Go Straight to Hell
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; Isaiah 5:14a
Without measure – Why do people go to Hell? No, it’s not a theological trick question. Why do you think God would send people to Hell? Is it because they were wicked and deserved long-lasting punishment? Is it because true justice demands that the scales be balanced? Is it because they were arrogant, defying God? Is it because they didn’t accept Jesus as their Savior? Hell is, by all accounts, a pretty nasty place, so why would God send anyone there?
Suppose I suggested that the reason people end up in Hell is because they were disobedient. They broke the rules. Well, then, how many rules must they break to receive such a terrible punishment? A lot? One? The answer to this question is the reason for a rabbinic dispute about the meaning of the words li-veli hok, translated in this verse in the NASB (and others) as “without measure.” The problem is that it can also be read as “for lack of a statute.” This would imply that Sheol is the end for those who misstep by a single precept. In other words, one strike and you’re out! You may remember that James hints at the same rabbinic interpretation when he writes, “ For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10 NASB). Both rabbis and Christian exegetes struggle with this. After all, no one really wants strict justice and an unremitting divine Judge. Are all sins of equal weight? Is having cheese on your hamburger as onerous as murder? Everything in our sensibility about justice says, “No.” But is that what God thinks? Is James right, and we’re all doomed because we went to McDonald’s?
Christian apologists solve this problem by dismissing the Torah completely. For example:
Paul taught that one does not have to do the works prescribed by the Jewish law in order to trust Christ – one does not need to observe the Sabbath, keep kosher food laws, be circumcised and so on. At no point in his undisputed epistles does he say that one need not do good works.[1]
Apparently James was just using hyperbole. He really didn’t mean it. This is an elegant, if naïve, solution. If you want to save the baby, throw out the bath water. Unfortunately, the text doesn’t quite fit this hocus pocus interpretation. If Torah is God’s instruction, then it’s serious business, not easily dismissed by re-reading Paul as the correction of James (or of Yeshua, for that matter). Isaiah’s words are God’s. Paul is just a commentator. And if we read Isaiah as “for lack of a statue,” then we all have a serious problem. She’ol accounting is digital. Yes or No. In or Out. No bell curve morality. Better avoid that cheeseburger on pain of death.
Okay, so you think, “This is just trivial. Jesus saved me. Who cares about evaluating the weight of sins?” But what feelings do you have when you hear that a serial rapist found forgiveness in prison? Does that make up for his acts? What about the terrorist who kills forty children with a bomb in a restaurant? Is the slate wiped clean when he asks for forgiveness from God? Or is our sense of justice offended? How do we reconcile mercy and justice? What kinds of sins seem irredeemable to us? And doesn’t God’s sense of justice exceed ours?
No, I don’t think we can get away so easily by simply dismissing the “Jewish law.” Our own conscience cries for justice. Of course, that cry affects us too, and that’s the real rub, isn’t it?
Topical Index: justice, mercy, law, Hell, li-veli hok, without measure, for lack of a precept, Isaiah 5:14a, James 2:10
[1] https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/19102/where-did-james-get-the-idea-that-breaking-one-commandment-means-breaking-all
