David Sanford

Thank you for your well-written booklet, "The Commandment We Forget." Your statement, "There is no exception for bad governments or bad parents" (page 43), however, appears to overlook the following biblical points. The Bible itself shows that 3 of the Ten Commandments (commandments that prohibit the unjust abuse of others) can and should be broken in cases of great un-repented sins by specific people(s). We see this in Numbers 21 and 31 and repeatedly in Joshua, where “Do Not Kill” and “Do Not Steal” are superseded by the Lord’s commands to destroy terribly wicked peoples (who had centuries to repent but didn’t) and, in most cases, take their wealth for the Lord and the Lord’s people. We also see this repeatedly in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles where the son of terribly wicked parents (a) repudiates their sins, (b) destroys their idols, and (c) leads a massive revival (often with the help of godly priests). In the former cases, the Lord commanded what happened. In the latter cases, the godly son knew what needed to be done in order to honor the Lord and call His people back to the Lord. Would you please be sure to address these two sets of exceptions in an updated edition of your booklet? If so, it would more fully represent Scripture's clear-cut record, don't you think? (Written as the executive editor of two major study Bibles.)