You Shall Surely Die...Part 3 of 3

‘You shall surely die’ isn’t defined by the text as the breath leaving the body.  Instead, the text defines this phrase as a form of exile from nearness to the el (God...mighty one), from being in a state of affinity with the el.  This is another place where bias clouds what is actually written, most people think that ‘you shall surely die’ means the breath leaves your body. Or worse, is forcibly taken from your body by one more righteous than you!  This is the basis for many ‘holy wars’.


This bias, this misunderstanding of how this phrase is defined by the text, also extends to how most people interpret how Israel was to punish its members who defiantly rejected the boundaries … according to the definition God gave at the beginning, it meant they were to be driven away like Cain was driven away, it didn't mean they were to be executed.   As well, the Canaanites were to be driven off the land, not executed.  Exodus 23:28-31; 33:2; 34:11; Numbers 32:21; 33:52, 55; Deuteronomy 11:23; Joshua 3:10; 13:6 … and more all say this.  Stop right here and look it up!

God punished Cain for his murder of Abel with this kind of 'death'.  To Cain, this was a punishment almost too hard to bear.  The teaching is: if you observe the boundaries, you remain within the community influenced by ‘el’, the one who purposed it.  If you reject the boundaries, you are rejected by the life-enhancing community, you are exiled, consigned to wander.

Reading through the history of Israel as recorded in the Prophets…it seems that the purpose of this exile wasn’t a final cutting off (death as we usually understand it), but instead an opportunity to repent and be restored.

It’s interesting that Israel rarely did this.  Adam and Eve are never recorded as being repentant, and neither is Cain, though he certainly does seem upset by the punishment. 

Doesn’t it fit within the context that the purpose of exile (the punishment of ‘death’) is to restrict rebellion from contaminating the community, as well as to provide opportunity for the exiled one to repent and be restored?

And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered (exiled) you. Deuteronomy 30:1-3