from the plantations of the American South in 19^th century America. Yet, the plantation owners used biblical evidence in their defense. A similar “straightening” of the Word is happening today with regard to the crisis of gender dysphoria. I listened to a trans “priest” preach that God is trans according to her/his interpretation of Scripture. That much straightening is heartrending – rending mine and God’s.

I have witnessed many aberrations in the application of the Word by sincere Christians. Early in my Christian education ministry, I faced a school board of hyper-fundamental Baptists who rebuked me for allowing a school-sponsored trip to hear a contemporary Christian concert. There were guitars and drums in the band. Horrors! My teachers loved it; their students loved it; the parents loved it. The board hated it. In that case, I have to insist that the board completely misinterpreted Scripture in their objection, but they thought they were making a “straight” application.

I think we are treading on dangerous ground when we claim that our human policies represent the straightest application of God’s Word. The Pharisees in Jesus’ time were dead certain that they were right and He was wrong. Jesus rebuked them saying, “You splendidly ignore the commandment of God so that you can keep your tradition,” aka human policies and procedures. The slavers of the nineteenth century were wrong. The twentieth century Baptists who forbade dancing and movies and playing cards were wrong – at least in part. I believe we err when we place adherence to policies above the needs of the people we are meant to serve or reach with the gospel. Sometimes, there are righteous exceptions to the rules. Love demands that we get that straight.

Related Posts: Values Clarification; The Knowledge of Good and Evil