The Direction of Forgiveness

as far as the east is from the west,  so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Psalm 103:12  NIV

East/ west – You have undoubtedly heard this verse offered as proof for God’s forgiveness, but perhaps you haven’t considered some of its more esoteric implications.  So, let’s ask a few questions.  Why the order East-West?  Why not West-East?  This seems fairly obvious.  The orientation of the ancient world follows the sun.  It rises in the East and sets in the West, and if you were Egyptian, you’d view life in the same manner.  That’s why the West side of the Nile was considered the place of death.  A life follows the sun’s path.  We are born in the East; we die in the West, just like the sun that sinks below the horizon brings the end of the day and entry into the dark.  One implication of this psalm is that God sets us so far away from our transgressions it is as if they have died.

There is another interesting implication, a less spiritual one.  We often imagine that the ancient world had a rather defective view of this planet.  They believed the earth was flat (perhaps riding on the back of some celestial tortoise or something).  Their cosmology was naïve.  But consider this: How long will it take for you to travel North heading South from Nome, Alaska?  Well, about 12,000 miles because at that point you would be near the South pole and from there every direction is North.  Then again, how long will it take for you to travel West heading East from New York?  The answer is: forever, because as long as you are travelling East there is no West.  If the ancient Hebrews believed in a flat earth, then this psalm suggests that there is a finite distance between us and our transgressions, that is, the point where we would have to turn around to continue our travel.  But if they knew the earth was basically round, then this statement has much more power for this means that our transgressions are infinitely removed from us.  There is no measurable distance between East and West or rather, the distance is immeasurable.  So much for our assumption that modern science replaced ancient misconceptions.  Not only is forgiveness the difference between day and night, the difference between birth and death, it is also an infinite distance.  What is forgiven is never coming back.

With this is mind, we might want to reconsider Yeshua’s instructions:

“Therefore, if you are presenting your ^[a]offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your ^[b]offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your ^[c]offering.”

The infinite distance of forgiveness coupled with the infinite debt to another.

Or:

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

An infinite responsibility with infinite accountability.  Is that how we view East to West?

Topical Index: East, West, forgiveness, Psalm 103:12