Exceptions

People have often accused God of being unfair, strict, and rigid. They have complained at His severity and harshness. Are these accusations true?

God does have standards, but He is especially interested in the heart of man, wanting man's intentions to be right. Knowing that neither man nor this world is  perfect, God is often flexible to make exceptions that keep the spirit of His law. God's accommodations demonstrate compassion, while prioritizing both a right heart and a focus on foundational principles.

God made an exception regarding the inheritances of the children of Israel. Land was distributed by tribe and by family, with a man's inheritance passing to his sons. A man named Zelophehad, however, had no sons. Instead he had five daughters. The father had died during the wilderness wandering, and when the land was divided, this man would not be represented. His daughters came before Moses with this argument: "Why should the name of our father be withdrawn from among his family because he had no son?" (Numbers 27:4).

God agreed. Although normally the land would be passed through sons, God didn't want families to be lost. He instructed Moses, "You shall surely give them a hereditary possession among their father's brothers, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them" (27:7).

God knew that this one family would not be the only special circumstance, so He expanded the accommodations. If a man had no son, his inheritance would go to his daughter. If he had no daughter, the inheritance would go to his brother. If he had no brother, the inheritance would go to his uncles. If he had no uncles, the inheritance would go to the nearest relative (27:8-11).

The underlying principle mattered to God. He wanted land kept in families, so He established guidelines to allow that to happen. These new guidelines, however, presented their own complexities. First and foremost, the land was divided by tribe. If a daughter who inherited her father's land were to marry someone from a different tribe, individual portions of land within one tribe's possession would then pass to families from other tribes, resulting in a patchwork of confusion.

God did not want such confusion and division. Therefore, when the exception was given to allow daughters to inherit, they were restricted to marrying someone from their own tribe (36:6-9). God created the right balance between granting an exception and preventing that exception from causing chaos.

God made another exception regarding the division of the land among the tribes. God had instructed the people of Israel to cross over the Jordan River from east to west, and they were to inhabit the land west of the Jordan. The tribes of Reuben and Gad had a lot of livestock, and they saw that the land east of the Jordan was good for livestock.

The leaders of these tribes requested an exception. "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not take us across the Jordan" (Numbers 32:5). Moses was ready to turn down their request. He had two objections. First, it wasn't fair for those two tribes to settle in to their homes, while the other ten had to go off to war and fight for their possessions. The fight was to be shared by all. Second, their request sounded ominously similar to the nation's refusal to enter the land forty years earlier; Moses did not want to bring renewed anger and judgment from God because of another refusal.

God gave His answer through Moses, and a compromise was reached. Since Reuben and Gad weren't just trying to avoid the battle, and since they agreed to go fight with all the other men, returning to their possession only after the rest of the land was conquered, God allowed them to add their eastern possessions to the area of the Promised Land. Because their hearts were right, God granted this exception, but it did require adaptation. The cost of their exception was extended time away from their families and homes while they helped to fight.

God also made an exception regarding the Passover. The Passover was to be celebrated at a very specific time, the fourteenth day of the first month. The rules for the Passover were strict. It was to be universally observed, but the people had to be ceremonially clean in order to participate.

When it came time to celebrate, there was group of men who were unclean due to their contact with a dead body. These men wanted to worship, and they came to Moses with their question: "Though we are unclean because of the dead person, why are we restrained from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time?" (Numbers 9:7). God responded by offering an accommodation. Anyone who was "unclean because of a dead person, or [was] on a distant journey" was able to celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month instead (9:10). This was not a license to be unclean for avoidable reasons, but God made provision for extenuating circumstances.

God made other exceptions. There were strict laws regarding murder and fornication, for example. If someone accidentally killed someone without premeditation, he could flee to a city of refuge for protection (Numbers 35). If a young lady was raped in an uninhabited area and had no chance to cry out for help, she was not considered guilty (Deuteronomy 22).

God does have rules, and He wants people to keep them. God is holy, and He wants His people to be holy. God also understands exceptional circumstances, and He cares about the desires of a man's heart. With His compassionate understanding of fallen man on a fallen planet, God graciously makes accommodations for those who seek to live for Him when they keep the intent of His laws as carefully as possible.

"We serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter" (Romans 7:6).