My thoughts are that the judicial system were for those living within the protected community that was the camp of the Children of Israel. While the instructions are beneficial for those of us observing Torah, it was absolute survival for those within the camp. Those "harsh punishments" were for things that took the free will away from others. For instance, if Yahowah gives you instruction on how not to spread disease, but you choose to ignore those instructions and spread disease anyway, it that simply a "violation of free will" . The other point is that we only have a couple of accounts of people that actually suffered those consequences (one person put to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath). But, it doesn't seem like they were just lining people up on a regular basis to stone them. For instance, if there are enough prostitutes around that a prophet could go out and find one to marry - I don't think there was a lot of strict adherence to the torah through the years.

But, I don't think Yahowah wants "us" as in you and I, right here today, doing anything in regards to punishment. Now, what happens during that 1,000 year reign is another story, maybe those rules come back into play at that point. But for now, there is no place on earth in which there is an entire torah observant community with a good and accurate copy of the torah available to them. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls could have flaws as it was still thousands of years after the time of Moseh. I wouldn't "act" on any judgement against anyone without a complete and total understanding of the actual words that Yahowah gave to Moshe. Even if our current Torah is relatively accurate, we know that even Moshe needed to go back to Yahowah for clarification. As much as I love my Father, we don't roll so close that I can clearly hear Him answer "yes or no" to a "should we stone him" question.

My view, for what it's worth, these instructions were for those that choose to live under the Towrah. These were for the community of Yisra'el, there were no instructions for them to go out and stone adulterers in other places, only within their community. So if someone chooses not to partake in the covenant and commits adultery it means nothing to us who have.

Furthermore as with everything in Tworah there is a physical aspect and a spiritual aspect. If someone physically commits adultery it hurts them, their spouse, their children and their community as such their was a physical consequence dealt out by the community. If someone spiritually commits adultery it hurts them and their relationship with Yah, and their is a spiritual consequence, the death of their soul.

There are no communities to day which gathered together have chosen to embrace Yah's covenant it makes any physical observance of the instructions rather difficult. One could say that this forum is such a community, virtual as it is, in which case all of us agreeing to observe the covenant would be accountable to the others with regard to the physical consequences.

Yah was setting Yisrael up as the ideal community on Earth, and was giving us instructions on how to run a society, and when He establishes His kingdom in a about 30 years these are the terms which men will live by.

Edited by user Sunday, March 17, 2013 5:58:05 AM(UTC)  | Reason: fixed typo

Thanks for the discussion!

So, ultimately, the day will come when we will have already chosen the right path and to follow the instructions as Yah has presented them to us, so we would not be concerned about making the "wrong" choices. It will be in our nature, embedded within us, part of our being, to make only "right" choices. The Towrah would be written inside of us. All of us will have exercised our free will and chosen wisely by then. Those who have not observed Yah's Word to come into relationship with Him, would ultimately destroy themselves physically as well as spiritually.

Hmmmmmm...I see...

IMO when he returns, gathers Yishra'el from the ends of the earth, reconciled under repaired covenant, and sets up His Millenial reign, and writes his torah inside us, restored levitical presthood, etc (last half of Ezekiel, etc)...Yes

Until then it seems history bears witness to a correlation that the closer a nation adhears, even unintentually, the freer and prosperous they are. The more they oppose the more enslaved and impoverished.

Although this article rife with error IMO, humorous to read anyway:
http://library.georgegordon.com/levitical