¶ Door Number Four
¶ The Fourth Covenant With Moses (PBUH)
¶ “They said: ‘O Moses, invoke for us your Lord by His covenant with you.’”
Many things happened between the Covenants of Abraham and Moses (PBUT) and the words of God concerning the sons of Abraham were fulfilled:
“Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Have no doubt that your descendants will live as immigrants in a land that isn’t their own, where they will be oppressed slaves for four hundred years.’ ”
Jacob and Joseph (PBUT) entered into Egypt and they had with them their families, and after Joseph had passed, the Children of Israel became enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years until the promised Savior Moses (PBUH) appeared. The reason for the enslavement of the Children of Israel was due to them breaking the Abrahamic Covenant. They were living in great blessings in Egypt during the time of Joseph (PBUH) during the rule of Akhenaten (PBUH), the monotheistic King at the time of Joseph, but after King Akhenaten’s death, his son, King Tut ruled at the young age of nine years old. The relatives of his wife and the priests in that time controlled him and made him reverse his father’s decisions and revert the kingdom’s religion back to the polytheistic one they were practicing before, and they then murdered Tut.
The Israelites at the time remained silent and did not object to anything and embraced the reinstated false gods and false religions of Egypt due to their lack of faith, fear of death, and love of the world. The Israelites even abandoned the religion of Abraham (PBUH) and began worshiping false idols and Egyptian gods, thus breaking the Abrahamic Covenant and bringing upon themselves divine retribution and punishment. God thus turned over the Israelites to the Egyptians who in turn enslaved them. The punishment for breaking the Adamic Covenant was exile from the Garden of Eden and then God forgave Adam (PBUH) after he repented and reinstated the Covenant. Then after the people broke the Adamic Covenant once again, God punished them with the flood. When Nimrod and the generations after Noah broke the Noahic Covenant, God punished them by dispersing, scattering, and confusing their languages. When the sons of Abraham broke the Third Covenant, God punished them with enslavement for four hundred years and He established a new Covenant with Moses (PBUH), and the Lord set out the new Covenant’s rules and laws in the book of Exodus, Chapters 19-24:
Chapter 19:
Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ ”
Chapter 20:
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed.’ ”
Chapter 21:
These are the laws you are to set before them: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life. If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money. Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death. Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death. Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession. Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed. Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property. If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth. If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death. If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange. If anyone’s bull injures someone else’s bull and it dies, the two parties are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally. However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and take the dead animal in exchange.”
Chapter 22:
Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed. Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—they must pay back double. If anyone grazes their livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in someone else’s field, the offender must make restitution from the best of their own field or vineyard. If a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution. If anyone gives a neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, the thief, if caught, must pay back double. But if the thief is not found, the owner of the house must appear before the judges, and they must determine whether the owner of the house has laid hands on the other person’s property. In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says, ‘This is mine,’ both parties are to bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to the other. If anyone gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep or any other animal to their neighbor for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or is taken away while no one is looking, the issue between them will be settled by the taking of an oath before the Lord that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person’s property. The owner is to accept this, and no restitution is required. But if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, restitution must be made to the owner. If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal, the neighbor shall bring in the remains as evidence and shall not be required to pay for the torn animal. If anyone borrows an animal from their neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, they must make restitution. But if the owner is with the animal, the borrower will not have to pay. If the animal was hired, the money paid for the hire covers the loss. If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins. Do not allow a sorceress to live. Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed. Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people. Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day. You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.
Chapter 23:
Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit. If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it. Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent. Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips. Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord. Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. See, I am sending an Angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a Covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.
Chapter 24:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.” When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
The Fourth Covenant with the Lord was significantly more detailed with more laws and instructions. This was because humanity’s needs had changed and more complex laws were needed to manage its affairs. When the First Covenant came down, there was only Adam and Eve (PBUT) and when the Second Covenant was established there were none but Noah (PBUH) and his family that were with him in the Ark. Upon the establishment of the Third Covenant there were none included in the Covenant except for Abraham and his family (PBUT) and those with him, but in this time, there was Moses (PBUH) and six hundred thousand Israelites, so of course, there was a need for more complex laws and decrees. Every Covenant was tied to land. In the Adamic Covenant God gave Adam (PBUH) the Garden of Eden (in modern-day Iraq). In the Second Covenant God gave Noah (PBUH) the entire Earth. In the Third Covenant God gave Abraham (PBUH) the promised land from the Nile to the Euphrates. Hence, in the Fourth Covenant God gives Moses (PBUH) from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. God instructs Moses (PBUH) with many other things as well, such as forbidding his nation to work on the Sabbath or Saturday. This would be the sign of the Mosaic Covenant with God for no other nation before that rested and worked not on a day in the week. Many other parts of the previous Covenants were confirmed in the Mosaic Covenant. One of them being circumcision.
Another interesting point we would like to make is that in the Holy Qur’an it says in Surah Al-Baqarah:
“And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them. [Allah] said, “Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.” [Abraham] said, “And of my descendants?” [Allah] said, “My Covenant is not extended to the wrongdoers. ”
So here we see that the Covenant of God does not include the wrongdoers or the children of Cain. The children of Cain or Satan are not protected by God in any way, shape, or form. God deemed it permissible even that they be eliminated. In the Bible it states in the book of Exodus:
In the course of time Moses grew up. Then he went to [see] his own people and watched them suffering under forced labor. He saw a Hebrew, one of his own people, being beaten by an Egyptian. He looked all around, and when he didn’t see anyone, he beat the Egyptian to death and hid the body in the sand. When Moses went there the next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. He asked the one who started the fight, “Why are you beating another Hebrew?” The man asked, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought that everyone knew what he had done. When Pharaoh heard what Moses had done, he tried to have him killed. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian.
In the Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Qasas, it states:
“And he entered the city at a time of unawareness of its people, and he found there two men fighting, - one of his party (his religion - from the Children of Israel), and the other of his foes. The man of his (own) party asked him for help against his foe, so Moosa (Moses) struck him with his fist and killed him. He said: ‘This is the work of Satan, verily, he is a plain misleading enemy.’ ”
The phrases “deed” or “work” are used on multiple occasions in the Qur’an, to describe an unrighteous person. On the occasion of the Egyptian whom Moses killed, the Egyptian was described as a “deed” or “work” of Satan. In terms of the son of Noah (PBUH), he was described as an “unrighteous deed” or “unrighteous work.” Unrighteous deeds and works only come from Satan and his seed. Therefore, we can see that in terms of “unrighteous works” or “works of the devil,” they are both terms describing people who are descendants of Satan and Cain. In both situations, it is ethically and morally justifiable to eliminate them to ensure that good prevails and evil is stopped. God told Noah (PBUH) to leave one to die in the flood and Moses (PBUH) justifies his actions by saying it was a son of Satan. This is necessary to point out as it explains why these Covenants and future ones would justify the elimination, torture, and pillaging of non-believers. It is because the non-believers who remain upon their non-belief are not a part of the Covenant and are the works/deeds/seed/children of Satan.
For this reason, you will find in the Torah, the Gospels, and the Qur’an many verses pertaining to the killing and destruction of the non-Israelites, even though at times, it included women and children. Take the story of Saul, for example, God says in the Book of 1 Samuel:
“Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
What sin or crime could the children and infants have committed except that they were Satan’s offspring destined to spread more evil, chaos, and destruction? God also gives Joshua (PBUH) similar commands. In the book of Joshua, it says:
Then the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua yelled: ‘Get ready to shout! The Lord will let you capture this town. But you must destroy it and everything in it, to show that it now belongs to the Lord. The woman Rahab helped the spies we sent, so protect her and the others who are inside her house. But kill everyone else in the town. The silver and gold and everything made of bronze and iron belong to the Lord and must be put in his treasury. Be careful to follow these instructions, because if you see something you want and take it, the Lord will destroy Israel. And it will be all your fault.’ The priests blew their trumpets again, and the soldiers shouted as loud as they could. The walls of Jericho fell flat. Then the soldiers rushed up the hill, went straight into the town, and captured it. They killed everyone, men and women, young and old, everyone except Rahab and the others in her house. They even killed every cow, sheep, and donkey.
The examples of this are many in the Bible. In the Qur’an, we see similarly how the Righteous Servant is with Moses (PBUH) and in Surah Al-Kahf kills a child, not for any sin he committed yet, but simply because he was unrighteous and was to grow up to be unrighteous or a seed of Satan. Remember that the Righteous Servant was a successor of God on the Earth with the ability to see what Moses (PBUH) could not yet. In the Qur’an, it states:
“So, they moved ahead until when they met a boy, he killed him (the boy). He (Mūsā) said, “Did you kill an innocent soul while he did not kill anyone? You have committed a heinous act indeed.” He said, “Did I not tell you that you can never bear with me patiently?” He (Mūsā) said, “If I ask you about something after this, do not allow me your company. You have now reached a point where you have a valid excuse (to part with me) from my own side.”
Until it said:
“As for the boy, his parents were believers. We apprehended that he would impose rebellion and infidelity upon them. We, therefore, wished that their Lord would replace him with someone better than him in piety and more inclined toward mercy.”
So clearly, the boy had not committed any sins yet, but was certainly going to because he was a ‘work of the devil.’
Remember, the spilling of a believer’s blood had been forbidden in all the previous religions because the blood of a believer is protected by the Covenant. This idea of the blood of the disbeliever being acceptable to be spilled simply for being a disbeliever first appears when God orders Noah (PBUH) to abandon his son, but in reality, it never came into practice as law until the Mosaic Covenant. This is perhaps one of the most important additions to the Mosaic Covenant. The sanctioning of the blood of Satan and his children, who will always be determined to spill the blood of Adam and his children. Let us be categorically clear: We are not condoning the spilling of the blood of non-believers. We are simply illustrating what took place under past Covenants based on stories in the Bible and the Qur’an. Clearly, the reasoning presented for these divine interventions, or preemptions, was to prevent the spread of evil, vice, and corruption by eliminating the irredeemable seeds of Satan. Of course, only God and his vicegerent were capable of having the knowledge to act preemptively to eliminate the roots of evil and corruption.
Another example of God preemptively eliminating children that had not yet committed sin except that they were children of Satan who would naturally grow up to commit evil and sins, was the punishment upon the Egyptians in the time of Moses (PBUH). This is commonly known as the death of the firstborn. In the Bible, it states:
“This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.’ ”
Here are some other verses where God sanctions the killing of children and newborns in the Bible:
Isaiah 13:16 –
“Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”
Hosea 13:16 –
“Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.”
2 Kings 15:16 –
“Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.”
Numbers 31:17 –
“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.”
We would like to highlight a few important points so far:
- Even though we included quite a few new laws in this Door, there are still many more laws listed in the Torah and in particular throughout the book of Leviticus which show how complex and how numerous the laws became in the Fourth Covenant. This was the case because now Moses (PBUH) effectively became head of state, leading a nation of over half a million Israelites. The existence of a nation and all the personal problems and complaints and issues associated with it called for the creation of laws that dealt with every issue the society faced at that time. You can read all the laws in the Torah.
- The existence of a nation and the establishment of a nation-state would inevitably lead to the rise of threats and wars with neighboring peoples. If God is with the nation of Israel then the enemies of Israel are the enemies of God. And naturally, laws had to be placed which allowed the sons of Adam to effectively defend themselves from the sons of Cain. Previously, in the first three Covenants, good always became outnumbered by evil, and did not ever really have the resources or ability to defend itself. In this Covenant of Moses (PBUH), the children of Adam, for the first time, have the rare opportunity to defend themselves against the sons of Satan and Cain. Therefore, permission was granted to the Israelites to exterminate every man, woman, and child descendant of Satan and Cain.
- Many restrictions came into existence that did not previously exist with the first three Covenants. Laws that dealt with marriage, fornication, adultery, and homosexuality all came into effect in order to mainly protect harmony and unity in society. So if anyone took someone’s wife, they were to be punished because that would affect the harmony of society. Even though previously there were no explicit laws that forbid, for example, sexual unions outside of marriage, rather there were no laws pertaining to marriage at all, there still existed man-made agreements and understandings between men and women and neighbors with what they considered to be acceptable and unacceptable. The Israelites found it unacceptable that a woman sleeps with someone else other than the man who took her, and thus it was adopted into the Mosaic laws. The Israelites also found it acceptable that a man take as many wives as he could afford and thus it was adopted by Moses (PBUH) and it was made into law. And as such with the dietary restrictions and everything else: “All food was lawful for the Children of Israel, except what Israel made unlawful for himself before the Torah was revealed. Say, [O Muhammad], ‘So bring the Torah and recite it, if you should be truthful.’ ”
- This is perhaps one of the most important qur’anic verses in relation to this discussion as it shows that everything was hallal (permissible) for the Israelites before the Torah (the Fourth Covenant). And it was those restrictions that Israel placed on himself that were later adopted by Moses and instated as divine law. And God tells us in this verse that if you don’t believe me go back and study the Torah and see the progression of the laws from the First Covenant to the Fourth and see for yourself.
After Moses (PBUH) had passed, Joshua son of Nun conquered the surrounding cities and nations, exterminating many of the children of Cain, and a great Kingdom was established, the Kingdom of Israel. Saul became the first Israelite King and he was divinely appointed by God through Prophet Samuel. And thus the Kingdom of Israel became the only nation to have its Kings divinely appointed by God. The Supremacy of God is the system of government that they had and thus, they were God’s chosen people. Even though many of the other rulers and kings claimed to be offspring of the Gods or claimed to draw their legitimacy from the Gods, Israel was the only Kingdom whose leaders truly were from God and appointed by God and could demonstrate their names being in the Will of previous Prophets and Messengers, could demonstrate knowledge and called towards the Supremacy of God. King David became the second King of Israel. And now we see something interesting because there is an apparent contradiction. King David apparently violates one of the Mosaic laws as head of state.
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. Joab sent David a full account of the battle. He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’” The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.” When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
Nathan Rebukes David
The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
Even though the matter displeased the Lord and God was angered against David for having Uriah killed in such a way, God still forgave David and did not blame Bathsheba at all. He blessed David and Bathsheba, and after punishing David with the death of his son with Bathsheba, He caused them to have a new son, and they named him Solomon. In order to understand this story we must point out a few things. Firstly, the concept that this was a made-up story and not true, as Muslims usually claim, is refuted by the Qur’an. Allah stated in the Qur’an the following verses:
As they came upon David and he was frightened of them they said: “Be not afraid. We are just two litigants: one of us has committed excess against the other. So judge rightly between us, and be not unjust; and guide us to the Right Way. Behold, this is my brother; he has ninety-nine ewes and I have only one ewe.” And yet he said: “Give her into my charge,” and he got the better of me in argument. David said: “He has certainly wronged you in seeking to add your ewe to his ewes; and indeed many who live together commit excesses, one to the other, except those that believe and act righteously; and they are but few.” (While so saying) David realized that it is We Who have put him to test; therefore, he sought the forgiveness of his Lord, and fell down, bowing and penitently turning (to Him). Thereupon We forgave him his shortcoming and indeed (an exalted position of) nearness awaits him, and an excellent resort. (We said to him): “O David, We have appointed you vicegerent on earth. Therefore, rule among people with justice and do not follow (your) desire lest it should lead you astray from Allah’s Path. Allah’s severe chastisement awaits those who stray away from Allah’s Path, for they had forgotten the Day of Reckoning.”
So the story of David and Nathan and the parable of the rich man and the poor man with many sheep is repeated again in the Qur’an, so that none can deny the story of what happened with David and Bathsheba. The issues God had with David are that David had one of his sincere servants killed, he took his wife even though he himself had many wives and his servant only had one, and lastly that David was unjust because he judged others (in his judgment of the two men parable) differently than he judged himself.
God forgave David as such:
- As for the killing of his servant, Islamic narrations state that after the death of Uriah, God gave him the choice of vengeance against David or that he attain the same rank as David (PBUH). Uriah chose the latter and forgave David. Yet God still caused the first son of David to die after getting sick, and the death of the son was for the death of Uriah, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Thus was David forgiven for the death.
- As for David taking the wife, David’s son, Absalom, slept with all of his father’s concubines in the sight of all of Israel. In 2 Samuel it states: “So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.”
- As for judging others differently than how he judged himself, God took his judgment and punished him by his own scales.
But there are many issues which are problematic that remain. And they are the following philosophical and theological questions: Well, what if David had judged differently, and not been so harsh with the rich man who took from the poor man, would it have changed God’s judgment? Why is God suddenly very upset and angered with this incident of adultery when in the previous three Covenants there were no laws outlawing it? How could a child such as Solomon be the result of such a marriage? Why wasn’t God angered at Bathsheba?
The answers to the questions seem to be that God’s major problem was with the judgment of David. Because God is just, the golden rule in all religions has been:
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
For that reason, God is accepting of anything and everything that you yourself would accept unto you. Just don’t be a hypocrite and have one set of values and rules when it pertains to you and another set when it pertains to others. And if humanity simply followed that one rule, there would be no need for any others. In fact, it seems that Karma itself was brought into existence in order to uphold that one rule, do to others as you would like done unto you, and if not, then it shall be done unto you what you do unto others. Thus the answer would be yes, God’s judgment of the case was totally based on David’s own self-judgment, whatever he would judge others by, he must judge himself by. If he forgives others he can forgive himself, if he judges others he must judge himself. The same scales he uses for others he must use for himself. And this seems to be the reason why God adopts so many cultural and traditional norms as previously demonstrated into the Covenants, as long as they do not negatively affect justice and harmony in society, because what God ultimately wants is peace and harmony, and justice is established by doing to others like we would want done unto us. And so for example, to further demonstrate my point, if David was brought up as a child believing and being programmed to think that it was acceptable for a woman to be married to many men, and then he did what he did with Uriah’s wife, and Nathan presents the same issue to him from anew, his judgment would naturally be different, and therefore he would be judged by his own judgment and his own understanding and what he would accept for his own self.
Another point which we would like to point out is that David was the vicegerent and divinely appointed King who upheld the Mosaic Covenant. And yet he broke one of the ten commandments,
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”,
and virtually committed the same sin as Adam. Both of them were forgiven and not replaced for breaking the divine laws. This can only be interpreted in one way and that is, the vicegerent of God is above the laws. This means that just as in most countries there are laws which forbid the head of state from being prosecuted for crimes while in office, the vicegerent of God is above being prosecuted for breaking the laws of the Covenant. In the United States, for example, a sitting president is immune from criminal indictment or prosecution. In the United Kingdom, the king or queen has sovereign immunity, which means that the king or queen as head of the state ‘cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution’. As such, the vicegerent of God while in office cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from being kicked out of office except in one case, and that is treason.
After it became clear that the vicegerent of God is above the law and above jurisprudence, we now understand why God did not blame Bathsheba nor did He get angry with her. It is because Bathsheba obeyed the vicegerent of God at that time, King David (PBUH), and it is not for her to judge him. Not only did God not blame her, but rather He rewarded her for her obedience by making her a queen and a mother of a Proof of God at the same time, King Solomon (PBUH). We have clarified before that the vicegerents of God can make mistakes and do make mistakes, but it is not for people to judge them, for only God judges His vicegerent. As for the people, if the truthfulness of the divine Messenger has been proven to them, then it is incumbent upon them to obey him.
King Solomon came to be appointed after David (PBUT) and he was given a Kingdom the likes of no one before him. He was not only given knowledge and wisdom and understanding and authority like none before but he was also given riches like none other. Solomon (PBUH) understood the languages of the animals, could command the elements of nature such as the wind and had authority over the demons and the jinn, and he also had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. In 1 Kings it states about Solomon:
“He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines,”
which means he was married to seven hundred princesses. And he was extremely rich and lived a lavish lifestyle.
Solomon’s Splendor
The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues brought in by merchants and traders. Also all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the territories brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three hundred shekels of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s day. The king had a fleet of trading ships manned by Hiram’s servants. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons. King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, and robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from all other countries.
I would like to point out here that as you can clearly see, a vicegerent appointed by God, living a rich lifestyle is not a reason one can use to disbelieve in him, for then we should disbelieve in Solomon first. Solomon’s extremely huge number of wives led to his eventual downfall and to turmoil in the Kingdom of Israel and led to false gods being introduced in the Kingdom of God, and it led to Solomon’s sons losing power in Israel. And this is one of the reasons that in the next Covenant, the Jesuit Covenant, the laws change from allowing polygamy to outlawing it and enforcing only monogamous marriages.
¶ Sources
- The Holy Bible, Book of Genesis, Chapter 15, Verse 13
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 19, Verses 3-6
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, Verses 1-26
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 21, Verses 1-36
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 22, Verses 1-31
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 23, Verses 1-33
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 24, Verses 1-7
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 2 (Al-Baqarah), Verse 124
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 2, Verses 11-15
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 28 (Al-Qasas), Verse 15
- The Holy Bible, Book of 1 Samuel, Chapter 15, Verses 1-3
- The Holy Bible, Book of Joshua, Chapter 6, Verses 16-21
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 18 (Al-Kahf), Verses 74-76
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 18 (Al-Kahf), Verses 80-81
- The Holy Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 11, Verses 4-5
- The Holy Bible, Book of Isaiah, Chapter 13, Verse 16
- The Holy Bible, Book of Hosea, Chapter 13, Verse 16
- The Holy Bible, Book of 2 Kings, Chapter 15, Verse 16
- The Holy Bible, Book of Numbers, Chapter 31, Verse 17
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 3 (Al-Imran), Verse 93
- The Holy Bible, Book of 2 Samuel, Chapter 11, Verses 1-27
- The Holy Bible, Book of 2 Samuel, Chapter 12, Verses 1-14
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 38 (Ṣād), Verses 22-26
- The Holy Bible, Book of 2 Samuel, Chapter 16, Verse 22
- The Holy Bible, Book of Luke, Chapter 6, Verse 31
- The Holy Bible, Book of 1 Kings, Chapter 11, Verse 3
- The Holy Bible, Book of 2 Chronicles, Chapter 9, Verses 13-28