THE AUTHOR OF ALL CREATION WRITES IN THE DUST
When the religious leaders brought a woman accused of adultery before Jesus in order to entrap him, he stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. Finally, he answered, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” Then, he stooped down again to write in the dust once more.
Many have speculated as to what Jesus wrote. Did he merely draw doodles in the dust as many a bored student has done in the margin of their notebook? Did he begin to list the sins of each accuser, so that they lost heart and beginning with the oldest, dropped their stones and departed? Perhaps he was following the test for adultery as found in Numbers 5 and using the dust of the Temple to write the curse for adultery? Truth is, no one knows what he wrote.
Certainly, more words have been penned and books written about Jesus than any other subject. Yet, this is the only record of His writing: “Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust.”
Isn’t this what the Author of Life has done for you and I? He has “stooped down” to erase our sin and write righteousness in its place. We are the dust He has breathed life into and made us living souls, with our names writ large in the Book of Life.